Best way to start making my own combi

[Pianomanjess]

I have owned my OASYS for a while now, or should I say the OASYS has owned me for quite a while now, What would be the best approach for me to make my own combi?
It doesn't have to be anything fancy to start with...
Any pesonal recomendations accepted as well as where a good place in the manual to start from...
I saw in the paremeter guide (hard copy) where it talked about combis, but did not see anything on making my own...

Thanks everyone
-Jesse

[X-Trade]

I'm not an OASYS user, but generally speaking:

The parameter guide gives you a list of all of the parameters which make up a combi, and provides some information on what they do, how they affect other parameters, etc.

To 'create your own combi', you simply start from a blank ('init' meaning 'initialised') combi, and start setting parameters for the end result you want to achieve, much like a painter selects different colours and brushes and sometimes materials, or much like an airline pilot has a specific set of controls to adjust to start the aircraft and prepare everything.

A good place to start would be selecting your different programs that you want to mix together. Set a different program for two, three, or four different timbres. Which ones do you want layered? do you want a split?
A KORG combi doesn't really have such a thing as 'splits'. Instead each timbre can be set a range of keys that you want it to respond to! so you could have up to 16 splits across the keyboard (one for each timbre) theoretically). So to layer two programs in a split, you would have two programs with the same keyzone, and another program with a different keyzone outside/adjacent to that. Equally you could have a third program which is across the whole keyboard or perhaps overlaps the two.

Then enter KARMA I won't cover that here. But imagine perhaps you want a bassline which is controlled by KARMA module A. You would need to set a timbre with a bass sound to a MIDI channel other than the global one.

Then you would go about setting the mix settings and effects...



Alternatively, a good place to start is not building your own, but finding combis close to what you want to achieve, saving them over an Init slot, and modifying them - play around with the different parameters, set different programs for the timbres, see what difference it makes.

[Pianomanjess]

Thank you for the info! It sounds like a good place to start! Like I said before in an earlier post all I had before my OASYS 88 was a Casio wk 1630. So far I love my OASYS and would not give it up for anything, but it has been a challenge from the start. Unlike anything I have ever played. I play a Triton 64 for the church, but 30 minutes of rehearsing music you cant really learn much while your playing and they havent allowed me time to figure anything else out...
Now what i am learning on my OASYS in part transfers to the triton so it is also helping my ability to control what i am doing at church!
Thank you for all of your wisdom, and the reply!

-Jessie

[Dr. Who]

Now what i am learning on my OASYS in part transfers to the triton so it is also helping my ability to control what i am doing at church!
Thank you for all of your wisdom, and the reply!

-Jessie

That's a good and bad thing. You'll find a lot transfers to the Triton from the OASYS, meaning it's the same ol' sequencer and the same for combi creation. I've been commenting on another thread about how the effects drop out from programs when you enter in combi mode or sequncer mode. Going to try some work arounds tonight and hopefully it works out well.

Combi's are like an open pallete. You can do whatever you want with them ther are no rules, that's the fun of it. Before combi's, I used to do a lot of sound layering in midi. I would have a string part programmed on midi track 5 of my song. I'd find a sound I liked and assign the patch to that track. Then I'd copy track 5 to track 6 and track 7. I'd find other string sounds I liked and assign them to tracks 6 and 7 and then adjust the effects and volumes of each track till I found something I liked. This is what I would do in my DAW sequencer. This is in essence what you can do in a combi without having to use the sequencer and all the cutting and pasting. I hope I'm making sense here...

I usually come up with a combi to find a new sound that is deeper and richer than a particular patch that I like. For example, if you're going for pads sift through some of the presets and find some that you like. Find one that has a fast attack and one that has a slow attack, find a really good string sound and find an arping sparkley bell sound. Mix and match them together in combi mode and now you have a rich full pad that sounds as soon as you press the keys but after holding the notes, the slower attack sound kicks in. The string sound in the background gives it depth and you can play around with the sparkle in the bell sound for character. Add effects and there ya go.

