Bad Karma? Korg's Latest Synth (Korg in general)

Member Name: Logan33

Product:	Korg in general
Date:	07/02/09 (74 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: same processor as the Korg Triton, so amazing quality sounds

Disadvantages: You'll need a degree in Synthesisers to work out all the functionality!

This is a review of the relatively new KORG KARMA SYNTH

Cost £2000 but if you go to keystone in Londons Denmark street you can pick it up for £1000, the cheapest I've ever seen it AND the deal I negotiated!


KARMA -- Now the dictionary term for Karma is "seen as bringing upon oneself inevitable results, good or bad" and perhaps this is the most apt explanation of the KORG Karma as it has good and bad sides to it.
On the good side, this machine sounds bloody fantastic. All of the individual programme sounds are excellent (e.g Piano is faultless, vibraphone and music box are superb and the strings are excellent)

but the real fun starts in the combination files which picks a number of individual sounds and fuses them together, adds a bit of Karma magic and hey presto it sounds incredible!!!!!!!!!! Remember the KARMA is run off of the same engine that powers the TRITON so you know you're getting top class sounds. You then have a plethora of realtime controls (12 in total) all of which can be programmed so you can add effects, effect the tone or just go crazy with! The thing that makes the KARMA stand alone is the clever looping system it uses (if you go on the KORG website it will give you a much more indepth explnation of this) in short you can mix and match which ever sounds you want however you want, play one note and the KARMA takes over turning you into the next best thing since....well what ever you fancy. You can create music using the built in sequensor and save all your work via the built in 32 bit memory or save it on the hard disk drive!
So whats not to like?

not alot but there is one distinct downside. Its tricky to use.
just how tricky is explained in the 5 huge instruction manuals you receive....YES 5!!!!!

in short, you will get lost in a maze of different functions.....its all there but you just can't find what your looking for. e.g setting the real time controls takes you a day to work out (granted once you know how to do it, it gets easier) but thats not allstoring your own sounds is more challenging than sudoku (for me at least). and you will need to get Carol Vorderman......scrap that go for einstein to work the sequensor. The magic phrase being "I JUST WANT TO RECORD A SOUND FROM THE COMBINATION FILES! (all will become clear upon purchase!).
The screen itself is small and a little dimly lit........did I mention the sequensor?

All in all, this machine has enough sounds to blow beethovens socks off, but to get the most out of the machine you would literally have to go to university and study about it.....for the rest of your life!!!
Personally I would stick to the much more user friendly KORG TRITON, it doesn't have as many whistles and bells but it works.

Hope this helps?
Logan

This is an amazing bit of kit....once you work out how to use it!!!!

Summary: Amazing piece of kit, but it'll take you years to work it all out!