Korg Forums

[ksi]

I'm new to the KRONOS, and to KARMA, and I'm trying to find out how I can use it in a play-along setup. After having read in the various documentation guides, I still cannot figure out how to do this. Maybe you can give me some advice.

Here is a simple example to explain in detail what I try to achieve:

Consider the 2-bar chord changes | E-7 A7 | D-7 G7 | in a 4/4 time measure. If you choose a program or a combination, activate KARMA, and start playing, you can play over this chord progression by pressing the respective keys at the time when the chord is to change (i.e. you start by playing the notes E-G-B-D for two beats, then A-C#-E-G for two beats, and so on). While you are doing this, you have the possibility to change controls of the active KARMA GE in real-time. I would now like the KRONOS to play over these changes with active KARMA (i.e. being still able to change KARMA GE controls in real-time), but without having me to trigger the chord changes all the time, so I can play-along on another instrumment.

Any ideas how I can achieve this?

[Shakil]

Use RPPR to trigger chord progression in loop, and then you are free to manipulate KARMA in realtime.
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Roland Fantom-G6 ARX1, Korg M3-m exb-Radias, Korg Z1-18v, Roland MC-808, Roland MC-909, Korg microKontrol.

[ksi]

Thank you very much for your reply. and for the hint. I will have a closer look into the respective chapters of the guides ...

[Lou]

Are you speaking about playing at home or out?

If you are playing at home, it's very simple to record a combi to a DAW and have it play back/loop while you are selecting other scenes/RTP and jamming over the top.
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Lou

[ksi]

Thank you very much for your suggestion. The setup is mainly for use at home. Still, if it is possible with using KRONOS standalone, I would prefer that.

[Sparker]

You could assign the chords you want to play to the 'pads' and trigger the chords from there with a single pad press while working on the Kronos' surface controls to manipulate KARMA realtime. This also frees up the keyboard to play the timbre on Gch in Combi mode or on Tch (Timbre Channel) in Seq Mode.

I use an external midi contoller with pads (Microkontrol) as it automaps the controller to the screen pads. This removes the limitation of having to stay on the Pad Screen to trigger the pads.

(I think you can also use an external controller keyboard to play different timbres when in SEQ mode, (by matching the controllers midi out channel to the timbre you want to play - which may not be the same as the Kronos' keyboard selected Tch SEQ track).
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Kronos 61 & KK KARMA / Triton Ex c/w MOSS and TR KARMA / MS2000 / Radias / Kaossilator Pro & Kaossilator / Korg Kontrol 49 / Nanopad / Novation Nova / Waldorf Blofeld

Line 6 Flextone XL / Line 6 POD XT / Roland V Bass / Ampeg Portabass & Cab / Assorted Guitars (no whammy bar) ... and a Fender Champ ...

[ksi]

Thank you very much for your post.

As far as I can see you can then use up to 8 chords specified via the pads, so for not too complex chord progressions this could be a way.

The opions on triggering I think I haven't really understood yet - I wiil
have to keep exploring.

[SanderXpander]

It might be different for you, but I don't see much difference between playing a chord with your left hand and pressing a pad.
I thought the idea was to have the progression run automatically? You can't do that just with the pads as far as I know. RPPR is not a bad suggestion, or you could first record a loop and then resample to audio and loop that, leaving your instrument tracks free to import programs or combis?

[Sparker]

Sander: Yes you're correct. Both methods (Pads and RPPR) need to be triggered in real time, but there's only the one pad or key to press, (useful if the chords you want to play span a couple of octaves).

To expand on Shakil's coment (2nd post in thread) - you can record the chords into the sequencer and save them as a User Pattern (see Parameter Guide Page 656 - 'Get from Midi Track'). This can then be assigned to a RPPR key which will play your chord sequence while the key is pressed. You can sync the RPPR to run with KARMA (by checking the sync box on the RPPR tab/page in SEQ). You can't use the keys assigned for RPPR to input notes into KARMA though. You can set up several different chord sequences and assign these in RPPR to other keys.

You'll also have to work in SEQ mode, but that's easy for programs and combi's as you just press enter & rec/write at the same time and Kronos copies the program/combi (together with the KARMA and Pad settings) into the sequencer. You just have to create/assign your RPPR chord sequences and you're ready to go.

N.B - If you have a set of chords set up on the pads and you use these to record a midi track into the sequencer and then use the 'Get from Midi Track' command you can turn them into an RPPR user pattern. I've just tried this and it works (after assigning the RPPR to the timbre/midi channel I wanted). You can also assign the same user/preset RPPR to different keys and play/layer the same chords with other timbres simultaneously by assigning the same RPPR to another timbre/midi channel and playing the two RPPR keys at the same time.
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Kronos 61 & KK KARMA / Triton Ex c/w MOSS and TR KARMA / MS2000 / Radias / Kaossilator Pro & Kaossilator / Korg Kontrol 49 / Nanopad / Novation Nova / Waldorf Blofeld

Line 6 Flextone XL / Line 6 POD XT / Roland V Bass / Ampeg Portabass & Cab / Assorted Guitars (no whammy bar) ... and a Fender Champ ...

[Sparker]

KSI: If you're new to KARMA I'd recommend using the scene buttons to move between or save different controller settings to. I say this as small changes in some of the KARMA parameters can change the way modules are playing quite unexpectedly. If while you are experimenting and find something you like you can use the menu command 'copy scene' (in the KARMA tab drop down menu) and save it in a new scene. That way it's easy to move between different KARMA scene setups and do fine tweaking, on the less 'radical' controls, to something you already have set up.

PS> By 'play along with another instrument' I'm assuming you don't mean a guitar or somesuch and do mean another instrument (program) on the keyboard?
_________________
Kronos 61 & KK KARMA / Triton Ex c/w MOSS and TR KARMA / MS2000 / Radias / Kaossilator Pro & Kaossilator / Korg Kontrol 49 / Nanopad / Novation Nova / Waldorf Blofeld

Line 6 Flextone XL / Line 6 POD XT / Roland V Bass / Ampeg Portabass & Cab / Assorted Guitars (no whammy bar) ... and a Fender Champ ...

[Sparker]

PS. To directly record User RPPR patterns see Parameter Guide page 589 5:1b How to Record a Pattern.
_________________
Kronos 61 & KK KARMA / Triton Ex c/w MOSS and TR KARMA / MS2000 / Radias / Kaossilator Pro & Kaossilator / Korg Kontrol 49 / Nanopad / Novation Nova / Waldorf Blofeld

Line 6 Flextone XL / Line 6 POD XT / Roland V Bass / Ampeg Portabass & Cab / Assorted Guitars (no whammy bar) ... and a Fender Champ ...

[SanderXpander]

Just as a small note; you don't have to keep the key with the pattern depressed when using RPPR. You can set it to toggle the pattern on and off. So you could have both hands free that way.

[ksi]

Many many thanks for your hints, Sparker, and especially the links to the parameter guide.

[ksi]

[SanderXpander]

I think so, but there's no reason why you couldn't just record all four chords in sequence as ONE pattern.