What would you buy? Korg Karma or Yamaha Motif

[Imagine]

Has anyone compared the two keyboards (Korg Karma and Yamaha Motif) and what are your opinions?

 

Thanks

 

Imagine http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

[sbrock1san.rr.com]

I gave these two a quick test-drive and I think they both have good sounds. Would I use the Karma features in a song is the real question ? Maybe. What seemed like a just a fancy auto-accompniment board would probably be of some use to me....I'd really have to own one or spend more time with it to make that judgement. It depends on what kind of music you play. If you are into techno or film scoring then I would say buy this board.

 

The Motif sounded good but not when I compared it to the Yamaha S80, which happens to cost less money. Nothing has grabbed me like that one in a long time. First impressions are very important when you play a synth. A great one should hold your attention and make you want to play it for hours.

[Dave Bryce]

Originally posted by SteveRB:

A great one should hold your attention and make you want to play it for hours.

 

Absolutely agreed, Steve.

 

If you find yourself auditioning programs by alternating between one finger on a key and another finger on the program up button (what I call the "two finger shuffle" http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/wink.gif ), it may be time to try a different synth.

 

I remember when I got my Wavestation SR - it took me months to even hear all of the factory programs, because individual programs kept inspiring me to play with them and write music with them...

 

dB

[Magpel]

Asking myself the same question, as I'm taking back my Roland RS 5 and saving for a Motif, Triton, or Karma, or something else!!! (I've said it before and I'll say it again==the RS 5 is not a bad board by any means; it's just that I want more).

 

I was impressed by online demos of the Motif, and I like it's array of functionality. It sounds like it has some damn fine acoustic samples: The upright bass, flute, and solo violin samples I heard were pretty stunning, and they were single instrument demos so I don;t think it was just sleight-of-hand programming. Just gotta get my ass to a store that has all the boards I'm interested in.

 

John

[Rod S]

I personally prefer the yamaha sounds over the triton. If I didn't use a computer based sequencer, I would gladly trade over my cs6x for a motif. But, whatever makes you wanna play. My cs6x is definetly a synth I can play with the presets for a long time http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/smile.gif

 

However, beyond the sounds, what you have to ask yourself is if any of the additional functionality is important to you. The karma and the motif are very different instruments..

 

The former has the whole arpeggiator/GE/one button accompaignment feature (Just kidding! I couldn't resist http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/biggrin.gif)

 

The later has a sampler and a sequencer.

 

You're paying a lot for the motif if you're not interested in these 2 features. Also, if you are not interested in the Karma engine, you might as well go with the triton, which I think is more apples to apples with the motif.

 

Both being a new machine, I would wait to buy either one for at least another 6 months. Now I'm trying to remember... the karma had some kind of bug that was really turning some people off. I'll see if I remember what is was. On the other hand, the os in the cs6x had a bug that yamaha neve really admitted that it was a bug. I wait a year before I buy any new equipment.

[industriac]

the bug in the Karma, was not, if i remember correctly, a software or OS problem. It was actually a problem with the hardware. Certain patches had a noticiable "noise" when you used them. I can hear the noise whenever I played with the hip-hop drum kit patch.

 

The noise was created by some type of faulty thing on the board, and I forgot what it was....

[Rod S]

That's right. I heard the same thing. Apparently it was bad enough that it made some people return the instrument.