GiveItATry wrote:OK! Lets say that I want now to edit some of the 16 midi tracks (eg Tracks 4, 7, 11 and 15) that I have already bounced to 2 of the audio tracks. Lets say that I want to change the FX settings of each one seperately and add or delete some music events, how can I do that?
This can be accomplished by the OASYS version of "Freezing" and "Unfreezing". Every time you set up sounds and effects in your 16 MIDI tracks, you can leave them in that Song slot and either COPY TO or just OPEN a new Song slot. There are 200 Song slots and you can copy Audio/MIDI tracks from any or all of them. In other words, any MIDI setup and the associated effects need not be over-written.
If you record a piano and guitar, in Song #1, then lay it down to audio, you may not like how the guitar sounds in the mix, with new sounds, on Song #2. Go back to the original MIDI setup - Song #1 and add a Compressor and Delay to that guitar. You still have the MIDI data, so the notes and modulations of that guitar are preserved - you don't have to replay it!
Now, bounce that guitar and piano, but with the new effects, to stereo audio tracks. You can copy these to Song 2 (or wherever else). Delete the old track and you have your new effects.
Since one Combi can take up all 16 tracks, it's nice to know that you can lay down several of them, using the copy method. The trick is, setting a BPM that stays the same on all Songs, like 120 BPM. All Combis have their own BPM speed, so do this so your tracks stay in sync. I made a video of the process:
RECORDING MULTIPLE COMBIS
If you run out of Audio Tracks, you can also open up any track as a sample and potentially put 88 of them on one program slot.
Anyway, the OASYS is 3 years old, so of course a new system like the one on the Fantom G is bound to come out. More sequencer tracks would be nice. I don't know if it will happen, because everything on this Korg architecture is 16 parts - Audio tracks, Combis and Sequencer tracks. I suggested adding an identical MIDI page for Tracks 17 - 32.
I use just the internal sequencer, but I can work it to make pretty much any song I want. Most people run their synths into a computer DAW, like Cubase or Sonar. Still others use hardware sequencers from other boards that they are used to.
There are things that I could do with the OASYS sequencer that I could not on the Fantom G. If the posts I read were accurate, you can not simultaneously record your voice and an external guitar to their own inputs. With the OASYS, you can record 20 tracks, at once (16 MIDI, 4 Audio). I doubt anyone would need such a huge number, but you could easily be playing multiple synths, on different transmit channels, MIDI'd to the OASYS and simultaneously record them and several audio ins, via Multi-Record.
The Fantom G has 22 FX processors, but there is a fixed amount of effects per sound, so you cannot chain a dozen of them, if you want. The OASYS allows such chains.
The OASYS' bus system allows you to route external effects, like Yamaha and Lexicon boxes into the mix. See my video:
EXTERNAL FX INTO OASYS
The sysex recording capabilities allow for some cool automated mix down features - sliders and panpots can be moved and the screen will play back all of that. Plus, Tone Adjust recording allows realtime recording of filters, amp envelopes and other program altering modulations. And, something everyone seems to forget about is the OASYS' Pentium 4 speed, which means that samples and audio tracks load up in seconds.
But I still dont think that the HD-1 High Definition Synth, its Vector Synthesis and Wave Sequencing, its AL-1 Analog Synth, its CX-3 Modeled Tonewheel Organ and the Karma Technology should cost that much. There are so many pc sound libraries that are so much better and much cheapier.
It is what it is. I don't know if you can find a lot of the capabilities, like Wave Sequencing your own samples, or engines like the STR-1 and MOD-7, which allow user samples and even other synths to be routed into them. Nothing is stopping you from bargain shopping. If you can find better sounding for less, why aren't you getting it?
The OASYS is considered more of an experimental synth development platform, than as a mass market product. I could ask why a
MiniMoog Voyager Select retails for $3,395, even though it only plays only one note of polyphony. Some people think it is worth it, while others think that a
Virus TI is worth what it does. While the Key Buy, Editor's Choice and Workstation of the Year awards speak a bit about the quality of the OASYS, it comes down to an individual's choice. If the sound doesn't grab you, then certainly walk away.
