Related link: http://www.karma-lab.com/vp/
This week at the O’Reilly Digital Media site, we ran a behind-the-scenes tour of Korg’s luxurious new Linux-powered music synthesizer, the OASYS. Due to space restrictions, though, we couldn’t cover one of its most impressive features: the brilliant KARMA interactive music generator. Fortunately, KARMA inventor Stephen Kay uploaded three new demonstration videos to his site today.
You can access them on Kay’s video player page. (True to form, he taught himself Flash so he could build interactive demos such as this.)
The videos are derived from a performance and tutorial Kay did at last month’s Music Player Live show. My favorite is the third, “Guitar Strumming,” but if you haven’t tried KARMA, start with the second, “KARMA Intro/Discussion,” to get acquainted. As Kay plays the keyboard and manipulates the OASYS's numerous knobs, buttons, and sliders, the music reacts to what he’s doing in subtle or dramatic ways: Sliding a finger across a ribbon controller triggers a flurry of guitar samples, emulating a strum. Holding a chord with the left hand while playing random keys with the right simulates fingerpicking—the right hand controls the timing, tone, and volume of notes based on the chord held by the left. Other demos, such as the excellent “Citadel in Space,” showcase complete interactive backing bands. One player compared KARMA to having a band member who always suggested cool ideas.
Inventor Stephen Kay demonstrates the KARMA Manual Advance feature with a moving performance of a guitar sound.
Kay, who has also created some impressive demo songs for other Korg keyboards, started developing KARMA—the Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture—a decade ago to extend his own musicality. It first appeared commercially on the Korg Karma keyboard in 2001. (See my review.)
Although the Karma was embraced by adventurous musicians such as Herbie Hancock, its hardware was based on Korg’s entry-level Triton synthesizer and had some shortcomings. Then, mere months after the Karma came out, Korg released another inexpensive Triton, sadly sidelining the Karma.
So it was exciting to see the return of this deep, amazing technology in a high-end synthesizer. I sure can’t afford the $8,000 OASYS, but I look forward to playing the more affordable instruments Korg will surely spin off from it, including, I hope, a Karma II. To hear why I’m so hopeful, just check out the OASYS KARMA videos.
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Read More Entries by David Battino.
It better be good!
Ken Hughes did a similar breakdown in his Keyboard review (http://tinyurl.com/dudd4), including a weighted controller keyboard (but not a touchscreen), and estimated he could get similar functionality for about $3,900. However, that would come at the expense of the considerable time spent trying to learn and integrate all of those components. And you still wouldn’t get KARMA. Check out the conclusions section of Ken’s review for more insight; I love his writing.
Admittedly, few people need the OASYS’s power. It’s more of a concept car than mainstream transportation, and musicians have been making great music on limited systems for thousands of years. I ran the OASYS article because I’ve always enjoyed reading about high-end systems like Fairlights and Synclaviers (with their house-like prices), because it gives me cludes where music technology is heading. Stewart Copeland told me his original 8-bit Fairlight sampler cost $120,000. I’m told Tomita’s tricked-out Synclavier system cost around $750,000.
For pros, though, the integration seemed to be worth the nose-bleed price. Around the dawn of MIDI, when people started assembling vast networked music production systems by shishkabobbing inexpensive synths and effects processors together, film composer Gary Chang stood by his Synclavier, saying a bunch of pocket calculators couldn’t compete with a dedicated computer.
But squeezing the most music possible out of affordable gear has been a longstanding interest of mine. It always used to annoy me when music magazines would write, “Connect your 88-key master controller to your sampler and run the individual outputs through your mixer so you can process each with a different effects processor” when I didn’t have any of that stuff. In fact, the day I got my first film-scoring opportunity, I built my own mixer out of RadioShack parts so I could integrate a drum machine that cost me about a month’s salary to buy.
On a subsequent film score, I actually got to use a Fairlight, which I controlled from the keyboard of my entry-level Ensoniq ESQ-1 because I liked its action better. (I hadn’t suddenly become wealthy; the studio where I worked was a Fairlight importer and had a bunch of systems on hand. The one I used had been Frankensteined together from the carcasses of several others and it crashed after every few notes I played. So I’d play a few notes, rewind the multitrack, and play a few more. I also remember that each of the instrument’s voices came out on a dedicated monophonic jack, so to hear a chord, you needed an external mixer. The unique sound made the hassle worth it, though.)
I’ll start working on a series of articles about assembling an affordable music-making setup and using it well. One reason Gina Fant-Saez’s “Ultimate Portable Studio” article was so controversial was because we didn’t emphasize its Fairlight perspective. (I thought the word “ultimate” would be sufficient to explain that it wasn’t a budget approach, but no.) Our goal at O’Reilly Digital Audio is to equip and inspire readers to make better music, so I’m glad you wrote. —David
It better be good!
Wow. $8000 for a keyboard? It better do everything, and I mean everything I need.
Because for that price, I can get a kick-ass Mac G5, huge screen, and a passel of music software plus a decent audio interface.