HW SID-synth is currently pretty expensive thing from every perspective. Quality SID chip from ebay costs around 100 eur, Sidstation is also expensive, controller from twisted electrons too (it is without sid chip), on original C64 you can plug cartridge Cynthcart, but you also need midi interface, so this is even more complicated. Easiest solution without SID chip is inSIDious plugin, it is developed by real C64 veterans and it is as real as possible.

Hello community!
Does anyone know of a hardware based SID-synth that isn’t to expensive to buy or a simple diy build that doesn’t require hours of soldering and a BOM that spans over several pages.
Something like Catskulls YM2149 or a USB-SID that can be controlled from let’s say an emulator/bmc64 would be great.

I use both Mssiah and Station64 but sometimes I wish for a simple life that doesn’t require the old beasts to be powered on and also for a less cluttered studio.