First of all I didn’t write a lot on the forum because it’s hard to write in the right English. But the cooperation of the members, the atmosphere and quality, is really good. I enjoy being at the forum.

I promised a few notes, as I am a proud Oasys owner, since I am exploring the beast for more then two months. It is subjective and not complete at all, but I like to share a bit.

I read a lot of comments about more videos and demos and sharing etc etc. Let me tell you this, I decided to buy the Oasys from the stuff available on internet in June 2005 and the trust I have in Stephen Kay as I am a former Karma owner. And I trust the man for what he shares with us and of course what he invented, the one and only Karma. I loved that board. But I felt the Karma could become more user friendly…and it could. I also knew how former Korg synths sounded, I read the specs and saw the demo’s, and they where pretty convincing. In the real world the sound is even much richer and more detailed.

I read a lot of discussions on different forums about the cost and comparison the instrument with a computer-based system. My motivation to choose this workstation solution has to do with making music. It can’t be said enough, but the Oasys is a truly musical instrument. It has to do with a magnificent keyboard feel, and easy access to complex synthesizer systems, because of an interface you have never seen before. Not only the touch screen, but all the knobs and sliders and buttons in conjunction with each other make it so that you can make music, edit, karma-ize your music in real time and really fast. I couldn’t do this with a mouse and a computer system. But that’s me…if I have inspiration, I want to go…

The first weeks I was overwhelmed, almost living on a cloud. There where so many choices to make and sounds to explore, that I became restless and even a few days “lost.” Learning new things is not always nice and easy. But I am making progress. I am digging and finding what I am looking for. For example, it’s easy to make dramatic edits in real time. Go to the control surface and click on tone adjustments, here you can do all the major edits. Tweak the knobs and sliders and buttons, or assign new functions to the knobs and sliders. Afterwards you can save the sounds. This is only one of the big improvements over the Karma board where you cannot save your real time edits.

Well and then Karma….8 scenes in program mode and 40 scenes accessible in combination and sequencer mode…together with the 8 pads you can make a lot of music, again tweaking in real time. Almost always four buttons standardized to switch on and off one ore more of the four modules. You can access the 32 GE parameters easy from the touch screen and assign them to the switches and sliders. All the tabs are easily accessible. On my computer-based system, for example, I was struggling with the mouse and the lack of making music, being more a technician. I also had problems with the streaming of MIDI and audio together.

But how are the sounds? First of all it’s impossible to ‘know’ them all in such a short time. So I share the sounds I explored and I will tell the ones I like the most.

Drums:
Finally really good sounding acoustic drums. Lots, and I mean lots of Karma GE’s standardized. So it’s easy to switch from one GE to another without losing control over the result. With the Karma keyboard I had the manual next to me to find out which GE’s matched with the drum program. In the Oasys it’s written down for you on the touch screen. And lots of different drums GE’s can handle a single drum program.

Piano:
The standard Oasys piano A00 is beautiful. The EXS1 piano E00 is even better, because you can simulate the sustain resonance. The 500 MB piano is very detailed and the best I’ve ever played. I am sure you can edit them further.

Electric Piano:
Yes Yes Yes, a magnificent Fender Rhodes, more than one, try A016. Personally the Wurlitzer is a bit misleading to me. The presets as wooden wurly B080 and D080 sounded dull to me, I was disappointed because I liked the wurly in the karmaboard better. But….play the preset ‘reed piano’ A080 and then you’ve got the real wurly. Use the drive parameter and a little more reverb, and off you go.

Woodwinds:
In the M1 there was a decent tenor sax, I missed them in the Karma/Triton line. Well, the saxes are back again and way better, more detailed. Time to play solo’s again. Horns, brass, clarinet hobo, all very well done.

Guitars:
Read complaints about the guitars. I totally disagree. The guitars are the best I’ve ever heard on a synthesizer, both acoustic and electric. Thank you Stephen Kay for composing the beautiful guitar GE’s. If you demo an Oasys in the music store try out prog B002 and move only slider 6 a little bit and you know what I mean…and with the new tutorial setting up manual advance in direct index you can play the guitars very realistically.

