Supposedly Korg DS-10 is out in Japan already, or at least it was due out by July 24. Has anyone played it yet? I saw it demoed on the 1up Show and it looks incredible. I don't have any delusions of being able to make any music with it that actually sounds good, nor do I think I'll even understand all of the features, but I can't wait to mess around with it anyway. I can see people doing entire concerts with a group of DS systems and this program (can't really call it a game). Hopefully other electronic instruments will get the same treatment. I hope Roland takes notice.

I'm playing it now.  Don't really understand anything, but I've made some cool sounding stuff with it so far.

Not yet, but I can't wait to get my hands on it...I know that they announced it would be getting a US release, but I don't know if I can wait. I may have to import.

I've played around with it for an hour or so. It's pretty cool, each pattern has 6 tracks (two synths and four drums), and you can compose all of them, and add fx and stuff.

With that said, it's certainly not for everyone. Do not come expecting a videogamey experience.

Yeah, I don't expect it to be a "game" in any sense of the word, just a straight up software synth. I think that's really cool. There should be some amazing videos posted online once people start getting the hang of it.

Just import it if you can't wait. It's all in english anyways. ;)

It's fun to play around with. Now I just need a way to record ds audio >.> Anyone know how?

Surely your computer has a line-in plug. All you need is a jack cable.

Haha yeah. I thought about that right after I posted. I made my own :P

I showed my brother who has used a real korg synthesizer. He likes.

I finally got to play it, and I'm both impressed and a little disappointed with it. Impressed at all that it lets you do, and my own ability to comprehend it (don't totally understand the patch panel stuff though. I connect a few cables and turn a few dials and my halfway decent sounding audio loop quickly sounds terrible).

I'm disappointed by the "song" part of it though. I've used Fruity Loops before, so I'm pretty much used to that particular interface. What got me is that you can't have more than one sound loop play at a time. If you want to make a drum loop track, you need to work that into each of your individual loops. You can't just lay down a single drum loop and then have it repeat for the length of the song and then layer other loops on top of it.

Other than that though, very, very cool. I hope more stuff like this comes out. For me, it's just something to tinker with. For people who know what they're doing, some fun songs should materialize online. One thing is for sure. It's much better than Electroplankton.

Just stumbled over this game like 15 minutes ago and already ordered it. can't wait to mess around with.

I just found the "demo" songs last night. Holy freakin crap. I had no idea you could make so many sounds with this program by tweaking all of the various, well, variables. One song is a pleasant techno/house tune. The other is straight up Kraftwerk. The Kraftwerk sounding song has sounds in it that you'd swear are recorded from live audio, like a human voice or explosion effect. And yet it's totally "in-game" audio processing, full synth, no actual recorded samples.

It's extra fun to go to the pattern bank on the demos and mix together your own tune in real time, or go to the main interface while one of the loops is playing and do your own playing along with the scratch pads, or whatever those are actually called. I screwed around with it for an hour last night just doing that, and it actually sounded good, as though I knew what I was doing!

"I'm disappointed by the "song" part of it though. I've used Fruity Loops before, so I'm pretty much used to that particular interface. What got me is that you can't have more than one sound loop play at a time. If you want to make a drum loop track, you need to work that into each of your individual loops. You can't just lay down a single drum loop and then have it repeat for the length of the song and then layer other loops on top of it.
"

"To be fair, it's just a synth, with a sequencer. You are asking for studio features. Just record your various tracks into Acid, Soundforge or similar, then go from there."

Ya, I used that episode of 1UP Show to help make the game page.  I'm really impressed and was about ready to import when localization news came around.  I can wait a couple months since I'm a starving university student.  It comes out end of September anyways, and I'll have games to tide me over.

I have some musical experience and I'm really looking forward to getting the hang of the Korg DS-10.

I'd import it, but it's over $60.

Not being nitpicky at all.

I'll say it: The DS-10 sequencer is bullshit. It's gimped beyond belief. "Studio features"? How about 80s drum machine sequencer features. Like being able to tweak parameters during song playback.

