Posted: Mon Mar 25, 2019 1:12 am
Hi Greg -
I suppose I should qualify a little - while around the time of the Kronos release it is the case where Korg were in strategic denial about the OASYS - for example they really did release a poster / image with all their workstations from the M1, minus the OASYS, it's probably fair to say that in the fullness of time they have been referring to the OASYS as part of their history, so it's unfair of me to say it has been totally deleted from their history. But it was a genuine huge surprise to me how much they dropped / ignored it during the launch of Kronos. I personally felt very annoyed by it - not actually because I felt Korg owed the OASYS community anything - just simply because the OASYS was / is a stunning instrument.
I genuinely believe that still today, apart from the Kronos, it's the best workstation there is, period. It's staggering how good it is. I'm re-embarking (or is that embarking) on a comprehensive read of the OASYS documentation currently - and every page turned blows my mind as to how capable the OASYS is. The level of detail and finesse in every aspect of it is jaw-dropping.
So to then basically be in denial of its existence - it beggars belief. I know now it was a strategy at the time to make a clean start; because it is arguable that the OASYS may not have been a financial success, and considering the amount of R&D put into it, they likely had to make a clean start with Kronos.
And lets face it - what a start! Even as not a Kronos owner (yet) - there is no denying how staggering it still is. And apart from the Kronos' amazing advancements with pianos and live performance, as with OASYS, the detail in the synth engines among the plethora of other features is still truly stunning.
I was just reading the 'overview' of MOD-7 the other day, and the feeling evoked was like when buying a new synth. It's a polyphonic, modular, virtual instrument that can be a Virtual Analogue synth, or an FM synth, or an RCM synth as with the SY77/99 by incorporating PCM samples into FM algorithms - for starters! An it goes on and on from there - AMS, True Polyphonic Voice Architecture, Vector Synthesis, Wave shaping, Wave Sequencing, Karma - all built right into the MOD-7 engine. You could, literally, spend your entire life as a synthesist exploring just that one synthesiser engine, and never get to the end of it. And it's one of 7 synthesiser engines on board! mind blowing.
The likes of Korg may likely never put so much effort into synth engines like that again and then effectively 'unleash' them to a user base. Why? Because they are so flexible and deep as engines that the user base can rarely, if ever, appreciate their depth and breath.
Instead, I believe that the likes of Gadget is the way forward for Korg from cost-of-development stand point - release smaller devices (at a cheaper cost) each capable of a small part of what any one synth-engine in OASYA / Kronos is capable of.
I really believe this. I think this is the case for Yamaha and Roland too. Consider the EX5 by Yamaha - containing at the time an unprecedented 4 stunning technologies (PCM, AN, VL and FDSP) - yet - it got lambasted when it was released.
Similarly - the Roland Jupiter 80 has awesome technology on board - no less than 77 acoustic instrument behavioural models in the Supernatural Acoustic engine, and then the Supernatural Synth engine at 256 note polyphony - but once again the instrument was a flop and yet again they got slaughtered by the user base when released - largely because they used the "Jupiter" name.
So I genuinely believe the big three got sick and tired of releasing ever more sophisticated and all encompassing instruments, only to find themselves being heavily criticised by the user base for all the things they weren't doing.
A similar case in point is the release of preset libraries for these instruments - free gratis. On several occasions Korg released very extensive and detailed preset libraries for the OASYS - on one occasion hundreds of programs and on another occasion hundreds of effects presets - and - they were barely thanked for it. Those events came and went as if it was nothing. It must have been very disheartening for those in Korg who put all of that effort in.
So I personally look back on the era from the M1 to the OASYS - or XP80 to Fantom G series, or Yamaha SY77 to the EX5 - as an era where the objective of each company was to make every new workstation ever more far-reaching - but - with little thanks; and perhaps ultimately unsustainable from R&D cost perspectives.
And why perhaps all of Korg, Roland and Yamaha in particular are focused on little devices, with singular features and very low voice counts.
Anyway I'm rabbiting on. I'll finish on this - I also genuinely think Korg deserve huge credit for not only continuing with the Kronos - but - retaining within it so many of the operating system features that started back in the M1, T3 and O1W - so that today even a person who last used, say, a T3 and now approached a Kronos, would be familiar with a lot of the fundamentals. They have maintained an amazing lineage over 30 years while also updating and the workstation paradigm to the extent that the Kronos can take on the cutting-edge Nord-Stages and Electros of this world in earnest.
But as you say, it would have helped for sure had Korg been more communicative with the OASYS community near the end of that product - what was a true golden era where the OASYS and Korgforums worked in perfect sympathy for about 3-4 years and which has never quite repeated itself.
Fingers crossed Korg will believe in their own invention - the Workstation - to bring it meaningfully and powerfully forward in the years to come.
