Hey Nick, yeah BUT the biggest drawback for Karma is you MUST have a Laptop/PC on stage for it to run...
All the midi is generated from the PC and only uses the XS/XF for the sound engine....

I am still living in hope that SK (Stephen Kay) can finally talk Korg Italy into allowing him to develop for the PA platform!!!

He has been trying for about 4 years that I know of

As for the 8 elements, yes you are 100% correct...but call it a throw-back to the days of note dropping beasties without today's note allocation algorithms, I still feel way WAY more comfortable with 128...

Dennis