Korg DS-10 - Quick start

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Workflow
1. create the 4 global Drum samples
2. sequence the Drums for Pattern 1
3. create a Synth Patch voor Pattern 1
4. sequence the Synth for Pattern 1
5. start working on the next Pattern
6. chain Patterns into a Song
7. Mixer and Effects
8. save the Session
9. recording the Song to an audio file
 

1. Create the 4 global Drum samples
When you fire up the software, you can start by first creating the Drum samples.
The Drum sound samples are used by every Pattern. Tap the DRUMS button:

You are presented with the Drum Pads screen. Tap the EDIT button and tap Pad DRUM 1.

The DRUM 1 sound starts to loop, so you hear your edits right away.
You can edit the Drum Sound, make Patch connections and add an Effect to the sound. Anything goes.
The maximum sample time is 1 second, so beware of long delays, or long ATTACK/DECAY settings!

A 1 second Drum sample means, at 120 bpm you can play 2 full samples for every beat, provided you do not change the Pitch of the sample.

For instance, create a Kick drum for DRUM 1.

When you're finished, tap the OK button. All settings, including the effect, will be used to create the sample for DRUM 1.
You create the DRUM 2, DRUM 3 and DRUM 4 sample the same way. For instance the Snare, Tom and Hithat.
 

2. Sequence the Drums for Pattern 1
When you finished creating the 4 Drum samples, you can start building a Pattern.

Set the BPM, and maybe the SWING for the Session.
- BPM: 10 - 250
- SWING (=Shuffle): 50% (no swing) - 75% (much swing)
 

Pattern 1 is already selected, so let's start with this Pattern.
First you set up the STEP length of this Pattern. 16 Steps is the maximum.

Tap the "DRUMS SEQ" button.

You are presented with the DRUM Track screen for the 4 Drum samples.
DRUM 1 is programmed by default with a sound on every Beat.
The other sound you hear at the first Beat of every bar is SYNTH 1. Just leave that for now.
Add the Steps to the 4 Tracks, where you want your drum samples to sound.

If you want to go a step further, and also change the Note pitch of a DRUM sample, press the number button in front of every row.

You are presented with the Note sequencer for the selected DRUM Track.

Take notice that the created DRUM sample is centered on Note C5. A lower Note slows down the sample, a higher Note speeds it up.
If you set the Track to play the sample a few octaves lower, the sound becomes very grainy and will have a lot of aliasing.
That's because the Nintendo DS does not have enough CPU power to compensate for this.
If you want a lower sounding DRUM sample, better change the global sample, in stead of setting the Track Note lower. This will give much better sounds. On the other hand, you could use the grainy sound for the Pattern.

Apart from the Note pitches, you can also program the Gate time, Volume level and the left/right Pan of the sample.

tap this button to cycle through the Note, Gate, Volume and Pan pages.

NOTE		GATE		VOLUME		PAN

See the sequencer & KAOSS page for a more detailed settings explanation.
 

3. Create a Synth Patch voor Pattern 1
Each Pattern contains 2 realtime Synths. First you create a Patch sound for the Synth using hthe EDIT and PATCH screens.

These are the same Synth screens you saw for the Drum Patch editor.
However, now you do not create a sample. For instance, create a Bass sound.
The possibilities for the Synth screens are expanded with VCO Portamento and an EG Release.

If you want to Save or Load a Patch, tap the empty button on the Synth screen.

You can save the Patch to an empty slot

Load a Patch Bank A, B and C contain Presets		Save a Patch You cannot overwrite a Preset		Confirm overwrite DS-10 decides a default Name		Tap "SAVE AS" to type a custom Patch name

 
Notes on Saving a Patch
You can Load a Synth Patch into a Synth and the "Patch Name" is shown on the Synth page. Perfect.
However, when you make changes to the Synth Patch, the Synth page will still show the Patch Name.
Saving or Loading the Session will keep all these settings. The (wrong) Patch Name and actual settings of the Patch are still there.
When you want to use the settings of the Saved Patch, you actually have to Load the Patch into the Synth again.
You have to take care of the housekeeping yourself.

4. Sequence the Synth for Pattern 1
When you're done, you record the Bass Notes using the Synth Sequencer.

Like the Drum Tracks, the SYNTH Tracks has pages for Note, Gate, Volume and Pan.

However, the pages are expanded with 2 Automation pages, which can be controlled with the KAOSS Pad.
It gets very interesting with Automation and there is a lot to say about it. That's why there is a separate page.
See the sequencer & KAOSS page.
 

5. Start working on the next Pattern
There are 16 different Patterns.

To change to another Pattern, press Pattern (on top) and select another Pattern.
- the Pattern immediately starts to play, so you can hear if you selected the right Pattern.
- the "Step" info changes to the number of Steps that is set for this Pattern.

For now: select Pattern 2.

For Pattern 2, you can choose to:
- start with 6 clean Sequencer Tracks and 2 default SYNTH Patches.
- load SYNTH Patches from previously Saved slots.
- copy the 6 Tracks and the 2 SYNTH Patches from Pattern 1 and start editing from there.

The workflow for the Synths and the Sequencer Tracks is the same as for Pattern 1.
The Drum samples are the same. If you change them, you change them for the whole Song.
 

6. chain Patterns into a Song
After you created a few different Patterns, you can chain the Patterns into a Song.
Tap the Song button.

The Patterns will stop playing (Confirm with YES).
The follwing screen appears.

How the Song screen is organised:
- the horizontal timeline contains space for a Song length of 100 Patterns.
- select a Pattern number by tapping the Patten number for each column.
- use the sliders to scroll through the Patterns and the timeline.

Here:
- Pattern 2 plays 6 times
- then Pattern 5 plays 4 times
- then Pattern 6 plays 5 times
- and so on

You can also see the Song settings:
- the Session name is "DEMO-1"
- the Song contains a Swing of 52 and a BPM of 126

The Swing and BPM are Global, so they cannot be changed automatically during the Song.
But they can be changed during play manually.
 

7. Mixer and Effects
Use the Mixer to balance the different sounds.
Use the FX button to apply realtime Effects to the Patterns.
The settings are used for the Patterns, as well as for the Song.

Tap MIXER, the following screen appears:

The Volume and Pan Automation of the Sequencers do not drive the Volume and Pan sliders of the Mixer.

When you assign a "hard left Pan" in the Sequencer, and a "hard right Pan" in the Mixer to the same Track, the sound ends up in the middle of the stereo image. The Mixer Pan kind of pulls the Pan back.

Tap the FX button to apply a realtime Effect.

You can choose only one realtime Effect and assign this to the Synths and/or the Drums.
Use the specific Effect knobs to your taste.
The BPM switch is most useful for the DELAY Effect.
 

8. Save the Session
You can Save the Session using the Save button.

When you want to give the Session a (new) name, tap "SAVE AS"

Choose a slot		Type in the new name		Confirm overwrite

You can not overwrite the DEMO Sessions.
 

9. Recording the Song to an audio file
To keep the best sound quality possible for the KORG DS-10, use an Emulator. See the Emulator page for more information. The headphone output from the Nintendo DS is pretty noisy. I had good results with the DraStic Emulator for Android. Record from the Line Out of your Mobile Device.

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