Bad Gear - Nintendo Korg DS-10 - Game Boy MS-20???

Welcome to Bad Gear, the show about the world's most hated audio tools. Today we are going to talk about the Korg DS-10 game card for the Nintendo DS handheld gaming console. Is this zero years virtual analog contraption the true Game Boy MS-20?

[Sorrowablaze]

Your "gimmick" of using a theme song that includes the piece of gear in the review is the best thing I've seen from any youtuber! I love it. You get an idea of the gear right away, and you always make it sound cool.

[imlxh]

Dude, I LEARNED synthesis on DS-10. I LOVE that thing.

[JacobPadlock]

This thing was how I coped with the horrors of high school.

[Volcaniced]

Ok he arrived at the Handhelds....DS-10 is the most underrated "Game" for Musicians...on any Handheld Console...

[Murukku]

Being able to edit so many parameters on DS-10, like being able to redefine the entire drum sounds, is what made it so powerful. Using one of the drums as a bass synth, and one drum as both hat + snare by manipulating the pitch & gate, and layering higher-pitch kick under snare were my favorite tricks to get most out of those beats...not forgetting the fake sidechain effects with note volume automation.

[DeconTheed]

A big part of why Korg DS-10 (and its later iterations incl. Korg Gadget for the Switch) work as well as they do, despite their limitations, is because of the lineage the product has to game music; the lead designers on the original Korg DS-10 were Nobuyoshi Sano and Yasunori Mitsuda, two legendary game score composers, with Sano in particular having a long history and fascination with synthesizers and electronic music. Nobuyoshi Sano had previously worked with the software’s actual developer, Cavia Inc, (AQ Interactive were merely the publishers), and it was through that prior relationship that Sano (through his own company/record label, DETUNE Inc.), managed to strike up a partnership with Korg themselves, leading to the continuation of the line through to today. Products in the line have been used by some fairly notable figures, from Sano and Mitsuda themselves to other game composers, and artists such as Anthony Seeha and RoBKTA.

I would be interested in hearing your take on MUSIC™️ 2000 by the by, for a very specific reason; I didn’t just start out making music using it, I have *consistently* used it (with aid from an external sample library and additional effects/tools via software like Wavepad, VocoderX, Microsoft TTS emulations etc.) for my entire career as a musician, to the point of actively making it a part of my “brand” to use it; I’ve gone out of my way to push the program to it’s absolute limits, to the point of creating a minialbum where, barring some small vocal stings provided by myself, everything was done using only what the program itself offered as standard. I’m curious how the software would shake up to someone who not only isn’t intimately familiar with it, but also has done a lot of work with DAW-less setups, which is arguably the farthest thing away from the experience in both setup/execution and the degree of freedom allowed as you can possibly get. That and- though I’m clearly biased ;)- I think it fits the mould of a Bad Gear candidate, appearing to be Not That Great or Very Limited from the outside but having much more going for it fr those willing to give it a chance, or those that it’s specific quirks and features really speak to.

[FLHofficial]

A guy who has Kafka and Le Marquis de Sade on his shelves can't be totaly bad.

[nazarenomerino]

im a 34 year old uruguaian who refuses to understand modern stuff like influencers and youtubers but i cant stop watching your videos! so if you are a youtuber you are the only youtuber i like. thanks for all and danke fur alles!

[wsippel]

Tiny nitpick: AQ Interactive is the publisher. The developer was Cavia, a somewhat obscure Japanese game development studio for hire. They developed the original Nier for example, its predecessor Drakengard, and the Resident Evil Chronicles series for Nintendo Wii. Cavia no longer exists, but the team responsible for DS-10 started a new company called Detune and continued working with Korg. Their most recent release was Korg Gadget for the Nintendo Switch.

[FuZZbaLLbee]

This was my gateway drug into music gear.

Btw the Switch has a version of Korg gadget that can export to the iOS version of gadget with QR code’s

[trevorwiant]

Korg DS-10 genuinely had a huge impact on my life. It got me interested in synthesizers and electronic music as a teenager, which eventually became an obsession as an adult, which itself became a bachelor's degree earned through a music technology program.

[crazyhorse]

Got this on my DS at 15 - it was the first piece of software I ever made music with. It was limited and admittedly I had no idea what I was doing, but it got me hooked on the feeling of creating my own little tunes. I still have my DS and the cart, I'll have to break it back out and boot it up =)

[EmergingPatterns]

That stylus workflow was at the same time a pleasure and a nightmare.

[luizfernandopedroso]

Hey AudioPilz, I'm so glad to see the DS-10 in your channel.
In 2011 this game opened the doors for the world of synthesizers and changed my life in many wyas.
As a teenager without computer and money, the ability to my own sounds and music was so mind blowing. I wish I still had my Queen Mary funeral version back them. You can actually "hack" the drums to work as note synths and get a bigger polyphony XD.
Because the DS-10 I got to the Korg Gadget, and because of the Gadget (and a long story) l now work at Korg myself with the engineer who did the DS-10 himself.
Hopefully, in the future I can see something I work with in your show.
If you happen to use it again, I super recommend use the Kaoss Pad with some blues/penta/phrygian scales for some dope small-portamento 2000-and-I-had-hair nintendogs pen-sliding solos.
Cheers!

[pastoelio]

i was doing livesets in squats with a carbattery and carradio hooked up to the nds tiny battery operated alecto mixer, and friends dropping by with their nds, those were some good nights

[b]

I love how PWM = Nick Batt is a thing now. CANNOT UNMEME.

[PolicemanPlanet]

Xiu Xiu's Dear God I Hate Myself is built around the ms-20!

[Owoshima_]

The DS-10 is really cool, had a cart of it a long while ago.
Since then I've picked up the DSN-12 which completely blows this out of the water imo.
If you remotely liked the DS-10 definitely check out the DSN-12 you won't regret it.
Thanks for the video as always :)

[adamquek]

I was expecting a chiptune when I saw the title. I wasn't disappointed.

Thank you and Happy New Year!

[squeakD]

How did this make the “bad gear” list? The DS-10 was brilliant! This wasn’t really designed for a novice or the “gamer”. Korg released this for musicians. It was a huge success in Japan, and sold pretty well in the US too. I’ve got that original DS-10, and the second version (I think it was DS-10 plus).