Parents' Guide to

KORG DS-10 Plus

By Alex Porter, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 14+

Powerful, portable electronic music composition software.

Game Nintendo DS , Nintendo DSi 2009
KORG DS-10 Plus Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • KORG DS-10 Plus Game: Screenshot #1
  • KORG DS-10 Plus Game: Screenshot #2
  • KORG DS-10 Plus Game: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 17+

Based on 1 parent review

anamberani
anamberani Parent of 15-year-old
March 1, 2010
age 17+
i love yoou all

This title has:

Too much consumerism
See all 1 parent review

What’s It About?

In the game KORG DS-10 PLUS, keyboard manufacturer KORG has managed to pack features and functionality from some of their electronic music-making products onto a tiny, Nintendo DS cartridge. Features include a drum module that lets users build a track with snare, bass drum, high-hat, etc., and four keyboard synthesizers. Players can build songs comprised of up to 12 tracks, layering them together within a sequencer. There are nearly limitless options for changing the shape of track sounds by tweaking knobs, sliders and wires. One impressive option for fiddling with tone is a DS version of the Korg Kaoss Pad, a touch-sensitive screen with an X and Y axis for manipulating pitch, volume, and other properties in real time.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (1 ):
Kids say (1 ):

KORG DS-10 Plus is a very impressive music creation tool that offers literally unlimited choices for composing multi-track songs using a fairly basic interface. This software is really more musical instrument than game, though it does have high fun and replayability factors. Learning the finer points of music track building, however, requires careful study of the manual and real practice with and exploration of the features. The only drawback is a lack of explanatory text and tutorial. The payoff for learning, however, is very rich musical experience that is well worth the effort.

Online interaction: Players can link to other NIntendo DS users to download their musical compositions and add to them.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the ways in which sound can be manipulated. This game introduces concepts such as decay, sustain, attack, reverberation, and many others. What does increasing or decreasing these qualities do to the sound?

  • Parents can talk to kids about some types of synthesizer sounds found in the game. These same sounds can be heard in many popular songs, so it's fun to identify instances of the sounds.

  • You can also discuss the basic physical properties of sound and how these apply to music. Changing the actual shape of sound waves has fascinating, satisfying, and immediate effect.

Game Details

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