Korg Karma

I need to agree with those (esp. the 40 yr old+ guy ;) who have berated the Korg sound. I am completely mystifed as to what people like about the Triton/Karma patches.

Have any of you actually PLAYED an XV5080 or a Yamaha Motif? Korg doesn't even come CLOSE to the Yamaha or ROland sound. Every time I go into GC there are the usual thugs hunched over the Triton playing these ridiculously thin patches. I have to laugh. But here's the deal, the reason the Triton has caught on is really simple: R&B and HipHop producers like it's drums (somebody finally got a clue and put good rim shots, etc in a board - took 'em only 10 years to figure it out) and the fact the the Triton OS (with its touch screen)is BY FAR the most intuitive workstation in existence.

COmplete idiots can navigate the Triton's OS so it only stands to reason that every wanna-be on this side of the galaxy thinks the Triton can transform him into a superstar. Same phenomena with e MPC drum machines. Korg has struck gold and should be applauded for "breaking on through to the other side.."

But make no mistake, the Triton/Karma patches, for the most part, suck. They are thin, they are poorly sampled and on top of everything else, the converters Korg use BLOW like Julie Ashton. The electronic sounds are cold and uninspiring, the acoustic samples are the same ones Korg has been using since the M1 and the drums, though "modern" in sound, suck for everything but HipHop.

Add to all of this that 95% of Korg's patches have virtually no velocity switching whatsoever. When I had a Triton, I had no idea what I was missing out on.. until I played a Motif. Play a Motif... "expressiveness" will take on a whole new meaning.

There is CLEARLY an indication that Korg was pursuing a very specific audience when they designed the Triton and then partnered with Dexter Propellerhead to launch the Karma. For the Triton is was all about rap and hiphop and american dance (because I have not yet noted any stand up europeans, who have the cornermarket on dance music) using a Triton. The guys in the UK use Yamaha products (CS6x, A4000, etc), Akai samplers, Viruses, Nords, Waldorfs, etc not to mention all of the software based stuff. You don't see them with Tritons.

Granted, there are plenty of pros using Tritons, but don't think for a minute that Korg preset sounds are being pumped into commercial music songs. After the sequences are laid down, those Triton tracks are dipped in just about every top shelf effect in existence by highly paid professionals who exist solely to make things sound BETTER, BIGGER, BRIGHTER, SWEETER and SEXIER to your ears.

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, it's just that I can see through Korg's smoke and mirrors. The Triton/Karma boards are not going to make you SOUND good. They are nothing but propagandized garbage with tons of bells and whistles to wow you at the music store. Think about it.. dual arps? SO f'g what!! Seen what Cakewalk Sonar can do with a MIDI track lately? I do things in Cubase a Triton couldn't even FANTASIZE about doing.

Listen, if you want good analog sound, get a Virus, a Waldorf, Reaktor or comparable and learn it. You will smoke everything your Triton/Karma owning peers are trying to do. If you want acoustic, either buy a new Akai sampler (Z series kick azz) and get some REAL GOOD stuff, or get a few boards like a Motif and a Roland XV5050 to complement it. And if you just want to make slammin' beats, buy Propellerhead's Reason and leave the competition in your wake.

Sorry for the rant, fellas, I'm just sick and tired of the Korg marketing machine dictating what is "hot" and what is not.

The Karma IS a gimmick, no matter how hard these guys who have invested $2,000 try to convince you otherwise. They key here, and it has been noted in several reviews, is that with the Karma it has a "mind of it's own." One guy even said you better have the recorder going for that right take if it ha

Assholes... just like the good folks at Roland and Steinberg. Only industry in the entire world where a company can $hit all over their customers and suffer no negative publicity. Unf'g real.

Korg is a marketing machine. They couldn't care less about THE MUSIC. If they did, they would update their patches and converters and everything else to ensure their customers were getting studio ready sound. As it stands, they cracnk out Casio grade patches.. and get away with it. For this reason, I couldn't care less about their products.

For the very deep machine it is I can get around the user interface pretty good. It is a menu system which is layed out consistently in all different modes. It still is not as good as a dedicated computer editor, it lacks the big display of the triton. but it works.

The manuals (3 guides) are good as a reference guide, but not as a tutorial. The very many facilities on offer makes very big manuals.

Mucho features, most from the Triton range of keyboards, PLUS the Karma function. The karma function is one-of-a-kind, and very good.
For me this was the major reason to buy the machine.

