Bleeping good fun!
(Disclaimer: We all know that I adore the Nintendo DS, so I will not go into stylus-fan-boy mode).
When Dave over at Aisle8 told me someone had ported a vintage analog synth to the DS, I had to have it! Old synths have something magical, they become even more magical when packed in a little box with a touch-screen. The idea is just way to cool, in a geeky kind of way. Now that I have had it for a while, what do I think? Let’s get something out of the way for those of you who may not be familiar with analog synthesizers. It’s the type of machine you hear blipping and bleeping in old dance records. They are big, can’t recreate a natural sounding instrument (like a piano) to save their lives (for that you need a sampler) and lately became popular again. Why? Why does music seem to revive itself every 30 years? Because the kids that grew up with it are longing for days long gone. Nostalgia baby! So ironically, we are using 20 year old machines to make music called “techno”….
If you look at pictures of what the Korg DS-10 is modeled after (see below) you wonder how they ever squeezed a monster like that in a box the size of 2 packs of cigarettes. Yay technology! Look at the original 8-track players and then look at the iPod shuffle! The makers of this Nintendo DS tilte went to great lengths to make this musical instrument (yes a musical instrument for a gameboy) look and feel as much as the original as the split screen size of the DS allowed them. I must say they did an amazing job. For 35 bucks you get 2 analog synth emulators, a drum module and a sequencer. Some other goodies thrown in, but we’ll get to that.
(Disclaimer 2: I never actually operated a “real” analog synthesizer. I am a guitar player so I wasn’t gonna shell out 1500 dollars for a keyboard)
An anolog synth works like this: You start with an oscillator that emits a tone in a certain wave form. Triangular, saw-tooth, pulse or just plain white noise. Dunno what that means? Don’t worry, it sounds like going to the dentist feels. Horrible. From there you start to shape this noise using filters. Until you come up with something that sounds halfway acceptable. I will not go into detail here, but I will say that I was surprised how easy it was to come up with sounds that actually sounded, well… Musical.
You get 2 of these with the DS-10. 2 different sounds that are each assigned to their own channel (if you will). You can play this sound like you would on a regular keyboard or (and this is where the copy get’s better than the real thing) play it with what the makers of the KORG DS-10 (that’s XSeed Games, by the way) dubbed the “chaos pad” Tap and slide the stylus over the touch screen on the DS and you are performing musical stylings that are more happenstance than anything else… With amazingly creative results. Record a phrase, it will repeat until the battery runs out or you get so sick of it you toss the DS out the window, switch to the other sound/synth and repeat the process. Now go to your drum editor and add some beats! SIMPLE!
This is where it would become pretty boring hearing the same 10 seconds (or so) of sound repeated over and over, but the Korg DS-10 also allows you to record 16 of these combinations (Synth 1, 2 and drums) and start and stop them to create something that more resembles a song. You can even record a preset order in which to play your (up to) 16 patterns, so you can just sit back an listen to your own creations.
Not quite happy with what you recorded on the Chaos Pad? Open the sequencer and you can fine tune your little pattern, note for note. The interface is pretty damn intuitive. If you used any kind of sequencer software before, you will have no problem at all…. Matter of fact I opened up the manual only to read up on the more advanced features, not because I had a problem with the machine. If only Linux was this simple!
There is a plethora of other options to explore. You can assign effects to a sound, mess with the panning of each individual sound and do all kinds of fun stuff! Of course you’d look kinda silly standing on stage with your Nintendo but it’s amazing how quickly you can bang out something musical! I imagine that for none musicians the learning curve would be a little too steep to be enjoyable, this is after all not a game… it’s a fully fledged synth/sequencer that can be carried around in your pocket. If however you enjoy making music and experimenting with sounds, I would suggest buying this straight away. I would even suggest the 125 dollar price tag of the Nintendo DS Lite if you don’t already own one. It’s that good!!