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Forums - Synths & synthesis
Subject: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
Original Message Date: 20-Dec-01 @ 10:45 PM - Karma or Virus? Advice needed
Ryan Irwin
Posts: 1
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Im interested in purchasing one of these two synths because they are in the same price range. This will be my first synth and I am not sure if I need the features of the Karma workstation or just a straight up synth like the Virus. I am interested in the sonic possibilities and MIDI sequencing features of the Karma but if I am sequencing and sampling using Logic software would I be better suited for the Virus?
My main concern is sound quality, specifically bass lines for dance music but also Im looking to get as many sounds as possible from one synth. Does the Karma's MOSS expansion card come even close to the Virus in generating analog-like sounds? Also, which has better drum sounds?
Which would be better for interfacing with Logic sequencing and sampling software? I want to be able to play with samples using the keyboard. Also, which would be better suited for use with a 24bit/96khz sound card?
I know that you can expand the sound sets on the Karma with the expansion cards. Virus I believe is not expandable. Is this a limitation?
Note that I will be using the synth for home studio production, not for live performance. I am looking for ease of use (i have never had a synth before), sound quality and possibilities, and ability to interface with Logic sequencing and sampling software. Any advice would be much appreciated.
My main concern is sound quality, specifically bass lines for dance music but also Im looking to get as many sounds as possible from one synth. Does the Karma's MOSS expansion card come even close to the Virus in generating analog-like sounds? Also, which has better drum sounds?
Which would be better for interfacing with Logic sequencing and sampling software? I want to be able to play with samples using the keyboard. Also, which would be better suited for use with a 24bit/96khz sound card?
I know that you can expand the sound sets on the Karma with the expansion cards. Virus I believe is not expandable. Is this a limitation?
Note that I will be using the synth for home studio production, not for live performance. I am looking for ease of use (i have never had a synth before), sound quality and possibilities, and ability to interface with Logic sequencing and sampling software. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Message 21/36 08-Mar-02 @ 09:00 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
ok played with the kharma today for about two hours. Not that impressed. The layering of arpegios is coola dn the knobs cana be assigned to change the type of pattern, so if you are playing the guitar and want a strum , then a slow pause , and then somthing else. You dial between them. I was'nt getting the kind of results that the guy ibn the demo video was getting. It takes time to get aquainted with use of those parameters. Nice sound set, Great strings and like the triton and trinity before , those 48khz samples glisten. The main fx, eq'sand comps work well, and would be fine for a live gig. I am still not totally sold on it over an oasys though. Really all the arps do is play multi-layers arps of one chord. This could be done on any synths with arps by just copying the midi over to a track that plays that patch. Chord memory was cool, and you can have Real time patterns playback like on the roland groove boxes. All in all it with the moss installed you would have a pretty large pallete to work with. I never did find any patches that sounded like the demo's flutes, and brass or the bowed insttruments. They may have been from the EXB-moss. If you want nice glassy sounds and crystal clear strings, this is for you, if you want the best synth for making analog sounds , the Virus. Like I said, get a virus A and a trinity or oasys card. I think I am going to go with the Oasys myself.
Message 22/36 08-Mar-02 @ 09:11 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
karma, brett. not kharma
theres a dharma synth due out soon. then you can be well rounded. maybe get a boddhisattva sequencer
theres a dharma synth due out soon. then you can be well rounded. maybe get a boddhisattva sequencer
Message 23/36 08-Mar-02 @ 09:23 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
great for those "one hand" claps...
Message 24/36 08-Mar-02 @ 09:56 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
I can rack mount it with my Dogma smapler.
Message 27/36 25-Mar-02 @ 07:11 AM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
Seriously, Brett, I appreciate your enthusiasm but a) judging _anything_ from a host of marching .MP3s is truly absurd. A good musician can make anything sound like almost anything (within reasonable limits, you're not going to get a Steinway out of a Prophecy), and I've never heard a synth demo online that ever had anything to do with an instrument I ended up trying out; and b) what did you expect, a few hours in the store with a technology that is like crack for tweakheads and you're disappointed in what's possible? People spend long hours thru the night with that Karma thing getting very specific, subtle, particular seconds' worth of interesting results, which they record and then move on... _if_ they're using Karma seriously.
Once again I really appreciate the serious musical sanity here; more often than not you'll have excellent recommendations for good, used instruments, and the regular reminder that you could still, for instance, be messing around with a Wavestation and not be done with it even if you'd gotten it new when it came out (for example).
It's FAR too easy to get seduced into spending unnecessarily on instruments to make your music for you; here's my religion to close:
"spend time, not money"
.... works for most things. Time is significantly more valuable than money, cannot be retrieved when lost, is MUCH more satisfying when well spent, and slips away before you know it, with no further options.
I have spent most of my life trying desperately to slow down. The worst things in the world try to make you go ever faster, ever more superciliously, so that you never focus on anything and are never satisfied. RESIST that.
Turn a knob as slowly as you can and find the satisfaction you are after.
rt
Once again I really appreciate the serious musical sanity here; more often than not you'll have excellent recommendations for good, used instruments, and the regular reminder that you could still, for instance, be messing around with a Wavestation and not be done with it even if you'd gotten it new when it came out (for example).
It's FAR too easy to get seduced into spending unnecessarily on instruments to make your music for you; here's my religion to close:
"spend time, not money"
.... works for most things. Time is significantly more valuable than money, cannot be retrieved when lost, is MUCH more satisfying when well spent, and slips away before you know it, with no further options.
I have spent most of my life trying desperately to slow down. The worst things in the world try to make you go ever faster, ever more superciliously, so that you never focus on anything and are never satisfied. RESIST that.
Turn a knob as slowly as you can and find the satisfaction you are after.
rt
Message 28/36 25-Mar-02 @ 11:44 AM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
well, I didn't go play with the karma for you or anyone other than myself. i have been interested in the korg gear for a while and wanted to see what the arpegiators (GE engines) could do. As for the mp3's, they sound damn good and are only made using the synth. No other proccessors. that was the point.The fx are very good! If you are looking for a piece of kit that can provide a total working environment for producing then the tritons and oasys would do the job. The physical modeling impressed me the most. As for wasting time, that sure was a long thread. You're not getting that time back either. Anyway, slowing down is how you get old.
Message 29/36 25-Mar-02 @ 04:15 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
which is your favorite management theory?
Message 30/36 25-Mar-02 @ 07:30 PM - RE: Karma or Virus? Advice needed
and I wasn't impressed with the karma because it felt like it wasn't made as well as the tritons. No sampler, and less sounds. The arpegiators didn't really make it seem more attractive then a Triton with a sampler on board. I read the entire manual and was doing just fine at understanding it and using it's features. when i say played, i am simplifying the process. It would have been better to say, "Disecting ". You could give me any synth and in a few hours I can be a power user. No ego, just the truth. I am sick of explaining shit peopole like you. So I'll stay out of these kinds of situtations where people need true technical advice and really just want the same old answer.
and if you think the demos don't sound like the synths, you are crazy. Have a listen to the waldorf, or the virus demos. they are a great cross section of sounds in the pallete. and from what i hear in demo's the only ones that have ever sounded like professional productions are the Triton series. While other synths can do great sounds , they are not a one stop shop for production.
So go make some "Real Trance" then ok!
and if you think the demos don't sound like the synths, you are crazy. Have a listen to the waldorf, or the virus demos. they are a great cross section of sounds in the pallete. and from what i hear in demo's the only ones that have ever sounded like professional productions are the Triton series. While other synths can do great sounds , they are not a one stop shop for production.
So go make some "Real Trance" then ok!
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