unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.

Hiya.

I am interested in trying out the NES chips for musical purposes, as it's something I've never done before. I come to you, asking for advice on what the best implementation would be in a hardware sense.

I ask this because I have used the SID chip in a whole manner of different forms, from Eurorack to dedicated synth modules to the console itself via MSSIAH, and I know that the latter wasn't really the most practical option - so assume that the same may well be true with the NES. That said, I do not own a NES (and never have), but I am prepared to get one if that turns out to be the best way.

So... should I get a NES and a particular cart/mod? Is there a specific hardware synth that works really well? e.g. the Twisted Electrons thing? Open to all suggestions (except VSTs - they don't float my boat).

Thank you!

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.

After some better searching (not sure why I failed in the first place), I have something of an answer.

martin_demsky
Offline
Bratislava, Slovakia

If you are talking about NES and not about SNES, it is not far far away from normal Game boy DMG-01 with lsdj or nanoloop. So if you want something handy you can try it.

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.
martin_demsky wrote:

If you are talking about NES and not about SNES, it is not far far away from normal Game boy DMG-01 with lsdj or nanoloop. So if you want something handy you can try it.

Yeah, I've been using LSDJ for over ten years smile I wanted to try the NES specifically.

unexpectedbowtie
Offline
Glasgow, Scotland.
damiendada wrote:

Hi, what did you find in your search?

There aren't a huge amount of options. For dedicated boxes, there's the Arcano:

https://chiptunesynth.com/products/arca … sizer-blue

or the Hapines from Twisted Electrons:

https://twisted-electrons.com/product/hapines-l/

Or some other cartridge for the NES itself which didn't get great reviews.

In the end I got an AY3 from Twisted Electrons, which uses a different chip from the NES, but had more control over the parameters than the other options.

If I was going to buy a NES device I'd probably go with the Hapines.

wedanced
Offline
San Francisco

There is this too https://catskullelectronics.com/products/famimimidi

Where MSSIAH functions more like a limited standalone daw, Famimimidi offers more direct NES control and treats the console closer to a midi instrument.

People seem to like it. check out this thread:
https://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/2427 … ed-it-yet/

Tracking down an old midines cart is another option though I will warn use ones go for high prices and the CC control is apparently more complicated.


There are also native trackers that work on the NES if you have flash cart. That might be an easier transition from LSDJ on gameboy to NES writing. NTRQ and Pulsar come to mind. There is thread on other options here too:
https://chipmusic.org/forums/topic/2472 … -your-nes/

You got a decent amount of options for hardware NES music.

Last edited by wedanced (Apr 8, 2021 11:09 pm)