I will buy my first piece of hardware next weekend: a KORG DSS-1 with 60 disks for 130 Euro.
I am so excited. It´s from another guy in my city so no p&p for this bulky thing. I talked twice to him and it seems that he bought this one back in the 80s first hand and did not touch it for the last 12 years (not quite sure if this is a bad thing). He told me that the floppy is not working but everything else should be fine.
I plan to buy this SD thingy from Lotharek anyway so this is not a big deal for me. I downloaded the user manual and the service manual already.
As a complete newbie in hardware is there anything I should pay attention to?
If I remember correctly there is some kind of test sequence pressing two buttons at once. Anything else and if yes how?
Damn I can not wait to until next saturday. After reading most of the threads here on GS from the DSS-1 lovers it is even harder. And after listening to some of the factory sounds from KORG (like the M1 Piano and Organ sounds, the 80s strings and brasses etc.) ... this is exactly what I was looking for as an enrichment for my creativity (sound design, sampling and filter rape ) and my Chicago/Detroit style compositions. Until I got my disk replacement I plan to explore the different features on it and "resample" them in my DAW.
I hope that somebody could give me some good advice.
You will love it! Mine's receiving the full Tom Virostek mod right now, plus new keybed felt for sweet, quiet action. Can't wait to get him back. Very soon now.
The thing to be aware of with the Lotharek thing is it emulates a floppy drive to the max, i.e. the speed or lack of is the same and it even makes little floppy noises....
The Virostek mod goes all out with OS changes (portamento, etc) 16mB internal waves, WAV compatibility, USB stick ...etc.....
In any case, this thing sounds amazing, you'll love it. I'll never sell mine.
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have confidence in your ability to rise above the foam - crufty
To be honest, DSS-1 may not be the best choice for a first hardware keyboard. It isn't easy to program. Make sure you read the manual. The original disks it came with has some cool programs, so check those out. There is no internal memory, so you have to load the disks to even get any sounds (or by programming/sample your own sounds). The DSS-1 does have a really nice sound. I should try to get my brother's DSS-1 from him. He doesn't even really play synths.
Onepolymer: great demo. Now it´s even harder to wait.
BMO: Thx BMO. Yeah I know that this one could be a pain in the ass to program for some people but after reading the manual I think it looks pretty self explanatory and most of it makes sense even the menu looks very complicated. I´m doing subtractive synthesis for more than 5 years now. I do not have enough math experience to understand the full FM synthesis thingy (though I understand the whole concept). But I fell in love with casio phase distortion. That one alone taught me things about envelopes that I havent´t thought of while working with subtractive synthesis alone.
Karloff70: congrats for the mod.Since last week I have read nearly every website available on the internet about the DSS-1 (G. Steiger and the other ones). This mod is a must have so I have to save my money for this and the assembly. Cool story behind it though.
Well, I am a child of the 80s and 90s. That´s my music and my sound. In the 90s I was a regular in the local studios in my home town hanging around with my buddies. I think a friend of mine was one those guys who brought the SP1200 to Germany in the early 90s. He bought four of them in the States and sold them to later becoming "major undergound" acts in the German rap scene. Another one bought his MPC60 and produced all his stuff on it. Good old times. I love that sound. I think that you could only achieve that particular sound with real hardware.
So here is why I think the DSS-1 might be right thing for me:
- 12 bit sampling with real bit crushing abilities - I know the sound of the SP1200 and the MPC60 and looking forward to test it against them (a few seconds of "oldschool glory" is everything I need for my one hits, they will be resampled to my DAW anyway)
- analog filters & amp ( I want to put my hands on those filters right now)
- I read a lot of good things (and sometimes bad things) about the aftertouch and velocity sensitivity of this keyboard ( I need aftertouch badly for my further sound design) so this one will be my midi master keyboard for the next years
- the additive synthesis is a plus too but not that important (though I´m interested in it but iut wouldn´t be a major drawback if it´s ot for me)
- I wanna use it as some kind of analog processor to to route my audio through it (while in sampling modus) and resample it on my computer. I have to do best out of my limitations right now.
