DS-10 Stories #1 "KORG DS-10's 1st Birthday Party" 07/25/09

[CardiacTrance]

Okay. Here is the first story of the DS-10 scene in Japan.

"KORG DS-10's 1st Birthday Party" 07/25/2009

Who would hold a "birthday party" for a synthesizer?
Well, Sano would!

Nobuyoshi Sano, or sanodg is the producer of KORG DS-10 synthesizer. Lots of you might have seen him on Korg DS-10 demo vids on YouTube. Yeah, he is that beard long hair dude. Sano is a famous game music composer. He wrote songs for Drag on Dragoon, Ridge Racer, and so on.

This official event was the first DS-10 related event in Japan for me. I had just finished up my college education and came back to Japan 2 weeks before this event. I've already known Sano and some other Japanese DS-10 players over the internet. I was very, very very excited to see everybody there.

"KORG DS-10's 1st Birthday Party" was held at a night club called "Club axxcis" in Shibuya, Tokyo.
It was a hot day! Japanese summer is hot and humid, quite harsh for a person who was used to
the desert weather in Colorado.

Anyway, I managed to find the club, and there were already about 20 people lined up by the door.
I didn't recognize any of my friends there. Most of them were fan boys of DG-10 and waiting there
to get the best place to watch the girls sing.

"Hey, you are CardiacTrance, right?"
There were 3 guys walking towards me. One guy waved and said,
"Nice to meet you, I'm Suttokodokkoy."

Wow, I just met my first DS-10 friend in Japan!

Then we went into the club. When we got in there, it was the middle of audio adjusting and
other preparation for the event. I saw Sano there.

I think there were about 15 performers there. We greeted each other, exchanged business
cards, and shook hands. It seemed like most of them knew each other from past events.

Shortly after everybody went through the sound tests, the event started.

"Korg DS-10 1st Birthday Party!!!!!"

Sano screamed, everybody screamed, and I screamed.


The first performance was by DG-10. I peeked them from the backstage. The floor was absolutely
packed with fan people, and was freaking hot and humid. I could barely see three girls with wigs
singing and dancing on the stage.

After DG-10, the floor was not as packed as it was before.


--I'll briefly introduce the each performances chronologically.

L-eye & Baker
Unlike other players, they didn't really program DS-10 beforehand. They were doing it on stage.
They added new sounds, tweaking them realtime. They sounded pretty wild.

Suttoko-Dokkoy
He played the song called "Jealousy" which is mid-tempo silky house-like tune.
I was so impressed by the quality of the sound of DS-10.
It sounded awesome even on the huge club-level sound system.

Mryat
I still have problems pronouncing his name....
Anyway. I think he did a trancy fast-tempo hard techno stuff. I remember it sounded
very fast and energetic, but somewhat beautiful.

CardiacTrance

Photo by Mather

Yeah. It's me.
When Sano asked me couple of questions on the stage, my voice was like an octave high
because I was really really really nervous. Look at all those people! My Gosh!
My hands were shaking bit so I gripped my stylus firmly. Then I started. I only remember
partially-- all the lights, cheers. I played a song called "In-trance Rock'n'Roll."
I was about to faint, but gosh, it was the best moment ever!!

DSi to Orchestra

Photo by Mather

To be honest, I don't remember much about them because I was lurking around with a blank
face, just trying to calm myself down. I remember they were playing acoustic instruments like
Uke besides DS-10. It sounded quite peaceful and happy-go-lucky.

Gospely

Photo by Mather

He played the famous Kraftwerk's "Pocket calculator."
He looked really busy on the stage singing and playing DS-10 at the same time.
Then he took his cell phone out which he loaded some interesting noises and he let
audiences mess around with it.

Gulliver and Kobits
They were one of the groups I was really looking forward to see.
They had done a DS-10 seminar for kids. Gulliver, the tall dude played funny tunes
on DS-10, and the two tiny girls, Kobits danced to his music and made balloon art.
It was really cute that they acted the same way as they usually do with kids.
They were like: "Hey kids! Are you ready for something fun!? Clap! Clap! Clap!"

Wakakusa Records
It was a unit of several people. There were 2 guys and 1 lady on the stage, and I
could not see him but there was a VJ. The video was pretty weird with old films from
WWII time and I have no idea where he got them from.
They played very solid minimal techno music ...for 20 minutes!
It felt like I was at a night club 3 AM in the morning. I was dancing crazy
to their music. Totally awesome.

Mr. Kanamori from KORG
He introduced new KORG DS-10+ and played part of the demo song.
We were all like, (gosh I have to buy that!)


Now, who would order a birthday cake for a synthesizer?
Well, Sano would!

This was actually the best part in the entire event for me.
Nekoko, a lady who dressed up as "DS-10" (Very tight and sexy black dress kinda
looked like a race queen costume) appeared on the stage with the gorgeous DS-10
shaped cake! Wow, it looked amazing. It totally looked like DS-10, and even got
the yellow patch cables on it.

