What does KARMA mean for you?

JPWC · Post by **JPWC** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 3:58 pm

Karma, well it's like my band. Best band I've every been in. Jam everyday with Karma. Have done a few gigs with Karma.

Karma does not work as well with other musicians, They can't handle the perfect timing, and endless notes. Generally speaking, I have to turn it off when playing with others.

Would love to find one or two other musicians that could play with me and Karma!

Given the fun factor, and the hours of enjoyment and satisfaction, Karma is one of the most important technological development for my music ever.

drama1 · Post by **drama1** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:21 pm

This is going to sound very strange to a lot of people regarding Karma, but I use it for SST. I like it much better than the touch screen for changing programs/combi without sound cutoff. Also with Karma, you are not limited to only two sound changes w/o cutoff. I have chubby fingers and using the buttons insted of the screen for changing programs/combis, for me, is perfect for live performance. I can go from scene 1 to 3 to 2 to 4 to 1 or whatever without ever cutting off sound. I can also layer any combination of scene w/o cutoff. The ONLY drawback are the FX has to stay assigned. But with the huge FX section on the Kronos, that really is no problem. Otherwise, for me, even in the studio I pretty much turn Karma off. I'm strictly an old school live player and Karma is way above my learning curve at my age.

LTEDT · Post by **LTEDT** » Wed Dec 12, 2012 4:46 pm

I use combis with KARMA(import it to sequencer mode) mainly as an arranger for songs that i have to prepare music.Sometimes i use all the four modules or use only the modules that are apt for the song. I definitely do add other instruments to it as i feel is required. I also use combis with KARMA(live) in church for few songs.

I also use it to jam along with, explore and experiment the different genres of music. I had a PSR S900 for accompaniments but because of space constraints and now that i have a Kronos i had sold it.

Rgds,
Charles

NuSkoolTone · Post by **NuSkoolTone** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 12:09 am

Shakil wrote:
NuSkoolTone wrote:To ME: It's a closed down system in DEMO mode of canned phrases which you must pay $179 (?) to get an editor to do anything useful or ORIGINAL on it.
IMHO, it is worth every penny of that

I wish there was a trial so one could see HANDS ON what you can do!

QuiRobinez · Post by **QuiRobinez** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:46 am

drama1 wrote:This is going to sound very strange to a lot of people regarding Karma, but I use it for SST. I like it much better than the touch screen for changing programs/combi without sound cutoff. Also with Karma, you are not limited to only two sound changes w/o cutoff. I have chubby fingers and using the buttons insted of the screen for changing programs/combis, for me, is perfect for live performance.

I can go from scene 1 to 3 to 2 to 4 to 1 or whatever without ever cutting off sound. I can also layer any combination of scene w/o cutoff. The ONLY drawback are the FX has to stay assigned. But with the huge FX section on the Kronos, that really is no problem. Otherwise, for me, even in the studio I pretty much turn Karma off. I'm strictly an old school live player and Karma is way above my learning curve at my age.

sounds great! I also use the KARMA button sometimes as a 'mute' trigger for certain sounds. For instance i have a choir sound and when i activate the KARMA button a String section is added to the choir sound (without any KARMA patterns).

The standard KARMA patterns in the combi uses 4 different sounds which are added on top of the choir and string sounds.

ksi · Post by **ksi** » Thu Dec 13, 2012 9:49 am

To me KARMA is an advanced musical accompaniment, where you would configure a certain KARMA module in a somehow more musical way than just programming. For me a KARMA module is a little bit like a fellow musician, to whom you talk like for example "would you mind playing that pattern with more articulation", when you move the "velocity offset" slider to larger values.

This is, of course, somehow idealistic thinking -- approaching KARMA is a quite technical venture still.

What I really miss is a full on-board editor for KARMA, because often when I work with a certain KARMA module, I get to the point where I would like to exchange one of the 32 selected changeable GE parameters with another one from the more than 400 internal GE parameters.

OK, I know, you can buy the extra editor software for this, and I probably will have to do this at some point, but still I would much prefer not having to bother with an extra specific computer here.

DH56 · Post by **DH56** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 4:53 am

As you know from my presence on Karma Labs Qui, I use KARMA as a full out "band" and as such act as the musical director, combining the 8 scenes across 4 modules in ways that make the tunes come alive with variation and colour.

Sometimes I will use combi's "as is" like in the case of "Tetrahedron" using the "Smooth Groove" combi because it is just so beautiful in it's unadorned state and the RH sax sounds pretty good. Other times I will add percussion and lead elements from my other synths and that is where the fun comes in...finding all of the other patches and sounds that will make the combi's come even more alive.

Other times, I will tweak away to take out sounds or passages that annoy me until I find the right groove. For example, I hate that heavily gated drum sound that usually pops up on scene 8 and more often then not end up taking it out. Another guy siad that was his favourite part! Each to his own I guess!

Bottom line for me is that I am not a trained keyboard player. In fact, I can't even play piano but that does not mean that I don't have music playing around in my head wanting to get out. And KARMA has given me the ability to put out almost 100 instrumental tunes just since March of 2009. There is no way I could have had that much inspiration and output without KARMA. The OASYS, as powerful as it is, would not be as useful to me if it were not for KARMA. It has also taught me a lot of complex chords.

I know that KARMA is called "Band in a Box" and "someone else's music" by the purists and that is fine. The power of those GE's and the myriad of ways to combine sounds with all of the modulations available in real time showcase just how powerful KARMA can be in the hands of an experienced player.

At the end of the day, music for me is a way to have fun. I am not a professional and just do what sounds good using the tools that have been provided for me.

