OASYS is a 100% Korg concept, and it was researched and developed by Korg's team:-
http://www.irishacts.com/forum/phpBB...?p=76341#76341
It was meant to be released in this keyboard form:
http://www.vanille.de/extras/oasys/oasys.html
...but it was, I think, too big a concept for its time in 1994 (and still for many years to come). I remember reading somewhere a good while ago that Korg did absolutely massive research on it all, but computer DSP restraints really did put it on a back burner, so much so that, in its earliest stages, they had to "render" sounds offline as opposed to being able to 'play' them in realtime as the synthesis models were so advanced. However, when the keyboard version was meant to be released, it would've also had a street price of around $10K. But they never eventually released it.
Instead, they released the Wavedrum in '94 which was just one physical model of an acoustic drum, the Prophecy in '95 which used a tiny portion of the analog modelling research, and then the Z1 in '97 which used a little more, in the form of more physical models, but even the Z1 had such restraints in that they had to effectively stunt OASYS to fit it into the Z1 hat.
OASYS is "open architecture", so while the Z1 (using MOSS) is using "fixed" algorithims (ie. for the standard analog, comb filtering, ring-mod, oscillator sync'-mod, cross-mod', FM analog-based models as well as the organ, electric piano, strings, plucked, reed, bowed and brass physical models), the OASYS was meant to allow you to effectively design and load up ANY algorithms, not just those ones given (as in the Z1), and then it allow you to do whatever you want with the sound from there on.
In OASYS, there were meant to be no "standard" types of oscillators, LFOs, EGs, filters, etc. restricting you (although preset algorithms are given, as they were on the Z1 for example - I think the OASYS-PCI card released back in the late 90's had even more algorithms, and a better sound quality than the Z1), but OASYS was meant to be totally flexible in that when any new synthesis types are born and created, you can effectively load the algorithms into OASYS and play it like it were a new keyboard. - In other words it's pretty much always upgradable. The sound you get out of it is only limited to the algorithms that you put into it! Very similar to the G2 Modular, and Reaktor I'd imagine.
So, if you wanted a Hypersaw, for example, you could effectively program it in!
Freakily, it's resembling more and more like my (heated?) argument with Ben Crosland a while ago.
http://www.sunesha.nu/virusforum/vie...?p=19945#19945 . I thought it would never happen. And I half-hoped Access would do it first, if it did.
I'm wondering if because Korg released modelled VST-I's of their MS20, Wavestation and PolySix that they might even bundle these algorithms within their OASYS architecture too. Who knows? That blue joystick looks very Wavestation-like!
I think you might even be able to program your own effects, too, but I don't know enough about it to speculate further. I heard that whatever you can do with SynthKit, you can import the equivalent into OASYS.