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Korg's nanoSeries shrinks your music studio
Korg really wants you to downsize your studio with its new lineup of miniature controllers, dubbed the nanoSeries. The diminutive set includes the nanoKEY (a 25-note, velocity sensitive keyboard), the nanoPAD (12 trigger pads and a touch-sensitive X/Y touchpad), and the nanoKONTROL (a mini-mixer with nine faders, nine knobs, 18 switches, and playback controls). The modular, lilliputian gear connects via USB and are all bus-powered, though we're hoping they've got other power options so the devices can be daisy-chained. No word on pricing or availability, but you'll know when we do.[Thanks, Tom] Update: Looks like the Nano Pad, Nano Key, and Nano Kontrol should be available by this October, starting at somewhere around $100-120 US. Thanks, Tosse.
Twiddling knobs in Korg DS-10
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Twiddling_knobs_in_Korg_DS_10'; If, like us, you were the kid who was always relegated to triangle duty for your grade school's annual Nativity play, then the Korg DS-10 synthesizer program is probably not for you. And by "probably," we mean "definitely," because seriously, this thing looks complex. In the above video, we're shown some of the many mysterious dials and knobs that will probably help skilled musicians fashion the tunes of tomorrow, and us to create horrible-sounding sequences of flatulent beeps that go nowhere.Speaking of the former, we've embedded a video after the break of Japanese musician Sanodg mixing a song from scratch using the DS-10 software, four Nintendo DSes, and a mixer. His performance (and our layman's knowledge of music) suggests that this is one serious piece of kit.
Friday Video: Synthetic synth
The Korg DS-10 synthesizer program isn't coming out in Japan until July, and it's not coming out elsewhere until ... some other time, but it's already started making club appearances, thanks to AQ Interactive. The company posted videos of a DS-10 based performance at a Shibuya club called Linear. while it starts off a bit slow and chaotic, we think it's really cool to see music being built up from nothing, live on stage, using only the DS.A continuation of this performance follows after the break. Who knew playing non-games on the DS could be such a public experience? Friday Video: It's a video, posted on Friday. But it's also our chance to celebrate some of the amazing things that people do with or about their games, whether it's an official trailer or some dude's YouTube skit.
Blue Dragon, Away: Shuffle Dungeon confirmed for U.S.
As if our recent poll regarding Blue Dragon Plus and Away: Shuffle Dungeon hadn't already put you on the spot enough, now you'll have to choose one for really reals. AQ Interactive's latest financial report confirms that both will hit North America in this fiscal year, and also mentioned a localized version of the Korg DS-10 (which we already knew about).Incidentally, there's a further four third-party portable games being brought over by Xseed, and Siliconera reckons that those could include Flower, Sun and Rain, Lux Pain, and Dungeon Maker DS. As European versions of the first two have both been rumored, we'd tend to agree!
Take a closer look at Korg's DS-10
To say we're interested in the upcoming DS-10 from Korg would be an incredible understatement. We're dying from a disease that only the DS-10 can cure! So imagine how pleased we were to receive this dose of video goodness above, where some of the features of the DS-10 are shown.Are you all as psyched for this as we are? Will you be picking it up when it releases?[Thanks, Frastoglegnia!]
Micro music: Jam Without the Band
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/nintendo/Who_Needs_a_Band_or_a_DJ_When_You_ve_Got_a_Game_Boy'; Lacking the friends needed to put together an Electroplankton/iPhone band? Too impatient for Korg's DS-10 release this summer? Don't let those trivial obstacles discourage you! You don't need a too-live crew to compose a rumpshaker, nor do you need expensive software applications. In fact, having a Nintendo DS isn't imperative either. As many chiptune musicians can attest, you don't need the latest handheld technology to lay down a boss track.Take this artist in the video above, for example -- he's using Nanoloop, a homebrew synthesizer/sequencer available for both Game Boy and Game Boy Advance systems. You can download the program on the developer's official site for free! Of course, there are a few additional items required for the complete setup: A mess of cables - $50+ Korg Kaossilator Dynamic Phrase Synthesizer - $200 Korg KP3 Kaoss Pad Dynamic Effect/Sampler - $400 Expensive? Sure, but listen to that music! These are the lush songs your android grandchildren will make babies to after watching the sun set on an alien world. [Via Nicovideo]
DS-10 to release worldwide
Making music on your DS has been quite fun, whether your choice for creation be Electroplankton or Jam Sessions. Korg is tossing their hat into the ring now with the DS version, the DS-10, of their synthesizer, the MS-10. But this is not news to you.What's news to you, and the rest of us, is that the DS-10 will receive a worldwide release. No word as of yet on when exactly to expect it in your stomping grounds (that is, unless you're in Japan, in which case it's coming in July), so keep an eye on DS Fanboy for more information as it's made available.[Via IGN]
DS Daily: A new take on the expanded audience
I've never considered buying a Korg synthesizer before. I don't know how to play a keyboard! I don't know what all those knobs and wires do! I would be totally useless with one. But when the Korg DS-10 card was revealed yesterday, I was suddenly filled with desire to own a synthesizer. Of course I need one of those, I thought -- I've always wanted one.It's sort of a reversal of the expanded audience idea. While Nintendo intends to have this kind of stuff on the DS to bring people in who traditionally don't like games, I find myself as a gamer drawn to stuff that I wouldn't really want unless it were released on a game console. I know I'm not the only person who decided it was very important to keep my brain active right around the time Brain Age came out.The very nature of something being on the DS makes it more interesting to me. Anyone else feel the same way?