After 5 years messing around with all kind of synthesis on my computer it´s time for me to touch new ground. My friends, my record collection, the internet, books and Propellerheads Reason taught me everything about acoustics, (modular) routing, sound design and physics I know right now. And hopefully I will love this monster synth (dimension related) because otherwise my girlfriend will kill me for having such a huge, bulky dust catcher.
You will love the sound of its sampling. Goes all the way down to 6 bit if you want and at 12bit/48khz it sounds bloody amazing. Detailed and organic. Plus it responds REALLY well to gradual overdriving of the input. And the stereo delays on the output sound superb.....and...and......the way you described what you like I'll say you will not sell this thing again.
I have a few further questions related to this synth:
Although I have the manual I haven´t found detailled information about the delay lines. Somewhere I read (soundonsound I believe) that one delay can modulate the other one and this could lead to some crazy sound spaces. Can somebody please give me more details on this section please? What kind of controls do they offer? Time & Feedback I guess...what else?
And what about the unison mode? I read about it nearly everywhere but couldn´t figure out what´s so special about ( I guess I have to wait until saturday and listen to it by myself). I know what unison in general is but this one seems very interesting.
What kind of pitch modulation offers the DSS-1? Any limitations (I think I read something about it somewhere but could be wrong)?
And the last one: can you hardsync two or more samples? Like Oscillators on a synthesizer? If yes, what kind of samples have you hardsynced and what happend?
Although I have the manual I haven´t found detailled information about the delay lines. Somewhere I read (soundonsound I believe) that one delay can modulate the other one and this could lead to some crazy sound spaces. Can somebody please give me more details on this section please? What kind of controls do they offer? Time & Feedback I guess...what else?
There is level and feedback, and also LFOs for modulating the delay time. One lfo can modulate the other for extra wobbly delays.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halma
And what about the unison mode?
It makes the sound HUGE. You can set the amount of detune between voices.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halma
What kind of pitch modulation offers the DSS-1? Any limitations (I think I read something about it somewhere but could be wrong)?
LFO mod, pitchbend with the joystick mod, lfo amount with the joystick, and I think if my memory serves there is ramp settings for each oscillator.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Halma
And the last one: can you hardsync two or more samples? Like Oscillators on a synthesizer? If yes, what kind of samples have you hardsynced and what happend?
I'm not sure if it's stictly hard sync or soft sync or what, but it's weird and nothing else really does it. You can take a longer sample and sync it with a short one and it can add some kinda weird looping waveshaping type effect, or you can sync to single wave forms and get something like classic sync, or all kinds of strangeness in between. It's not really easy to predict when you use longer samples other than you know the sound is going to be tweezed.
@ bluegrenngold: Thank you for this pretty detailed enumeration. I appreciate that. That sample sync sounds so awesome. I read it in the manual but could not figure out exactly what to expect. Now I´m sure that this synth will keep me busy for a very long time.
@ ONEPOLYMER: those drums sounds big. I have listened to some of the Korg factory library sounds and have to say there are a lot of classic and dope drum & percussion sounds available.
Another question: is the headphone output stereo? The seller told me that he tested it a few days ago and he could only hear the left side . but i want this thing so badly.
But as far as I tested it everything seems fine (beside the disk drive). I am a lucky guy right now. I think I wont sleep that much this weekend. Looks very clean and well-kept though. And a heap of disks with lots of KORG stuff. What a pity that I can´t listen to them at the moment.
Afer a few hours of messing around with this synth I could only say that this one is dope.
Inspired by some sort of blind test for games on youtube here a short roundup from me, a guy with no hardware synth experience (not a lot):
The bad things:
- Unfortunately the disk drive doesn´t work. Tried a few things but couldn´t get it to work. Damn. I have a few nice disks I would like to hear. Anway, i can live with that for now.