I like to make combis with fast attack patches more like pianoish sounds and then layer with string and vocal patches with fast attacks, but increase the release amount on the strings and vocal so they trail off a bit after you change notes. You'll find they mask poor playing much better than a typical paino sound Just a few ideas to get you going, but the sky is the limit.

If you are doing a lot of church music, try layering several organ patches together, feel free to have a fast attack string ensemble sound at a lower volume too so it doesn't overpower the organs (it will add depth to the sound) and maybe add a brass or string with a slow attack that will kick in when you have bass notes that you hold for a long period of time. Inrease the release and throw in some good reverb and touch of delay. You should have an organ sound that if fa-a-a-a-a-t after playing with it for a while.

[Charlie]

You were asking for a starting point. I remember I used the "thin" manual for that (not the parameter-guide but the sort of "quick-start" manual). It has a section for Combis in it together with one for Karma which used to be sort of "step-by-step" for getting started creating combis. It was fun and I enjoyed it. However, you'll only keep that knowledge if you apply it constantly.

The parameter guide is a poor starting point for creating things. It is organized by parameters and not by workflow. The thin one is more organized by workflow (eg. how to create combis, how to set up for recording midi/audio, how to create karmafied combis etc.).

In short: use the combi section of the thin manual!

[peter m. mahr]

I made all of the combis from scratch. But I am not using KARMA, therefore I guess it is much easier. One of the key features for me was the possibility to copy whole pograms into a combi, or only the EFX, or at least some of them (inserts only for example). Most of the programs I use I program myself as well, which helps me to avoid a "controller chaos". A little bit old fashioned but at the end of the day it is the sound that counts...

Peter

[Charlie]

Starting from scratch is great!

I remember an interview with Zawinul. He referred to synths as a "beast", that is very hard to master. He suggested erasing all the factory programs first before using your synth. And then you should program just one sound and copy it to all 64 program slots. And then he suggested altering each of the 64 programs just a bit. Then you are ready for playing your sound and you should switch between all the 64 programs during your performance.

Now, I can imagine this would be a nice way for programming combis too!

[peter m. mahr]

Deleted all programs of my Matrix-12 on a regular basis and then started from scratch but left the "combinations" unchanged. this sometimes gave some very interesting results, although the Matrix was very limited even within the analogue sound world as its envelopes were some of the slowest. Maybe I should give this a try with the OASYS too, providing soo many different sound sources.

Furthermore, concerning OASYS' combis, I sometimes copy completely different IFX settings to Programs within a Combi, or change the routing.. this is breaking the "comfort zone" going the same way and therefore getting stuck in the same old ideas.

[Strider]

Stephen Kay's Karma-Lab forum premium content area has over 40 videos demonstrating how to build a combi, including Karma configuration. The instruction is very good. You must pay to view the videos, but it is very inexpensive; about $10 for one month access or about $25 for three months access.

http://www.karma-lab.com/forum/

The videos build a combi on an M3 and the use the computer software M3 editor. However, I found 95% of it very easy to translate to the Oasys. In fact, I think the Oasys is easier to navigate and configure than the M3, even with its editor software.

The videos will get you running (and point out certain hidden "features" of the system) far more easily than trying to use the manuals exclusively. The videos give you the big pieces and the parameter guide serves as a reference for the picky little details that drive you crazy from time to time.

I think the videos are the best starting point for learning to make combis that I have found and easily worth the low cost of admission. A few of them are offered for free, so you can see what they are like before you commit to paying.

Some compositions made using my own "from scratch" combis can be heard at-

http://jimstrider.bandcamp.com

"Deepwater Horizon" and "The Golden Island" were made using my own combis on the Oasys. "Yummish Day", "Rubber", and "M1" were made using my own combis on the original Korg Karma Music Workstation. The other tracks use modified factory combis, combis from Stephen Kay's collections, or no combi at all. One track was composed on (horrors!) a Yamaha Motif ES.

[Charlie]

Hm - I feel more and more drawn to programming some sounds while following this thread.

Thanx for the Karma Lab Tipp. I wasn't aware of this premium content stuff - haven't visited karma lab for some time. And I wouldn't have thought, that the M3 videos would make sense for the Oasys too.