Gearwire MVP Candidate Stephen Kay could possibly have been Ted Nugent's new lead singer or invented a mouse trap even better than the chain reactive design of the board game bearing the same name. However, he developed the KARMA software used in many Korg products as well as Karma-Lab Forums, which is what brings him to this contest.

What is your background?

I studied piano as a child, joined my first bank when I was about 13, got my first synthesizer (an ARP 2600) at about 15, [and] performed as a professional keyboardist and vocalist for many years in many different kinds of "gigs" (rock bands, show bands, cruise ships, night clubs, piano bars, etc.). I started doing some sound programming for Korg in 1989 and later segued into computer programming and developed the algorithmic music technology I named KARMA (starting in 1994), which I licensed to Korg and appears in several of their products, as well as my own software versions of it. A more detailed biography (with pictures) can be found at www.karma-lab.com/people/skay.html.

How did you get started in music and what advice would you give to someone who just started?

I got started by "just doing it." I started playing in rock clubs with a band when I was about 17. We struggled, we lived in a band house together, we somehow got gigs and paid the rent, even sometimes had money left over for food. Of course, that was quite a while ago and things are much different now - in some ways, I think it's easier with the whole Internet revolution and the way you can self-promote your work these days. I would advise anyone who wants to produce music to hone their Internet skills, and that includes all facets of recording and video making and getting it up on the Internet.

Who are your musical influences and what genre do you listen to most?

I was most influenced by older progressive rock bands, such as ELP, King Crimson, UK, Yes, Genesis, Jethro Tull, the Who, Pink Floyd, and Gentle Giant as well as synthesists such as Wendy Carlos and Isao Tomita and jazz fusion artists such as Return To Forever and Mahavishnu Orchestra. I like well-crafted pop music as well: Tears for Fears, Billy Joel, the Police, Goo Goo Dolls, etc. and fat 80's/90's rock like Foreigner, Journey, Mister Mister etc. I also enjoy classical music, I have a subscription every year to the NJ Symphony Orchestra. I love to hear a full orchestra cranking out live on composers like Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky ... that's probably enough.

What's your inspiration?

My inspiration is trying to achieve something "remarkable." I don't know exactly what that is - it could be writing a piece of music that captures the attention of the world, it could be developing software that becomes amazingly popular and changes the way people look at music, it could be inventing a better mousetrap. Somehow, I want to "leave a mark."

What's your motivation for helping people out on forums?

I began getting actively involved on forums when the Korg Karma was first released (in 2001), and I started wanting to know what people were saying about it and the KARMA technology. Reading all the various comments and questions and issues on the original Korg Yahoo group awoke in me a desire to talk with them directly, and help them out with technical issues. I have a strong technical background with synths; I usually know just about every feature of the ones I work with, and I had already been working with Korg as a programmer for a number of years by that time, so I was well-experienced in all areas of Korg Workstation operation. So I saw an opportunity to share my knowledge and also widen the appeal of the KARMA Technology by being available to communicate with users directly.

Later, after building up a following on the Yahoo group, I started my own Karma-Lab Forums at my web site (www.karma-lab.com/forum), and it has really taken off. We don't talk just about the KARMA aspect of the keyboards. We cover all areas of operation, and if I don't know the answer to some question, I can usually get someone at Korg to answer it. We also have forums for off-topic discussion and digital photography, jokes, etc. as well. And one of my original purposes for becoming involved seems to be working: many people post that the reason they bought one of the KARMA related products is my participation on the forum, the videos I produce, the tutorials I put up - they like the idea that one of the developers is available 24/7 (rarely a day goes by that I don't make posts on the forum - I don't know what a weekend is.) :)

What's your favorite piece of gear and why? What gear do you use?

My favorite piece of gear currently has to be my Korg OASYS. It's simply the most awesome keyboard on the planet, bar none, and I'm not just saying that because my KARMA Technology is inside it. It has 7 different synth engines now, great sounds, sampling, good connectivity, KARMA - about the only weak point might be the sequencer, but since I am a confirmed computer-sequencer user (I use Digital Performer on Mac OS X 10.4.10), that really doesn't bother me much. Most of my gear is Korg at the moment (surprise), tons of it, although I still have my Fairlight Series III (in mint condition) which I likely never will sell, and a DX7-II. I have PCs and Macs both, and I recommend Mac OS X.

What are your favorite sources for gear-related information?

• www.gearwire.com (of course)
• www.sonicstate.com
• www.harmony-central.com
• keyboardmag.com
• emusician.com

...are a few.

What's the best music related advice you've ever given?

