KARMA 2: Cluster group overview

Note: this independently contributed article has not yet been reviewed for accuracy by Karma-Lab.

This article is under construction. Pardon the dust.

The Cluster group is tricky in that it serves two slightly different purposes:

• Its normal mode of operation is to determine how many steps of the Note Series or (optionally) the Drum Patterns to play simultaneously at each Rhythm Event. (Note that whether the Cluster Pattern will affect a given Drum Pattern is controlled on a Phase-by-Phase basis over in the Phase group). For example:
  • If the Cluster Size is 1 at the current Rhythm Event, then only one step from the Note Series or one step from a Drum Pattern (if it's being controlled by the Cluster group) is actually played. So for both a Note Series and a Drum Pattern that would be a single note pitch. (Even though you might have up to 8 different note numbers selected in a single step of a Drum Pattern, remember that these constitute a Random Pool of possible note numbers, from which only one is chosen to be actually played).
  • If the Cluster Size is 3 at the current Rhythm Event, then three contiguous steps from the Note Series or three contiguous steps from a Drum Pattern (if it's being controlled by the Cluster group) are played together as a chord, either simultaneously or optionally in a "flam" or "strum" style. If the Size is 4 then four contiguous steps are played, if the Size is 6 then six contiguous steps are played, and so on.
• A special mode of operation comes into play only for Generated-Gated GE types whose Gate Type is set to Vel-CP. This Gate Type was designed specifically to enable KARMA to emulate the standard Korg Triton (and Korg M50) Arpeggiator. For Vel-CP-based GEs:
  • The pattern grid in the Cluster group simulates the arpeggio grid and flam settings of the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator, specifying exactly which of the first 10 steps in the Note Series to play at the same time in the current Rhythm Event.
  • The Phase 2 pattern grid in the CCs group simulates the pitch offset settings for each step of the arpeggio grid of the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator.
  • The pattern grid in the Duration group simulates the gate time settings for each step of the arpeggio grid of the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator.
  • The pattern grid in the Velocity group simulates the velocity offset for each step of the arpeggio grid of the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator.
  • Some of the Phase group parameters cover the remaining aspects of simulating the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator.
  • Essentially, you can design a GE in a way that completely emulates any arpeggio that you can design in the Triton/M50 Arpeggiator, with some additional capabilities such as 64-step arpeggios instead of only 48 steps and of course all the other neat tricks that KARMA can add in all the other GE parameter groups not mentioned in this list. Eventually a wiki article will be written to cover the technique of designing GEs that simulate a basic Triton/M50 Arpeggiator, but for now this forum post covers the most essential details of the technique. Tutorial: RTC Model "GV1-Gated Vel/Pat1" and Triton Arp Simulations

How the Random Pools work

Placing more than one value in the same Size column creates a Random Pool at that step of the pattern. When a step containing a Random Pool occurs, one of the values from the pool is chosen at random, based on the effects of the Weighting Curve and Weighting Factor parameters.

• Slanting the curve towards the top (a positive Factor that shows more orange color than green color in the graph) results in the higher values from the pool (the values closer to the top of the pattern grid) being chosen more often.
• Slanting the curve towards the bottom (a negative Factor that shows more green color than orange color) results in the lower values from the pool (the ones closer to the bottom of the grid) being chosen more often.
• Several different curves are provided to influence the choices in different ways. Setting the curve in the center (a Factor of 0) produces a straight diagonal line and an equal chance of any of the values from the pool being chosen.
• A Factor of 99 results in a solid orange color, which means the highest value in the pool is always chosen.
• A Factor of -99 results in a solid green color, which means two different possiblities depending on whether the curve is S-shaped or not (Exp-S and Log-S)
  • For regular curves, the lowest value in the pool is always chosen
  • For S-shaped curves, either the highest or lowest value in the pool is chosen (50-50 chance of either).
• A simple way to remember the meaning of the color codes in the visual graph is that orange is a "warm" color and green is a "cool" color, and warm air always sits above cold air. Therefore more orange always means higher pool values are favored, while more green means lower pool values are favored.

Coming soon