Overall good sounds, based on the 32mb internal samples. Very good and flexible effects. Can be used on a broad varity of styles.
Most amazing is again the Karma fucnction and what it can do to the sound and musicflow.
At first it looks like just a auto-arranger or arpeggiator function, but some delving shows it goes miles further and can be used in a vast number of applications.
And it is completely midi-based, so can be used with all other midi-gear.

It is a rather light-weight keyboard, good to carry around, it won't break your back. Needs a good flight-case, like all synths.
The keyboard action is not very high-quality, but playable.

There is a new OS coming out, and all kind of third-party sounds comes available.
There is a mailinglist on yahoo where the inventor of Karma gives support, never seen this before and it *is* very decent support.

I've got it a year and it is still surprising me with what it can do.
I should buy it again if it was stolen or something.

Operating System 1.06
Very easy to use. Patches (Programs) can be selected by category. The presets sound great -- the Karma uses the same base sound WAVs of the Triton -- but modified to take advantage of the Karma's capabilities.
There are multiple manuals -- easy to read and understand. The first manual, the "Basic Guide", should be read to gain an overview. Take a look for yourself -- all Karma manuals are available for download at Korg's website (see "Overall Rating" section below).

The Karma has all of the "normal" features you will find in a music workstation today: goods sounds, sound board expansion, sequencer, effects. One additional feature that is nice are the four "chord trigger" buttons. These are quick ways to play and store 4 different chords relating to each program or combination.

The Karma name can be confusing. Karma is the name of the keyboard, AND it is the name of the specific functionality in the keyboard. The Karma function is THE REASON for buying this keyboard. There is nothing else like it on this planet. In simple terms, the Karma function is a MIDI generator, which can be turned on and off. Think of the Karma function as a module, which uses midi data as input (playing the keyboard or any external source sending the Karma midi data), and generates additional midi data as output. This midi output can be directed to the Karma's internal sound module, or sent out of the machine to an external source. If this sounds like an arpeggiator to you, you are partially correct. If current arpeggiators in the market (including the Triton) are first generation, the Karma is 10 generations in the future. Trust me, it is 100x as sophisticated as any arpegiator on the market. The Karma function has paramters that can be controlled during playing with a number of switches and knobs. Forget the comments you read about the Karma being for non-musicians; the Karma functionality is very complex. Also, software is coming out in May 2002 (for both PC and Mac) that will provide even more flexibility with the Karma function.

If you want to gain an excellent understanding of the Karma's capabilities, print out the "Getting Started Guide" (link follows), and take it to your local music store. Ask the clerk for some headphones (or take your own), and plan on spending about 20 minutes demoing the Karma, following the Guide

Karma Guide Link: http://www.karma-lab.com/Files/KARMAGetStarted.pdf

Also of note: the Karma is a Keyboard magazine "Best Buy", and it won Electronic Musician's Magazine 2002 Editor?s Choice Award for ?Best Synthesizer - Keyboard/Digital"

Very expressive given the Karma function, and the Korg sounds.

I have had my Karma for 4 months, no problems. Since Korg products are sold everywhere, they have a good service network in the U.S.

Fantastic keyboard.

For excellent information about the Karma, see the following three sources:
1. Karma Labs (run by the inventor of the Karma, Stephen Kay)
http://www.karma-lab.com/
2. Korg's website
http://www.korg.com/gear/info.asp?A_PROD_NO=KARMA
3. KorgKarma User Group on Yahoo! Stephen Kay, inventor of the Karma is the moderator, and he answers questions daily.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/korgkarma/

For magazine reviews of the Karma, see the following two articles;
1. Keyboard Magazine
http://www.keyboardmag.com/demos/korgkarma/index.shtml
2. Electronic Musician Magazine (Aug. 2001)
http://industryclick.com/magazinearticle.asp?releaseid=6908&magazinearticleid=115538&siteid=15&magazineid=33

Easy but not all that clear at times. Editing sounds is easy but may put off people with little time. The manual is massive for no good reason. The easy start guide is great. Honesty, you could just play with the synth for a few weeks then read the manuals.

Great features for anyone who has uses a triton. If this is your first keyboard, take some time with the manuals. The keyboard is the same as tritron and some yamaha. I wish it has the semi-weighted action of some newer synths. With 61 voices, polyphony is not an issue. Midi is solid. The option for expasion boards and the MOSS synth is great. 5 insert effects and 2 global are quiet and much better then the older korg effect units. They blow away the effect units on some of the yamaha synths. I can't comment on the seq because I never used it since I use logic.