That's a tough one. In some ways, the best advice I give is when I tell someone NOT to buy one of the products I may be associated with that they may be asking about over at my forums, because I honestly don't think it will fulfill the purpose that they are looking for. I will occasionally do that - I try to be honest, and I certainly don't want to sell a product to someone that they will not be happy with. It's not just about money - I truly want people to find the product useful for what they want to achieve.

What's the best music related advice you've ever received?

Don't give up. Believe in yourself. (Of course, this can apply to anything, not just music.)

What's the best and worst thing about being a musician?

The best things:

• Working for yourself, being your own boss, finding your own motivation.
• Performing live and actually being good enough at it that people react to it with appreciation.
• Making original music recordings that you can listen to with pride and say "now that's what I'm talkin' about."

The worst things:

• Working for yourself, being your own boss, finding your own motivation.
• No benefits, no health insurance (besides what you can get yourself)
• Many people don't take you seriously - "Oh, and what's your real job?"

What is the best and worst thing about online forums?

The best things:

• The anonymity - users can ask questions and participate without revealing who they really are and therefore feel more free to ask what might be embarrassing questions.
• Being able to connect with people all over the world that have interests (and problems) similar to your own;
• Being able to chat directly with the people that develop the products and software; something that would never have been possible 20 years ago.

The worst things:

• The anonymity - the fact that some people hide behind it, and then act in a rude fashion you would never get away with in person. The Internet has greatly increased the level of rude behavior.
• The few individuals that ruin it for everyone else by deciding to attack some company for some perceived wrong, or attack other individuals and start fights (always anonymous, of course) - the people that require "moderation."
• Porn-bots, spam-bots, and idiots selling cellular phones.

What music-related topic do you think is most neglected on forums?

Probably the actual fundamentals of synthesis, sound design, and application of effects processing.

What are the 5 forum posts/threads where you are most proud of your contributions? (Give actual URLs)

Well, that's a difficult task, it's hard to remember which ones I might be proud of, I've got over 9200 posts on Karma-Lab Forums alone. However, I'll give five examples of things I like to do, which I feel good about:

1. I like to try to organize information so that users can find it. With a huge forum of rambling messages, that's not always easy, but I do try to create some "Master Links" threads that are stickied to the top of various forums, providing links to much of the commonly requested information, such as:

• Korg M3 Info and Links - Master List, Manuals, etc.

2. I like to make videos showing users how to operate various pieces of KARMA-related gear, and then create discussion threads that go along with them, such as this one for the M3:

• M3 Video Operation Guide (VOG) - Part 1

3. I've created virtual user interfaces in Flash for various products, and threads that go with them, where I enable prospective users to try out the interface of a keyboard right from their browser, such as this one for the OASYS:

• New OASYS Online Virtual GUI - with 1.2 OS Legacy Synths!

4. I've created a fairly large number of tutorial threads - here's the Korg OASYS Tutorial section, with over 20 tutorial threads I created in there:

• Korg OASYS

5. I've run the KARMA Kompetition (song writing and producing competition) as a series of threads in the forum, and put up prizes such as an MS-20 synth out of my own pocket. The last one was a little over a year ago, but I predict a new one will be happening sometime soon:

• Komp 4: and the Grand Prize Winner is...

Anything else you would like voters to know? Any interesting music related stories?

Hobbies: scuba-diving, wreck-diving; loves dogs; once had 5 snakes including an 8-foot boa constrictor named Gorgo.

Here's a funny anecdote - I went to the same catholic boy's high school as Ted Nugent (St. Viator's, Arlington Heights, Illinois) - he had already graduated by the time I got there, and was starting to become well-known and had a few albums out. I was in one of my first bands in sophomore year, I believe, and I was on the committee to plan a concert in the high school auditorium, we decided to book Ted Nugent, and I booked my own band as the opening act. So we're doing our opening set, I'm the keyboardist and lead vocalist, and we're doing a Who tune without any keyboards, and I'm out in front playing the "lead singer" role. I suddenly decide to start swinging the microphone around my head on its cable the way Roger Daltrey used to do (without ever having practiced it, of course.) So I'm winging this thing around in a circle, and the guitar player walks right into it and gets solidly beaned in the forehead with a Shure SM58. He practically got knocked out, falls to one knee, almost drops his guitar - and had a huge lump there for days. I tried to catch the thing and be all cool and missed it - bang, crash, thump, feedback... Needless to say, everyone thought it was pretty hilarious, but in my delusional 15 year old mind, I was thinking that maybe Ted would watch us and be all impressed, and I had just blown my chance to become his next lead singer.