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Korg DSS-1 upgrade finished - 16MB RAM, 1.44 MB FD, USB, & more


McHale

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complete details:

 

http://web.me.com/tomvirostek/DSS-1/DSS1.html

 

 

Some of the new features include:

-16MB of memory (64 banks)

-USB file storage with subdirectories (FAT file system for easy PC transfer)

-more comprehensive diagnostics

-ability to assign sliders to program parameters

-ability to have all 4 systems from floppy (A-D) in memory at once

-up to 64 multisounds at once (instead of 16)

-128 programs at once (instead of 32)



Future planned software improvements include portamento, OS updating from USB flash drive, WAV file import and more. Stay tuned....

 

 

If you have a DSS-1, this is a no brainer IMHO.

 

-Mc

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I never saw the attraction of this board, can someone enlighten me?

 

 

It's a great board that was built to a high standard of quality, as it was a very professional instrument in its day. Analog VCFs per voice, a dual digital delay on the output, a flexible, synth-like voice architecture, etc. It has very good sound quality for a 12-bit sampler, actually some people looking for a very "grungy" sound might be disappointed in how clean it sounds for most applications. It's very good for pads, textural sounds, etc. and might be a good instrument looking for something that is sort of midway between a polysynth and a sampler.

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I never saw the attraction of this board, can someone enlighten me?

 

 

yep, the sound is just beautiful - rich, analog, and the dual DDLs are the cherry on top. You have to hear how it sounds... as it's very 1980s nostalgic, but being a sampling synthesizer, you can create your own samples and make it more modern-sounding

 

Some time ago, I spent many, many evenings recording audio examples from this fantastic, yet a bit quirky, keyboard. Yep, the filters are phenomenal, and I suggest to listen to the audio examples for the synth/reso diskettes, but also all the other sounds are very good imho. The classic M1 draws from several of those samples

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Think of the DDS-1 as a hybrid analog synth but instead of simple VCOs it uses 12 bit samples.

 

This is what makes it special. Even if it had just standard saw, square, etc wave it would be a great analog. (It does all those too.) Given that its goes so much further with samples, waveform drawing, switchable 12db/24db low pass analog filter, twin digital delay effects it really is an unusual gem.

 

Its shortcomings are its size/weight and DD floppy drive/ format.

 

I've written a lot about the might DSS-1 as its still one of my all time favs. I've said it before and I'll say it again, the first company that softs it accurately gets my money.

 

Look how popular the ImpOSCar is and that was far more obscure than the DSS-1. It

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Once I get the upgrade installed, I'm going to redo *all* of the sample libraries so it'll be a simple file structure on a single USB thumbdrive. DD floppies suck!

 

The additional RAM, HD floppy, and other things not officially announced are worth every but of the $329 he's asking.

 

-Mc

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Sorry, I meant audio in as in audio in that can modify a signal source using the unit's filter, for instance.

 

 

It cannot do this, unfortunately (although there is ample documentation for the NJM2069 so a mod to incorporate this feature is quite feasible). But with 16MB of ram you could process a pretty decent-sized piece of audio through the filters.

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It may be possible, but I'm skeptical. I think the only built-in signal path through the voice filters is from the digital voice playback circuitry, which means the audio has to come from RAM. It's not possible to read and write at the same time. A faster CPU could possibly process both activities simultaneously, but not the built-in one. That being the case, a hardware modification that allows audio to pass directly from the inputs through to the NJM2069 would be by far the simpler of the options.

 

Of course, if I'm wrong about any of those details, that would be nice because that might change things. :)

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