KORG OASYS VS OPEN LABS NEKO 64

M

Mr_KeyboardMan

New member
gonna get either one hopefully next year (saving like crazy and working my ass off now :twisted: :twisted: )

seems that each has their own pros and con in terms of their specs and functionality.

usage: performing (gigs, pubs, hotels, weddings, party, etc), sampling, recording, sequencing and etc.

one of my consideration: future upgrades, value when selling second hand and warranty/maintainance in singapore.

:? very confused now.

Please give opinion
 
Mr_KeyboardMan said:
gonna get either one hopefully next year
Click to expand...

1) If you are performing at gigs, pubs, hotel, weddings, party as a primary source of income, there is no need to get a Korg Oasys or Open Labs Neko.

People go to such places to socialise and be happy. They couldn't care less whether the piano samples you are playing is from a Casiotone keyboard or a 5GB sample DVD.

2) I doubt if you can get a good 2nd hand price for either.
a) Would you pay $7k for a 2nd hand Oasys that has been gigged every weekend for a year? Thought so.
b) Neko 64 is based on a computer processor and we know how fast the value of that drops.

3) You must be very fit and work out a lot or the gigs must pay very well for you to have your own crew.
a) Korg Oasys 76 keys = 25.6kg
b) Neko 64 = 46lbs or 20.9kg

On the other hand, for comparison, a Korg LE 61 weighs only 7.8kg making it much more portable.
 
hmmm, currently i m using the KORG Triton LE sometimes SO90 for performing and they does not meet the sound quality, expressiveness and versatility i m looking for.

and perhaps it applies for the genre i play too. when i play funk or jazz. i would want to add a horn section to do the accents (through prepared sequencing) while i m playing rhodes or solo.

I m looking for an all in one solution for performing, recording, etc. Rather than spending thousands of dollar overall in studio, sound modules, etc
so when these two workstation came out i was excited about them.

Weights is no problem cos there's van and trolley. It's not that hard to unload and load them.
 
Furthermore, as a foreigner i may move out of the country for further studies or work anytime. So it's not practical to have a studio.

anyways, what do you feel in terms their functionality and sound quality to each other?. I never tried out the NEKO 64 before.
 
You might consider a solid workstation (Motif ES/Triton Extreme) for gigging, coupled with a good laptop computer and firewire interface for your recording needs.

You can then seperately upgrade/resell your recording solution and your keyboard solution as you see fit and/or as finance allows.

That solution will cost less than an Oasys.

BTW, it isn't easy "drop in" pre-sequenced horns live in the middle of a jam unless everyone is playing to click track and you don't change the arrangements. If you are doing synth pop, it would be easier than trying it in a jazz/rock/blues context.

If you are a solo player playing to sequences, ignore that last paragraph but the rest is worth considering.

I gig with an ES7 (among other things) and there is not a lot I can't do with it sound-wise.
 
it's a trick i did in the middle of performance. did the accent during the drummer intro so you get the correct tempo. quickly store, loop or play during different part of the song. try it. quite a neat trick, makes ppl wonder where does the horn section coming from :).

Thanks for the info on the motif ES and laptop solution. But the price of them altogether can get myself a NEKO LE.

Perhaps, you can share your experience with motif ES 7?
 
I've owned or rented a Motif since they first came out. I like it. Sounds great and has deep editing capability. The sequencer is handy, but I only use it for working out new songs or creating user arps. Same with the sampler... I have 512MB installed. I've added a pair of the AN150 analog modelling boards and a DX board, so I have a lot of sonic horsepower under the hood.

The Motif is a very good 'board if you can get your head around the operating system. Some will say the Triton has a more user-friendly interface. Don't know, never tried one.

Yamaha/Korg support and availability is good worldwide. Not sure about the Neko.

If you really wanted to (and many people do), you could do everything on a Motif or a Triton sound-wise. Personally, I am a fan of a two keyboard setup and use a Kurzweil PC1x as my bottom 'board. Piano sounds are very subjective, but I prefer the Kurz accoustic pianos and a few other sounds to the Motif in a live setting. That's just me. Two 'boards also gives me a lot of space for the splits and layers I need for pop/rock. I play covers, and I do no recording.

Just changed bands, so my next gig isn't until February. You are more than welcome to come check out my rig at the gig if you want. Date and location TBA... but it will a place that sells beer and has good live music :)
 
Sure thing man :D. Just PM me where and when.

Myself, I prefer to use one keyboard if possible (looks better and can do more showmanship) by splitting the sounds. Though sometimes i use 2 keyboards, using the yamaha piano sounds (I like yamaha/ Roland piano sounds). I play swing, latin, bebop, fusion, R&B, pop and rock. Though starting next year i plan to play covers as well and venture more into pop / rock (you can give me tips here and there). So in need of versatility here :wink:. I do recording as hobbies and self-taught myself(recording i mean).

Outatune said:
Yamaha/Korg support and availability is good worldwide. Not sure about the Neko.
Click to expand...

Good point there, one thing that concern me is service and maintainance. Actually, the NEKO was very attractive solution to me considering the price compared to OASYS. But I am just worried about where to go to for service (although i can always get the NEKO online). So i need to see other factor between these two.

I heard Citymusic offers an installment plan for OASYS too.
:D

Anyone knows whether OpenLabs have any vendor in sg?

on a side note ... what would you choose if you have to choose in between? and why ?
 
