Let's Upgrade a Korg DSS-1

[@LiloSound.Soundtracks]

Perfect timing. I started upgrading my DSS-1 this week! Many thanks.

[@neilloughran4437]

Love these videos on those old synths from mid 80s, I remember this when it was new as 1986 was my into to the synth world and all the magazines like SOS and E&MM at the time... there was basically this, the Sequential Prophet 2002, the Roland S50 and the Mirage as well as the Akai S series which was becoming more and more prominent. It was big technical evolution because us normal guys could just about afford these keyboards as opposed to the previous generation of Emu/Kurzweil samplers... Adding those Gotek drives and have access to libraries sounds like a great idea.

[@robgs-me-again]

Definitely going to get a Gotek for my DSS-1

[@chrisjsmithtx]

Wish I still had mine! Great video!

[@dessiplaer]

I had a chance to use one at church. Great keyboard.

[@magicalsynthadventure3216]

I also have a DSS1, we should do a duet on them!

[@mrdali67]

It shares much of the same dna with the DW8000. Not sure if the filters was the same but they kinda used the same tech making the Wavetables for the DW8000. One funny thing is some of the sample disks from the DSS-1 is converted from 12 bit to the 16bit format of the M-1 and T-series, hence some people bashed the M1 somewhat because not all samples was "true" 16bits but its also some of those gritty sounds that gave the M1 some character even it was fully 16bit digital. The DW was a great hybrid Synth btw. I kinda wish if Korg ever will make a new showstopper Synth to replace the KRONOS, that they would re-introduce a true Analog filter section. I remember the DWG Wavetables never sounded as good in the M1/T3 nor in the Kronos. That Analog filtering is what makes the difference.

[@lundsweden]

As a Gen xer, although I've never owned this sampler, it was reasonably well known about, at least back in the 90s. It was definitely a sales flop, being expensive, not an Akai, physically massive etc. But these were great sounding machines, no doubt. The Roland S-50/S-550/S-330 are from around the same time. I owned a Roland S-330, great sounding, lofi, crunch and warm, all in a 1RU format!

[@dav1dbone]

I'd be running an oled from the gotek onto the top, since it's the main mod that will unlock practically unlimited storage

[@FLH3official]

Nice work! But what about the jumpers on the Gotek, did you need to set them in a particular way for this machine? (I've a mixed experience with theses Goteks, on a Yamaha SU700 it was perfectly fine but I've never achieved to make this to work in a Akai S1100)

[@kayslabs]

I didn't have to move the jumpers, I think the standard configuration should work for most machines.

[@Ni5ei]

What are the remaining components on the EL backlight inverter board for? You went from EL to LED backlight which only requires DC voltage.

[@kayslabs]

Not sure, I just followed the Starlight Engineering info.

[@chrisw1462]

If you do a lot of work on keys like those, look into some dental tools. They're great for getting in tight places and scraping gunk off old contacts.

[@RobertoLorenzetti-i3o]

I've got one and i love it. It's my dream to have an usb substitute for the floppy, but i'm asking how can i transfer the original floppy disks to the usb key, for i don't know if they're compatible with Windows system, to copy them through a PC

[@kayslabs]

Good question. Either you would need a floppy drive for your PC and then use one of the many apps to convert it to a disk image that is compatible with the Gotten USB format, or find a way to transfer the DSS-1 presets into your PC with a librarian type of app. Either way it's a bit of a challenge for sure. Try the Facebook Korg DSS-1 forum, it's been quite helpful in the past.

[@RobertoLorenzetti-i3o]

Thank you

[@Rr0gu3_5uture]

You can use the free OmniFlop software to rip your floppies as .dsk files using a cheap PC USB floppy drive, then you use the also free 'Korg DSS-1 CopyQM DSK to IMG and HFE v0.1' software to convert these files into compatible files for use in a USB drive like the Gotek.

[@jeroentaverne8232]

You are connecting high voltage for the old backlight to the LED! It can damage the LED! Just add 2 wires from pin 1 to pin 16 and pin 2 to pin 15 so the LED backlight gets 5 volts. Series resistors are already on the PCB. Remove the old backlight wires.

[@michaelpierce3264]

nice!

[@chrisw1462]

@18:00 You're calling the connections "bottom" and "top" in relation to the camera (and you), when the text on the board is upside down. That might confuse some people.

[@davidseaward9359]

Yo! This one evaded my attempts to uncover all the looked-over , disregarded synths w analog filters after I got the jx-8p which like dss1 looks like total snoozefest of early digital crap. Now everyone has realized this about the jx8p, I wonder if DSS-1 can possibly be found at non inflated prices…?!

[@kayslabs]

You can find it, depends on where you live. I for one am selling one of mine since I don't really need two of them. The main issue is the shipping charges since this thing is big and heavy!

[@SpikesStudio3]

Watched the whole thing bro. Am never going to get a dss1. BUT, I do have an eps16+ And they are not that far apart. Every few years, i have to strip the keybed for a good clean. (It doesnt get used much) i am trying to find a way to get my library off my syquest 135 scsi to put on thumb drive so i dont lose 30 years of samples. 😓🤔 Any tips? 🇦🇺🍻👍

[@kayslabs]

Check out ChickenSys (dot you know the rest). Garth is incredibly knowledgeable and helpful, and I believe has a SCSI to USB adapter.

[@SpikesStudio3]

@@kayslabs will do. Cheers. 👍👍👍

[@guest_user-jm7cd]

I DO NOT understand why we had no compact & cheap keyboards (or sound module) which could use custom user sounds (like SoundFont format etc). It could be hot device, since we all want our custom keys, and favorit sounds. And of course nobody will carry such monsters from 80th. This is the Real secret.

[@mrdali67]

It was quite new stuff and expensive tech back when this was new. Synths has always been like at least 5 years behind current computer stuff for many years until the last 5-10 years where they have caught up. The main issue in the 80's was memory was EXpensive and too small so first romplers an samplers had like few kilobytes .. take the M1 that came in 89 .. think it had like 512kb rom samples and that was a very decent size for that time having both a bunch of drum 1shot samples and multisamples of a variety of sounds. Today you can actually buy a programable rom card that goes in the M1 and can be filled with your own samples via an usb cable from your computer. Then you can use your own samples in a M1/T1--3. It will show up as a rom card sound but is actually an EEprom chip that you can reprogram as much as you like. You are still bound to the same amount of card memory as the original rom cards, but people could theoretically make a card with a switch .. like the gotec usb where you could switch between eg 16 different virtual cards. Or you could go the cheap way and use an Amiga or PC tracker software sampler. But actual Keyboard samplers was way too expensive for the avg Amiga Demo maker.

[@Slipstreamaudio]

You should do a Juno 106 and Kurz 2000 AND a Yamaha DX21 refurb video. I might know someone……