Oh yeah. that reminds me. i'll be doing a PSU rebuild tutorial as well! Thanks for the reminder Akira!
You can still obtain IIgs's for little to no money though. the most you'll pay is in the monitor.
1,169 Jan 29, 2010 5:24 pm
Re: The Apple IIgs Project (33 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
1,170 Jan 29, 2010 5:22 pm
Re: Recommend an affordable headphone amp? (18 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
hell the built unit is $20. you can't go wrong!
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi … 0200722078
and it's even bi-polar supply! which means more headroom! WooT!
1,171 Jan 29, 2010 4:26 pm
Re: Recommend an affordable headphone amp? (18 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
BitPop wrote:
This is what I have
http://www.behringer.de/EN/Products/HA400.aspx
It's very good with my 64ohm HD280s. Not sure how it will run 300ohm, maybe drop Behringer an email and see?
This seems to be their ticketing system
Price sure is right on that. Might be a good option for the money.
1,172 Jan 29, 2010 4:22 pm
Topic: The Apple IIgs Project (33 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
So amazingly enough there are 3 people who live in a close area in relation to each other that happen to be
motivated in doing some exploration in the world of Apple IIgs Music. If you start doing research on the net you will find that
there is a VERY small niche for this platform and not many people advertise that they work on said platform.
So Unicorn Dream Attack, Arfink and myself are setting out to make it a little more well known, and a little more appealing.
First things first: Documentation. I will be putting together a basic Apple IIgs page on my site that contains software downloads, tutorials, and as much info as we can put together on one page to help people start to get into making music with the //gs!
At the moment i am concentrating on the hardware aspect of things. We're obtaining a few Apple Color monitors that I plan to refurbish and document my
end results on to help keep the already expensive monitors running longer. From there we will look at audio and video output modifications and hacks to help
make audio production a little more appealing.
So my question for you guys is this.. Are there any other users of the apple IIgs that would be interested in helping us document as much as possible.
Perhaps you already make music using a tracker on the system. perhaps you'd like to create a tutorial for that program.. a getting started, or just some basic tips, command hot-key's, etc, etc.
Please feel free to PM me and we'll start going from there.
It would be great to see more people using this platform as it's quite easy to find most of the hardware needed (at least in the united states) to start making music. The IIgs was to America as the Amiga,Atari and Commodore was to Europe. So why not try to get things moving along on this platform!
I'll make updates to this thread as we make progress.. I hope to see more and more of you coming out of the woodwork with your Apple IIgs's!
1,173 Jan 29, 2010 1:50 am
Re: Building basic synthesizers (9 replies, posted in Tutorials, Mods & How-To's)
Greetings Dutchess,
The gate is sort of like the "on / off" for the note. from there control voltage sends the "note value". if you want to think of it in midi terms.
a Trigger is just a shortened gate signal used for what it sounds like. Triggering things. typically time related.
You press a key on your CV keyboard.. 2 signals come out of the outputs.
1. You press down on the key, it sends a Gate on (+voltage), which tells the oscillator to turn on. at the same time the note voltage is sent out to tell tell the oscillator what frequency to play.
2. you let go of the key. the Gate signal stops and the note shuts off..
I can't recommend ray wilson's projects enough! they're great. try the sound lab mini synth!
from there build his sequencer that you can run w/ the sound lab mini synth for more fun!
PM me if you ever have any questions.
Good luck in your synthesis adventure!!!!
of the CV output to tell the oscillator
Gate signals are as long as you hold the note down.
1,174 Jan 27, 2010 6:16 pm
Re: Pixel-art with the Apple IIgs? (17 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
akira^8GB wrote:
hard to find?
extremely, and when found.. $$$ priced much much higher than the value of the IIgs is worth. '
1,175 Jan 27, 2010 6:16 pm
Re: Pixel-art with the Apple IIgs? (17 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
What are the output formats of said graphics programs?
1,176 Jan 27, 2010 6:13 pm
Re: how does everyone afford all their kit?! (75 replies, posted in General Discussion)
albino ghost monkey wrote:
BitPop wrote:But I have to disagree with you there. While there is no substitute for a good song, melody and lyric writing, (possibly even more so in chipmusic), good equipment and the skills to use it bring alot to the table.
I think just knowing your equipment is what really matters, be it good or bad.
Agreed
1,177 Jan 27, 2010 6:12 pm
Re: how does everyone afford all their kit?! (75 replies, posted in General Discussion)
BitPop wrote:
But I have to disagree with you there. While there is no substitute for a good song, melody and lyric writing, (possibly even more so in chipmusic), good equipment and the skills to use it bring alot to the table.
For music outside of chip and lofi, I'd say get the best money can buy.
I think you're 100% wrong. It doesn't matter what gear you have across the board. U can make a great recording using a cassette tape recorder, and an SM-57 and i can do the same using a C12 and a MM1200 multitrack. Will the C12 and 1200 sound better sonically.. of course.. but i bet if the subject matter that i was recorded was good enough that who ever was listening would be more distracted with the greatness of the song to really care about the audio quality differences.