The Karma is in it's own in the area really. The GE effect is hard to put a pin on. Some people seem to think it's a SUPER PSR type keyboard but it's not. It's not anything that has come before. The complexty of what the GE's can do is amazing and a little hard to get a grip on the first few times you use it. But once you find out how to make your own and your start to mix and match, the power of what this thing can do is shocking. More so since it is all sent over midi. You can cook up some wicked grooves very fast with this keyboard and a computer. SOME of the GE's are aimed at the baby boomer set, way too many ROCK things for my taste. The newage/trance sounds are really amazing. The harps are simply the best I have ever heard on a keyboard. No one does it better.

Hangs once in a while but only if you leave it on for more than a hour with nothing going on. Strange but a keypress wakes it up.

Kids who want a groove box to do everything for them should stay away. If you have a tritron, stay away since the software that drives the karma will be out shortly. This is a amazing keyboard that will either wake up new ideas in you or scare you with how complex the ideas can be. The karma is great for inspration. I used it a week after I got it to score a play with just the karma and Logic audio. The director was so happy he hired me for another project on the spot. The idea here is a new one and not for everyone.

Korg Karma has an abillity to update the operating system. The latest update of the operating system is now 1.0.6. The preset sounds can provide 'nervous' fingers to make excellent music in different areas; from classic to trance music. Editing patches is not required, and one can change combi-setting just by selecting on other program with another drum pattern or bass pattern easily (you have to know the Korg principle). The manuals are like all manuals a little bit too slow. It would be nice by Korg to provide an step to step manual which explains the required steps to make for instance a combi which is already available using different sounds combi's to hear the results step by step. If the manual is not sufficient enough, Stephen Kay has on his website (www.karma-lab.com) a FAQ manual with tips and tricks to use the Karma. Also a discussion/user group via his site is available in which the developer of the Karma himself provide answers to questions the users have. I don't see this by other syntheziser products...

The features of this workstation is very wide. The Karma workstation is a keyboard in which all the sounds can be changed to the user's requirements (synthesizer) and all the accompaning drums and bass's can also be changed, before and even when playing 'online' using the eight knobs to change for instance the drum pattern, complexicity etc.
For me, this instrument make it possible to make music with drums and accompaning bass more relaxing. If the styles or programs are not sufficient, it is possible to buy expansion boards with different styles. The MIDI capabilities are enormous and very complex. The on-board sequence is easy to use. However, one must check for overlapping midi-channels with the 16 channels (has to be switched off) to prevent memory overflow. No indication when the memory tends to be full, is available at the moment. With the compare function, one can change to a previous recording easily.

The instruments provided with the Karma a very realistic and work well for all types of music. The onboard effects are very good, but should be good to be a syntheziser at all. Playing the Karma is very nice, although the keys could be better balanced.

The Karma has not failed me yet. All songs can be saved on a diskette and even changed combi's and programs can be saved via Midi on a PC. Backup is therefore available (but for me not necessary).

Customer Support is not really necessary. The instrument as hardware device is very good. For help of software or editing/using combi's etc. the usergroup (Yahoo-group) is very usefull.

I would buy a new if something did happen to my Karma, and I'm still exploring the possibilities of this instrument. I'm playing the karma for already 9 months and I'm still improvising new sounds/music. It's really worth the money I've spend. I've started using the Korg X5 synthesizer (it was cheap and has very good sounds). But changing parameters for getting new sounds was not easy. To make sounds, I've bought also a Roland JP-8000 with also the RPPR functions. Using the karma, it makes me more easy to use drum and bass patterns to make new music, with dynamic changes if required by selecting different drumpatters etc. Setphen Kay will also present in the near future a computer program to edit the drum patterns and bass patterns with all the setting one can think of and download it to the Korg Karma. I'm waiting for it....

1.0.4.
The presets are some what O.K, compare to the Triton that I currently owned. Since I know the way around the Triton, it si easy to navigates with the Karma. Patches editing is as simple as the Triton. About the manual, it "SUCKS." You are rquired to go through many sections of the book just to understand how to do one simple thing. As far as the manual goes, I just tossed it aside and get busy with it myself.

All of the above are O.K.

The instruments samples do seems to have improved by far compares to the Triton. For me it's alot more compatible and works well for New Age and Classical due to the Karma functions of the preset combi.

So far it does not have any hickups, or taking a long trip to the junk yard yet.

I have never have to deal with them yet.

