Wersi
Wersi is a Sino-German manufacturer of electronic organs, keyboards and pianos (named after the communes of Werlau and Simmern in Rhineland-Palatinate). They were used by organists such as Franz Lambert and the late Klaus Wunderlich.
Wersi's current range of instruments is powered by the Open-Architecture-System (OAS). This is a GUI that runs on top of a Windows XP computer, enabling the keyboard to support third-party programs, such as music notation programs, Software synthesizers, or DAWs. A computer keyboard, mouse, printer, and other normal computer accessories can be attached to the instrument. A CD burner is usually included, allowing the user to record his performance and then burn it onto a CD, without using external equipment. Current Wersi instruments are able to use normal computer hardware, such as SATA hard drives, floppy-drive bay memory card readers, baby ATX motherboards, and standard processors, such as the Core 2 Duo.
History
WERSI is a company that began in Germany, Europe. In 1969 two brothers (W.E & R. Franz) worked in the basement of their parents' house to produce the first WERSI instruments.
By the 1970s, the company had established a successful kit development system, that allowed customers to build the then state of the art instruments in their own home, at their own pace and at considerably reduced costs.
By the mid-1970s, artists such as Franz Lambert and Klaus Wunderlich had switched to playing WERSI on their international tours and records.
The 1980s saw WERSI introduce the most spectacular digital line of instruments to the world - the CD-Line. The famous Spectra was the wonder of the 1987 Musikmesse and next to the WERSI Helios, is one of WERSI's biggest selling instruments to date.
In the 1980s two huge factories were constructed in the WERSI-hometown of Halsenbach, Germany. A large concert auditorium, offices, R&D labs, factory production area and metal works / paint spray factory are still functional to this day, but housing many different companies at the large complex, still under the watchful eye of Reinhard Franz.
In the 1990s, WERSI developed the digital Grand Piano line as well as digital sample based instruments and innovations such as the Livestyle upgrade for the CD-Line, Golden Gate, PhonX, Performer and Pegasus keyboard (The Pegasus was the first keyboard to have a touch screen in the world).
In the late 1990s, WERSI developed the OX7 drawbar module and set to work on a totally new generation of instruments... the OpenArt-System (OAS) line.
The OAS instrument line consisted of professional arranger keyboards and organs and are PC based. In 2001, the first version of the OAS instrument line was released running on the unique OAS software... a totally open / upgradable product that over the next ten years would be developed to become the worlds most superior technological instrument.
In 2010, WERSI was purchased by the European musical distribution company, Music Store Professional as the official distributor and by the Chinese musical instruments producer, Medeli. The new Pegasus Wing keyboard was launched at the Musikmesse Frankfurt in April 2011. This event was the world premier of the new WERSI keyboard line, made in the facilities of Chinese keyboard manufacturer Medeli. Organs are still manufactured in Germany, and development has been moved to the Music Store facility in Cologne, Germany.[2]
References
- ↑ Till Kopper. "Wersi AP6 Baß Synth".
- ↑ Wersi Direct Ltd. "Half-Year Activity Report 2011" (PDF).