A wonderful early digital synthesizer. With eight notes of polyphony, two oscillators per voice, a noise source, two multi-stage envelopes, a resonant filter and auto-bend, the DSS-1 has much in common with Korg's previous flagship DW-8000. But it went much further, boasting twin digital delays, oscillator sync, an improved unison mode, a lush analog VCF switchable between 12 and 24dB, and more. Whereas the DW-8000 got its raw material from 16 stored digital waves, the DSS1's oscillators take their source from sampling, additive synthesis, or even hand-drawn waveforms!

It actually had a warm sound and was great for creating pads and textures, as well as deep basses and drones. The synthesis method is based on altering various waveform samples via 2 data sliders. It can sample and then treat the samples as its waveforms - that includes all filtering and envelopes.

The DSM-1 (1987) was the expanded rackmount version.

It was used by Jean Michel Jarre, Joe Zawinul, Michael Cretu of Enigma, Mark Jenkins, Hiro Kawahara, Paul Nagle, Shriekback, and Steve Winwood.

Nick

February 25, 2009 @ 3:51 pm

I use the same DD discs in both my DSM-1 and DSS-1. Also, should be noted you can play DSS-1 discs on a DSM-1, but not vice versa. And yes, this is a wonderful machine!

DDTT

February 1, 2009 @ 7:12 pm

Used by Phil Lanzon (Uriah Heep) and Gilles Snowcat (Awaken) both in the mid-90s.

Jim Wicked

January 29, 2009 @ 9:44 pm

Just to clarify here, there are a couple other differences between the DSS-1 and the DSM-1. The DSM-1 had more sample RAM (2 megs) and used HD disks unlike the DD disks the DSS-2 uses. Also, the DSM-1 doesn't have resonant filters.

Hillebille

January 5, 2009 @ 7:28 pm

A monster, weights a ton, kbd extremely clattering, great sounds,
a hilarious sample arrangement system, splendid VCF and VCA,
should be seen as a synth with user waves and not a sampler.
Unison mode that kicks ass!

Zax

December 15, 2008 @ 2:12 am

I used this whale for loop sampling more than synthesis. The sound was just as heavy as the board itself (like 30 pounds or something ridiculous). Great 12 bit sound, sweet distinctive filter, and yes enough sampling time--more than the 5 seconds mentioned above, more like 12. Perfect for rap and dance.

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