Teaming up with Japanese developer Detune once again, KORG has proven itself to be quite enamoured with the 3DS eShop by releasing another piece of music creation software, in the form of KORG DSN-12. Emulating the popular MS-10 analogue synthesizer, this title brings us back to a time of smoke-filled clubs and angst-ridden youths all crowded around a mess of wires under dim light. If the thought of this has you positively crooning in anticipation, you’re in for a treat.
It’s important to state upfront that this is far from a casual music game, and fully deserves the simulator title it bears. Detune’s objective has been to provide a one-to-one emulation of the original hardware, and in this endeavour it's done impressively well. It’s a faithful translation that many will find to be a daunting challenge in just getting started, and the slightly cluttered interface doesn’t do much to explain itself to newcomers. When inspiration strikes, composers can save their creations on the fly and tinker with them to their heart’s content, but initially you need to know what you’re getting yourself into.
To get a bit technical, KORG DSN-12 is an electronic sound design tool built off of 12 analogue synthesizer simulators, with 3 kinds of effects. These 12 monophonic synths can perform all the sound edits you make in real time, and you can adjust everything to a fine point using a range of sophisticated filters, time changes, amplifiers and distortion. These effects can be applied periodically to really allow for some complex rhythms, especially once you’ve applied your choice of effects such as reverb, compressor or flanger. For example, the kick effect supplements the bass drum with a hefty wallop of emphasis, justifying the MS-10’s reputation for depth of sound.
Whereas the KORG M01D offered a selection of ‘real’ instrument effects like string and brass for use, this iteration is all about the user creating their own unique synth sounds from scratch. This is a fully fledged synthesizer, not just a keyboard, so while it may seem like a step backwards the trade-off is a limitless canvas for those who want a much more electronic sound. There’s a welcome physicality to creating your own bank of sound effects by recording notes on a keyboard, dragging and slotting in patch cables or even using the stylus as the touch screen transforms into a kaoss pad for midi scales. A fair amount of trial and error necessary before you truly learn what everything does, but that’s actually no bad thing in this case; the software is built for experimentation, it’s all part of the process, and for anyone eager to learn it’s a veritable playground.
For each 12 track synthesizer you are allowed to use a maximum of 64 patterns of 64 steps, and you assign synth sounds to each sequence to create the soundscape of your song creation. Once you’ve got a bank of sounds in place, a favourite feature of ours are the touch pads which allow you to play back patterns however you like. If you consider each song to be broken up into these distinct patterns (or sections), then this allows you to completely change the flow of a song on the fly, mixing up sections with the touch of a stylus and recording something completely new. It’s akin to a DJ performance, or remixing an existing track, and there are already some sweet examples of this online.
A major new feature is undoubtedly what KORG is calling the world’s first 3D oscilloscope screen, which allows you to see the sounds you’re creating in real time. The varying frequency and intensity of the voltages are displayed as either a wave or Lissajous figure on the upper screen, giving an immediate sense of change and a greater connection with the music you’re creating. It lends an authentic feel to the software, and much like the media player ‘’visualizers’’ seen on PCs in the past, it’s pretty easy to get a little hypnotised by the effects. Call it a gimmick, but there is something very gratifying about getting that extra layer of response as your song evolves. It’s rare that we get to see the ‘structure’ of sound, so it’s a fun touch that makes good use of the 3D display.
Starters will definitely want to cut their teeth on the software by playing around with a selection of pre-built demo songs, as these can give great insight into how your future creations can be formatted and constructed. By picking apart the different layers, you can learn the changes each dial and switch are responsible for, and the implications each of these changes can have on the overall song. There’s a particularly Daft Punk-ish disco track to mess with, as well as something a bit heavier to showcase stronger beats, and these are immediately more accessible than just diving in to a blank interface. Reverse-engineering your knowledge of the software works a good deal better than attempting to memorise the dense manual, and a working knowledge can result in hours upon hours of playtime.
What is by far the biggest disappointment here, however, is the lack of online sharing in any form, as we’re once again restricted to sharing our creations locally from one 3DS to another. There’s room for over 2000 songs, depending on the space available on your SD card, which is decent enough given that the download size for the software itself is at a modest 100 blocks. Being unable to upload these online is a pain though, and severely dampens potential for collaborative works between users. Sound quality is absolutely excellent, so it’s a brutal shame that it’s a bit of an ordeal to let anyone else hear the fruits of your labours.