I suppose I should qualify a little - while around the time of the Kronos release it is the case where Korg were in strategic denial about the OASYS - for example they really did release a poster / image with all their workstations from the M1, minus the OASYS, it's probably fair to say that in the fullness of time they have been referring to the OASYS as part of their history, so it's unfair of me to say it has been totally deleted from their history. But it was a genuine huge surprise to me how much they dropped / ignored it during the launch of Kronos. I personally felt very annoyed by it - not actually because I felt Korg owed the OASYS community anything - just simply because the OASYS was / is a stunning instrument.
I genuinely believe that still today, apart from the Kronos, it's the best workstation there is, period. It's staggering how good it is. I'm re-embarking (or is that embarking) on a comprehensive read of the OASYS documentation currently - and every page turned blows my mind as to how capable the OASYS is. The level of detail and finesse in every aspect of it is jaw-dropping.
So to then basically be in denial of its existence - it beggars belief. I know now it was a strategy at the time to make a clean start; because it is arguable that the OASYS may not have been a financial success, and considering the amount of R&D put into it, they likely had to make a clean start with Kronos.
And lets face it - what a start! Even as not a Kronos owner (yet) - there is no denying how staggering it still is. And apart from the Kronos' amazing advancements with pianos and live performance, as with OASYS, the detail in the synth engines among the plethora of other features is still truly stunning.
I was just reading the 'overview' of MOD-7 the other day, and the feeling evoked was like when buying a new synth. It's a polyphonic, modular, virtual instrument that can be a Virtual Analogue synth, or an FM synth, or an RCM synth as with the SY77/99 by incorporating PCM samples into FM algorithms - for starters! An it goes on and on from there - AMS, True Polyphonic Voice Architecture, Vector Synthesis, Wave shaping, Wave Sequencing, Karma - all built right into the MOD-7 engine. You could, literally, spend your entire life as a synthesist exploring just that one synthesiser engine, and never get to the end of it. And it's one of 7 synthesiser engines on board! mind blowing.
The likes of Korg may likely never put so much effort into synth engines like that again and then effectively 'unleash' them to a user base. Why? Because they are so flexible and deep as engines that the user base can rarely, if ever, appreciate their depth and breath.
Instead, I believe that the likes of Gadget is the way forward for Korg from cost-of-development stand point - release smaller devices (at a cheaper cost) each capable of a small part of what any one synth-engine in OASYA / Kronos is capable of.
I really believe this. I think this is the case for Yamaha and Roland too. Consider the EX5 by Yamaha - containing at the time an unprecedented 4 stunning technologies (PCM, AN, VL and FDSP) - yet - it got lambasted when it was released.
Similarly - the Roland Jupiter 80 has awesome technology on board - no less than 77 acoustic instrument behavioural models in the Supernatural Acoustic engine, and then the Supernatural Synth engine at 256 note polyphony - but once again the instrument was a flop and yet again they got slaughtered by the user base when released - largely because they used the "Jupiter" name.
So I genuinely believe the big three got sick and tired of releasing ever more sophisticated and all encompassing instruments, only to find themselves being heavily criticised by the user base for all the things they weren't doing.
A similar case in point is the release of preset libraries for these instruments - free gratis. On several occasions Korg released very extensive and detailed preset libraries for the OASYS - on one occasion hundreds of programs and on another occasion hundreds of effects presets - and - they were barely thanked for it. Those events came and went as if it was nothing. It must have been very disheartening for those in Korg who put all of that effort in.
So I personally look back on the era from the M1 to the OASYS - or XP80 to Fantom G series, or Yamaha SY77 to the EX5 - as an era where the objective of each company was to make every new workstation ever more far-reaching - but - with little thanks; and perhaps ultimately unsustainable from R&D cost perspectives.
And why perhaps all of Korg, Roland and Yamaha in particular are focused on little devices, with singular features and very low voice counts.
Anyway I'm rabbiting on. I'll finish on this - I also genuinely think Korg deserve huge credit for not only continuing with the Kronos - but - retaining within it so many of the operating system features that started back in the M1, T3 and O1W - so that today even a person who last used, say, a T3 and now approached a Kronos, would be familiar with a lot of the fundamentals. They have maintained an amazing lineage over 30 years while also updating and the workstation paradigm to the extent that the Kronos can take on the cutting-edge Nord-Stages and Electros of this world in earnest.
But as you say, it would have helped for sure had Korg been more communicative with the OASYS community near the end of that product - what was a true golden era where the OASYS and Korgforums worked in perfect sympathy for about 3-4 years and which has never quite repeated itself.
Fingers crossed Korg will believe in their own invention - the Workstation - to bring it meaningfully and powerfully forward in the years to come.
Kronos MOD-7 >> Montage FM-X... 
