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Average rating:
4.4 out of 5
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I just got the dss-1 yesterday and already it has impressed me with its massive, roaring sounds. This machine has 3 great things going for it- Its a sampler, synthesizer and an external effects processor (plug in your guitar or mic, and mess with the twin digital delays while in sample mode.) Plus the synth can produce analog, digital, or wavetable synthesis sounds. You can get these for relatively cheap, (I paid $250) and the dss-1 can wrench out sounds that shame a moog or Juno. Saving to disk is a pain, but you can amass an endless library of sounds, instead of being limited by internal patch memory, (like on other synths of that era.)For all of its dhortcomings, you still can't beat the price, versatlity, and most importantly, it's SOUND.
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Glen just gave the DSS-1 world a wonderful Xmas present -- He has put the user's manual in .PDF format on his website. Way to go, Glen! See the DSS-1 resource link on synthsite's DSS-1 page.
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I just got one of these off Ebay for 120 Euros.
Inital impressions were, well it has a dicky data slider, and this particular machine has seen a hard life (plenty of scratches and well battered)
But it works. As far as Korg synths go (well compared to a DW-8000 really), the keyboard is very good indeed. This thing must be built like a tank to be still playing OK given the battering it seems to have had.
It took me 4 hours to successfully get some sounds to load up through a floppy. Thanks to: http://www.wiseguysynth.com/larry/dss-1/copyqm.htm (Top tip: Use windows 98 or lower to create the disk)
But the sounds... I've not got through the first half of the first bank, and I'm thinking that I'm going to be getting rid of my Juno60 and my OB12 quite soon. This is the fattest brass sound you've ever heard, the strings and pads that you might have heard from Jean-Michel Jarre, pick-up-and-play basses, this thing just blows anything else I've ever owned right out of the water. Sounds so good, I just have to tell someone about them.
The Korg interface is good. Does exactly what it says on the front panel, and if you can't work that out, you'd need a manual for a vacum cleaner. The DW-8000 was a doddle to program, this is as well - just a few more parameters. You do need to understand the terminology though.
The sounds you can get out of this thing are BETTER than anything else I have ever heard. For that alone, 5/5
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Ignore the review below, this is a very warm and powerful sounding hybrid synth. Its sample time was standard for the 1986. Don't use it as a full fledged sampler, rather use it as a synth that can use samples or digital waveforms as the oscillators, much like the Prophet 2000. Who cares about built-in sequencers when you can use a PC based sequencer. (How many people actually use the sequencer on their M1 nowadays, for instance?) It's a synth not a workstation. Twin DDLs are a milestone for 1986; just run it through some reverb and other external hardware FX, which are better sounding in the long run. The fact that you can pick this up for $150 and have the best resonant analog filter Korg ever made, along with the most responsive aftertouch of just about any synth out there, means you get a lot for your dollar. Totally overlooked by stupid bedroom DJs and tweakers with too much money from mommy & daddy - thank goodness, it keeps the price down. It's still a professional quality synth for pro's who can play keyboards, not one-finger sound designers. Very powerful synthesis capabilities, only lacking PWM and a few other things which can be gotten from looped samples anyway. The research that went into the DSS-1 was eventually responsible for the M1, which was the next Korg synth if you don't count the DS8 (which was an FM synth not in the same line of continuity from DW-8000 to DSS-1 to M1).
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I am glad I did not buy this piece of junk. even for a $150. no sequencer on this, very little sample ram,tiny interface,very limited effects. korg makes very good synths but the DSS-1 is nothing but an embarrassment to them. people can call this the DSS-0!!!!
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