Korg Karma Music Workstation

NEW! - Version 2  - Available now for Free

KARMA MW Software - free

The new KARMA Music Workstation combines the sounds, effects and sequencing capabilities of Korg's award-winning Triton with a powerful new technology called KARMA (Variable Performance Modeler). The result is a music workstation that provides an unprecedented amount of interaction with the user's playing style and performance, enabling a new level of musical expression. KARMA is the invention of musician/programmer Stephen Kay, who has worked closely with Korg for the past seven years to integrate and further enhance KARMA's functionality in this new instrument.

KARMA technology: KARMA stand for Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music  Architecture, named after Stephen Kay, the musician/programmer who has worked seven years on its development
(and who actually owns the patent).

Based on the notes and chords that are played, KARMA will automatically generate and manipulate phrases and patterns that are impossible to produce with conventional arpeggiators or static pattern playback functions. For example, KARMA can produce
complex interweaving cascades of notes, techno arpeggios and effects, dense rhythmic and melodic textures, natural sounding glissandos, intricate finger-picking and guitar strumming, random effects, sweeping portamento and pitch bend moves. 

                                                                Stephen Kay demonstrating KARMA

KARMA-Lab (Stephen Kay's Site)

Because KARMA provides control over almost 400 musical elements, it allows the player to interact with the phrases intuitively, and to change them in ways that can range from subtle to extreme. This degree of control enables a musician to be creative at a level previously achieved only by players possessing the most advanced performance and editing prowess.

The Intelligence Behind KARMA
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 (at korg.com). 

KARMA Demos - KORG preload disk - sounds and sequences (included with keyboard)