The following are comments by and excerpts from postings by OASYS owner Nigel Sixsmith. Find all of his postings and talk to him and other OASYS owners at either korgforums.com or karma-lab.com.

Ok... so what does the Open Architecture feature of the Oasys mean to me? For years I have gone through the usual technological cycle of purchasing lots of gear to fulfill the many needs I and my clients have for producing music.... then some new gear comes out and so one purchases that while still retaining the older equipment, until one reaches the point of having a studio full of keyboards, racks, software and other related hardware, each serving a certain, musically creative purpose but at the same time resulting in a logistical nightmare of cables, cords, power supplies, software disks and updates and everything else that is required to connect together and maintain this amount of electronic equipment in working order. No one keyboard does it all.... and no one keyboard satisfies even just the majority of needs I and my clients have, to create music... until the Oasys came along.

The idea of being able to use one keyboard to create, record, perform and produce an entire track from start to finish.... was just a pipedream until the Oasys was released…but as with all things, even the Oasys has its limitations. That is, it would if it wasn't for the implementation of the Oasys's Open Architecture Design which removes all these limitations and opens up a completely new world of expansion possibilities in the future...

The first upgrade that took advantage of this Open Architecture was of course the STR-1 Plucked String Modeling EXi... and what a revelation this was!!! When I first heard that Korg intended to release this particular EXi I thought, "This should be an interesting and useful addition to the Oasys," but I had no idea just how powerful an expansion this would turn out to be.

As an example of what this means to myself, personally...I'm a life long wannabe guitarist who cannot play guitar to save his life, so I have to resort to attempting to emulate guitar sounds via either samplers or synthesizers. Modern “Romplers” allow me to produce fairly realistic guitar sounds but they are all limited by the fact you are playing back 'fixed' samples of guitars and for the most part you are limited by what samples were originally recorded as to what types of guitar sounds you can recreate. Not so with the new EXi!

Now I can model almost any guitar sound in software, via the EXi... from the type of guitar, amplifier and speakers used… right down to how far from the bottom of the neck the pickup is placed! I can now reproduce all those wonderful guitar sounds I have heard on so many recordings but also, I can create completely brand new guitar sounds on imaginary guitars that no one else has ever dreamt of. Not only that, but due to the way Korg have implemented the ability to manipulate every aspect of a sound via the various control surfaces...I can change the sounds produced 'on the fly' while I play, recreating effects such as dampening the strings… or changing the tonal aspects of the sound, much in the same way a real guitarist does by striking or plucking the strings in a different manner... and all this from one small part of one EXi that takes advantage of the Open Architecture System implemented by Korg into the Oasys!

What does this all mean to me for the future? It means I have bought the flagship keyboard that will lead the way for musicians to create music now and far into the future. It means I have purchased a keyboard with unparalleled expansion possibilities. It means I won't have to keep buying lots of other equipment with all the resulting nightmares of compatibilities issues and miles of wiring... and having to deal with brand new learning curves each time I do so. I can use one keyboard.... to produce literally any sound I can imagine…and millions more beyond my imagination.

When, in the future, Korg release EXi's in the form of software versions of their older, outstanding keyboards, I can do away with the constant cycle of maintaining these older keyboards as the Oasys will allow me to perfectly emulate my favourite sounds from the past, in a more reliable and complete 'package' that both I and my clients will appreciate and enjoy for many years to come.

There is also the possibility of new software upgrades… new facilities, upgraded functions... the ability for Korg to listen to what its Oasys customers want and need from a keyboard and then be able to implement these needs. The Oasys will become the 'chameleon' of the keyboard world… able to be whatever the customer wants it to be...all within one high quality keyboard...

For me, the main benefit has been quite simple in nature. I sit down and I find I write with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of inspiration. No sorting out of complicated MIDI setups. No having to remember all the various settings used for each keyboard and sound/program/FX. Very easy to use and produce extremely professional results almost instantly... and the biggest plus point... It sounds so good!

The O is one of those cases where the sum of its parts adds up to more than the individual specs would indicate. Its so easy to set up a clear sounding mix that sets it apart from the more usual workstation stuff other keyboards generate. Being the owner of literally a stack of other gear including a Motif ES, Virus KC, Kurzweil, samplers...a host of older analog gear and so on... I can honestly say that I have hardly used anything else but the O since the day I bought it.... In fact I have sold many of the other keyboards and rack modules I had because I simply have no further use for them. I have kept a few... for sentimental reasons mainly... like my JD800/990 and my Karma and Triton... because there are a couple of setups my customers like and use... but again, I haven't found a sound that I cannot generate via the O... that I previously "had" to use a certain keyboard for... and I am finding that my studio customers, once used to how the O works…come in and just use the O and nothing else... They, like me, have no use for anything else really… apart from the odd favorite patch… on another bit of gear… but that's it really. That's not to say the O is perfect... because it isn't... but as far as the sounds... programming wise… and clarity and versatility... the O is simply the best on the market today as far as I am concerned.

And..... of course... there is Karma... in all its new V2 glory... worth the entry price alone!!! Once there is a means to create/edit your own GE... I will be in Karma Heaven!

Finally, there is the promise of so much in the future... The STR-1 EXi convinced me that I had made the right choice... and that Korg will produce some of the more stunning and useful upgrades as time passes.

So, to wrap up... Yes, I love the O... "warts and all" as we say back home... Thankfully the warts are few and very far between, and again, the 'all' is simply incredible.

Simply put, if one can afford it... buy it. I don't know of anyone who has truly regretted doing so after spending a few days playing one.

One Keyboard... Millions of possibilities... One very happy owner!

All because of the Oasys' Open Architecture.