Pakefield
Festival - Wersi Report
19/9/11
By Bill Gray
Well
Pakefield is over, and Wersi were there all
week, although Brett was only there till
Friday due to other commitments.
They had both the organs and
the new Pegasus Wing on the stand, all
available with headphones so that you could
play them to your heart’s content.
The downside was that they
were in the same room as Yamaha and
Musicland (Yamaha did not have their own
room this time) so the amount of demo time
was more limited.
The night and morning
concerts (Informal in the morning events) in
the main concert hall on the Louvre, Scala &
Wing by Brett & Ben were up there with the
best, and enjoyed by everyone in attendance.
Most demos focussed on the
New Wing, (Due to a limited available demo
time) and it will certainly be an eye opener
for those used to Wersi of old, in that you
can play it OOTB without having to set
things up first. (It’s finally gone the
route taken by all the other manufactures)
Picture sent by Robert New
Sound wise it was up there
with the rest of the TOTL arrangers (Tyros
4, PA3x) with many of the sounds to me being
better than the other manufactures products,
but at about £1000 cheaper, however I think
they need to add more Acoustic articulated
guitars if they wish to take on the T4s SA
acoustic guitar voices, also I am still not
100% on the brass sounds (I found the PA3x
sounded better) which for me still don’t
sound quite right.
Overall though I would put
the wing as excellent value for money as in
many respects it beats the higher priced
opposition, and will be supported with more
sound and feature updates in the future.
(Unlike other arrangers, you won’t have to
buy a new instrument to get them either)
A demo DVD of the Wing has
been produced by Wersi Direct featuring
Brett Wales, and was available at the show,
so if you’re interested give Wersi Direct a
call.
I was impressed with the new
10” screens on the OAS 7 instruments as they
were bright, responsive and had a very wide
viewing angle; however I do think that at
over £600 it is a bit rich.
All the options were
available to try, and no matter what you
wanted there was something available that
would suit.
Further major feature updates
are planned, as are new Sound/Style packs,
(Including we are told the Klaus Wunderlich
and James Last packs) in addition the
updates coming through are now focussed on
what users want, rather than what Wersi
want, so the takeover of the Wersi brand
name by Music Store seems to be getting more
positive as time goes on.
The latest R45 update for OAS
7 instruments is in final testing, (Which
hopefully will include many of the feature
updates and sound packs) so keep an eye on
the Wersi download site.
Overall the festival was more
subdued this year (Presumably due to the
economic climate) but I am still glad I
attended.
If you want more details of
the complete festival, my report on all the
other manufactures organs can be found here
http://www.organforum.com/forums/showthread.php?18767-Organ-Report-Review
And the Arrangers here
http://www.synthzone.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/331730/1
I hope you found the report
useful, and remember to keep an eye on the
Wersi download site.
NOTE: the Okey Festival in
Germany starts later this week with Music
Store in attendance, so keep an eye on this
as well.
Bill
-----------------------------------------------------
