What made me get so much into synthesis as a kid was probably an application called Korg DS-10 for my Nintendo DS. It still holds up after however many years it’s been, it’s a beast of a program.
I was particularly fond of the sequencing system that was going on. You could have either a keyboard or a Kaoss Pad on the screen, and when you pressed record, it would record input into a 32 step sequencer, overwriting anything existing. You could do things like change the sequence on the fly a tad, or add things into a simple sequence. It just felt right to me, more than stuffing around in those tiny menus.
Now I tried to make a similar sort of thing and failed, and though I am sure I could do it, I got a feeling from it that I’m gonna need a lot of modules to make anything that emulates it decently. It’s no problem for me as I like a challenge like that, but it’s probably going to impede my performance running a synth beside that patching. Anyone know any sequencers, either V1 or V2, that have this kind of functionality, or just anything where it can sample and hold a CV input and be overwritten on the fly?
The sequencer features up to 16 steps. Only one octave is visible at a time, so that the interface remains manageable. There are sequencers for note, volume, pan, the two Kaoss controllers and each of the four drum sounds.
Up to 16 patterns can be stored in a single session, and these can be strung together using the song sequencer, where playlists up to 100 patterns long can be created.
Recording live
As well programming sequences into the DS-10’s memory, it’s also possible to construct and record your musical ideas live. The synths can be played in two ways: through the virtual keyboard, which behaves in the way you’d expect, and via the X/Y pads, which offer more flexibility.
Three Kaoss pads are available for each synth, and the X and Y axis of each can alter one of a number of parameters. The first pad is set to control pitch and gate by default, so you can play the synth with it. You can even choose which key and scale to play in from a comprehensive range of options, so that the results are always musical.
I guess any XY pad would work? Like the one from JW modules I mentioned before. You can also define “pads” (zones) by “quantizing” the X/Y grid “output” (thus aggregating and effectively creating any grid of lower resolution, e.g. 8 x 8 or any other X/Y division).
Thanks all for the suggestions, but I’ve got something very particular in mind, plus some of these aren’t available for Rack 2 yet. I know some C++ though, so I’m gonna have a crack at writing a module like what I want. I’m doing some panel design and narrowing down the features at the moment. Hopefully will follow through and produce my own module!
