downstream

[ April 8, 2009 / bookmark ]

Nintendo Korg DS-10 Album from DS-10 Dominator (MP3s)

The MP3Death netlabel has done the Nintendo Korg DS-10 a great service by releasing Cheap Dirt, a 20-track album by DS-10 Dominator (aka Rutger Muller). The DS-10 is a port of a proper Korg synthesizer, which has been fully reproduced as a cartridge for the ubiquitous portable Nintendo gaming system. And no one has previously made available such a wide range of fully considered DS-10 music as Dominator has here.

While much of Cheap Dirt consists of party-ready techno, there’s some heady listening: the downtempo industrial sway of “Sea Son” (MP3), the 8-bit dance noise of “Garage Party” (MP3), and the clanging thrills of “Dubstep Gives Me Food” (MP3).

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Muller says of the release’s conceptual purity: “No post-processing of the audio has been done. All sounds are synthesized, there’s no sampling involved.” Get the full set at archive.org. More at mp3death.us and rutgermuller.nl.

The Korg DS-10 cartridge runs on the Nintendo DS and the newly released Nintendo DSi. I’m looking forward to what folks with the new Nintendo DSi do with the DS-10, given that the DSi has some advanced internal sound-transformation tools. The DS-10 includes the ability to create a master-slave relationship between multiple DS machines. The DSi’s sound-tweaking tools mean that a second machine will now also be able to capture segments of the music and allow the musician to alter them. This is especially promising.

By Marc Weidenbaum

Related topics: , , , ,



4 Responses to “Nintendo Korg DS-10 Album from DS-10 Dominator (MP3s)”

  1. Wow, I’m reviewed. Thank you.

    ps. The name is ‘DS-10 Dominator’ hehe.

  2. Glad to have. It’s a great example of the DS-10’s potential. If you fiddle with the DSi at all, I’d like to see what you come up with.

    I’ll fix the name. Sorry about that.

  3. Brian says:

    Marc, my kid Wilson has been saving up for the DSi and the only way I’m letting him get it is if he lets me play the DS-10 on it. Of course if and when anything serviceable comes out of it, I’ll put it on DRD.





leave a comment