Karma future?

[Bachus]

Whats are the future plans for Karma?.

Korg seems to have moved away from it with the Nautilus
There is no real news on Steven Kays website Karma lab either.

Even questions from Januar 2021, asking if there will be a Karma for Nautilus never got answered?

It would be sad if an innovative project like this would die slowly..

[kronoSphere]

There is a thread somewhere before, in which Stephen Kays talks about his working projects

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[blazerunner]

Well Karma is pretty outdated compared to all the stuff that Daws can do along those lines these days. It was cool new tech 15 years ago but now tech has gone beyond what Karma could do. Even on the Kronos it's a decade old so perhaps Korg has cooked up some new technology that's more inline with what today's DAWs can do...that's all I can think of as to why they would want discontinue using it as a whole.

Just keep in mind the Nautilus is supposed to be the LE version of a Korg Kronos not a flagship model or a replacement. It's just a bare bones Kronos so it makes sense they ditched some of the technology and features to save $$$$.

Personally I never liked Karma because I never had a use for it. I enjoyed the Triton layout better where I could play with the Arp and do my own custom creations. Programing Karma always seemed like a headache.

[StephenKay]

Thank you for asking.

Regarding Korg, I no longer have an ongoing relationship with them, and really have not been in contact with anyone other than accounting for years. People die, people move on, companies change, company leadership changes, design priorities change… it was quite fun while it lasted and an honor to have worked on four workstations embedded with KARMA:

Korg Karma
Korg OASYS
Korg M3
Korg Kronos

I’ve been feeling “semi-retired” for awhile now - although for over two years now I’ve been working on a complete rewrite of the software, using a modern 64-bit cross-platform C++ application framework named JUCE - which allows me to target not only standalone applications but plugins.

As you may be aware, my various KARMA Software programs, such as KARMA Kronos, KARMA M3 etc. (32-bit and developed beginning nearly 20 years ago with now-obsolete frameworks) no longer run on current MacOS’s (although they still run on Windows) and haven’t really been updated in years.

One new version under development runs as a plugin that is itself a plugin host. So you can host different plugins inside it and play them with the output of the KARMA Modules, and save the whole thing inside a DAW. You can basically create a “combi” out of plugins and then control it with KARMA. So eventually you won’t need a specific piece of hardware to use the KARMA plugin.

Anyway, still a lot of work to do on it. I hope to complete new versions of the software, KARMA plugins, and eventually revamp/renew the whole website. Should I live that long.

[Bachus]

Thank you steven for your answer.

Sad to hear that the step Korg left this path.

But i am looking forward to the new software version.
The way you are developing it makes it very versatile.

Good luck with that project.

[hephiroth]

That’s disappointing to hear Korg isn’t pursuing any sort of “3.0” iteration of the tech, as I’ve always loved Karma. I’m glad I have two of those workstations, though (original Karma and now Kronos), as I find them to be remarkable creativity aids. Long live KARMA!

[Bachus]

That’s disappointing to hear Korg isn’t pursuing any sort of “3.0” iteration of the tech, as I’ve always loved Karma. I’m glad I have two of those workstations, though (original Karma and now Kronos), as I find them to be remarkable creativity aids. Long live KARMA!

Definately true, and when you look what the Nautilus arps archieve, its even more sad

[kday]

Thank you for asking.

Regarding Korg, I no longer have an ongoing relationship with them, and really have not been in contact with anyone other than accounting for years. People die, people move on, companies change, company leadership changes, design priorities change… it was quite fun while it lasted and an honor to have worked on four workstations embedded with KARMA:

Korg Karma
Korg OASYS
Korg M3
Korg Kronos

I’ve been feeling “semi-retired” for awhile now - although for over two years now I’ve been working on a complete rewrite of the software, using a modern 64-bit cross-platform C++ application framework named JUCE - which allows me to target not only standalone applications but plugins.

As you may be aware, my various KARMA Software programs, such as KARMA Kronos, KARMA M3 etc. (32-bit and developed beginning nearly 20 years ago with now-obsolete frameworks) no longer run on current MacOS’s (although they still run on Windows) and haven’t really been updated in years.

One new version under development runs as a plugin that is itself a plugin host. So you can host different plugins inside it and play them with the output of the KARMA Modules, and save the whole thing inside a DAW. You can basically create a “combi” out of plugins and then control it with KARMA. So eventually you won’t need a specific piece of hardware to use the KARMA plugin.

Anyway, still a lot of work to do on it. I hope to complete new versions of the software, KARMA plugins, and eventually revamp/renew the whole website. Should I live that long.

That sounds great!

You have made some great programs and ideas, although a little complex for a lot of people. But if you can simply a lot of the note generating technology that allows the user to produce creative melodies instantly like the newer software that's are coming out, you would expand beyond your normal Karma buyers. I love the idea of being able to generate melodies with Arps, Karma, software and bought about three of four melody generating programs within the last year. In Hip music, melodies have become the big thing and companies are now making millions selling melody loops created from various programs or melodies they created themselves. I always loved the idea that Karma would be a melody generator unlike the simplified Arp or software that's out. But it always seems to complex to change the rhythms from a basic level.

Your idea for a new Karma seems great as a VST, but allow it to be easily editable to change the results and quickly to even less complex rhythms for those not so sophisticated, with processes that allows unlimited rhythms changes.

With all that technology you've developed, there is a market out there ready to be exposed to a new way of melody creation. There are too many new software programs coming out for this not to catch on.