DreamStation 1...Capable in Sonic Ability Then...and NOW!

Coming out when ReBirth was climaxing in the late 90’s this would’ve been my choice OVER ReBirth by far & at a savings as well…

The built-in DreamStation Synth was quite phenomenal for the time & still sounds good now…NOW!! It has always garnered high praise & ratings at KVR-

Soon after licensed to Cakewalk for a time then after that released as a freeware DXi plugin by Audio Simulation what in 2008 or something…

I ALWAYS THOUGHT IT SOUNDED BEST IN THE TRACKER!!..conspiracy perhaps…

Doing a fair business back in 1999-2001 selling at $89.00 there was plenty of talk about DreamStation II…But…BUTT!!..It would not happen till late 2007!!..By that time everybody went everywhere else…

Even today with all the ReBirth nostalgia going on I always suggest DreamStation I as a much better alternative sonically & visually as ReBirth easy enough to make a BWomp-BWomp-BWomp-BWomp-BWomp-BWomp tune but a complex one you gotta take NOTES on what you are doin’ on what patterns as there is no tracker view whereby you can see a range of notes being triggered on numerous tracks…Uhhh, BETTER!!

Nowadays the higher rez screenz make the tracker ‘smaller’ so harder to see pattern info…ReRezing screen a pain & make other stuff not work right. I use a magnifier called FatBits to project a view window of where I am working-

The DreamStation I page on the wayback is here (Jan 2001)-

DS1 has been freeware for many years available in couple spots a direct DL-

https://web.archive.org/web/20150811225726/http://www.audio-simulation.com/downloads/DS1Install_R004.exe

Only real gripe I have is the limited function pattern editor, which is setup a bit different…For me I rather use the automation rather than pattern commands as such…Most the demo tunes use the synth for all instruments except for imported drum WAVs…With a few exceptions…

RECOMMENDED!!**

Couple fart around vids be Ronan Fed-

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The weakness of DS was the tracker interface. The spikey resolution of the commands and so on. Btw the Renoise synth sounds from V1 were extremely usable, too. There were severe problems with DS acting as a plug-in as well, depending on your host and your soundcard.

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Yes, absolutely…That is what I was trying to portray was the weak tracker interface which tends to turn me off everything else being very useable…
But…BUTT!!..There are some VERY GOOD demo tunes done in this…impressive…And as Anthony Hopkins Character stated in ‘The Edge’…“What ONE MAN can do ANOTHER can do!!”…
SOOOOooo, I feel I must change my thinking of DS1 or find a solid workaround method (I had to do that in H8 Tracker)…

How about creating stems and exporting them?

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Exporting stems?..Well, Anybody can do with it as they wish but for me I see the demo tunes are not stems but demo tunes 100% so I would want to do as such for personal satisfaction…

I think minimizing what you do in the pattern editor & making up for it in clever automation is the key…Cut your BPMs way down then record your automation, turn back up…this way sharp transitions can be achieved…If it’s not right, clear, rinse, repeat…

Seems to work well with Korg nanoKEY2 & old M-Audio Oxygen 8 as well…

BTW…Is anybody else sick of YT commercials? they play LONGER all the time…and NO!..I am NOT GONNA BUY any Shittin’ MIDI chord paks!! The frickin’ guy says “You just drag-drop onto your DAW”…Well, THAT’s real satisying…He even says as it starts playing…“That’s a VIBE” but with lackluster intensity…

Can’t stand the politically correct KVR anymore either, prefer the old…Here’s plug page ALL from 2007-

Or pick any other snapshot thereof…

Continuing on then…

One cool aspect of Dreamstation 1 is the fact it has NO SAMPLER!..Your sample pool is collected up & then you pick what WAV to load as a waveform in the synth…

This sorta makes it like a ‘Linplug CronoX’ in that it has now become a hybrid synth & you can load WAVs into all three OSCs or just one or two & use the others standard-like…

Note this feature only available in the TRACKER not the DXi plugin-

This allows much room for experiments as you get to mess with the sample via many synth parameters…

Dreamstation also respects internal loop points within samples loaded as such & they work much as expected…NON-loopers decay out whilst LOOPERS stay on till another note is reached, there is a note-off command or you happen to turnUP the ‘keyoff’ knob (quite handy…)

Best practice seems to be make just some bS pattern to run-loop whilst changing out WAVs & adjusting all the other for the best possible sound…

Of course you samples must be MONO so you can convert your stereo but if they are loopers then many editors nowadays ‘BLOW OUT’ the loop points when saving…

Endless WAV works well it will combine both channels to a single MONO and WILL RETAIN the loop points, is free-

https://www.bjoernbojahr.de/endlesswav.html

But…BUTT! If you wanna take a stereo WAV & split it into left-right so you could put both left & right into two of the OSCs then Endless WAV won’t work…

I use the old free app Sampled 2.0 which works in MONO only if you load a stereo it will ask which side to load, it retains loop points but you HAVE TO open ‘OPTIONS’ on the save dialog & push in the ‘Save Loop Points’ button before save…

Page is here-

https://web.archive.org/web/20000818030319/http://www.sylaba.poznan.pl/~neurod/sampled/

Download is here-

https://web.archive.org/web/20201002125528/http://www.maz-sound.de/archives/samplw20.zip

Pretty much it…I don’t see where anybody had done sound design in this way usually they just import drum-percussion WAVs in the sample pool & use the synth for EVERYTHING ELSE…

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