NOTE: Mike Metlay cannot provide any further help regarding the DSS-1. he
      	does not own one, does not know where to find one, and cannot answer
	your questions helpfully. thanks.


From analogue-request@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu Tue May  4 18:10:44 1993
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From: metlay@netcom.com (metlay)
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Subject: Re: Korg DSS-1
To: craigv@rad.verbex.com (Craig Vanderborgh)
Date: Tue, 4 May 93 15:10:17 PDT
Cc: analogue@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
In-Reply-To: <9305041839.AA13760@rad.verbex.com>; from "Craig Vanderborgh" at May 4, 93 2:39 pm
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Status: OR


>Okay, you've piqued my curiosity.  What's a DSS-1?  What is its architecture
>and is it reasonably good at what it does?  Is the OS usable?  I have really
>gone bonkers over the sample+VCF+VCA idiom because my Emax SE is so nice
>in this regard.  Please advise on the DSS-1 (e.g., metlay).

If you own an Emax SE already, you don't need a DSS-1 and you may not
find it that great a machine. However, I have a truly perverse love
for the box, which has led me to get within squeaking distance of buying
one six times in the past three years, only to quail at the last moment
because I literally have no place to put it-- it's HUGE, as big as a 
Prophet T8 although nowhere near as heavy.

The Korg DSS-1 is the only sampling keyboard that Korg ever made. The
rack version, the DSM-1, is ostensibly still on their product list,
but the architectures of the two machines ARE different, and the DSS-1
is actually superior for the purposes of FUN rather than SERIOUS sampling.

Basically, the entire idea behind the DSS-1 in concept, advertisement,
and actual execution (how rare that a product does what the ads say it
is supposed to do!) is very simple: take a good analog synthesizer, rip
out the VCO chips, and replace them with loopable 12-bit sample data.
Period. The DSS-1 is what you get when a deranged S-50 rapes a helpless
DW-8000 in an alley. Two sampling oscillators per voice (so you can 
detune and transpose sample layers without losing any of the eight 
voices of polyphony) PLUS a noise source, mixed and run through a VCF
and VCA, with two digital delays that can be run in series or parallel.
Among the various sicko features it has are the ability to draw your
own single cycle waveform (it can hold 32 of these in addition to samples,
making it a super-DW-synth as well as a sampler), and the ability to
lower the plaback resolution of your samples to 8, 7, or 6 (!) bits, 
because (and the ads SAY this!) let's face it, kids, aliasing is COOL.
If all digital synths wore their dirty underwear on the outside this
dashingly, analog wouldn't have quite as much appeal in comparison. 
|->

One other thing to note about this marvelous box: they're CHEAP. They
never became hip, or rare, so you can get one in great shape for as
little as $600. Note that maximum memory is 256k and there's no SCSI.
But what do you want for next to nothing?

-- 
mike metlay * atomic city * box 81175 pgh pa 15217-0675 * metlay@netcom.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Shark tooth fin on a Chevrolet, a wild boy takes it all the way   (buggles)