You have a total of 16 patterns to make up your arrangement from, and a total of 100 bars to put your patterns in. And again, let me effin reiterate; You can't tweak knobs as your song is playing, nor can you jam and add extra drums or anything like you can in pattern edit mode. It's just a bullshit idiosyncracy that i'd LOVE to hear them give a good excuse for.

Also want to add that the thing basically has two full processors to use for what is very simple and rudimentary synthesis.

The thing is packed with cheats too. All the drums for instance are precalculated, which raises questions about why exactly they allow patch and effect functionality on the drum synths, and explains why drum settings don't "travel" with patterns like synth settings.

Just an example here; What exactly does the sequencer/song mode do that setting your pattern mode to lock and manually triggering patterns in sequence doesn't? Why does it need to be DEDICATED to trigger patterns automatically, and thus refuse you to do any live tweaking?

Do you realize the amount of shit you have to go through to do something like an incremental filter sweep across several patterns or to get something resembling controlled stereo delay on the drum tracks? It would've been perfect to set up your patterns and do all the tweaking live without any automation, yet they simply deny us that for no good reason whatsoever. What they've basically done with the sequencer is give us a piece of amazing cake and then kick us in the groin when we're about to bite into it. It's maddening.

To summarize; Yes you can make songs on the DS-10. No they will never be as complex as you want them to be; No you can't really play them live.

I recommend it wholeheartedly to someone new to synthesis and electronic music. It's a wonderful learning tool and it lets you pick up concepts in a very comfortable fashion. The "multiplayer" is also great fun. Personally i use it as an inspirational tool, and i've done a bunch on it that really sounds quite monstrous (for a DS), but i think it's quite wrong of AQI to market it as a serious music tool. This is a fairly powerful virtual analog synth in the shape of a product that is very much a toy.

I agree with you for the most part, Sunjammer, but I'm not as harsh about the whole thing as you are. For what they're charging, you are getting a lot for the money compared to what similar equipment would cost if you bought the real thing. It is pretty much a toy compared to the real thing, but it's very serious compared to everything else on the DS. I don't think it's totally fair to be too critical of it. I think it's probably pushing the DS a lot harder than you think. Maybe not to the limits, but I don't imagine there's much more you can do with that system. It's designed for games, afterall, and this definitely isn't a game.

I think they could have gone with a higher capacity game cartridge though. They could have probably fit in a lot more sounds, pattern banks, etc. Some sort of tutorial or built-in manual would have done wonders too (there's still some things I just plain don't understand yet).

Live tweaking while a song is playing would definitely be appreciated. I wish it would do that too. I think the benefit of the sequencer is to let you set up a song and then just let it play. I like to play the demo songs, for example, and hear the patterns played in the sequence they intended them to be heard. And then after I've listed to that, I switch to the pattern bank and mix together my own version of that song. Would be nice if there were more than 16 patterns per session though. It doesn't take too long for that to get boring.

I think your critiques are pretty much dead on. I don't know how they're marketing it, but it's not a "serious" music tool for sure. Compared to everything music-related on the DS though, it's pretty damn sophisticated. Without any real knowledge of how the program works, it's pretty easy to just turn it on and start making decent sounding music right off the bat. It does get a little frustrating though when you realize where the limitations are.

The game is awesome IMO...check out a video of me messing around and making my first song :)

I've warmed up to it a lot more since last time. I think i was just really devastated at first because it was so close to being everything i wanted from a DS music app. I'm still sort of baffled by some of the design decisions, but the thing basically hasn't left my bag since i got it.

For a music toy, it's the best one out there, flat out.

I bought it to help me develop melodies when one hits me and I'm out of the house (I don't have perfect pitch so I need something tuned) and this is pocket compared to other options I've investigated. So if you're looking for something like that, man, it's -awesome-. If you're looking for full blown synth, you already have one by now.

I've been playing around with it for a couple of months and I'm still finding it enjoyable to use. I found it complicated to use at first, but after playing around I'm finding it a bit easier now. I've made a few quite good patterns, but I haven't managed to make a compete song yet.

It looks really cool but I probably won't get it.