Once again Korg has put out something very impressive! It's new keyboard called the Karma.. Go to www.sweetwater.com to look at it. Interesting color too. Never seen a board this color before. Check out the features on this beast....

Squeak

Oops my bad guys!!!! wrong site... It's at www.music123.com I was just at the sweetwater site, and that one was fresh in my mind.. Sorry about that guys...

Squeak

it looks close to the trinity .the color looks like a dark red.and the screen seems to be colored just like the KN6000.

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vic

infact I was wrong about the colored screen ...


[This message has been edited by vic83 (edited 01-19-2001).]

Hey Vic, nice job hunting this Karma down! In the expanded image on the music123 site, the screen does appear to be multi-colored.

I had been complaining about how the PA-80 lacked expansion slots and a MOSS option. The Karma has them. I have been complaining about Yamaha and Solton with their lack of real time controllers; Karma has them. And they are used for reducing the fatigue associated with arps and auto-accompaniment.

Unfortunately (for me), only 61 keys (without speakers) and no vocal harmony. But it will sure be interesting to see how this new "arranger" concept plays out. So far, this is the big news from NAMM!

I thought the karma is a synthsiser!

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vic

All arrangers are synthesizers. They add to synthesis technology the ability to generate rhythmic and melodic patterns as a function of chord recognition. Arpeggiators and drum machines play rhythmic and melodic patterns, but without chord recognition. Current groove machines have arpeggiators with real-time control over the groove of a rhythmic pattern; groove machines, like the Yamaha DJX series, are mostly used for techno and trance music. I have looked briefly at U.S. Patent 6,103,964 (to Stephen Kay), which appears to cover some of the technology used in the Karma. The Karma might be a glorified groove machine, but it sounds like it will be applicable to the wide range of music that arrangers typically address. It is hard to tell whether it has any actual chord-recognition ability.

However, unlike the Korg PA-80, which held back on its Triton implementation, the Karma appears to be a Triton with Auto-Accompaniment. It can exchange sounds with the Triton, and accepts Triton expansion boards and the MOSS board. 32MB of ROM is standard, as on the Triton. Expansion is available to bring it to 64MB, which is currently state of the art.

As far as I can tell, there is no mass storage, and nothing is said about custom "Generated effects". So the Karma may not be amenable to the friendly style-making and exchange communities that we have been developing in the arranger community.

As the proud owner of a Wavestation AD, I hope this is not another great technology that gets abandoned by Roland.

[This message has been edited by Clif Anderson (edited 01-20-2001).]

Clif,

I am sure that Karma is a nice-sounding instrument, if you like Korg sounds - to my ear the previous Korgs all sounded to synthsy, though I am still waiting to hear the PA-80.

However, for all its arpeggiators, I don't think Karma is an arranger keyboard, although it may be helpful in adding variety and randomness to the music. It is possible that you may simulate the accompaniment, but to me the amount of work and the end result would be similar to just sequencing the song.

Regards,
Alex

PS what do you think Korg will call the rack-mountable version? Karma on the Rack? or Rack of Karma?

Hi Alex

I am afraid you are probably right about the limitations of the Karma for accompaniment. Still, I hope someone will allow real-time control of style parameters, such as groove.

Does anyone know if the Karma keyboard has
actual style pattern built in that can be used
as a basis for its algorithmic features. Are
those features real time or just available when
sequencing? I think the next generation of arrangers
will have to combine pre-set styles (as we currently
have) with some built in real time algorithm to vary
those styles. Most arranger keyboard players get tired
of the styles because they become too predictable and this is true to day when there are many styles available. Style morphing on the Roland keyboards helps a bit but real time algorithms to vary the style (and not just the groove, but the pattern, harmony, voicing) are needed.

Has anyone played the Karma?

Sam

Here is a little about Karma:

KARMA (Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture) is a patented algorithmic MIDI data generating technology created by musician/programmer Stephen Kay. KARMA takes input notes and controller movements and generates complex musical phrases and effects, providing independent real-time control over various aspects of a musical phrase, such as rhythm, duration, accents, chord density, pitch bending, tonal variation, panning, repeats, randomization, and more.

Karma uses "Generated Effects" (GE) instead of styles.

1. GE
Select from over 1000 types of phrase or pattern. From the approximately 400 GE parameters, each GE provides up to 16 parameters most suitable for control.

2. KARMA module parameters
For each KARMA module, these parameters select the GE, specify the MIDI input/output channels, the key zone, MIDI filter, and trigger settings.

3. RTParm (Realtime Parameters)
Assign KARMA Realtime Controls knobs/switches to any of the sixteen GE parameters that you wish to control.

4.KARMA Realtime Controls
There are eight knobs and two switches to control the KARMA function in realtime, and you can store two sets of these knob/switch settings and use the [SCENE] key to recall them at a touch. Chords can be memorized in the four CHORD TRIGGER keys to make it easy to play difficult chords, or simply have a fun, new way of playing. Appropriate chords are already set for each of the preloaded programs and combinations. All these parameter assignments can be made independently for programs, combinations, and songs.

5. Dynamic MIDI
Specific aspects of the KARMA function can be controlled from the on-board controllers or by MIDI control messages. For example, you can use the joystick to strum a guitar chord, or use a foot switch to switch a KARMA module between Run/Mute states.


[This message has been edited by Clif Anderson (edited 01-21-2001).]

The foregoing is from music123.
Here is some stuff from Harmony Central

"One KARMA pattern can be used in Program mode. Four KARMA patterns can be used in Combination/Sequencer/Song Play modes, so that separate patterns can generate independent phrases to play different sounds such as drums, bass, guitar, and piano to create a full ensemble.

The basis of the phrase or pattern is called a Generated Effect (GE), and it controls how note data from the keyboard is developed. With approximately 400 parameters in a single GE, the KARMA function can control virtually any type of tonal or phrase change. These parameters include elements like harmony, scale, ad-lib/humanize, rhythm randomization and complexity, phrase variation, tone, pan, effects, pitch bend, volume, velocity, duration, MIDI control changes, chord control, MIDI delay/repeat (Melodic Repeat™), and pitch change.

Up to 16 of these parameters are available for real-time control over a GE, and can be adjusted by operating the eight Real-time Control knobs and two switches. Two available scenes allow controller settings to be saved for instant recall. Four Chord Buttons are also provided to allow the user to easily create and trigger complex voicings. The KARMA Music Workstation provides over 1,000 different GEs organized into 17 categories, and new GEs can be loaded as they are made available. "