Korg Forums

Sad to hear this.
Does it it mean that there will be no further KARO libs for OASYS even when KRONOS libs are developed, i.e. there will be exclusively new KRONOS libs?

best regards
SoulBe

If it is the case that Karo have adandoned the OASYS community then it suggests also that they do the same with Kronos support once Kronos has stopped production.


One would hope Karo issue some sort of clarification on why they’ve withdrawn from the OASYS market so suddenly. For example - is there continuing support for existing OASYS Karo owners should issues arise?


A blanket silence should be flagged as such on the Kronos forum should they start to promote products there; and I hope Sharp will take note of that too (in contrast - I have to say that Sharp, unprompted, has been nothing short of exquisite to both communities - thinking always of the best use of his library across both platforms even as far as enhancing the OASYS Assault as a free download. That level of support has gone unsung but is outstanding IMO.)

So I hope Karo do the most honourable thing - continue to support existing customers and explain their future strategy. Nobody blames a company for having to adjust to survive or to increase profitability - but to simply go silent to the OASYS community is not good business and should start alarm bells ringing for Kronos users too.

Perhaps they are going under as a company?

Kevin.

Kevin Nolan wrote:If it is the case that Karo have adandoned the OASYS community then it suggests also that they do the same with Kronos support once Kronos has stopped production.


One would hope Karo issue some sort of clarification on why they’ve withdrawn from the OASYS market so suddenly. For example - is there continuing support for existing OASYS Karo owners should issues arise?


A blanket silence should be flagged as such on the Kronos forum should they start to promote products there; and I hope Sharp will take note of that too (in contrast - I have to say that Sharp, unprompted, has been nothing short of exquisite to both communities - thinking always of the best use of his library across both platforms even as far as enhancing the OASYS Assault as a free download. That level of support has gone unsung but is outstanding IMO.)

So I hope Karo do the most honourable thing - continue to support existing customers and explain their future strategy. Nobody blames a company for having to adjust to survive or to increase profitability - but to simply go silent to the OASYS community is not good business and should start alarm bells ringing for Kronos users too.

Perhaps they are going under as a company?

Kevin.

I agree with a lot of what you say and would like to add that I think it is somewhat narrow minded from a business point of view to drop your existing user base without as much as even as a 'thanks for your business', but more importantly, why cut-off a product line that still works for an existing user base?

In this post some have said they'd still like to buy Karo libs for the O - and some of them are not cheap! Although they say 'email us with what you want', why not just keep the OASYS libraries online and keep as download products?

I don't think they're going under because they would keep all productlines available if that was the case - I think it's more that they see the Kronos as being a cash cow...

The O user community is finite. The K represents a mass-market OASYS - and both Korg and Karo, I think, are wanting to milk the cow for as much as they can get!

On the other hand, as you quite rightly state, the example shown by Sharp is frankly beyond expectation and such support is a joy to be part of. I certainly wasn't expecting any crumbs from the Kronos Assault table - but I, as others, did. Stunningly good support.

The biggest worry then is the comparison. Just like Kronos users should learn from the O experience (ultimately replaced by itself but more cheaply with some enhancements). I think TonyGen puts it best in a recent post...

TonyGen wrote:I predict Korg will bring out a Korg M4 next with a very slightly improved sequencer plus all the sounds of a Kronos.

And then in a couple of years a new flagship workstation (completely unrelated to Kronos but with the same engine and marginally improved sequencer) called the Korg Konned-us.

I hope Karo are clever enough to avoid the same mistake Korg did by dumping its top-line customers.

Perhaps Karo see Kronos as a mass market - but it is far from clear that Kronos will create sales far beyond OASYS numbers.

Considering the current debacle in the release of the instrument (although probably understandably slow because of Japan's troubles); it is certainly anecdotally clear across the numerous forums that Kronos has not attracted, for example, an order of magnitude more interest. There may be about the same size market as OASYS - several thousand units - and even if twice that - that will not make for a cash cow for either Korg or Karo.

Worryingly, it seems there is a genuine lack of desire for 'big' keyboard concepts as in the past, where they are seen by only one part or cohort of the overall market as desirable - as many seem contented to accumulate the equivalent of the Kronos synth engines via the plugin route.

