The Karma Music Workstation is an extremely powerful songwriting tool with lots of unused potential. There are many unused GEs in the preset ROM that can be used to spark creativity if you just do a little searching and experimenting. Many times you can come up with interesting results if you select a GE for a sound that it was not originally programmed for, such as a  Synth GE playing a Drum program. Also, many times there are multiple GEs for use with the same program. In this tip I will show you how, with just a little bit of experimenting, you can spark creativity and unlock some of the power of the Karma. Here is an 8 bar loop I created in just a few minutes by using some of the unused GEs of the Karma and by experimenting with different GEs.

1. Select program A004 Tricky Kit, then press the F4 key under the display to select the KARMA tab. 
2. Using the cursor keys, move the cursor down to the GE Setup area and make sure that 1060 HipShuffle/Tricky is selected. Move the cursor down and check on the box next to Init K.RTC. 
3. Using the numerical keypad, select GE number 798 Vocalese/A43. Make sure that Karma is ON and that Latch is ON and play the low C on the keyboard and you should hear something interesting happening to the bass drum sound. 
You can play different keys on the keyboard to get different results. You can write this program and store it into memory in the D bank for later use. 

Another GE to try is 785 Techno Stat/E122.
1. Play the G# below middle C and should hear a hi-hat pattern. 
2. Select GE 755 SliceofLife/A96 and play the F below middle C and you should hear something cool on a tom tom sound. 
Notice how all of these GEs are not originally programmed for drum sounds? Also, notice the different patterns you can get when you play more than one key on the keyboard.

Next, lets get a bass line idea. 
1. Select program A022 Acoustic Bass, and following the steps from above, select GE 566 Pick Bass Funky/B62. 
2. Play a chord and you should get something that sounds much different from the original program. 
Try out some different GEs and see what you can come up with as well.

To get the guitar part I selected program B043 E.G. Harmonics and reassigned the GE to 507 3 Funk Bass/A054. Listen to how I used a Bass GE on a guitar part? Hopefully by now you understand just how much power there is underneath the hood of the Karma! 

The next thing I wanted to add was a keyboard part. I am going to admit, my keyboard playing ability is not all that great… but I can play chords! So the Karma is a godsend when it comes to making my music sound very professional, when my playing may not be quite at that same level. 
1. I selected program A081 Velo Whirly because I liked the sound (but not the GE) and then reassigned the GE to 037 A. Piano Calm Arp/B01. 
2. Next, I wanted to add some tablas for an ethnic edge. I selected program A116 Orchestra & Ethnic and selected GE 1183 Tablas 5/Orch, which is not used in any of the factory presets. 
3. Play the low C on the keyboard and PRESTO! INSTANT TABLAS!

The only thing left to do now was to get the drumbeat. 
1. I selected program A068 Hip Hop Kit and reassigned the GE to 1055 Hip Hop 22/Tricky. 
2. There was one part of the beat I didn’t like, but I knew I could remove it later in the Sequence mode using the Shift/Ers. Note function. To access it in seq mode, press the MENU key and select Tedit. 
3. Next press the F8 key under UTILITY and select Shift/Ers. Note. 
4. After setting the first and last measures (1 and 8 in my case), I played the keyboard to find the key that had the offending sound and selected the Note Range Btm area on the screen. While holding down the ENTER key, I played the key on the keyboard which had the sound I wanted to remove from the pattern. Next I moved the cursor to the right and repeated the procedure for the Note Range Top so that they both read D6. 
5. Just below that on the screen I changed the Mode from Shift(Replace) to ERASE and executed the function. 
6. I also selected a different drum program using the select by category feature until I found a program that fit the mix. 
Now the beat worked for me, check it out.

Now that I had each part ready to go, all that was left for me to do was to record the parts in the sequencer. 
1. Using the Copy from Prog function in the Karma page (press the MENU key and select KARMA, then press the F8 key under UTILITY), I recorded each part one at a time into the sequencer. 
2. There’s nothing to it: Just turn Karma on and press the key(s) on the keyboard, then press REC and START/STOP. 
Karma will automatically sync the GE to the sequence and restart it once it begins recording!  And once again, listen to the final results.

To keep it simple, the Sequence created in this exercise used the effects from the first drum Program I initially auditioned and edited. As you may already know, Karma allows you to assign specific effects (up to 5 insert) to certain tracks as needed and set send levels to 2 master effects for each track in a song. For even more fun, try copying specific insert effects from desired Programs to Sequencer tracks, and set effect routing and master send levels as desired.

I created this Sequence by first auditioning and editing specific Programs, and then bringing those Programs with new GE’s assigned, into the Sequencer and recording each track in this way. Just so you know, you can accomplish all of the above by starting in Sequencer mode! You can assign Programs and copy or assign GE’s - all within the edit pages of Sequence mode!

Using this tip, I hope you spark some creativity in your music and explore the power of the Karma Music Workstation.