As the keyboardist and pianist in one of the most successful and highly acclaimed British bands of the last 40 years, Tony Banks knows exactly what he needs from technology. That’s why he chose the Korg OASYS as the mainstay of his keyboard set-up for the recent mammoth Genesis reunion tour, when he got together with Mike Rutherford and Phil Collins to perform a set of favourite Genesis numbers to celebrate the band’s 40th anniversary.
The OASYS, Korg’s flagship workstation, is Tony’s secret weapon in re-creating those legendary Genesis numbers. On stage, the OASYS provides almost all the sounds that were originally created using analogue synthesizers and other pre-digital gear. At first, Tony intended to recreate his old sounds using virtual instruments running from a dedicated rack-mounted computer, but eventually decided that the OASYS – offering a selection of different synthesis types within the one box – was a better bet.
“I was looking at something to power my virtual instruments and went as far as buying the hardware, but when I started fiddling around with OASYS I realised that I didn’t need the other system,” says Tony, “I trust the OASYS more and it is much easier because it’s a complete system. It is very versatile in that it allows you to use a multitude of independent effects on all the different sounds and combine them in various ways.”
To ensure the OASYS sits at the summit of the keyboard workstation market, Korg have also paid particular attention to the standard of audio playback, ensuring that it is of the highest quality, as Tony experienced. However, of all the sound creation tools the OASYS has to offer, it is its ability to use several completely different types of synthesis simultaneously, which has excited Tony the most.
The OASYS continues to gather fans amongst some of the top musicians around today, including Chuck Leavell, (The Rolling Stones), Brian Eno and Peter Gabriel. For the full story on Tony, the tour and the OASYS log onto Korg UK