The good things:
- No more bad things!
- Programming: I don´t know why people say the DSS-1 would be a PITA to programm synthesizer. It took me 30 minutes to understand 80% (I guess) of the programmers section without the manual. Pretty self-explanatory I think. If you understand the signal path this one looks pretty easy. The "Slider A & B + up/down left/right buttons"concept works without a flaw. Jumping around between the parameters is easy and pretty fast. Though a few things (e.g. some of the envelope settings) are a little bit unclear. I will check those later in the manual. I had some serious fun with only one saw. Don´t let those Dubstep & DnB producers know about this beast. Take a detuned saw, put some unison on it, add some bass & treble and route the filter cut off to the joystick. Set both oscillators to 16. Now hit the lower keys. Earthshaking bass sounds. I can not believe why so many people slept on this treasure (NOISIA can you hear me??? ). This one does not only looks huge, it also sunds huge. And like I said before: it´s pretty fast to adjust the values of nearly everything if you got the hang of it (with the sliders,the buttons or the "numpad").
- Drawing waveforms: looks like fun, I did a few things and most of the time you will get waves with lots of harmonics (eg saw). Will definitely dig deeper into this. I haven´t tried the edit option.
- Harmonic Synthesis: Damn this one is nice. So many things to explore. With those sounds I tried the programmer section. I believe with this one alone you could do some beautiful pads.
- Delays: only awesome...this one alone will take me weeks to explore I think.
Well, I wouldn´t say I understand everything (like the multisound mode or the whole save edit mix delete memory storage thingy). After five years messing around with all kind of modular softsynths I know that I just started scratching the surface of it. But it´s easy to understand if you have some experience in subtractive and additive synthesis. The more the better.
I´m looking forward to sample with it. I will try this tomorrow if I have a chance.
What a great synth. I have lots of ideas that I want to try out. I think I will record some of them and make some kind of review about this cheap but impressive synthesizer.
you know you can send that in to get modified. there's a guy that mods them with USB ports and compact flash (i think) drives, and more ram, if i recall right.
you know you can send that in to get modified. there's a guy that mods them with USB ports and compact flash (i think) drives, and more ram, if i recall right.
Yeah I already covered that for me. Because I´m a little bit low on money at the moment I will save my money for the hlx sd thing. For the bigger mod I defnitely need a lot of money (a few handred bucks) + somebody who will assemble it for me. But that is one thing I really like to have.
Oh yes, you do! You will smile even more when you hear the tone of its sampling. When you overload the input it goes dirty in a really classy way and going in clean at 48khz is actually a high quality sound of organic bliss.
And yes, a great synth. On this one I don't mind you waxing lyrical about how great and cheap it is, driving the price up, as I have scored mine and am never selling, so lets see how much we can drive the price up, eyh.......lol
you know you can send that in to get modified. there's a guy that mods them with USB ports and compact flash (i think) drives, and more ram, if i recall right.
And Portamento, and WAV compatibility, and sliders being assignable to parameters....and and and......
It works pretty well for the most part, I might improve it at some point in the future, then again, I might not. If some other DSS-1 enthusiast wanted to take over the reigns that would be cool, I can pass on my notes and so forth.
You could try this site. I don't know if that email address is current/working. I have a different one for him. I have asked Tom if I may PM you the address which I have been using for him.
Tom has been a very responsive communicator with me. Great guy to deal with.
I just bought a DSS-1 from him, with upgrade installed. It is currently on its way to me. If anyone else is interested, he may still have stock available (I'm not sure of this though).
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) and my Chicago/Detroit style compositions. Until I got my disk replacement I plan to explore the different features on it and "resample" them in my DAW.
I have listened to some of the Korg factory library sounds and have to say there are a lot of classic and dope drum & percussion sounds available.
. but i want this thing so badly.
