Birthday present is a go!

[beauzeau]

I was surfing around on youtube the other day, and came across a video for the korg kaosscillator. I hadn't seen it before. I checked it out, thought it was neat, went looking for other videos, and ended up finding a new thing that was released by korg here in the states on the 4th of this month.

It's called the DS10. It is a rom cartridge for the Nintendo DS game system. It marries the famous Korg ms10 synth with the intuitive DS interface that's become so popular. Basically, they've put all the sounds and knobs and tweaks into a DS rom. No gaming here, just making music. Has a drum machine built in as well.

The really cool thing is, my daughter already has a nintendo DS! The DS10 is selling for about 35 bucks (shipped) at amazon. My birthday is coming up in about a week, so I figured that would be a perfect gift for dear old dad! She always seems to buy me something SHE wants anyway! Why not just guide her into something a little more appropriate this year.

So I 'guided' her into it the best way I know how. I ordered it, and should have it here by cake day next week. Apparently, amazon's one of the only places you can get the thing as of yet (besides ebay of course). I called the local gamestop store, where we typically get games and stuff, and they'd never heard of it. I told them I'd bring it in and let them see it when it gets here.

I'll be sure to post something here regarding the thing once it arrives, but for the time-being, if you want to see it in action, there are plenty of videos of it on youtube. Many of them are in Japanese, as it's been available over there for a while now, but you can still see and hear the thing in action.

Of course, there's always the possibility that she'll fall in love with the synth, and I won't ever get to play the thing. If that happens, well, I can always ask for a black onyx Nintendo DS for Christmas! Would likely look a little more macho than her coral pink version. As a bonus, with the DS10, you can link up more than one DS via wireless and jam with them!

So for the first time in a while, I'm really jazzed about my birthday! This year, it won't simply be the day when I consider myself another year closer to a dirt nap. I feel like a kid again, anxious to get something really cool for my birthday! I'm sure her mom will still take our daughter into walmart to buy me a little something there as well, so I'll likely still get a thoughtful gift from her, like a pair of Hannah Montana earrings, or a super-stylin Bratz doll! If so, I'll make sure to open the Bratz doll first, so she doesn't make off with the ds10 while I spend 30 minutes getting the Bratz package open.

[jamienelson]

I looked it up on Amazon and watched the videos. Looks interesting. Let us know how you like it.

[redbaron]

Definitely! I own a DS, too, and have never used it so far (it was a present, or a bribe maybe). It would be so cool to turn it into a musical instrument!

[cwight]

I've ordered one...looks cool....

[redbaron]

...ah what the heck, amazon.de does it for 30€. I could wait until christmas, or I could wait for beauzeau's birthday for him to come round with a proper review, but sometimes you just gotta get the good things right away! Me, I'm ordering that baby right now!

So on to some practical questions. How do I best work with it in connection with RW? That's a question for our synth & software experts.

Jouni? Hans? Anyone?

[cwight]

Got mine today, it's awesome, I've just taken the headphones out and plugged it straight into my guitar port, then recorded it DI, but I might try fiddling with some of the Farm presets for keyboards. I love the way I can become a killer keyboard player just by dragging the cursor around. Watch out I'm going electro. Even some of the demo patterns are cool....Easy to use as well...a steal. Highly recommended. the only issue is synching it with the drums in RW if you set up a synth pattern

[JouniL]

He he, I just called my local game shop and reserved one. Gonna pick up my DS10 on my way home! Got a Nintendo DS collecting dust.

You guys can hereby consider yourself challenged by me. Let the synth-war begin!

[Charvelguy]

Newegg also has it for the same price as Amazon, shipped free.

[redbaron]

OK... I've got it right in front of me! Now... I think some in-depth reading of the manual is in order. People like Jouni with their synth prowess might have a serious advantage here...

[cwight]

Don't read....play...check out my Riffcast DS10 test.....

[beauzeau]

Got it today! Actually, I got it a couple of days ago, but had to wait until today to open it. Playing with it now. The kaoss pad is awesome! I love tuning it to blues and playing along with the demo song! I just played with it for about ten minutes solid. The longest techno blues jam I've ever done! Soul-less, but fun as hell! Yeah, really not much to it. If you've used reason, you'll take to this no problem. Basically a synth with a sequencer and drum machine built in. Sounds for days and days and days with the synth and kaoss pad. You can come up with pretty much anything you can think of. For 35 bucks, it's a bargain.

[redbaron]

...and here's my first track! Since I only got wind of that application through this very thread, I named it "Beauzeau's Birthday Present". Have a listen:

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/redbaron/beauzeau-birthday/

[redbaron]

http://www.riffworld.com/Members/redbaron/beauzeau-birthday/