Strings:
Always a class of its own. I used to have a 01/W. And I loved the analog string pad A27…I always thought the Karma/Triton analog string sounded a bit thinner. Well those thoughts are over. Very deep, warm. Thick analog strings. As well from the HD sample playback as from the AL1. And you can tweak them really easy. Finally some good classic strings as well, nice violins and cello.

Bass:
Listen to the acoustic bass, the best I have ever heard.

Leads:
Lots of them, excellent. Make them sound your own.

Pads Motion synth/FX and vocals:
Deep, evolving and ever changing sounds, they are my favorites. Here is where the Oasys shines. Vocals are very realistic.

CX3:
You want some organs?? Editing them and use the sliders as drawbars? No problem. Never heard organs like this. Real nice rotary. I use them in combination mode.

AL1:
This is a very deep synth. The presets are exciting but that’s only the surface. Tweaking the parameters from the control surface is easy, but making some deep edits will take me some time. It’s a pretty complicated synth. But can you imagine, you can play a beautiful church organ F011 just as easy as a screaming synth F010 Stradivarius Sync. The step sequencer is still a little mysterious for me, but I still got some time to learn.

Wavesequencing:
This was new to me and I love it. You have a lot of user place where you can save your own. There are lots of ROM samples to use. I even used it with my samples. A really cool effect in combination with the karma.

Sampling:
Not made my own samples yet, but it was easy to load Akai samples and put them in my own programs.

Sequencing:
Mainly the same engine as the Karma but a lot more user friendly. A lot of sysex to record. So, for example, you can change the effects at the place you want. Sounds cool. With so many karma scenes and settings it’s easy to make a lot of different combinations recording in real time. I have to explore the hard disk recording.

Effects:
Lots of them and a really good quality. 12 inserts are a joy for using them in combination and sequencer mode. Just some weeks ago I recognized an old feature from my good old 01/W. The waveshaper, 024! And I missed that one in my Karma keyboard, but it is back again.

Karma:
This where I am experimenting the most. Finally access to all those parameters without the exhausting menus. It is still very complex but I am more inspired to create my own personal GE’s. All the possibilities are fantastic and if you like the burgundy keyboard you will love karma 2. It’s way ahead of what I was used to.

STR-1

It is for a week since I have owned the STR-1. The first impression was that the sound reminded me of my MOSS board which I really liked. But that was an impression, the STR-1 offers lots more. I am not going to mention all the sounds. They are different than ROM sounds, but I think they are fantastic, lots of tonal changes by the way you play, very expressive. I love the guitar sounds both acoustic and electric.
 
But I am mostly focused on the electric piano sounds and the synth/fx textures. You can make totally new sounds really easy.
 
Overall I am glad that there are lots of acoustic sounds, in programs as in combi’s as well. Now I can play really different styles, not mainly dance and techno stuff, but jazz, rock, ballads, blues as well.

It takes time to learn all the possibilities of the instrument, but I started editing programs and combis right away. But as I said, it is an instrument to play. A real heavy weighted instrument, no plastic feel. I have to make music as I put it on. I will put a list of my favorites combis for the moment:

• IA010 Drawbars for Upperfunk
  
• IA051 Harmonics & Keys JS+Y
  
• IA115 Funky Fusion Jam
  
• IA117 Lucin Dreamin Rap star
  
• IB001 California Phase Shifter
  
• IB043 Sigh of Relief SW1,2
  
• IB051 Smooth Jazzmitazz
  
• IB052 Indulge EP SW1,2
  
• IB069 ..and she started crying
  
• IB082 Orchestral Slow Brass
  
• IB083 Organic Funk
  
• IB095 Nashville Jamboree ( watch out for the Blues Brothers..)
  
• IB102 November Ensemble
  
• IC019 A Bass& piano SW1
  
• IC020 Snakeskin Shoes
  
• I C035 Vanishing Point
  
• IC041 Late Night Jam
  
• IC045 Metal Blimp Blues (Play some Gary Moore)
  
• I C077 Guitar Heaven/rbn
  
• IC125 The Quartet
  

So if you are in music store and you can play on the Oasys you can try them out….