DreamStation 1.0 Win32 - The Good, The Bad & So On>>>

[eLawnMust]

Been giving DreamStation 1 the 'full exam' last couple days>>>

It's mostly good... As you may know this free tracker was originally commercial from 1998 to around 2004 or so when they stopped selling it then made free in 2008 when DS2 came out>>>

89 bucks back in late 90's was way cheaper than Rebirth & very good synth for the time, VERY GOOD!... Actually still sounds great, nice, thick without being overly modulated like today's crap. If it were not good Cakewalk would not have licensed it for many years in SONAR & Project5>>>

It TOO became a free (DXi only) in 2008 as well, You can get both that & Dreamstation 1 off the wayback-

https://web.archive.org/web/20131230025 ... ation.com/

The Synth portion is capable of simulating a large variety of instruments so in many cases all that's needed to add is drums or other perc>>>

Works well with MIDI keyboards>>>

There is some strangeness like the complete absence of line skipping...YUP, If you want to step record you'll have to advance manually or optionally turn BPM down to lowest (60 BPM) & plunk in notes as it goes by>>>

Also there is no Velocity/Volume lane & it does not record such from MIDI keyboard. In order to change such you would have to invoke pattern commands or use automation for a quicker-dirtier method>>>

Pattern FX commands are limited & one would probably more use automation for much of what is needed to do. There are 2 FX rows per note which are ON THE LEFT of the note in question>>>

That pretty much covers the bad & strange other than that it's rock-stable unless you try something STUPID like loading in stereo samples then a crash may ensue>>>

You must use 16bit Mono samples, You say "Where the Hell is the Sampler?!"... There is NONE your WAVs are loaded into the Synth as waveforms & you can load into all three OSCs as well which is good if your sample is not too loud>>>

This is unique to the Tracker version of the Synth & NOT IN THE DXi VERSION-




So you can use the Synth FX sector on your samples, DreamStation respects loop points which will keep playing unless a CUT command is reached or you have the 'KEYOFF' knob turned up>>>

With today's screen resolutions visualizing can be a problem you can either change to lowest or perhaps use a magnifier like FatBits-


Here is DS1 with 800x600 REZ...Plenty big enough>>>


The MusicParts sector is real simple-


If later in the tune you needed to add a way previous pattern then you do the 'insert blank pattern' command which is a keyboard shortcut, then copy-paste the required pattern onto it, there is also a 'jump back to' command>>>

The sample split editor could've been better, everything comes in at C4 so you have to transpose everything that is NOT on C4-


The 'SPLITS' at upper left are for different instruments you can have 32 different sample instruments each one keysplit (or not)>>>

Since you can have 99 Synth instances no problem, however you only have 8 mixer slots to route to. The automation rack is limited to 10 assignable knobs which is OK pattern commands may be needed to fill the gap>>>

There are 32 Tracks available with the ability to use any instrument on any track at anytime so nobody is gonna run outta workspace>>>

WAV render works great & there is also a 'Capture Output' if you are controlling DS1 with something else through MIDI, haven't tried that yet>>>

All-in-All VERY useable & unique-different with fabulous synth that was highly touted for many years>>>

https://web.archive.org/web/20070403064 ... t/102.html

Here's the 'glory days' of DS1-

https://web.archive.org/web/20010118223 ... tation.de/

There are some very good tunes that come with it, I very much like 'The Other Day', 'Space Debree', 'Into The Unknown' & others some very nice use of the Synth>>>

[eLawnMust]

OK, There was a query on another forum as I have this thread in 4 of them>>>

The annotations pretty much answer, I meant to say 'objective' I guess I need to proof read the annotations-

[dj ray]

Nice to see the little blue guy get some love. It sounded pretty incredible back in the day, and still does. Whatever they did with the audio engine worked; there is a little Novation and a little Nord here, and those high synth leads in some of the demo songs can probably still cut through a mix. Having said all that, the decision to a) build this around a tracker and more egregiously b) never release it as a VSTi and stick to the outdated (even then) Cakewalk format was just silly. The DX instrument never sounded as good either: there was just something about the standalone instrument. Then again, it wasn’t ASIO compatible, and playing it in real time was a real pain. So why build such a beast of a synth and then make it next to useless for actual studio work?

This is a good case study in technical skills vs. practicality and usability. Brian (I believe that’s the coder) then went on to spend years working on Dreamstation 2 which was a giant waste of time (IMHO) and foolishly tried to come up with yet another ecosystem for making music, as opposed to working with what was already in use. Meanwhile Arturia, who had a toylike ‘music studio’ called Storm (I bought it!) went on to become industry leaders (and Sonic Syndicate with their little Orion turned into virtual synth mavens), but old Audio Simulation just faded away.

Shame really.

If I had Brian’s skills, I’d have been plotting global domination. If he ever reads this, do us a huge favor and put this out as a VSTi already. Hell, you could easily charge people ten bucks. I’d pay it too. Just for the nostalgia.

[dioxine]

my first DXi synth. but tried 2.0 version that old times, without that kinda strange "tracker" onboard. i went into Cakewalk classical "horizontal"-like software after working in ScreamTracker and FastTracker, and then Propellerheads Reason, so, that was kind of a challenge )

[eLawnMust]

So you had this Tracker version DreamStation?... It is the only one that could load WAVs as waveforms... Always to me seemed to sound better in the tracker than as DXi as well...

Certainly was a hot synth for the time very versatile many rich sounds plus up to 99 preset sounds available that can be on any line in any track mixed up...,

I think the shortcomings are greater & later on more powerful stuff easier & more boring to make music... DreamStation 1 had weak-ass pattern editor quite disheartening & only mono WAV import & I have had crashes using it...

AXS has nice synth too not as versatile but musical for sure with much better pattern FX commands plus 'smart patterns' and 'note velocity filter modulation'... Easier input of WAVs which can be any size 16-24 mono stereo never crashes EVER! Plus total directory size is 460 KB!...




You got 7 multi-timbral synth instances to use with any instance can be used on as many tracks as you want in any place or line... May sound limiting but I so far have not used over 4....

In this tune used just 4 & about 12 of the 16 tracks with a number of those only on certain sections-

https://soundcloud.com/waxing-and-waning/pulp-friction


I think largest sample have used is 9 MB... You got 128 slots you can fill which ain't alot but preparation with alotta thought helps...

Either way both trackers kick ass on rebirth & were way cheaper... What DreamStation 1 was 99 bucks or later 89 bucks & AXS was 60 bucks both made free along time ago...

I think rebirth was 180 bucks great for 303 riffing but you could not even do chords in it... maybe that was a selling point for desktop dabblers... "Hey Man!... Don't fret over chords!, You can't do 'em anyway... Get REBIRTH!"

AXS still a popular topic I got thread at SunVox forum with over 3/4 million views-

https://warmplace.ru/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6350

[eLawnMust]

My AXS thread just passed 753,000 views... Must've had some looky-loos from here... Thanks!!