Turns Your Nintendo DS Into a Serious Synthesizer

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Korg has taken the design concept of their famous MS-10 synthesizer and thrown in a four-part drum module, two analog synth simulators, a 6-track/16-step sequencer and made it usable with the touchscreen.


[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rorBOzwR3Tc&eurl=http://gizmodo.com/367199/korg-ds+10-turns-your-nintendo-ds-into-a-serious-synthesizer[/media]
It's coming out in Japan in july for 4,800 yen ($47).
 
Sounds like Jam Sessions to me. Which means I'll wait for bargain used copy when most people get frustrated with having no musical talent.
 
my cousin sent me an import copy, I like it, but its not real useful imo. Sort of like how jam sessions was fun to play around with but not that useful.

Although just messing around for about 5 minutes and it spat out a fairly tolerable tune. Maybe I'll post a vid of me messing around on it.
 
[quote name='bmachine']I keep seeing videos of this...is it confirmed for a US release?[/quote]

I sure hope so because I want to get this cheap ($5) like Jam Sessions. After people realize they have no musical talent they'll try to dump this soon enough :)
 
My friend sent this to me yesterday and it is AMAZING. The video doesn't really show off how much fun it is to start from nothing and play with the keyboards then add drums then add fx and then transition between different tracks that you make....

oh man....

I want to leave work right now and start playing with it!!!
 
[quote name='jello00']My friend sent this to me yesterday and it is AMAZING. The video doesn't really show off how much fun it is to start from nothing and play with the keyboards then add drums then add fx and then transition between different tracks that you make....

oh man....

I want to leave work right now and start playing with it!!![/quote]

Do you have to be a musician to be able to use it effectively? Or can someone with absolutely no musical skills at all sort of noodle their way through it?
 
I have this and you can't really compare it to Jam Session. It's so much better.
And no, you don't need any skill to really use it. Just tweak it around and make some music.... it's pretty dang easy after playing with it for a while.
 
After messing around on this for a few weeks, I cant see any use for it. Its fun, but I mean c'mon. I dunno, I'm just sort of bord of it.
 
This looks great. The price is decent for a real synth. Even software drum machines are often more expensive than this. I'll pick it up for sure.

I don't know how much 'fun' this will be if you don't like to make music. It seems to me to be no game at all but a "professional grade synth" as they claim in the amazon video.

Out Oct 15th now.
 
Just like Jam Sessions samples will be compressed to hell and DS' audio output isn't made for quality. Max the volume and plug it into a amp and you'll hear so much hiss. It might be fine for some dirty work at clubs with high ambient volume and techno/trance blaring at deafening levels. But if you are looking for some real pro synth for some studio work, you won't find it.

[quote name='Judge Groovyman']This looks great. The price is decent for a real synth. Even software drum machines are often more expensive than this. I'll pick it up for sure.

I don't know how much 'fun' this will be if you don't like to make music. It seems to me to be no game at all but a "professional grade synth" as they claim in the amazon video.

Out Oct 15th now.[/quote]
 
[quote name='laaj']Just like Jam Sessions samples will be compressed to hell and DS' audio output isn't made for quality. Max the volume and plug it into a amp and you'll hear so much hiss. It might be fine for some dirty work at clubs with high ambient volume and techno/trance blaring at deafening levels. But if you are looking for some real pro synth for some studio work, you won't find it.[/quote]

I take it there is no way to save your songs to a computer..Right?

That would be the selling point for me...
 
[quote name='Xevious']I take it there is no way to save your songs to a computer..Right?

That would be the selling point for me...[/quote]

I think I remember reading that you could save your compositions...but now I can't find any documentation to substantiate that. ;)
 
Of note is a new video on amazon where a guy is using 4DSs (and 4 copies of the synth I presume) linked together and plugged into a 4 track.

He gets a lot of cool sounds out of the four of them.

About half way through the video he seems to control the 3 others from the touchscreen of one as if they are linked ... wirelessly? Thats a pretty cool idea and technology imho - even if limited in applicability to those with more than one DS.




[quote name='laaj']Just like Jam Sessions samples will be compressed to hell and DS' audio output isn't made for quality. Max the volume and plug it into a amp and you'll hear so much hiss. It might be fine for some dirty work at clubs with high ambient volume and techno/trance blaring at deafening levels. But if you are looking for some real pro synth for some studio work, you won't find it.[/quote]


We'll see ... a lot of hiss would suck ... I haven't experienced massive hiss from the my DS audio output with my amps so I doubt it will be a problem for most though I agree that it is wise not to expect $100k studio sound from a $170 package. I'm still stoked to see how controllable it is and am particularly interested in how much control you have over loops and structuring music parts within the software. I'll need to get my hands on it to really get a feel for that part.
 
I decided to buy it on Amazon. I usually don't like to spend so much money on something like that but I have a camping trip coming up and I thought this was a cool thing to play with. Maybe later I will post a review..
 
I got this from amazon and I've been playing around with it a bit.

It was alot of fun. I didn't read the THICK instruction manual, but I was able to figure out the basics after 10-15 minutes of messing around.

The sound was surprisingly good with a pair of quality earbuds.

I started out with one of the demo tracks and began adding different layers to it. By the time I was done it was a totally different track.

The menus navigate super quick and it's entirely possible to mix music in real time.

I can't play a keyboard, so that part was limited for me, but there's a kaospad dealy that's perfect for the less musically inclined.

I wan't to get back to it, but it's hard to keep me away from Disgaea DS for long. =)
 
Wanna be DJs, don't be confused: this is not a serious music tool.

It is a lot of fun though, to mess around with while out and about or on a ride or something. I like it.
 
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