KORG DS-10 Synthesizer

Wow. I was expecting this to be a lot simpler than it turns out to be. It's almost like a tiny pocket-sized version of Propellerhead's Reason software. Obviously it's very limited by the DS hardware, but if you like messing around with music and music software then you can have hours of fun with this.You get two monophonic synths with their own sequencer tracks for note/gate/pan/volume, plus a couple more tracks that can be assigned to modulate a long list of parameters and settings. The synths are simple but have most of the things you need to replicate classic analog synth patches, and there are a few relatively novel routing options and modulation sources. Synth patches can be saved and loaded separately from whole compositions.You also get four "drum" voices which turn out to be four more instances of the same basic synth, though with a few less options and much simpler pattern programming. So in total you get as many as six sounds happening at once, plus a very basic global effects section. The drum sounds each get their own FX though.A complete song is made of up to 100 strung together instances of 16 different "patterns". Each pattern encompasses up to 16 beats/notes plus the programming for each synth and all its sequencer data. So each pattern can sound and act completely different.All the programming and composing is pretty much done at the pattern level.Just about any knob or setting can be twiddled in real-time during playback, and you can interact with it through a two-octave on-screen keyboard or an X/Y "KAOSS" pad in addition to editing events directly in the sequencer view. You can also play the 16 patterns back manually so there quite a few performance opportunities.The manual is of course very limited and someone could write a book about programming and making music on this thing. It strikes me as a product where the developers had way more fun than their bosses thought they should have. There are lots of well thought out details and some things that the manual can't even begin to discuss in enough depth.It's not really a "game" of course so much as it's like buying a 1995 vintage synthesizer workstation that came with documentation in Japanese. You need to be inclined towards this sort of thing in order to have fun with it, but it has much more depth than many pocket sized synthesizers and sound modules of the past.Anyhow, if you have any interest in classic synthesizer hardware or music software, you'll probably love this. Probably not a good gift though for a child who isn't already motivated in that direction. One of the better "adult level" titles for the DS though.

I got a Ninetendo DSI Lite for the sole purpose of using the DS-10. I had already tested the newer version of the DS-10 on the Ninetendo DSI XL and knew, for the most part, what to expect. The DS-10, in both its old and new version, is an emulation of the Korg MS series analog synthesizers. It emulates the some of the key circuits of these synths in a digital software version. The DS-10 emulates them well enough, including the software dials and even software plugs, for a person to get a living feeling for analog synthesis. A person is able to craft a lot of sounds and tweak them in a large variety of ways. The Nintendo unit has a speaker that does do a decent job representing the sounds, though there is more detail and richness if you use good external speakers or a good headphone with good bass response. There are some limitations of the DS-10, too, that are worth mentioning. One is that it mixes two monophonic software synth "engines". The keyboards that display on the touch screen can only play one note at a time and you can only play one keyboard at a time. You can, however, program a sequence on one engine and play live on the keyboard of the second engine at the same time. You can also do two sequences on both synth engines and play on one keyboard live, and even add a beat rhythm. This means that the upper limit of simultaneous "notes" is four, though with digital delay and reverb it might seem to be even more than this. Two is that you are not able to dial in a "sine wave". This was common for the early MS series. It seems that a sine wave is more challenging to emulate with either digital software or analogue circuitry than the sawtooth, triangle, and square waves. It is possible to emulate a sine wave but it takes more circuits and/or programming lines to do this than the others and is often skipped as a result. It is possible to partially emulate a sine wave by taking a square wave and softening it with slow attack and long decay, and other digital tricks, and they are fun to learn.You get two oscillators per a synth engine and can mix the sounds of each oscillator. You can add white noise into the mix to create a more ambient wind or ocean like sound. There are three "kaoss pads" possible with each synth engine (again you can only play one pad at a time) where you control two parameters. They are "gate/note", "volume/pan", and "peak/cut-off". They can be re-assigned and there is a function that records the movements that you make that you can then play back in a loop. The hidden dual "kaoss pad" is a bargain, considering the cost of the usual kaoss pad series. You are able to tweak the sounds very well in a way that emulates the kaoss pad series well. There are limits here too. For instance, you cannot import sounds from an external source and modify them. The pad tweaking is only for the sounds that you generate.The sequencer is very important and covers about 16 notes. The usual creative process is to put in some notes and loop them, and then tweak the sounds by hearing and dialing until you can the gets that you like. Otherwise you would have to go to the keyboard play a note, dial, and go back to hear it again. This would be an awkward and time consuming process. I usually start with a D and A note harmonic fifth chord. I alternative a low D and corresponding low A, alternating the notes so that there are 8 of each in the sequencer, adding enough "release" (decay after note off is activated by lifting the stylus) so that it spills over into the next note. This way I emulate a two note chord on a monophonic synth.The patch chord screen gives you new possibilities for routing sounds and can make some very creative and rich sounds. It takes a while to master this screen and see what works. Most of the patches do not do much or make useless frankenstein sounds, but after a while you find a sect of patches that enhance the sound in many interesting ways.All in all, the synth is very versatile. You can also save your creations in a memory sector. The newer DS-10 has more memory than the earlier one. But both give a fair amount of room. You can also manually record your settings by drawing the dials and writing notes. There is no way of exporting the creations to an external memory file. The only easy export is recording the output sound. The lack of importing and exporting has inspired some reviewers to say that the DS-10 is not a full music studio option. I think that they are correct in this assessment, but this does not detract from how much the DS-10 is able to do and at such a low cost.All in all, I am happy with the capabilities of the DS-10. There are few other observations that I would like to make about it. One is that the lettering is a little harder to read on the DSI Lite. The XL has a larger screen and is easier to navigate. The DSI Lite seems to drain power at a slower rate and therefore you can play it longer before recharging. I like the size of the DSI Lite and, since I am only using it for the DS-10, it is very ideal. It boots up the DS-10 faster because of this. The XL can handle the DS-10 version 2 and handle more memory. This may be useful to some, but I have not exhausted the capacities of the earlier version.I got the three different Korg Monotrons (the original, the duo, and the delay versions). The first two I returned because they have a clicking sound that happens when you lift the stylus off the ribbon keyboard. You cannot hear the click on the built in speaker, but can hear it on headphones or external speakers. I found that the DS-10 emulates these two Monotrons very well (with even extra capability) without this weakness, and is about the same size when installed on the DSI Lite. The delay version of the Monotron does not seem to have this issue. I think it is because it defaults to a kind of ambient background instead of a silence that highlights the clicking noise. It is possible through a stereo plug that is about 7 bucks at Radio Shack to link the DS-10 with the delay to combine their abilities. Together they make a very small portable synth with quite a bit of options. I might update this review when I have had some chance to explore this in more depth.