Red Sound Darkstar (1999)
8 voices polyphonic synthesizer

 

A Dj-oriental synth module made in UK based on virtual sound modeling.

DESKTOP MODULE optional rackmount kit (5 units) model Rack-02.
The main panel features a segment display, a control joystick, 14 knobs, 8 pads and 19 buttons.

Rear panel terminal connectors are:
- RCA input for external signal processing
- Midi interface
- RCA stereo out.


Power supply is a 9V external PSU +) 800 mA.

TECH Main core based on H8/3002 family (16/32bits) + dedicated audio DSP ADSP-2185 - Analog Devices. Darkstar synthesis is based on V.A. physical modelling and generates 8 voices polyphony, internal DAC is based on Analog devices AD1881A.

Darkstar STRUCTURE 2 detunable oscillators per voice:
- OSC1: progressive from saw to square waveform with variable width.
- OSC2: is much more complex with same progressive OSC1 waveform plus pecial formant mode.
Oscillators can be ringmodulated in this way: OSC1 > OSC2
Also a noise generator with 3 colors pink/ white/ blue.

Hear formant and sync Hear rectangle width range Hear OSC progressive waveshape

PERFORMANCE the 8 voices polyphony can be assigned to 5 parts each with individual settings:

- keyboard zone assignment - Midi channel - panning stereo - gain volume - pitch transpose - monophonic mode (8 glide modes) - aftertouch to filter - aftertouch to LFO

VECTOR the joystick can be used to control different parameters in real-time:

- vector mode mixes between volumes section - filter cutoff and resonance amount - ringmodulator ratio ringmod

 

FILTER digital 2-poles resonant filter features 3 modes: lowpass, highpass and bandpass.
Special keyboard tracking at 25, 50, 100, 150% of cutoff compensation.

HEAR FILTER

 

ENVELOPE there are 2 EGs with quite free routing:

EG1 EG2 OSC1-2 amplitude hardwired - OSC1-2 pitch yes yes OSC1-2 width yes yes filter resonance yes yes

 

LFO up to 2 interchangeable delayed digital modulators (shapes: ramp, triangle, square, sine, pulse, sample-hold and random). Modulators can be retriggered at notes, synched to external Midi clock at various dividers from 1/8th beat to 4 bars.

- OSC pulse width - OSC amplitude - OSC pitch - stereo panning - filter resonance HEAR LFO

 

EXPANSION a special chip can be installed to add some vocoder functions, it is called the VOCODA - just plug into the dedicated hatch under the machine.

For some strange reason, the chip will not work on updated version Dark Star XP2.

MIDI all parameters are mapped to Midi CC# and the knobs transmit also this controller.

 

 

MEMORY
- 64 RAM slots.
Patches and performances can be only saved to Midi exclusive dump.

Left - motherboard - Click on pic to magnify -

 

 

EDITOR not much softwares has been released for this module but the "Dark Star Editor".

 

 

RELATED FAMILY:

	XP2 updated version with different design and some new features. Darkstar mk1 vs XP2 differences Mk1 features RCA instead of Jack, no headphones, lacks the XP2 chorus and special SINEWAVE mode (for OSC2).
	ELEVATA is another VA from REDSOUND VIDEO

AUDIO DEMO

PadLFO Sequence 1 Sequence 2 (filter) Sequence 3 (formant) Sequence ALESTE MSX Bass Vintage Pad filtered Robot PWM Bass with LFO Speedup 303esh Bass quite normal Detuned synched Chill chords Drone? House organ Sequence (another) Weird prodigy Weird resonance trick Commercial mellow

raw oscillator raw osc ringmodulation raw osc lfo sync raw osc part 2 bass droning panning slicer dog darkstar bark pad raw FX bubbling FX ringme FX: Horror panning TEST: 3 noises OSC2 TEST: ringmod TEST: rectangle width range TEST: filter TEST: LFO range on pitch + shapes TEST: OSC progressive waveshape TEST : formant and sync

VIDEO SELECTION examples of sound Custom patches demonstration

MANUAL

-SERVICE MANUAL - Free sample set

original brochure

original brochure

original brochure

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