Conclusion
Nintendo’s handheld is a lifesaver for anyone looking to kill time on public transport or in some bleak waiting room — in the right hands KORG DSN-12 has staggering potential as a time-sink. Packaging together a portable oscilloscope, kaoss pad and full synthesizer in one download makes for a fantastic range of possibilities at a solid price. There are more accessible music composition alternatives out there, but this title certainly delivers on what it promises; a full simulation of a classic synth. The only downside is that this simulation unfortunately seems to include all the online song sharing capabilities (or total lack thereof) that the late 1970’s could handle…
Comments 23
Insta-buy for me :3
It's a bit pricey but truly worth considering the insane amount of features it has, almost like a real synth. I've seen some videos from people creating music with this software and it's truly amazing. Those were of the DS version so probably this has even more features to make even more and precise tunes. Good review
This is some really powerful stuff to carry around in your pocket. I am unsure if I will ever have the time to fully explore this, I'm so hooked on my current laptop PC Digital Audio Workstation that I might end up never really using this to it's full potential but I recommend this to anyone who loves electronic music and wants to try a stab at some chiptuning. It's a terribly addicting journey I can assure.
A true work of Genius is this piece of Software, I have just been gigging with it in Japan at Squaresounds Tokyo, 1H1D Festival, Kyoto and around the UK at Superbyte festival, Grok Knight, 8-bit Night Bristol, Get Pixelated, Cardiff.
It's completely Brilliant! - if ou want to hear it at work - here's a shameless plug of my FREE Korg DSN-12 EP 'Banjo Bop' https://cfgk24.bandcamp.com
Enjoy!
@cfgk24 An excellent example of what can be done with this brilliant software! Love your stuff, brother.
Maybe the name has me biased, but my favourite just has to be McMahon's Jig!!!
@Squidzilla Thanks Man! Stay tuned at https://www.facebook.com/Cfgk24 for further stuff!
As a game collector and a Korg collector I'd really like a physical release.
So when is this coming out? I read a September release for NA and EU. But NA doesn't have it yet. I been hyped to get this since it got announced this summer.
@Grimlock_King In 2 weeks for America. . . It got approved this week by NOA
Hmmm. My brother has KORG-M01D. I'm not sure how much time I would spend on it, TBH, but the other KORG was a pretty fleshed out piece of software so I always keep it in mind for whenever I might want something like this. I'm just waiting for Petit Computer 3D, then it would be awesome if you could transfer what you make from KORG.
@Mk_II The physical release is the real synth.
This looks pretty cool! Can anybody tell me if this has premade sounds? And if so, how many and what kind of variety? I like electronic music, but I also want to be able to make some less electronic sounding stuff. Like a piano or guitar sound! I have Rytmik Retrobits, but unfortunately I don't have the talent it takes to turn that game's mostly annoying sounds into anything as cool as the demo tracks that come with it.
@cfgk24
That's some good news. I hope it's way better than DS 10 plus. I've only had the DS 10 + for 2 months but, I really enjoy the M10D alot better.
I have an actual physical KORG midi keyboard, so I don't really need this one. Still, it's great to see this kind of software on the 3DS.
I downloaded this the day I bought my 3DS (which I mainly bought for the M10D). For anyone who's a fan of the DS-10(+), it's a million billion times better in almost every possible way. For anyone who's a fan of the M10D, well... it's similar, but you have to make your own sounds from scratch and there's a pretty huge learning curve (as in, it took me several years messing around on the DS-10 to get to the point where I can think of a sound in my head and move knobs around until the sound in the software matches it). And if you're a fan of both (or KORG in general), then you really have no reason NOT to download this.
This is the sort of thing I would have bought when I was younger and dumber. But now I'm just smart enough to know that I would buy this and be too dumb to use it.
(RPG Maker)
Just been looking to see what it can do and found this-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEQARr8RzAs
Sold!
I hope they will continue developing 3DS synths. If they made MS-20 next, perhaps even with the MS-50 on top of it, I would be so happy, that I might buy a new 3DS just for accompanying it with these 12 MS-10s! I would obviously settle for less voices, but man, it would be beautiful.
And I would pay 100€ for a Wii U synth.
Always wanted to tinker with this kind of stuff( because I'm cultured )... Might give it a shot.
Wii U please. Let's not forget the DS' big brother. I would definitely purchase it for the Wii U.
It should include the option of saving your music to a flash drive. The ability to sample voice and sound bites would be cool.
This is easily the best Detune product so far, one of my favourite things about it is that there isn't really a limit on the amount of songs you can save (before it was only around 20 and now its over 2000!)
I've sunk around 18 hours into it already.
@Funbunz Yup there are about 2 pages of 12 tones that come "built in" LEAD1 LEAD2 BASS1 BASS2 etc... plus the demo songs have about a page worth of instruments as well which you can export out into your own songs to play with. There could be more but its a good starting point. You have to save the demos as songs first then you can import export between them all.
WOW! I Finished another DSN-12 EP!
https://cfgk24.bandcamp.com/album/more-bagpipes
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