In my opinion, Korg would have needed to catch the wave of excitement they successfully generated during and shortly after Winter NAMM 2011 - where it looked like an instrument too good to be true; but the fever has faded and now we're seeing more dispassionate appraisals - even on the Kronos forum. There is nothing at all on the Kronos forum akin to the overwhelming, consistent and universal joy and bliss that permeated the OASYS forum for more than three years until Korg announced its cancelation. The Kronos forum feels like any other ordinary forum - and that is not what the OASYS forum was about in its heyday.

So if Karo are about to look to revamp their strategy through Kronos, I believe they can look out.

And without being too cynical - I forked out significant money - perhaps up near 1000 Euro on their products - including their very flawed philharmonic strings and still some flawed piano programs - without sufficient continued updates and frankly 'repairs' - and if they are to abandon OASYS to the Kronos cause I'll have no problem flagging the outstanding issues on the Kronos forum. If there is one thing I cannot tolerate it's flim-flam artists - and I sincerely hope Karo are not going that route – although such rapid withdrawal of OASYS support suggests Karo are not in this for the long haul . I'll happily stand corrected on what I say here - but this isn't smelling too good right now.


Kevin.

Hi Anthony, hi OASYANS,

Sorry for my late responce...

we are updating all our OASYS libraries for the KRONOS!
The KRONOS libs have much more samples, programs & combis and also a lot of re-programming!

It's true... OASYS libs are discontinued, but you can email me what for KARO libraries you need
this is not a problem... info@karo-sounds.com

Well, ive mailed you. but would like to see the OASYS librarys back online please, as i don't remember the prices now (been looking at KSL)

@Kevin Nolen "flawed philharmonic strings"

Thats a little disapointing, as its the strings library im interested in. KSL is better yes??? or don't you have this Title Kevin?

Anthony

Hi Anthony - When I bought KSL it was 394 euros and the movie collection (KMC) was 164 euros.

cello wrote:Hi Anthony - When I bought KSL it was 394 euros and the movie collection (KMC) was 164 euros.

Thanks Cello, much appreciated

Kevin Nolan wrote:Perhaps Karo see Kronos as a mass market - but it is far from clear that Kronos will create sales far beyond OASYS numbers.

Considering the current debacle in the release of the instrument (although probably understandably slow because of Japan's troubles); it is certainly anecdotally clear across the numerous forums that Kronos has not attracted, for example, an order of magnitude more interest. There may be about the same size market as OASYS - several thousand units - and even if twice that - that will not make for a cash cow for either Korg or Karo.

The Kronos will easily sell 3x as many units as the OASYS. If you use the Karma Lab Serial Number posts as a rough estimate, Korg produced around 3300 OASYS units. Korg has already produced over 1600 Kronos units and shipments still lag far behind demand.

Regarding interest, the Kronos forum already has 19,706 posts compared to the OAYS forum total of 21,009. This is of course due to the significantly lower price point for the Kronos.

If Karo wants to be successful with the Kronos, they will need to lower their library prices significantly. The average Kronos buyer is more price conscious.

It does seem strange that Karo would not still actively sell their existing OASYS libraries, since they have already created them and created web pages for them. As an example, Spectrasonics stills offers their AKAI libraries for sale, even though it has been 10 years since they created an AKAI library (e.g. Spectrasonics Symphony of Voices, Hans Zimmer Guitars, etc.).

I actually have faith in the Karo folks. I bought a couple of their Oasys packages and their after purchase support and care was excellent. I think they believe in the Oasys and the Kronos as top quality instruments. It would be irrational for them to abandon the Oasys software production due to the 95% similarities in the platforms. Furthermore Oasys customers are always potential Kronos customers. I also look forward to purchasing some of the existing sound packages and any future ones as well. I don't think they would be irrational so as to treat existing customers badly by abandoning them. You'd probably alienate your future customers that way as well. That's the way I would feel.

Let´s wait and see.

In the meantime on a brighter note all this - Korg not really mentioning ancestorship of Oasys with Kronos and Oasys libs beeing discontinued -reminds me on the plot of Star Trek - First Contact:

"The Enterprise pursues the sphere into a temporal vortex. As the sphere disappears, the Enterprise discovers [edit: .. that there never had been an OASYS synth on earth] that Earth is now populated entirely by Borg . Realizing that the Borg have used time travel to change the past, the ship follows the sphere through the vortex"

We are Korg. Resistance is futile

best regards
SoulBe

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