Last but surely not least, I thank Stephen Kay for this musical treasure that has given me so much joy and pleasure.

midinut · Post by **midinut** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 7:23 pm

DH56 wrote:As you know from my presence on Karma Labs Qui, I use KARMA as a full out "band" and as such act as the musical director, combining the 8 scenes across 4 modules in ways that make the tunes come alive with variation and colour.

Sometimes I will use combi's "as is" like in the case of "Tetrahedron" using the "Smooth Groove" combi because it is just so beautiful in it's unadorned state and the RH sax sounds pretty good. Other times I will add percussion and lead elements from my other synths and that is where the fun comes in...finding all of the other patches and sounds that will make the combi's come even more alive.

Other times, I will tweak away to take out sounds or passages that annoy me until I find the right groove. For example, I hate that heavily gated drum sound that usually pops up on scene 8 and more often then not end up taking it out. Another guy siad that was his favourite part! Each to his own I guess!

Bottom line for me is that I am not a trained keyboard player. In fact, I can't even play piano but that does not mean that I don't have music playing around in my head wanting to get out. And KARMA has given me the ability to put out almost 100 instrumental tunes just since March of 2009. There is no way I could have had that much inspiration and output without KARMA. The OASYS, as powerful as it is, would not be as useful to me if it were not for KARMA. It has also taught me a lot of complex chords.

I know that KARMA is called "Band in a Box" and "someone else's music" by the purists and that is fine. The power of those GE's and the myriad of ways to combine sounds with all of the modulations available in real time showcase just how powerful KARMA can be in the hands of an experienced player.

At the end of the day, music for me is a way to have fun. I am not a professional and just do what sounds good using the tools that have been provided for me.

Last but surely not least, I thank Stephen Kay for this musical treasure that has given me so much joy and pleasure.

I can honestly say most everything said here applies to me too. I remember Stephen in the days before Karma when he came around to music stores to demonstrate the i series for Korg. He was so good at taking the arrangements and making them sound like a full band and not your typical "arranger" keyboard that it made me wonder even then if you could take that concept to another level. And damned if he didn't. I jumped on the band wagon (pun intended) with the original Karma Workstation and own an M3 and now a Kronos 61. Never could financially handle the Oasys but would have loved it too I'm sure. I am so grateful as well for Stephen's contribution to the music world and hope that it continues on for quite some time. His Karma technology is and continues to be a big part of my compositional efforts.

DH56 · Post by **DH56** » Fri Dec 14, 2012 9:29 pm

I wonder if the guy ever sleeps! After all of the work he put into K-Mo (not to mention the OL fiasco and hurricane Sandy!) he still took the time to satisfy the OASYSians and Kronosians with the long awaited Reincarnated set and I have to say that Scott Raposa did a great job on those and with Stephen's tweaks they are well worth the money at $32, the same price I paid for EJ2's most excellent Catalyst1 combinations a while back.

Glad you were able to get an enjoy your Kronos midi...having all of those synth engines gives you the essence of the OASYS at least in spirit.

One of these days, I'll learn how to actually build a KARMAfied combi...for now I'm just having too much fun knocking out fun tunes with the one's somebody already built for me!

And a tip of the hat and big applause for thr most excellent work our hoster, Mr. Qui Robinez has done with the Kronos. If not for already having an OASYS, his videos and sound sets would sell me for sure on a Kronos!

Whippee boys...lets go make some more noise for crying out loud!

StephenKay · Post by **StephenKay** » Sat Dec 15, 2012 3:22 am

Shakil wrote:
NuSkoolTone wrote:To ME: It's a closed down system in DEMO mode of canned phrases which you must pay $179 (?) to get an editor to do anything useful or ORIGINAL on it.
IMHO, it is worth every penny of that $179.

$169.

And Happy Holidays: I've just announced a Holiday Sale this year (which I don't do every year) and KARMA Kronos is now 25% off ($126.75), thru Jan 1, 2013. I likely won't do this again for awhile.

Karma-Lab Holiday Sale 2012

Thanks for this thread, Qui - it's nice to read what people think about KARMA and how they use it - I'm glad to hear the word "inspiration" so often since that is precisely one of the things I had in mind when originally starting to develop KARMA.

Thank you all for the kind words, and speaking of "inspiration" - hearing all of this inspires *me* to keep going with KARMA, and more sound sets, and the often thankless task of trying to keep the software running on the latest OS's that Apple and Microsoft keep churning out. Best wishes to all, and let's make music, however you want to do it!

AlchemistMusicStudio · Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:01 pm

StephenKay wrote:Thank you all for the kind words, and speaking of "inspiration" - hearing all of this inspires *me* to keep going with KARMA, and more sound sets

...and more sound set - this is it! Keep going!

keekma · Post by **keekma** » Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:38 pm

I use Karma to play along for inspiration. Love it.

And I use it live, not for music/notes, but it makes it possible to use the controllers of the Kronos to work with my midikeyboard. For example the sustainpedal, the drawbars, etc. It gifs me full control for all the sounds I play with the Kronos and midikeyboard!

Spadon5 · Post by **Spadon5** » Sat Dec 15, 2012 6:53 pm

One of the main reasons I got the Korg Kronos was Karma. Really wanted Karma on the Triton Extreme.
And the thing that Karma means to me is total INSPIRATION. It is what music is all about. If you can find something that inspires you to play and make music and also come up with a song or tune. That is what music is. And Karma does all of that. Even if you do not use it in a final song or in a live setting. If it inspires a musical idea it fulfilled it's objective. Thank you Stephen Kay. And keep up the great work!

Korg Forums

What does KARMA mean for you?

Kronos Karma