Korg Oasys PCI and Synthkit

[widdly]

Hi All,

I've found a korg Oasys PCI card for cheap and I'm keen to get it installed in my Beige G3.

Software wise I want to get my hands on the Synthkit and the Oasys v.2.0 and v.2.0.1 updates.

The v.2.0.2 update is available on the Korg website but it requires the 2.0 and 2.0.1 updates already be installed.

AFAIK, the Synthkit was never widely available but some people had copies since they released new plugins.

[IIO]

http://web.archive.org/web/20180329222817/http://www.hvsynthdesign.com

[refinery]

i too would love to get a copy of synthkit...

but also i need to troubleshoot my oasys as its been giving me a ton of errors lately

[SonikArchitects]

For the record this is an incredible setup/card. I use mine regularly (it's a bit of a secret weapon! shhhh!)
Best,
_BT

[Metrophage]

I can almost certainly scare up Oasys PCI software something-something within a week or so, I'll keep you posted.

[Syn-Fi]

i had one of those cards, on close out, many years ago and recall that the oscillator modelling rang very true indeed - without aliasing.  it's a shame i didn't comprehend what that meant at the time.  The 'o-mod delays' from Dan Phillips are very cool too.  You had to enter an NDA for the Synthkit but i do not regard it as that interesting and if you want to go that way Kyma or Nord Modular is probably better.

[refinery]

You had to enter an NDA for the Synthkit but i do not regard it as that interesting and if you want to go that way Kyma or Nord Modular is probably better.

both of which at this point are substantially more expensive than an oasys card. synthkit was the only way you could create your own instruments from scratch moreso than the included programs would allow. Even Korg themselves claim that they dont even have a copy anymore, so I really think any NDAs that might have been enforceable have long since expired.

[Syntho]

Is the PCI card much different from the keyboard synth itself? Why is this PCI card so special? I didn't find but a single demo of it online. Hmm.

[Metrophage]

Is the PCI card much different from the keyboard synth itself? Why is this PCI card so special? I didn't find but a single demo of it online. Hmm.

The PCI card is more similar to the prototype keyboard. The final Oasys was released years later and was a completely different thing. On a user level, the keyboard had its own embedded OS, slicker interface, more pre-made content, and no longer allowed people to patch it themselves. So the released keyboard was a luxury workstation, while the PCI card was more like running Reaktor on an old Mac with DSP chips. You could get low-level with it, but the included instruments and effects have IMO a very well-crafted, polished sound.

[refinery]

but the included instruments and effects have IMO a very well-crafted, polished sound.

Its basically the entire Trinity/Triton soundset + all of the EXB-PCM expansions for it.

[refinery]

Is the PCI card much different from the keyboard synth itself? Why is this PCI card so special? I didn't find but a single demo of it online. Hmm.

the better way to think of it is as a 90s product. the later OASYS keyboard was a linux-based workstation which did not have much in common with the earlier stuff and was closer in line to the M3 and Radias products.

In the 90s, Korg spent a ton of money on R&D for the OASYS project, and ended up with a super beast system that was so expensive no one but the top tier pros could afford it (something like $15K in 1994 dollars) so Korg took all the technology from the OASYS project and split it up into individual components and rode that cash cow off into the sunset. Most of Korg's 90s products were derived from it.

Trinity/Triton synth derivatives = ACCESS/HI synthesis engine, Sampler functions, ROMpler functions, sequencing.
Prophecy/Z1/E(x)-1, MS2000s = the Z1 and Prophecy have the full MOSS system for physical modelling, the E(x) and MS2k boxes only used the analog modelling components
WaveDrum = another subset of the physical modelling tech purely for percussion
1212IO, other IO products = effects and IO from the OASYS project, split off into standalone IO and effects products


its an incredible piece of tech for the time, and unbelievably tedious to work with, but the sonic results are well worth it. it never got ported over to OSX or even to windows XP i believe, so its kind of become abandonware for the most part. If they had made an OSX version and put serious work into the interface (and its MIDI implementation, mighty christ is it awful) it could have been an amazing product.

[Metrophage]

Here are the CDs and SynthKit. I will present it better and add 3rd party patches soon.
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/20663-korg-oasys-pci

[refinery]

Here are the CDs and SynthKit. I will present it better and add 3rd party patches soon.
https://www.macintoshrepository.org/20663-korg-oasys-pci

you sir are a gentleman and a scholar

[Photonstorm]

Wow, Synthkit after all this time!!!!
Thanks, loads for this

[coachla]

Does anyone have Harm Vissers Oasys pack? His site takes money but does not deliver what you pay for. Strange.

[sempleyaroff]

Hello! First of all - thanks a lot for the link! Did anyone manage to make a really working, well-sounding preset in the mix using the synth kit?

[emilika]

NICE POST THANKS FOR SHARING

[daddyjeff]

Is the PCI card much different from the keyboard synth itself? Why is this PCI card so special? I didn't find but a single demo of it online. Hmm.

the better way to think of it is as a 90s product. the later OASYS keyboard was a linux-based workstation which did not have much in common with the earlier stuff and was closer in line to the M3 and Radias products.

In the 90s, Korg spent a ton of money on R&D for the OASYS project, and ended up with a super beast system that was so expensive no one but the top tier pros could afford it (something like $15K in 1994 dollars) so Korg took all the technology from the OASYS project and split it up into individual components and rode that cash cow off into the sunset. Most of Korg's 90s products were derived from it.

Trinity/Triton synth derivatives = ACCESS/HI synthesis engine, Sampler functions, ROMpler functions, sequencing.
Prophecy/Z1/E(x)-1, MS2000s = the Z1 and Prophecy have the full MOSS system for physical modelling, the E(x) and MS2k boxes only used the analog modelling components
WaveDrum = another subset of the physical modelling tech purely for percussion
1212IO, other IO products = effects and IO from the OASYS project, split off into standalone IO and effects products


its an incredible piece of tech for the time, and unbelievably tedious to work with, but the sonic results are well worth it. it never got ported over to OSX or even to windows XP i believe, so its kind of become abandonware for the most part. If they had made an OSX version and put serious work into the interface (and its MIDI implementation, mighty christ is it awful) it could have been an amazing product.

ok, but now these are in vst plugin formats they started with legacy collection and now they are cloning workstations and this same year they cloned the prophecy and the iOS apps also seem to be part of the entire OASYS conglomerate.

It seems that korg is cloning all its technology in vst plugin format, the MDA effects are another part of OASYS. 

[IIO]

dont miss that the mac version of the pci card was an open enviroment where you could patch that stk stuff yourself.

while the prophecy plug-in is really cool for old time fans of the hardware, it is something really different from patching a generator yourself and then running it from freemidi or OMS under OS9.

[Syn-Fi]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/144927861202?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=mifF9zmsREa&sssrc=2047675&ssuid=SM4heKEsQgm&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

one on ebay UK right now