I think Korg Oasys meant for studio work
For people who can't het enough of Triton studio,
the Oasys is to quench their hunger.

the Oasys got it all
1) Triton
2) Wavestation
3) Hammond
4) Analog modelling ???

what else? at SG$9,960 ???
what can you do with SG$10K ?
study a Bachelor/MBA course?
 
Since it came out in 2004, neko 64 price has gone down quite considerably .... maybe because it's computer processor based.

Can we expect smth similar to OASYS ?
 
i've found the fantom skip-back sampling thing to be a pretty neat trick too. might be a useful feature for you. IMO the oasys is a little too full blown unless u're really utilising its processing power, esp like in the VA or hammond modelling section. if you're going to just play lots of sample based sounds(keyboards, horns, strings, pads etc), an ordinary workstation with a laptop might be far more economical.


outatune, what music do you play? the ES7 and PC1X must be quite a handful!
 
I believe it is still cheaper to get a notebook and a keyboard than a Neko. Sure, the touch screen and faders etc looks cool. I've actually emailed Opensynth about how easy it is to change the parts (I'm more interested in changing the soundcard). Well, they said we have to use theirs - so no choice. However, that was when it first came out. Don't know about it now.

I believe they use the cheap Fatar keys if I'm not wrong. Also don't know how the faders and knobs feel. I would think you should at least get your fingers on that thing before considering getting it.
 
"outatune, what music do you play? the ES7 and PC1X must be quite a handful!"

Yes, it's a b7tch to move my rig around, but there is nothing like having the sounds you have built for a particular song always at your fingertips. I'm a complete hack as a player and my improv skills are non-existant, but I'm good at copying what is on the record and closely nailing the sounds and getting them to fit in a live mix. I spend a significant amount of time programming voices, splits, and layers on my rig. For example, we did "Living on a Prayer" last night at practice and it sounded pretty darn good for a first go.

Like I said, I do covers. We posted on SOFT for a vocalist recently (and had great responses) using a typical set list as below:

500 Miles/Proclaimers
8675309 (Jenny)/Tommy Tutone
Addicted to Love/Robert Palmer
All These Things That I Have Done/The Killers
All the Small Things/Blink 182
Are You Gonna Be My Girl/Jet
Black Magic Woman/Santana
Blister in the Sun/Violent Femmes
Boulevard of Broken Dreams/Green Day
Brown Sugar/Rolling Stones
Clocks/Coldplay
Come Togther/The Beatles
Creep/Radiohead
Gimme Some Lovin'/The Blues Brothers
Honky Tonk Woman/Rolling Stones
How You Remind Me/Nickleback
I Don't Wanna Be/Gavin Degraw
I'm a Believer/The Monkees
Learn to Fly/Foo Fighters
Losing My Religion/REM
Money For Nothing/Dire Straits
New Sensation/INXS
Play That Funky Music/Wild Cherry
Power of Love/Huey Lewis
Should I Stay or Should I Go/The Clash
Somebody Told Me/The Killers
Stuck in the Middle With You/Steeler Wheel
Suffragette City/David Bowie
Sultans of Swing/Dire Straits
Summer of '69/Bryan Adams
The Reason/Hoobastank
What I Like About You/The Romantics
What's Up/Four Non Blondes
Wherever You Will Go/The Calling
Wonderwall/Oasis
You Really Got Me/The Kinks
 
wow!
this is a list of songs I really love to sing

I thought no one would remember
8675309 (Jenny)/Tommy Tutone
that's my fave song in my teens.

too bad I'm just a keybd player
 
Cheez said:
I believe it is still cheaper to get a notebook and a keyboard than a Neko. Sure, the touch screen and faders etc looks cool. I've actually emailed Opensynth about how easy it is to change the parts (I'm more interested in changing the soundcard). Well, they said we have to use theirs - so no choice. However, that was when it first came out. Don't know about it now.

I believe they use the cheap Fatar keys if I'm not wrong. Also don't know how the faders and knobs feel. I would think you should at least get your fingers on that thing before considering getting it.
Click to expand...
The Korg OASYS is a workstation synthesizer implemented on a custom Linux operating system and is designed to be arbitrarily expandable via software updates, with its functionality limited only by the PC-like hardware.

Features
The standard Oasys comes with a hardware similar to many personal computers:

2.8 GHz Pentium 4 CPU
40Gb hard disk drive
1Gb DDR RAM
10.4" LCD touch screen
It features Korg's OASYS (acronym for Open Architecture SYnthesis Studio) technology, which allows multiple synthesis engines to be used simultaneously. The OASYS also includes second-generation KARMA technology (with the first generation having first appeared in the Korg KARMA). It has either a 76-key synth-action or 88-key hammer-action
keyboard.

Synthesis engines
As of October 10, 2006 the latest version of the OASYS OS is 1.2.1, featuring the following synthesis engines:

HD-1: A PCM synthesizer, with 628Mb of wave ROM
AL-1: A model of a 96-note polyphonic analog synthesizer (84 notes in previous versions of the OS)
CX-3: A modelled tonewheel organ based on the current CX-3
STR-1: A Plucked String physical model
LAC-1: Korg Polysix, an analog model, and Korg MS20, an analog model

... vector synthesis ???
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Share this page

Back
Top