It's not what you have or dont have. it's how you use what you have! be it for lo-fi music or hi-fi.
1,178 Jan 27, 2010 4:24 pm
Re: how does everyone afford all their kit?! (75 replies, posted in General Discussion)
ant1 wrote:
BR1GHT PR1MATE wrote:there is no cost correlation in music; expensive gear adds nothing.
Until you get to proper production and mastering.
This isn't true. you can produce and master a record on next to nothing if you know what you're doing and have the ears for it.
Proper production and mastering should be defined as having the experience and ears for said job, not the tools that you have to do said job.
Nice gear only makes the job either easier or move faster (most of the time, both).
Now... having an engineer master and having a producer who knows what he or she is doing work on your music will more than likely
cost a lot.
But i just wanted to point out that across the board, it doesn't really matter what gear you have, cheap or expensive... It's the music/song that makes it a good.
the rest is just icing on the cake.
Most commonly used example.. The Beatles. They had practically nothing to use for recording. no multi-track's, etc. they used what they had to achieve a record. And frankly i think a lot of the beatles records sound really bad (sound quality) compared to what can be done by pro-sumer gear of today. But it only proves my point that, the beatles had amazing song writing, which puts recording quality on the backburner because the listener cares more about the music then how it was recorded.
Another example. i believe it was led zeppelin III. Everyone raves over the drum sound on that record. And wants to know what was used. To the best of my knowledge they just grabbed 1 mic that was the only mic they happened to have, and worked on mic placement to obtain the best over all sound. nothing fancy, just put the time into working on the sound before hitting record. 
I'll end my rant. teehee 
1,179 Jan 27, 2010 3:43 pm
Re: Does anyone use a TI99? (21 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
akira^8GB wrote:
Isn't the speech module similar to that of the Intellivision?
It's the same speech engine inside of a speak and spell.. only you can control everything and make it say anything you want.
i haven't looked at the exact specs in a long time though. I just know that if you are clever with your phonics you can get this puppy to sound
really really awesome. Only downside is you're programming in TI Basic which can get a little annoying after a while. a Copy Paste function would be fantastic! hahaha
there for i recommend emulation when possible.
I need to just sell my TI-99 off as i just can't justify the shelf space anymore.
1,180 Jan 27, 2010 1:33 pm
Re: Does anyone use a TI99? (21 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
akira^8GB wrote:
It's not a matter of "if you have it, use it". Many times there's no software to make music or whatever you want to do with it. This is a clear case of a machine that lacks a tracker and that has an equivalent sounding chip to another machine that might be easier to use.
I used to have two of them but got rid of them because they were just gathering dust.
Yeah mine definitely doesn't get used much but the speech synth is REALLY powerful if you understand how it works.
1,181 Jan 27, 2010 2:52 am
Re: Does anyone use a TI99? (21 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
I have one. but i only use it w/ terminal II and my speech synth for txt to speech stuff.
1,182 Jan 26, 2010 7:50 pm
Re: how does everyone afford all their kit?! (75 replies, posted in General Discussion)
I think the key is to keep things simple.
work on a platform that you're comfortable with and use it to the best of your ability.
I've always said that it's not what gear you have, but how you use it.
I remember when LSDJ carts used to go for $100+ because they were so hard to find.. This was before i flooded that market and drove the price wayyyy down. 
So now a days you can obtain a cart for as little as $25, LSDJ is a mere $2, and a dmg(any members of the game boy family) can set you back $5 from a thrift store.
Which might explain why that platform is so damn popular. it's so easy to get into and so cheap. $32 isn't bad for a 4 polyphony synthesizer/sequencer/sample play back device!
That's just a couple lawn mowing jobs!
I will say though. Do not let the "gear" get you too distracted from the thing that's actually important.. the music.
Just get what you can afford, learn that inside and out and go from there.
1,183 Jan 26, 2010 6:54 pm
Re: Recommend an affordable headphone amp? (18 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
excellent..
yeah. just wire the + sides of the speakers to your L and R of your headphone jack, then the - sides of the speakers should already be common to each other so running a wire from just one of them to the ground should be all you need to get it to work. If you dont want the internal speakers of the device to run while using the speakers just put those on a simple DPDT switch to turn them on/off while leaving the headphone jack you've wired in parallel (probably wired directly to the amp's pcb, not the speakers) in tact.
Let us know how it turns out!
1,184 Jan 26, 2010 6:12 pm
Re: Recommend an affordable headphone amp? (18 replies, posted in Other Hardware)
egr wrote:
I'd prefer not to go over $30 on this if that's possible.
Then you wouldn't want my pocket mixer i'm designing.
teehee
Your best bet would be to purchase one of those nuby speaker systems that plug onto the bottom of the dmg, then mod it to have a headphone output (just run the headphone output in parallel w/ the internal speakers of the nuby. Should be more than powerful enough to drive a 300ohm load.
Just watch your ears!