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


McHale

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That's not what you said, though.
:facepalm:
or it wouldn't have been obvious it's what you meant.


Not that much of a hassle, though, if you work within the DSS-1 structural logic -- namely, you could go through a session saving individual patches, and then at end of session, save the whole bank of patches to disk before shutting down. One 5-second disk access to save the whole thing at the end, not a huge problem.



If you read what I said in a context, that is saying that you could save all programs, etc, it may have been clear. Also, I don

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Patch memory is not the same thing as disk memory, at least in DSS-1 terminology.


You are leaving out the fact that the stock DSS-1 by its very nature has VOLATILE RAM, so that anything you do with any aspect of a system (alter one of its samples, make patch memory changes. whatever) must also be saved to disk before shutting down, because of the volatile RAM. All of these changes are saved as you go along, working within a system, but to recall them after shutting the unit down requires a system save to disk, that's all.


If you want to save a single patch and not affect others, the way you go about it would not be any different than any other synth with memory. In fact the DSS-1 gives you the added option of OPTING OUT of a whole set of patch memory changes by NOT SAVING TO DISK; other synths, you make a patch memory change and regret it, you have to resort to getting them back thru SYSEX or from another bank.

 

 

No, my friend, as I explained before, if you don

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One of the biggest failures in the design of the DSS-1 IMHO was the fact that when you powered it on, it didn't have a default set of waveforms and a program loaded. The one thing I'd like to see in this upgrade process is to be able to turn it on to a bank of my choice preloaded with the needed waveforms.

 

My preference would be all 16 DW-8000 waveforms.

 

Yes, I know how volatile RAM works, but with the ability to use a USB drive or that nifty combo floppy drive with media slots, this is now doable.

 

-Mc

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One of the biggest failures in the design of the DSS-1 IMHO was the fact that when you powered it on, it didn't have a default set of waveforms and a program loaded. The one thing I'd like to see in this upgrade process is to be able to turn it on to a bank of my choice preloaded with the needed waveforms.


My preference would be all 16 DW-8000 waveforms.


Yes, I know how volatile RAM works, but with the ability to use a USB drive or that nifty combo floppy drive with media slots, this is now doable.


-Mc



AFAIK that is already possible! You have to name the system you want with a certain name, and the DSS will load it when you turn it on.:love:

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ooooooh, sweet. When I talked to Tom a while ago, it wasn't in there yet.


Now the tricky part, where do we get the 16 DW-8000 waveforms?


-Mc

 

 

I might have those... I used to have waveforms from most hybrid synths, extracted from ROM, like PPGs, ESQ, SQ80, Prophet VS and I maybe DW...

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One of the biggest failures in the design of the DSS-1 IMHO was the fact that when you powered it on, it didn't have a default set of waveforms and a program loaded. The one thing I'd like to see in this upgrade process is to be able to turn it on to a bank of my choice preloaded with the needed waveforms.


My preference would be all 16 DW-8000 waveforms.

 

You haven't been paying attention.:poke:

Just save the system of your choice to the root of the USB drive with a name of "DEFAULT", and it will be loaded (very quickly) on power up.

 

Most of the DW-8000 waveforms have an equivalent in Korg's DWGS waveforms (that are on many of the factory disks).

But don't stop there, make your favorite performance system with 128 programs and up to 64 Multisounds.

 

-Jim

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You haven't been paying attention.:poke:

 

:cry:

 

I've read the whole thread since the beginning and I somehow missed that. That's really sad because I STARTED this damn thread!

 

From what I remember, the DWGS waveforms that were in the DW-8000 were different from the DSS-1 waveforms.

 

But Juno, if you still have any/all of those waveforms, please PM me.

 

I can't wait to get this upgrade!

 

-Mc

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I assume you mean DW-8000, well yes they are different, since the DW-8000 only has an 8-bit waveform generation engine and the DSS-1 is 12 bit, but they are equivalent, as in the same basic waveform shape or harmonic content.



ooops. You're right. I'll fix it. In some cases, the dirtiness of a lower quality waveform (8 vs 12 or 12 vs 16) really adds a great character to a sound. I can't explain it but in some cases, I really like it.

Well, what are you waiting for???
:rolleyes::p



this:

"A complete redesign is in progress, which will make more use of programmable logic, which translates to a smaller board and lower cost."

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

-Mc

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this:


"A complete redesign is in progress, which will make more use of programmable logic, which translates to a smaller board and lower cost."




:facepalm: I knew Tom worded that wrong. It should say: "Hurry up and buy this, since I only got 25 boards made, and some of the parts are getting hard to find, so when these sell out, it will take a long time to redo the board layout with more programmable logic, plus I have to wait for Jim to re-write the software to support the new floppy interface, and he can be slow at times. :rolleyes:"

-Jim

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:facepalm:
I knew Tom worded that wrong. It should say: "Hurry up and buy this, since I only got 25 boards made, and some of the parts are getting hard to find, so when these sell out, it will take a long time to redo the board layout with more programmable logic, plus I have to wait for Jim to re-write the software to support the new floppy interface, and he can be slow at times. :rolleyes:"


-Jim



HAHA...actually Jim is right...except for the part about being slow. Most times he has bugs fixed and a new build of software the same day I report them!
I'm not sure of the exact price difference yet. The new design is 4 layers which tends to be more expensive, but the board is just over half the size of the old one. But yes, by the time I build prototypes, get the logic debugged, get the new code running on it, it could be a while. The board layout is 95% complete I'd estimate.
Of the 25 boards, 10 are left. They are actually going a lot faster than I expected. So I suspect I'll be moving on the new prototypes sooner rather than later.

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What is the benefit of having free-running DCO or PCM oscillators anyway? I figured only VCOs are beneficial in this respect, because the voltage level is always fluctuating. What's the benefit in doing this on a static PCM waveforms?


I owned a DW8000 for 20 years and the DSS1 for 6 years, with 3 yrs overlap between the two. I never thought the DW had a more analog feel than the DSS; in fact it feels to me the other way around; the DSS seems capable of a lot fatter, warmer and organic type sounds.

 

 

I

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Hi all;

 

New to forum -- long time owner and user of the DSS-1. Got mine in 1987. Glad I held on to it all these years.

 

With cash being extremely hard to come by right now, this awesome upgrade remains but a dream.

 

Question for jbabb on the filesystem for the original disks.

1. Was the DSS-1 floppy filesystem created by Korg?

2. What were the names for the nine system files?

3. And was there a naming convention for the Multisound files?

 

I know CopyQM could read and write the floppy format, but I'd be curious if you could extract the individual files from a CopyQM image?

 

I've spent a considerable amount of time experimenting with dumping data via SYSEX from the DSS-1, but it is a RPITA because you have to send and receive multiple SYSEX streams (Multisound list, Multisound parameters for each, Program Names, Program parameters for each, then the PCM data.) And it's pretty dang slow.

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Tom,

 

Thanks for your work on this.

 

What is the current availability for the kit?

Are they the original or the 'new revision' version you talk about on your site?

 

A few questions on the SCSI option.

The option is for the SCSI cabling and the punching/mounting of the DB25 connector, right?

What SCSI protocol is supported? (SCSI-1, fast?, fast-wide?)

If you connect multiple SCSI drives, is there a menu option to select the active target?

Do you just format the SCSI drives as FAT32?

 

Regards,

--Doug

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