I would buy it again if it was lost. One thing that I like the most about this board is that its lightweight, compact enough for small studio,and all of the gizzmos are well laid out

Ease of use depends on what you want to do with the Karma. I'm using it in a live situation, where I'm merely using a lot of presets. However, when I first bought the Karma, I spent weeks messing with it. It was somewhat confusing (the manual sucked!), although I got the gist of it: You have more than 100 patterns (combis) to play with, and you can assign different instruments to those patterns. I wrote a few kooky trip-hop patches by putting string sounds onto drum combis, etc. Pretty cool.

As I said, I'm not using the Karma to make drum beats and stuff like that. So, for my purposes, I love the features. Everyone complains about the keyboard, but it feels okay to me. I'm not a concert pianist, and the Karma certainly doesn't feel like a real piano. But I'm not a piano player; I'm a synth player. And it feels just fine to me.

The effects are fine. I especially like the combi that acts as an octave delay. It's on a few of the strings patches, as well as a guitar patch. Really cool.

It sounds great. Incredible, in fact. Some of the sounds simply blew me away. The synth stuff is wonderful. Even the bread and butter sounds, like organ and clav, are great. And, I don't know what the big deal is about the piano sound. I have certainly heard better, but for my purposes, in a live band, it sounds just fine.

So far, so good. My Karma has been to one gig so far, and back and forth to band practice. It fires up every time I hit the power button.

n/a

If my Karma were lost or stolen, I would cry.

I've been playing in bands since 1985. Other gear includes a Roland JP8000; a Korg DW 8000; a Roland AX-1; Digitech Talker.

Some individual sounds are great, some are fine but the bulk are rather thin...

I would use a couple of the rhythms out of Karma but most of them are just plain unusable.
The synth is obviously meant to make everybody who knows just a chord or two sound like a musician... that's about it.
One most appropriate use for this thing would be to impress your girlfriend or entertain your friends at a party.

I have a few synths and samplers in my studio ranging from analogue to digital, from old to new, and I just can't see myself starting to use Karma instead... for its famous simplicity of coming up with supposedly "ready-to-use" pieces of music that the Karma engine generates... it's just not there!

Let's put it this way, if you still own a Yamaha PSR-series instrument then Karma is definitely for you... it's way better than that - that's for sure!

I'm using software version 1.0.4., and haven't run into any problems with it. The Karma is VERY easy to use. At a superficial level, just turn the thing on, pick a combi, and start banging on the chord buttons - can't get much easier than that.

At a deeper level, it is still much easier to use than some of the other keyboards I've owned, while giving you control over nearly everything. Still, like with any professional instrument, creating something new that sounds good takes work. The Karma doesn't do everything for you, that's for sure - it is NOT a groove-box or autoaccompaniment keyboard by any stretch of the imagination. So, while it's very easy to use, it still requires a fair amount of skill to take it beyond the factory programs.

Unfortunately, reading the manual is like reading the dictionary. All the words are there, but they aren't strung together in any kind of meaningful way. They are mostly just an explanation of each and every feature of the keyboard, one after another. They are NOT a tutorial at all. This seems to be one of Korg's problems in general, though, since my Triton manual is just as bad.

I haven't tried editing the patches themselves, although I've built a few combi's of my own. THAT was very easy to do. I imagine editing the patches is similar to how it's done on the Triton (minus the ease of using a touchscreen), so it's probably pretty simple. So far I haven't really felt the need to edit the patches because they're very good as they are. However, once I do decide to mess around with them, Korg has provided plenty of space to store them (so I don't have to decide which preset I have to "lose" when I hit save).

Polyphony is good. I've never had a situation where the sounds just cut out because I've hit the limits. Tons of effects are included, and routing the sounds to them is a piece of cake. You do only get five insert effects and two master effects to work with at any one time (same as the Triton), but that seems like plenty.

While the Karma has the same expansion capabilities as the Triton (two expansion slots plus room for a MOSS board), they've made it a LOT easier to add the boards than in the Triton. Open the drawer on the top of the machine and stick 'em in (on the Triton you have to turn the thing upside down - which is a real pain with the Pro and Pro-X because they are horribly heavy and unwieldy).

Keys are velocity sensitive, and have good aftertouch. However, I gotta admit I hate the keys themselves - compared to the Triton they are unbelievably cheap feeling. However, the cheap keys are probably part of the reason the board is relatively inexpensive, so I can't complain too loudly. Plus, my hatred of the keys didn't stop me from buying the thing.

