It's me!

[tetsujin]

Hiya! I got DS-10 for my birthday a couple years ago, total surprise. I don't have a lot of skill as a musician (a bit of theory, that's about it) but I'm trying to learn - learning to play keyboards at home and learning to make songs on the DS-10...

Honestly, I feel kind of lost. I have a pretty good understanding of the synths, I'd say (not that I necessarily know how to make any given sound, but I know my way around it) - the real challenge for me is trying to actually compose a song. It's the musical side of things where I'm really at a loss. Can't really make a decent beat, and to the extent that I can come up with melodies or harmonies, I am so far no good at translating that ability to keyboards or sequencers.

I was very excited to learn about M01 - I probably won't pay import prices for it, and I don't really want to pirate it (I have the means, but I bought that stuff 'cause I wanted to dabble in homebrew, not to get a free ride... I'm trying to keep honest, you know?) so hopefully there will be a US release at a much better price. News of M01 is pretty much why I registered here.

For now I'm thinking about maybe a hardware upgrade so I can get DS-10+ and its dual mode. I'm not really down with the 3DS at this point (not satisfied with its battery life, holding out for the next hardware revision) so thinking about a DSi or DSi-XL if I can get a good deal. Haven't really decided yet. Presently I'm still using my original DS, which is frikkin' awesome.

One thing I've always wanted to do (and hence one of the reasons I enjoy DS-10) is create an arcade game running on the Commodore 64. C-64's SID capabilities are pretty close to what you get with DS-10 so it seems like it'd be good practice.

Somehow it never occurred to me before to go look and see if there was a forum or anything for DS-10 users. Why do I never think of these things...?

[Decktonic]

Welcome! If you want something that will fit in your pocket, don't get a DSi XL. As for how to make music, if beats seem complicated, just make house music... doesn't get much easier than that. The best advice I can give is just to listen to songs you like and try to dissect them... doing covers is a great way to learn all the techniques.

[tetsujin]

Welcome! If you want something that will fit in your pocket, don't get a DSi XL. As for how to make music, if beats seem complicated, just make house music... doesn't get much easier than that. The best advice I can give is just to listen to songs you like and try to dissect them... doing covers is a great way to learn all the techniques.

Heh. Well, normally I wouldn't even consider the XL, I like my portable gaming devices to be small. But there might be advantages to using the XL for DS-10+, have a bigger touchscreen to work with and so on... And it's not that much bigger than my current DS, and battery life is better than the regular DSi. But people expect more money for the XL, so I'll probably just get a DSi if I can find a good deal on one.

Mostly been doing covers so far, yeah. I think I'm getting a little better at it, though at this point I pretty much need sheet music to pull it off. XD

[Tommy Creep]

If you're having trouble composing just start out only using the white keys; start a melody on C for a happy song or A for a sad song.

As far as beats go just put a kick on every 1st note and a snare on every 3rd and take it from there. Look at some drum tabs, that helps too.

[tetsujin]

Meaning, I guess, compose in C major or A minor...

I do know my scales (diatonic, at least - if I've got the terminology right...) in college I could've even told you the key signatures and have all the sharps or flats in the right order. But I forgot almost everything I learned about chord progressions and so on... (I do remember we were told not to do progressions with parallel fifth intervals between chords, I think that's about all I remember. XD )

Do compositions generally start at the first note of their key or is that just an option?

[Tommy Creep]

I think generally the first note defines the scale as some scales share the same notes.

I usually use wikipedia and http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/ for finding scales and stuff.

[Syscrusher]

Meaning, I guess, compose in C major or A minor...

I do know my scales (diatonic, at least - if I've got the terminology right...) in college I could've even told you the key signatures and have all the sharps or flats in the right order. But I forgot almost everything I learned about chord progressions and so on... (I do remember we were told not to do progressions with parallel fifth intervals between chords, I think that's about all I remember. XD )

Do compositions generally start at the first note of their key or is that just an option?

- Melodies do not have to start or end on the tonic (first) note of their key.

_ The rules regarding parallel fifths only apply to music composed in a strictly 16th century polyphonic style - chorale music and such where voice leading is the name of the game. The concept is that the sound of the consecutive fifths weakens the independence of the individual voices and is barren sounding. It sounded essentially, to the ears of the time, inelegant and ugly. Many composers -such as Debussy- began using them to evoke an "ancient" feeling. Rock music that uses power chords (ie. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man") is composed using parallel fifths almost exclusively. I wouldn't worry about it. If it sounds good to you do it.

[tetsujin]

_ The rules regarding parallel fifths only apply to music composed in a strictly 16th century polyphonic style - chorale music and such where voice leading is the name of the game. The concept is that the sound of the consecutive fifths weakens the independence of the individual voices and is barren sounding. It sounded essentially, to the ears of the time, inelegant and ugly. Many composers -such as Debussy- began using them to evoke an "ancient" feeling. Rock music that uses power chords (ie. Black Sabbath's "Iron Man") is composed using parallel fifths almost exclusively. I wouldn't worry about it. If it sounds good to you do it.

Thanks, that was enlightening and very interesting!

[xGx]

I don't think I start on the root note of the scales I use very often if even at all Makes songs slightly more intresting that way.

Welcome btw

[UncleBibby]

I've got a Korg M01 (I imported it) and it's a lot easier to use than the Korg DS-10 or the Korg DS-10 Plus! Also, I sort of doubt that the Korg M01 is coming out in North America, due to the 3DS being so popular. But still, there's a chance it'll still come out, or maybe Korg will come out with an even better composing program for us North Americans!

Anyhoo, welcome to the forum!