i was thinking, is it possible to make an Atari-punk console-LIKE synth from a SID chip?
With knobs to change the sounds generated from it?
And, If it is possible, has it been done?
I know of SID station, but I want a more DIY approach.
That's MIDI, though.
I was looking for more of a knobby little guy~
Maybe this could be what you want. http://playground.arduino.cc/Main/SID-emulator
The thing is though, to get a good sound out of the sid, as in all your favourite sid tracks, you need to send a lot of changes to the wavetable and play around with pitch and stuff.
I wouldn't get much use out of that, considering everything i do is via a handheld.
If you want something knobby, maybe you should build one of these?
If you only knew how many times i've read through this website. hahahaha.
though, I do appreciate you bringing it back up to me!
It's surely been a while.
Honestly, if you're gonna snatch a SID, use it for something awesome like the MIDIbox. Not enough of those to go around to be carefree with them. Take a look at some of the emulation options like godinpants mentioned.
don't these midi ones just sound like a 3 OSC synth with a filter though? I mean, you need proper frame-based instruments to get really good stuff out of the SID, and then a really good driver like SDI/GT to get the very best out of it. Is that kind of thing supported?
4mat - basically from the one I had that's all it was. But, they can be used for playback. There was the ability for the sammichSID atleast to be controlled by HVSC and possibly goattracker as well.
don't these midi ones just sound like a 3 OSC synth with a filter though? I mean, you need proper frame-based instruments to get really good stuff out of the SID, and then a really good driver like SDI/GT to get the very best out of it. Is that kind of thing supported?
You can use the lfos or a wavetable seqeuncer to get a really high refresh rate on modulation commands but its not nearly as fast as the refresh rate of the tables on some of the better trackers. You can use the hacked hardsid.dll to use it with a emulator running a real tracker however, if you are willing to give up midi control.
Edit: from the manual:
"The lead engine provides six low frequency oscillators which can be assigned to different modulation targets within the modulation matrix."
"the speed of the LFO can be adjusted from 0.008 Hz (1) to ca. 45 Hz (255)."
"a frame is processed each 20 mS (50 Hz), the appr. wavetable rate of MIDIbox SID is 115 "
They can also be clocked to subdivsions of the clock speed.
http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_manual_l.html
http://www.ucapps.de/howto_sid_wavetables_1.html
Last edited by herr_prof (Dec 21, 2012 2:34 pm)