Specifications

eurOPe.Yamaha.cOm
15
Y AMAh A MUsic Pr O d U c T i O n GUide
03|2013
immediately and intuitively get a sense of the largely impressive
effects of the control options. I assert that it is possible to alienate a
Performance compared to its original to the point of being completely
unrecognizable just by using RTC.
A small example: The term Wavesequencing is generally not clearly
defined. One form of Wavesequencing is to play different samples
(Waves) in a so-called chain. KARMA offers this option, since some
GE‘s are able to change the Waveforms within a Voice by using
system exclusive messages. Up to 32 Waveforms can be used here,
divided into two phases of 16 Waveforms. That‘s enough theory at
this point, for good reason. In order to give life to the subject, I have
produced a short YouTube video. It‘s definitely not about musical
content. It demonstrates the Wavesequencing feature with intrusions
using RTControl on only one (!) active KARMA module - with a drum
track added as a reference. I assume that this clearly demonstrates
the capacity of KARMA across the borders of musical mainstream.
Is important to consider at this point, that KARMA only provides
MIDI data - the actual sound is generated by the Yamaha MOTIF!
Now click on the link to the video and enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olta3JA0Sy4
TAskwOrk FOr chOrds
I already mentioned the 16 Chord Triggers from the Remote mode
in the last part of this workshop. In most factory Performances only
eight of these are used, the remaining Triggers can be used to
control the MOTIF Arps. However, it is really very easy to assign
your own chords to the Triggers. You can enter up to eight notes per
chord directly in the software or record them from the keyboard. The
chord assignment works best, if you play your chord, hold it with the
sustain pedal, and then confirm the assignment to the respective
Trigger in KARMA by using the „Assign“ button. Since jazz is one of
my favorite styles of music, I wanted to know how KARMA responds
to typical jazz voicings. I am very positively surprised by the accuracy
the chord recognition works.
This way, complex chord progressions that are not playable without
intensive training, can be set up in a few minutes and tested in
conjunction with the corresponding Performance.
sTOrinG? Yes, PleAse!
You get an idea of the achievable diversity with KARMA. You might
question yourself where to put all that potential. As an attenti-
ve reader you have already registered that in almost each of the
64 Performances there are 24 Scenes free for your own versions.
One Performance Bank contains 128 memory locations. So there are
64 Performance memory locations free for your own Performances. Of
course, you can create further Performance Banks. The entire memory
contents of KARMA is held in a KDF file. The number of storable KDF
files can be described as almost unlimited due to the low memory
requirements per file in relation to today‘s popular hard disk sizes.
where The MUsic PlAYs!
This brings me to another important aspect. During my visit with
him Stephen Kay called the interaction between KARMA and the
MOTIF as a marriage. I think that‘s a beautiful picture. Therefore,
it is time to rediscover the „spouse“, which we know very well, in
this new context. As described above, the entire sound production
takes place in the MOTIF. The 64 Performances contain a lot of Mix
and User Voices which were especially prepared for the use with
KARMA and have been programmed with great attention to detail.
But Preset Voices are also used. Basically, nothing speaks against
exchanging the Voices to adjust KARMA Performances to your own
sound ideas. Just have in mind that many Voices are provided with
a tempo synced delay. The Voices that were specially adapted to
individual Performances were mostly stored as Mixing Voices in the
respective Song Mixings. The memory for Mixing Voices is almost
completely exhausted. Own variants must therefore be stored in
the user memory. The MOTIF‘s All file for KARMA contains 54 User