Originally posted by spalding4:
I dont get the whoile thing about Karma technology. Surely its just a glorified arranger with less direct control over the styles and patterns. From what i understand the scenes are differnt nearly every time and you cant repeat a performance exactly as you played it the last time. How does that fit into the concept of a work station ? It cant be even compared to the yamaha xs because that is a deicated workstation for very high standard conventional productions. You kjnow, the stuff that people actually use and make a living from. Can anyone tell me what song, or composition that is commercially available that uses Karma technology ? Maybe it is there and i just bhavent heard any . And can someone tell me what's so cool about having an instrument that like the karma ?
Okay, I'll take a stab at trying to explain what Karma is all about and why it's miles ahead of your average step sequencer/arranger.
Firstly, a couple of corrections. You can easily recreate any performance. Do the same things and the same results will be forthcoming if you wish. However, you may not wish this to be the case in which case you can set up Karma to introduce random elements that give it a much more human feel and so, in those cases, yes.. every perfomrnace would be slightly different. (No bad thing in my mind)
Secondly, Karma 2 is found in the Korg Oasys (The premier Professional Recording Synth on the market today) and now the M3, which by all acouints that I have read so far, has the edge over the XS after doing side by side comparisons (I like the XS btw.. nice sounds for a nice price but it's capabilities (and it's interface) are somewhat less than the M3 in many areas)
Thirdly, take a few well known Keyboard players who use the Oasys regularly both live and in the studio, such as Jordan Rudess, Keith Emerson, Herbie Hancock for starters and listen to any of their recent work and you will hear Karma 2. You may not realize you are listening to Karma because it's not always so readily apparent (see my example below) but it's there.
The bit about the Karma you are missing I think, is that it is not *just* a complicated arranger. It does lots of other things too.
As a simple example;
Take an acoustic guitar sound. Use Karma 2 to play various articulations such as trills, slides, picking & pulling and bends depending on *how* you play the keyboard. There are literally loads of these kinds of articultions available to use with any of the sounds/instruments the Oasys has onboard such as flutes, violins, pianos, percussion, harps (some of the glissando's are extraordinary!)and whatever else and many of these are things that are almost impossible to play via a standard keyboard let alone play them live during a performance without the help of Karma. The resulting performance has a 'real' quality about it that helps create a much more convincing emulation of a 'real' instrument than wouldn't be possible otherwise and in real time too, not just in the studio environment. The fact that they are so seemlessly done by Karma is often why people don't even realize they are listening to an emulation and even if they underatnd that they don't realize how much work Karma is doing, 'behind the scenes' to add to the performance.
The above example is just one of Karma's talents and there are many more besides the complex arranger functions that most assume to be Karma's primary function.
The other thing of note about Karma, is it isn't a case of what you get is what you have to use. With the use of the Karma Editor (and Karma 2 editor coming out soon) you can easily create new GE's (the little bits of info that Karmna uses to create it's unique abilities) and use those yourself. You can tailor any GE to your own tastes.... add new articulations for example to help recreate the sound of, say... bagpipes if you so wish by adding in the 'wheeze' of the bladder being squeezed for example, or subtle changes in tuning to recreate the differences in the strength of the air passing through to reeds depending on how hard the bladder is being compressed or add subtle timing and tuning differences to a solo so it sounds like 10 players are all playing at the same time.. Karma can do all of this, live and with ease.
If you would like to hear some examples of what I am talking about, listen to the songs on my website (link in my sig) Everything there is played live using Karma. I didn't use any sequencers to edit/create/change any of the notes being played live. They are just recorded as they were played.
Try listening to "A little drop of..." and you will hear Karma playing all the backing acoustic guitar strumming sounds, Karma helping me recreate the multiple plucking sound of the lead instrument at the beginning, Karma assisting me with bends and Amp distortions for the lead electric guitar sounds and Karma creating the evolving drum patterns throughout the track, dependant on what I was playing at the time, all live and all in real time.
Or try listening to "Trust". Just a simple 4 chord piece with Karma doing everything based on four simple chords played except the top lead sounds throughout. Karma is helping me with the snare drum articulations, the various drum patterns themselves, guitar slides and trills, electric guitar strums and arpeggios, violin vibratos, FX changes, modelled guitar sound variations and so on.. the list is almost endless.
Finally, try listening to 'Machine- The Genesis Mix" especially the last 3 minutes or so. Karma is doing everything, running flat out if you like, playing all the backing tracks, doing the synth lines, emulating typical Tony Banks arpeggiators, playing the drum tracks based on what rhythms I am playing with the chords in the left hand, harmonizing my right hand solos, creating and playing new solos and harmonies that it works out from realtime analisys of what I am playing, wave sequencing, sound changing, filter mods, volume mixing and again, so much more than simple pattern arranging.
For more info and examples, goto
www.karmalab.com and watch the live videos by Stephen Kay (creator and the brains behind Karma's implementation on the Oasys and M3)
I suspect you will be just as amazed as I was, the first time I watched them!
Cheers..
Nigel
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The Art Of Sound Website [This message has been edited by TheArtOfSound (edited 01-29-2007).]
[This message has been edited by TheArtOfSound (edited 01-29-2007).]
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