DS Daily: Making music
With Korg managing to squeeze its MS-10 synthesizer onto the DS, and Taiko Drum Master: 7 Islands' Adventure set to offer us access to all manner of percussive instruments, Nintendo's handheld now supports an impressive assortment of instruments. There are still gaps waiting to be filled, however, so which other instruments would you like to see emulated on your DS? Anyone else up for playing a spot of stylus-based violin?
KORG DS-10 synth turns Nintendo DS into instrument of awesomeness
There's already been quite a few musicians (and would-be ones) brought into the Nintendo DS fold thanks to apps like Jam Sessions, but it looks like there could soon be another wave flocking to the popular handheld, with the official, Korg-approved DS-10 synthesizer from AQ Interactive now headed for the DS in Japan. As you can see for yourself in the video after the break, like Jam Sessions, the synthesizer is anything but a game, with it boasting two patchable virtual synths with two oscillators each, a drum machine, a sequencer, and a full range of effects, to name but a few features. You'll also apparently be able to wirelessly link up several systems to play together or simply exchange sounds and songs, although you'll apparently have to make do without MIDI support. Needless to say, we'll keep you posted on any word of a release 'round these parts, but in the meantime, you can look forward to this one hitting Japan in July for ¥4,800, or just under $50.[Via Create Digital Music, thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Korg DS-10 brings the DS to a new group of nerds
Call your Jam Sessions virtuoso friend (and, we suppose, your Hannah Montana Music Jam drummer). You'll finally be able to start that DS-only Electric Light Orchestra cover band you've been talking about, thanks to AQ Interactive and Korg.Korg has created a DS version of their MS-10 synthesizer with some features that not even the original has. You can create music via a keyboard interface, a free-form touch-screen panel, or a "matrix" interface (fill in squares to make notes). It's certainly a lot smaller than the real thing, while also providing the authentic "a bunch of knobs and stuff we don't know how to use" experience.AQ Interactive will release the DS-10 in Japan for 4,800 yen ($47) this July.[Via Famitsu]
$3000 piano mod reminds George Clinton of the mothership
Resourceful tinkerer "Proximasolaris" has put together a piano mod that would make even some Samic owners a bit envious. Retrofitting a Korg Triton Extreme, hiding two monitors behind a motorized cabinet, and placing a slew of blue LEDs and other mechanics, he managed to put $3,000 worth of gadgetry into an old fashion vertical piano. While it is not the first modification we have seen like this, you should still click on through to see the vid of his tricked-out instrument -- go ahead, bask in the glory of what's possible with a little extra loot and 250 solid man hours.
Music Thing: Korg's Kaoss Pad 3
Each week Tom Whitwell of Music Thing highlights the best of the new music gear that's coming out, as well as noteworthy vintage equipment: Yes, it does look like the control panel from a TIE fighter. Yes, it could be a useful part of a Darth Vader Halloween costume. This is the Korg Kaoss Pad 3, announced this week after a leak on Music Thing. Kaoss Pads are fairly cheap digital effects/sampling boxes, but what makes them special is the interface -- a backlit touch-sensitive X-Y pad. When you move your finger over the pad, it changes the sound, tweaking delay time, shifting pitch, scrubbing a sample backwards and forwards. The first Kaoss Pad was introduced in 1999 as a DJ tool (even the new KP3 has only phono ins and outs) and pretty soon it started getting namechecked by the cool kids. Radiohead used them live to recreate studio effects, seen very clearly in this YouTube clip. Meanwhile, Brian Eno was collecting the things: "Kaoss Pads... are a way of taking sounds into the domain of muscular control," he said, as he does. "If you have a few Kaoss Pads in line, like I do, you can really start playing with sound itself, with the physical character of the sound." The KP2 arrived in 2002, with a bit more memory , a few more effects, and a more gig-ready aluminium case. The KP3 is again the same idea, but with still more memory, a USB connection, and SD card so samples can be stored and a crazy pixellated display which can, for no apparent reason, display scrolling text messages. UK Price is £315, and it should be in the shops in October.