The original author of this article (independent, not affiliated with Karma-Lab) is firmly of the opinion that if you buy the KARMA Software for your workstation model, you can much more easily learn how KARMA works. For example, understanding the descriptions of the various GE RT Parameter Groupswill be literally ten times easier if you can just look at a few different GEs in the KARMA Software while you read along.
Why? Because there are literally hundreds of parameters in a single GE, and out of all these hundreds only 32 of them are exposed in the KARMA GE RTP page for your keyboard model. And only 16 of those 32 are assigned to the sliders and switches on your keyboard's control surface (or sometimes a few more when multiples are assigned to the same control). The other 16 or so can be changed only in the KARMA GE RTP page and it's not as easy to just fiddle with sliders to see what they do. You need to be able to look at the name of a given parameter and know instantly what GE parameter group it belongs to, so that you can have a good idea of how messing with that parameter will affect what KARMA is doing.
Moreover, almost every parameter group in the KARMA Software has a visual "grid" that forms the centerpiece of what that parameter group does, and just being able to see these grids and experiment with a few simple changes in each grid is a huge factor in being able to grasp how the settings in a given parameter group are telling KARMA what to do with your input notes. For example, understanding how the Note Series group in a GE works is nearly impossible to visualize from verbal descriptions and a few screenshots. By contrast, if you can just watch the note series grid change as you input different notes, intervals, and chords while you experiment with some of the different parameters, it becomes very easy and fast to understand how the note series works and what all those Note Series: parameters on your keyboard do.
Another really nice benefit to using the KARMA Software is that when you hover over any parameter and the tooltip appears, you can press Cmd + H (Mac) or Ctrl +H (Windows) and the Help appears and auto-scrolls right to the complete description of the parameter you're looking at. This is much easier and faster than trying to look up the parameter descriptions in your workstation's parameter guide.
Even if you plan to never program a custom GE, the KARMA software is still invaluable in helping you to simply understand KARMA and making it easier to figure out what those 32 GE real-time parameters (GE RTP) exposed on your keyboard model do, so that you can more effectively tailor a GE on your keyboard to do what you want.
So knuckle down and get a copy of the KARMA Software if you've ever wished you could understand what a GE is doing well enough to try and make it do exactly what you want it to, instead of working somewhat blindly with what Korg has provided with the control surface buttons and sliders and hoping to get something that "sounds good enough". Considering the cost of your keyboard, the KARMA Software is a very small extra cost. And no, I don't work for Karma-Lab or get any promotional consideration for pimping the KARMA Software. ^.^ This is my genuine advice as a community member, based on my own experience learning KARMA.