Oasys - Rumored price reduction

I have heard from some sources that the Oasys may be dropping in price by fall. Can anyone tell me if it's better to wait on the price drop, at least to fall.. since the M3 is coming out and Oasys will be reaching it's maturity?? I have heard that the 88-key will come down to around $6K.

I haven't heard this but if you trust your sources, I wouldn't be surprised

At this point, my guess is that the pool of remaining potential purchasers

of an + $8000 workstation is small. Anybody else out there ?

Its your money, of course, but a $2000 or 25 % price drop is significant. To wait a few months for this to solidify doesn't seem like a big wait.

I think Korg expected the M3 ( best of Oasys PCM) to capture a lot of attention

Oasys reaching maturity ? I don't follow you. Since this thing is software upgradeable, the thing is virtually futureproof

just wanted to enter this thread before martin shows up

Is your computer future-proof?

The comparision is slightly illogical. No one develops software "just for your computer". It is open to everything. You want to play the latest game? Buy a computer powerful enough to play it in your computer. No one's going to make a game just so it plays in your outdated specs.

On the other hand, Korg is making everything EXCLUSIVE to the Oasys. This means, whatever code they are writing, whatever software they're working on, is ENSURED to work on the Oasys. They're doing it just for you. And its still just an ordinary computer.

Given Korg's pricing history, a drop from $8,500 - $6,000 would be uncharacteristic. I would expect a $500 - $1,000 drop.

When a price drop comes, I would expect that Korg would just do it, and there wouldn't be alot of time for rumours.

I wonder if they would offer a hardware upgrade in the future. For instance: Intel Core 2 Duo + motherboard. I would have thought installation + software updates would be quite straight-forward.

Just a thought.

Let the price-skimming begin.

Trolling again, there, G-bus. You keep claiming that you dislike arguments about OASYS - yeah, right. You're long past tiresome on this one.

Looking at both sweetwater and guitarcenter.com, there has been a price drop for the 76-key version - all the way down to $7,499.

The 88-key is still at $8,499.

And what did your comment add to the discussion?

Nothing is future-proof. Especially a closed proprietary platform.

The instant a manufacturer decides that their energies are best spent elsewhere, your system becomes legacy.

Which is fine if it does what you need it to. Until it breaks and you discover that they are no longer supporting the hardware either.

read: Oasys PCI

Hell no!! :D I wish it was. (then again...) Otherwise, I wouldn't have paid dearly on my new dual 12ghz Xeon editing workstation, with the Matrox Axio. 1.6 terrabyte raid configuration. I still have to get a monitor...

Aah, realtime output of 2 High Def video layers and effects streams. I'm rather excited!

I doubt it. Hardware upgrades are very expensive to coordinate and execute, especially for a company like Korg that sells globably.

Similar to the Triton Classic to Triton Studio scenario (where the Triton Studio has a 6x faster processor) if anything I would expect Korg to release a newer OASYS ("OASYS Plus" or something similar).

The only constraint in the current OASYS is the speed of its processor and maximum of 2GB of RAM. Therefore, Korg could conceivably release a "newer" OASYS and release new instruments/effect/samples for both machines at the same time.

History can sometimes be a very accurate predictor of the future.

There you go, a $500 price drop in the OASYS 76 MAP.

This must have happened very recently since I haven't seen anything about it on the Korg forum.

This is a false sense of security. Soon, the off-the-shelf PC parts in the OASYS will no longer be made. Try finding a reliable source of new Pentium III chips, for instance. If Korg is to continue manufacturing the OASYS, they will eventually be forced to release updated hardware with then-current PC parts inside. These parts will be significantly more powerful than those inside the current OASYS. Korg will, of course, write new software that utilizes that extra power. Perhaps the new software will be backwards-compatible with the original OASYS. Even so, you won't get the same polyphony or sound quality as on the updated OASYS, because the computing power just isn't there.

The OASYS is a great product if you can justify its cost in terms of resulting profit or good times. If it's worth the price to you, great. But don't buy it thinking it's never going to be obsolete. Every digital electronics product becomes obsolete. Honestly, I think the PC parts in the O will drive obsolescence faster than DSP-based boards. The O depends on the whims of the PC parts market, which changes at a frighteningly quick pace compared to the embedded computer parts market.

(Of course, "obsolete" is just a state of mind. There are people that stick to their Apple ][s, their VAXen, their 486s with 28.8kbps modems, and they get a lot of work done with these tools. These people were born without the gene that causes GAS.)

Hell no!! :D I wish it was. (then again...) Otherwise, I wouldn't have paid dearly on my new dual 12ghz Xeon editing workstation, with the Matrox Axio. 1.6 terrabyte raid configuration. I still have to get a monitor... Aah, realtime output of 2 High Def video layers and effects streams. I'm rather excited!

I got an assistant developer last week. His workstation is about twice as fast as mine.

yes it is

Fun is future proof

I got an assistant developer last week. His workstation is about twice as fast as mine.

Bound to happen. I don't worry about keeping up with the latest spec, on a yearly basis. I've had my dual 1.2 ghz Tyan system for 6 years and it's working great, but not for HD. At the time, though, it was smokin'.

That said, if I only buy a computer, once every 5 - 6 years, I'm going to get something that won't get outdated fast. This system cost quite a bit more than an OASYS 88, but here's to 6 more years. (hopefully!)

Similar to their other products, Korg (and other long-time MI manufacturers) plan for the ability to provide replacement parts for many years into the future. For example, the PC processor on the OASYS is supposedly on Intel's list of "long term system processors", which are used by embedded systems users (e.g. computer driven machinery manufacturers).

I expect OASYS spare parts to be as available for as long as their other keyboards (e.g. as long as Triton Extreme parts).

Because analog chips stay in production forever.

IMO, standing up to bullies is important. Otherwise, they'll think they can run the place - as they sometimes have in the past. If we disagree on that point, that's OK with me.

after standing up to George Bush's America, I can take on anything

Citgo...heating homes, warming hearts.