"Yummmmmmy!!!!!!!!"

Sano screamed on the stage. It seemed like he had a bite, and others were like
"Hey! Sano! Not fair!!"

Then everybody (including the crowds) played "Happy Birthday" song on their own DS-10s
at the same time. Sano had specified the tempo and key but we were so off timing.
It was pretty fun though.

Now we are back to user performances.

Yakan
HE IS A ROCKSTAR!! His sound reminded of me Nine Inch Nails.
I could not believe one DS-10 could play such rich and fat guitar sounds.

Kowaoto

Photo by Mather

He is a gentleman in his 40s, nicely dressed up in his business suit. However, his sound
was crazy and violent as heck. He said one of the songs he played was 250BPM.
It sounded like gabba or hardcore techno that made me bang my head hard.
I think I liked him the best.

Denkitribe
He played a song which was so soothing and tranquilizing. Lots of us just sat down on sofa
and chilled out. It was a big swing from Kowaoto's crazy hardcore sound.
It was so nice. I was almost fell a sleep.

Koishistyle

Photo by Mather

He played very cheerful house style songs with a female vocalist. It was amazing that
he could play very pop-sounding songs with the complex chord progression.
That kind of music is hard to program on DS-10 because there aren't so many tracks.

Keishi Yonao

Photo by Mather

His song sounded very shiny and saturated (Sorry if it's a weird expression).
There were lots of sounds. Could not believe it's from a DS. So thick and complex.
He looked really nervous at the backstage but he looked he was having fan on the
stage.

Kimitaka Matsumae

Photo by Mather

He was the guest professional musician who still uses KORG MS-20.
He piled tables up on the stage and set about 5 different vintage analog machines on them.
It must have been the first time for lots of people there to see the old analog sequencers
and MS-20. The sound was so thick and warm. I had no idea how he didn't get confused
with all the different machines and a bunch of patch cables attached to them.
I would screw it up for sure.

Finally "KORG DS-10's 1st Birthday Party" came to the end.
All the staff members and performers went upstairs for the buffet dinner party.

Photo by CardiacTrance

We ate the DS-10 cake there. It was absolutely delicious. It was white cake, inside
was strawberries and heavy cream. Yum. I could not figure out what the patch cables
were made out of. It was sugary and tasted like chocolate a bit.


There are some pics on these pages (Japanese).
Check out the pic of awesome DS-10 cake!
http://ascii.jp/elem/000/000/445/445151/
http://game.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/ne ... 05322.html

This is the article from the official blog.
Check out pages of the performers at the event.
http://www.ds10blog.jp/?m=200907


Thanks for reading! Sorry it was really long. There were so much to write about.
The other stories are not going to be this long. (I guess...)
Coming up story will be the DS-10 beach BBQ picnic.

[ChrisLody]

That's amazing.

You're lucky you live in a place where this sort of thing happens. I'm stuck out here in the middle of nowhere I don't know anyone (not counting online friends) who like to make electronic music.

It looked like a crazy event. I admire anyone who can perform live, i get really nervous playing the piano to people so i feel your nerves! well done!

[CardiacTrance]

ChrisLody:

Thanks.
I think it's really lucky living close enough to Tokyo too.

> I'm stuck out here in the middle of nowhere
I felt exactly the same way when I was living in a rural town in Colorado. There was almost no good night
clubs or techno parties. However, things started to get better after a while when some cool DJs moved
there and started to throw parties. I did some DS-10 gigs there and people liked it.

So good luck with your local electronic music scene. As long as someone keeps working for it,
it's there, and alive.

[DS-10 Dominator]

Most of them were fan boys of DG-10 and waiting there
to get the best place to watch the girls sing.

It's a pleasure to read these stories, and I'm glad these pictures are now shared with the world! Damn, it seems there are a lot of great DS-10 artists in Japan! And That cake is crazy

I want a party like this heheh.

[CardiacTrance]

DS-10 Dominator:
I'm glad I can finally share all the stories and photos with the world too.
My friend Mather is the best photographer for us. I wonder if he is gonna join this forum.
You should throw a party like this over there....with a DS-10 shaped cake

[bryface]

DS-10 Dominator:
I'm glad I can finally share all the stories and photos with the world too.
My friend Mather is the best photographer for us. I wonder if he is gonna join this forum.
You should throw a party like this over there....with a DS-10 shaped cake

unfortunately CardiacTrance, whereas the country of Japan is not that big, the rest of the world is REALLY big! getting together isn't really an option unless people are willing to pay the big bucks for airfare and accomodations =)

"hey everybody all over the world, let's all meet in peru over the weekend!"

You folks in tokyo are truly fortunate to have such a high concentration of ds10 enthusiasts. if only there was some way everyone else could do something similar, even if over the internet!