Kevin Nolan wrote:The biggest debate for me is Karma.... I worry about its complexity and the amount go knowledge needed to use it effectively. I hope Korg realise what power they have at their disposal, that, with a little more maturing, could deliver even more effective realtime control. But it needs to be tamed IMO - I don't mean dumbed down. Rather the opposite.
For example, currently the 128 variations of a pattern are accessed via one of the contrl surface faders (by default), which is tricky to use/harness. Instead, by default provide an easy graphical front end that shows the patterns, allows you to select the variations, and them and place them in a sequencer track (a bit like STYLUS RMS, for example).
And, rather than having hundreds of parameters changing under the hood, provide a smaller set of variables, perhaps selectable/controlled in a more obvious and visible way; and where note data seamlessly goes to the sequencer to midi ports, to DAW tracks for the major DAWs etc. OR - configure one aspect of Karma as a killer arpeggiator, or package all of KARMA's drum patterns as a killer drum machine.... IMO, Karma needs graphical packaging in these ways to exploit it fully and effectively.
I agree that Karma could/should be "packaged" in a way that makes it easier to grasp and control. However, when you say you worry about its complexity, I would like to offer some friendly advice... don't
worry -- just
use it, experiment with it. The beauty -- if not the essence of the design of Karma -- is to "do random" against an otherwise programmed pattern. And the degree of control that you have to warp any given pattern is immense but not infinite. The degree to which you will want to more tightly control any particular GE will come only with experimentation and understanding of what that GE does and what the various RT parameters do out-of-the-box. At that point it's time to start reading up on what some of the other Karma parameters do that might help you to control what's going on. But still, Karma GE's aren't generally so all-over-the-place random that you can't make music with them. So just play with Karma and see what it has to offer and don't worry so much!