It has an onboard sequencer, but I haven't used it yet. Again, I imagine it isn't too different from the Triton's, and I found the Triton's very easy to use.

The KARMA function is the main feature of this board. It just can't be beat. It's not an arpeggiator (although it can behave like one), and it isn't autoaccompaniment (although it can behave like that, too). It is something entirely new and different. Playing with one or two combi's won't give you a good enough idea of the possibilities of the KARMA function - you need to play on LOTS of combi's because they all use the function in a different way.

Some sounds suck. Some sounds are great. Most sounds lie somewhere in the middle (although most are quite good). However, here's something I didn't expect: most of the sounds which don't sound very good when I play them on the keyboard myself can sound fantastic when played by the right Generated Effect (using the KARMA function). Many of the GE's can play in ways that I can't, and are able to wring things from even the ugliest sounds on the board that I would never be able to do.

I can't think of a musical style you couldn't use the Karma with. Techno, Dance, Rock, Gregorian Chants, Balinese Gamelon, whatever. I just put together a Bluegrass combi (because the Korg engineers hadn't seen fit to do so themselves) and it turned out great.

Some GE's react well to my playing, but I've noticed an annoying lag on some of the others - which can have some pretty lousy sounding impacts). Overall, though, the KARMA function reacts pretty well. Still, I'm not convinced that this is a live performance board (though I'm sure plenty will use it as such). It seems more suited to studio work where sections of songs can be put together using the KARMA function and sequencer for the background and then human performances layered on afterwards. Just my opinion, though.

Hasn't died on me yet, so it's OK so far.

Never had to deal with Korg.

Since I bought the Karma, my Triton has sat in the corner collecting dust. I've been playing for 30 years now, and the Karma has to be the most fun keyboard I've ever owned. Even though the keys REALLY SUCK, I still play the thing every day - sometime for hours at a time. I've had it since Spring, 2001, and it still hasn't gotten old - I discover something new every time I play with it. For the price I paid, that makes it an excellent value.

Yes, I know the touchscreen isn't there, but for the size of the screen,
I think Korg designed a very useful readout. Lot's of info, especially concerning
the Karma functions. Just getting around the patches, however, was not as easy as
just sitting down and knowing where and what to click.

It's a synth-action keyboard (why do people complain about these?) and for
that, very good. Aftertouch is especially nice. Effects are excellent and the
expansion possibilities are a nice plus.

I'm including the Karma features and sound here. Frankly, I'm sure Korg has probably completely
resampled all their waveforms since the days of my lowly (and still used) 03R/W. Yet, there's
sucn a Korgness about them, that I'd swear some of them HAVE NOT changed. Obviously, it's supposed
to be the same sound engine (almost) as the Triton and that said, I wasn't that impressed with the
Triton either. The acoustic sounds are very bread and butter (no contra basson, alto flute, muted
French Horns or the like) that surely EVERYONE has by now. They're fine, but hardly earth-shattering
in the way the Z1 (also Korg) was. As for the synthy sounds, my Alesis QSR
and MR Rack do these MUCH better. Drum kits, basses, and some guitar sounds are, perhaps, above
the norm in quality.

Then there's the Karma function itself. I was ready to be wowed! I mean, that's the whole essence of this
board. But no. Glorified one-finger accompaning feature. Sure, it's more than just bass and chords and
drums in that it can be controlled and isn't static, but you're still dealing with samples and these samples ARE
static. The harmonic patch typifies this. They got the lick right, but a harmonic is virtually impossible to fake
so for all Karma's powers, it fails. And to my ears, it fails on a good too many patches. Some have said it
provides instant inspiation. No, it provides instant music that you had very little involvement in making. Inspiration
is a pretty girl, a sunset, a good cup of Joe. Then you make up the music -- all of it -- from the bass up, all by
yourself. Of course, I'm an old guy (40s) who wouldn't be caught dead buying any pre-chewed beat CDs where you just
pick what you like and chain it into a "song." I'm sure this offending someone out there. Good. It should. Karma may be the ultimate
arpeggiator/music-minus-one machine on steroids, but to me, it smacked of "home organ."

Unknown.

My past experiences with Korg have not been good.

If you own NO OTHER KEYBOARD, want a workstation (sequencer built in) and
room to expand, then despite my outright annoyance with the Karma function,
this is a good value overall. And if you do buy it and for the most part, agree
with my Karma-funcions assessment, you may still use the function from time to
time on a few things (the guitar strumming on some patches).