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New Roland Fantom G6, G7, G8 at NAMM


A*X*7

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How do you know?

 

 

I can't tell you that he is right, but I can tell ya that he does know his stuff, and he does research this stuff. I'll take his word it.

 

And even if it were not true, don't you think it's a bit of a "loss leader"? Mean that they were able to use A LOT of what they put into this board (i.e.: R&D) is what helped them develop a number of their current, and most likely future products. Mean that it would not be real accurate to devote or assign every dollar spent on R&D to the Oasys since it is most likely that same R&D that could be acredited to a number of their other current and future products.

 

So I have a hard time thinking that there wasn't some kind of master plan with the Oasys. I have to believe that they had more than one reason to build that board, and it wasn't ALL for how many Oasys boards that we going to be produced and sold.

 

But...I could be wrong...I just think Korg deserves more credit in their over all planning and business model than that.

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I think Korg HAS recouped their development cost with the oasys. I mean, it costs $8000... They coud probably recoup their expenses with 50 units. :D I'm just curious as to how Martin can be so sure of himself when he makes these statements. I doubt that Korg makes it a policy to release their revenues and expenses to the general public, and certainly not on a per project basis. :idea:

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wahey!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

at last HC becomes Ofunks kinda place... more naked women please... as gratitiuous as you fancy...

 

I agree about the Asian women comment... I give them high marks from personal experience ;-)

 

Ofunk signing off too pissed to care... ;-)

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I think Korg HAS recouped their development cost with the oasys. I mean, it costs $8000... They coud probably recoup their expenses with 50 units.

 

Given you have always claimed you thought the OASYS was overpriced and "worth" about $4,000, it would have to be profitable, yes? :rolleyes:

 

Just by the user posts over at Karma Lab, I can tell that Korg has manufactured at least 3,195 OASYS units, which would represent a pretty large retail value. To contrast this, there is similar M3 thread which shows that Korg has already manufactured at least 13,995 M3 units.

 

Korg isn't stupid, the OASYS was always intended to be a low-volume keyboard given its price. However, I still wish Yamaha and Roland would be willing to move away from the "normal" $4,000 price point.

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T


Korg isn't stupid, the OASYS was always intended to be a low-volume keyboard given its price. However, I still wish Yamaha and Roland would be willing to move away from the "normal" $4,000 price point.

 

 

you know I like Korg.

 

We have discussed this before. It seems that Yamaha and Roland have looked at the risk/reward of a $6k workstation and said ' not for us at this time '

 

Especially with the {censored}ty USD and the shaky condition of the US economy this year

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Going for a market above $3k is always tough; Korg, like the team that did the Andromeda, took a big chance in making OASYS, even though it wasn't so big in the sense that it became a good testbed for rolling out future subsets of its technology.

 

I appreciate Roland's continued care with thinking about coming out with quality at a price point. Sure, they could've thrown in 4,6,8 ARX slots, but why? With two slots you have a broad addition to the existing sound palette. Maybe also more than two slots stresses subtle things like the overall circuitry load (requiring more substantial board redesign and manufacture redesign to accompany it, no small cost), the physical reliability of the slots, the increased risk of expensive theft (4 slots means the risk of 4 ARX boards -- what, $2K of expansion boards -- stolen out of a keyboard at a show, say), etc. etc. etc. With two slots you have enough flexibility to customize your focus without too much added cost and risk. And it leaves room for Roland to come out with a rack unit that might offer more slots, once the library of ARX boards is large enough to make having 'em worthwhile.

 

All in all, it's a question of careful planning; Roland's still in the biz and doing well because of it.

 

I'd say the same thing is true of polyphony, and RAM; you can look at the 95% usage case and see that 128-note and 1GB on a workstation is more than enough; beyond that is overkill, for a keyboard meant to be used in performance as well as in the studio. Beyond that, in the studio, you simply combine your Fantom-G with your PC, yes? Ditto for huge samples, save that for the PC. It's a question of thinking again about where to invest your money in R&D and manufacture, and where you're busy spending a LOT more to satisfy an increasingly narrow part of your customer base. Roland addresses that small elite with its more experimental efforts, like V-Synth, not in its bread-and-butter systems, like MV and Fantom, methinks.

 

This is, long-term, why I like Roland as a customer; they make sensible business decisions, without really seriously limiting the range of offerings they give a big variety of different types of musicians, and they do this in a way that means I can trust they'll be around in the future.

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It must have something to do with some problem integrating more than two ARX boards into the G circuit. Like printer manufacturers selling ink cartridges, Roland loves selling expansion boards for their products and makes a considerable amount of money doing so. They would have put four or even six slots in it if they could have.

 

Regarding the Oasys, it really wasn't that risky for Korg and I'm not surprised at all that it's a profitable product. Some of you guys are unaware of the "power" of the P&W market. There are no Oasyses in the places of worship in my area...we're too poor, but there are plenty of megachurches where money is simply no object when it comes to assembling their sound systems. It's striking looks also video well for closed circuit or regional cable. And they're all doing that one. It reminds me a lot of the K250 which was in production throughout the 1980s, way beyond it's normal production cycle, because of it's appeal to large houses of worship.

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I find the release date to be most impressive. 2 and a half months isn't half bad. This is actualy the first keyboard workstation that i have truly wanted to own. i have always preffered racks but the sequencer finally looks like something i'd like to work on, plus the internal audio tracks and extremely high effects count make this thing very sexy. one thing though, the 23 arx slots are a little disapointing. 6 is ideal, because you know they will make several more, but im sure they got a rack on its way for that. kudos to roland though, looks like the best of the Big Three next gen offerings.

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I find the release date to be most impressive. 2 and a half months isn't half bad. This is actualy the first keyboard workstation that i have truly wanted to own. i have always preffered racks but the sequencer finally looks like something i'd like to work on, plus the internal audio tracks and extremely high effects count make this thing very sexy. one thing though, the 23 arx slots are a little disapointing. 6 is ideal, because you know they will make several more, but im sure they got a rack on its way for that. kudos to roland though, looks like the best of the Big Three next gen offerings.

 

 

It might happen in April. It might be late April

 

Then it slides into May

 

I have had that experience with Roland NAMM announced products before

 

Just FYI

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