Thanks to bombs and Michael Bay, explosions have kind of gotten a bad name, but Karma-Lab reminds us that not all explosions fit the stereotype. One of these well meaning explosions is the new Catalyst Volume 1 -- Creativity Xplosion!, a collection of 32 KARMA-fied combis sure to make your OASYS even better.

As the first volume in the Catalyst series, Creativity Xplosion! acts as a catalyst not only to the line, but also to your creativity. Karma-Lab went for a quality over quantity approach, so programmer Eric J. Sawyer and KARMA Developer Stephen Kay focus on the amount of time spent -- hundreds of hours -- rather than the amount of combis packed in. For all their hard work detailing these combis, you're only paying $32 -- that's like a dollar a combi.

So what goes into a Karma-Lab combi? Each combi is composed of the maximal four KARMA Modules and eight scenes for a variety of variables to play with in realtime. Your control options include the OASYS' eight sliders and eight switches, joystick, ribbon controller, vector joystick, eight RT knobs and two switches over the joystick.

If that's not enough, each combi is documented in the user's guide, which almost qualifies for a novella at 69 pages. The combis cover a wide range of styles from dance to jazz to classical.