Red Romance!!!

[hephiroth]

so i'm learning more how to combine the KARMA technology into the sequencer mode without just feeling like i'm being too preset-y, if that makes sense. here's a sort of latin track, named after a discarded band name from when my band was trying to re-name ourselves. it's sort of a funny title, but the song is cool.

http://portfolio.iu.edu/jhpalmer/Jeff_-_Red_Romance.mp3

let me know what you think. also, this was my first run at using Cubase, and i'm learning EQ and compression and stuff...so let me know if you hear problems with that. any thoughts are appreciated!

-jeff-

[synthz]

That's pretty cool.. I love the acoustic guitar sound.. Would you mind telling us what do you mean by implementing Karma technology into the seq? What is different in the process?

Maybe it's just me, or maybe it does what it's made for.. but is Karma really purely made for electronic music? Can you churn out more raw sounds with Karma?

I remember i love the 'karmafied' lead patch when i tried it at the shop :)

[hephiroth]

Thanks! Well, as for KARMA, it's not about making sounds, it's about generating MIDI data. Think of your average arpeggiator: you program a pattern into it, and then it plays it back, maybe transposing it to fit a chord you play, maybe just playing back a drum beat. You can control velocity/gate and tempo, but that's about it. Well, with KARMA, after you've put in that pattern, you can control all sorts of parameters about how it's played: complexity, swing, note patterns, chord voicings, and the list goes on...you can have 8 of those that you assign to knobs and 2 to switches that you can adjust in real time. So...it's like you can form the pattern around what your playing, then adjust it to vary it while playing live. It's easier to demonstrate, but, like on that recording, only the drums and a few synth crazy patterns are played by KARMA, the rest is just regularly sequenced out. Hope that makes sense.

-Jeff-

[synthz]

Thanks for the explanation hephiroth. So that's the main power of karma huh..? interesting.. that would be mighty useful in dance music i think..

[Rosie]

Nice. Reminds me of Gemini Man's music from Megaman 3 a little :)

[hephiroth]

Thanks for the explanation hephiroth. So that's the main power of karma huh..? interesting.. that would be mighty useful in dance music i think..

well, this is an obvious use of the technology, but in no way is it the only use--not even close! for one thing, you don't need to have drums running. you should hear some of the orchestral things; it can really help you emulate a string orchestra or full orchestra playing. the possibilities for soundtrack work are endless. also, some of the parameters you can adjust can actually be real imporvisation (it can actually improvise!), so you can use this to do jazz or fusion. it's really not just limited to dance/electronica music. the karma technology can be put to use in creating virtually any genre of music.

as Scrap has told me countless times, "it's a misunderstood board." after owning one briefly, i know exactly what he means by that.

-jeff-

[synthz]

Yeah, 'misunderstood' would be quite right i guess... but i prefer to buy board for the patches quality & sound engine.. maybe a bit old school for you hehehe.. the usual ROMPLER i guess..

It's very nice feature for a second board though...

the strings feature used in karma sounds cool for realistic simulation huh?

Thanks for your patience to explain Karma man...

[hephiroth]

well, i actually did buy it as a backup board...and a large part of the reason i bought it was because it runs on the same sound engine as my Triton. but, i figured, since i was getting a 61-key backup board, why not get the karma technology instead of just getting like a 61-key triton or something?

but, now, i'm beginning to think that there will be some very interesting ways to incorporate this technology into my band's stuff and my solo work. in fact, a lot of times, you'll find that the new ways it plays certain sounds can make them function almost like different sounds altogether, especially when you get into stuff like synth pads. it can "play" them in ways that you can't physically play, and it gives them a totally different effect.

anyway...i guess what i was saying was, it's definitely got the sounds to make the KARMA stuff worthwhile...

-jeff-

[ktriton]

Sounds like it's a lot of fun.

Neat song. Didn't really have a melody, but damn that's a lot of layers :)

Cool stuff.