Korg Forums

Hello everyone,

This is my first post on the forums, although I’m a longtime lurker. I have a lot of respect for all the experience on here and I’m looking forward to digging deeper!

That being said, I have a conundrum. Backstory: I’m a keyboardist for a reggae band. After playing with them for a while, I got frustrated trading off the bubble/piano groove and necessary leads. Because of this, I made 12 different multi samples (organ bubble and piano chords in major/minor in all three inversions) so that I could play the bubble/piano in my left hand and the leads in my right. To use the patches, I create single note splits in a combi in octave groupings: the bubble on the bottom note and the piano in the top. I program the appropriate quality and inversion of each triad, edit the pitch to place it in the appropriate register, and rock back and forth on the octave chord to trigger both instruments.

After a significant learning curve, the leads and bubble are starting to feel natural. Since reggae rarely has more than 5 chords, 16 slots in the combi are plenty to assign a bubble and bang for every chord in the song and have extra slots open for leads. I can take on more parts on every tune and our group no longer uses two keyboardists.

However, there have been some problems. While usuable, the tone is subpar, and the sounds are inflexible. For example, I‘m at the mercy of my samples timbral setup. I can’t edit voicings, drawbar settings, instrument types, and the samples sound lifeless without any velocity control or possible sustain changes (every sample is a staccato chord). Any edits are a huge time sink. I must resample 12 multisamples every time I want to make a tweak.

I would LOVE if I could somehow program a single note to send three midi notes. The chord function seems like it could ALMOST achieve this end. Unfortunately, 8 pads is too limiting. I need all twelve keys to have an assignable chord in both registers of an octave to guarantee that I could play any song. Also, each patch would have a different location as to where the bubble and piano were triggered.

My dream setup: I would love to be able to trigger three midi notes with a single key assigned on a patch by patch basis. I would send the midi data out to control an nord for the organ bubble and have another single key trigger a piano chord in the Kronos. Is this possible? If not with the Kronos, in a daw? I also have KARMA LAB, could this achieve this? This has been stumping me for months. Much gratitude to any replies.

Thank you!
Sam

I can’t answer all your questions but, changing velocity sensitivity, sustain, even filter settings can all be made in Tone Adjust per timber in your combi. Actually, very easy once you do it a few times. No need to resample for “Synth” type edits.

Geo

Geo,

I appreciate the reply but I don’t think you understand the problem. I’m not playing the timbres in a typical fashion. I’m sampling them so that singular notes play triads. Once they are sampled, you no longer have editing capabilities.

Update: I’ve been using ChordTrigger on logic to setup splits with single notes triggering triads in the bubble and piano chords on the piano. I’m planning on purchasing a midi interface to use a nord as a sound module and send the piano back to the Kronos. I haven’t programmed a fluid setlist yet, but this way looks very promising!

Hi samandersonmusic,

Just a though.. Have you tried RPPR in SEQ mode? That is normally for playing patterns in a given tempo, triggered with a single key. Is it perhaps possible to make the pattern, for instance, a whole note major chord, and without quantization it will play from when you press the key to when you release it. A bit of a hack, but it might work..

Alternatively, since you want a total of 12 chords preprogrammed, how about using the 8 pads for 8 of them, assigned to specific keys, and then you have 4 chords left. These you do with multiple timbres and keyboard filters. In the span of 4 semi-tones, they should be playable with the same chord inversion, so assuming you want 4 major chords, that will eat up an additional 3 timbres only.

samandersonmusic wrote:I would LOVE if I could somehow program a single note to send three midi notes. The chord function seems like it could ALMOST achieve this end. Unfortunately, 8 pads is too limiting. I need all twelve keys to have an assignable chord in both registers of an octave to guarantee that I could play any song. Also, each patch would have a different location as to where the bubble and piano were triggered.
I also have KARMA LAB, could this achieve this? This has been stumping me for months. Much gratitude to any replies.

Thank you!
Sam

I'll start off by saying that I don't fully understand the problem. With a little information I'm pretty sure I can help since there are so many ways to tackle what I think you want...
First thing: I don't know what you mean by "both registers of an octave". Do you mean you want to have a triad that's mapped across two octaves? Or maybe you want wide voiced chords that span two octaves? "Both registers of an octave" is just not music terminology that I'm familiar with.
I think Gunnar's suggestion of at least using the 8 pads to cut the amount of work is really good. You realize that the 8 pads aren't static right? In the Timbre Parameter tab under OSC you can assign a chord pad to a timbre and then that timbre will play that chord transposed to any note you press. Stick with the Bsc (basic) setting.
KARMA can also dynamically transpose any chord you want for you. You could silently input the chord in the bottom octave of your keyboard, and then use the next two octaves to transpose that chord however you want. I'm trying to think if there's a way to dynamically transpose a chord and change the chord type (from major to minor for instance) per key. I don't want to launch into any explanations or experiments till I know what you want.
An added benefit to using KARMA is that you can then use scenes to change the timbre (or timbres) that you're playing with the mapped chord triggers. OR you could assign certain timbres to certain modules that are triggered in a specified zone which is what I think you want by, "Also, each patch would have a different location as to where the bubble and piano were triggered."
And yes you can send any chord data to an external module, that's not a problem.
This is DEEP programming, but perfectly doable. Again I'm just hazy on what exactly you're trying to do.

Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay. I found a solution shortly after posting. I use a midi plugin in MainStage called "Chord trigger" to convert single notes to assigned chords. Now I can happily bounce back and forth on single octave notes in my left hand and achieve properly voiced organ bubble-chop rhythms while still leaving my right hand open for lead sounds. If anyone is interested in the technique. I'd be happy to upload a video. Thanks again!

samandersonmusic wrote:If anyone is interested in the technique. I'd be happy to upload a video. Thanks again!

Thanks! I'd like to see that video

Yeah definitely upload a video so I can better understand what you were going for in the first place. I’m not convinced that the Krono’s can’t do exactly what you want on its own, but I’ll know more once I actually see and hear what you’re doing with Mainstage.

Sounds like a job for a nanoPad??

If you hook-up a Korg nanoPad to the Kronos, then the top 8 pads map to the 8 chord pads in a Program or Combi. That gives you a very similar function to the Mainstage chord trigger. The chord pads can be set up to be fixed velocity or velocity sensitive. You can also play the chord pads by navigating to the chord pad screen in the Program or Combi. The screen has no touch sensitivity, so velocity is controlled by how high up the pad you tap it.

I haven't used this approach for reggae bubble, but I use it regularly for situations where I play a lead in the right hand, plus chords and bass in the left hand (i.e. when I haven't got enough fingers or spread in the left hand to fill out the sound!).

Another approach that gives essentially the same function as the Mainstage chord trigger is that you can assign the Kronos chord pads to certain keys in Global mode, which gives you 8 keys that will play a chord. The downside is that is that this is a global function, so you would have to disable all 8 chord pads (i.e. set them not to play anything or set them to an unused MIDI channel) in any Programs or Combis where you don't want that function.

With a nanoPad, you could also use the Korg nanoKontrol software to set the lower 8 pads to a further 8 chords, but max of 4 notes each.

The low bubble is inaudible on phone/computer audio. Use headphones!

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