Why is KARMA different than an arranger keyboard, or an algorithmic composer?
KARMA (Kay Algorithmic Realtime Music Architecture) is a parameter-based approach to generating musical effects, rather than a musical data based approach. It is not a system that plays back prerecorded MIDI phrases through Note Transposition Tables, like most arranger systems (or phrase generation systems). However, it is also not a system where you set up parameters, press a button, and sit back and listen to the “music” it generates. It is not the type of system that is supposed to “evolve” a piece all by itself, according to parameter settings. One of the ideas behind KARMA is that the user is always in control of how the music is generated. If you want the rhythmic complexity to increase at a certain point, well then, you hook up the parameter(s) that can cause that to happen to a real-time control, and you twist it at the point that you want it to happen. Although a timeline kind of input control could be a possibility in the future, the basic idea of KARMA presently is real-time
