I’m looking for a C64 program which allows easy and quick creation of one shot sounds/sound fx, I already have defmon, mssiah, Sidwizard, Synthcart, retroskoi, and other trackers (although any recommendations for this type of thing welcome too, new or old)
But basically I want a program which allows full access to the sid registers, preferably with some kind of gui rather than coding, I’m pretty sure I recall some 80’s software which could do this but don’t know the names.
Just out of genuine curiosity, is this so specialist that you couldn’t do some configuration via e.g. Pd… i.e. what’s the deal on SID chips (zero experience or knowledge) I’m concluding there’s no MIDI at the coalface but some other protocols? Is there a restriction on platform which it can interface with.
The cult of SID (despite my age and early techy leanings, and our present host’s beginnings) has passed me by somehow </shame>
Feel free to educate us(me) if inclined
Okay i’ve just educated myself before banging reply, the editor is to be on C64 (doh!) i was merging the two as though one … even more educating in order perhaps
Sure, it would be fairly trivial to make Sid type sounds on say A4/AK or Pd or whatever, in just the same way one could make a 303 or Minimoog sound on those. But the devil is in the details isn’t it? Also the Sid chip can do some pretty remarkable stuff fairly unique to its erm uniqueness of design - a semi analogue synth chip under direct control from a computer.
So far defmon is the closest to being able to do what I’m after, but unless you are a whizz at it then it is pretty laborious/slow going and more for making music than just sounds.
Not yet, do you know the names of any, a lot that I see are trackers rather than sound creation - I never had a C64 in the 80’s but a friend did, my knowledge of the older stuff is pretty limited to searching on csdb.
Ah i see, my mistaken thinking was that you would be one step closer to the source on some external ‘board’ rather than on the host, makes sense … so, by comparison, my Atari STe will have a less interesting IC on it that i’m guessing doesn’t have the analog goodness or just isn’t as comparable
So the SID chips are more ‘console’ focused (or fundamentally different) than other seminal ‘synth’ chips which allow more flexibility from variable control voltages for synthesizing acoustic sounds as opposed to a square fest or something a bit like that
I suppose in a way the closest one could get to a Sid in a C64 (aside from the Sidstation and maybe some of the other Sid derived synths) is the A4/AK in that you have rapid control of almost every aspect of the sound. Quite analogous to say a modular system where precise values can be instantly and rapidly sent and changed at will.
“Welcome to STATION64, the live player solution. Real hardware synth controlled by MIDI. Many people loves SID original sound. Many people have some midi stuff. I’ve been in search of any appz to use C64 as external synth. MSSIAH you say? Yeah, i have one. Great piece of hardware, but i wanna to control all SID activity, use all oscillators, play with commodore computer keyboard too, see midi activity and so on. And of course, do a some self challenge to code it.”
unfortunately not, but im tracing all sid activities from a nostalgic view. don´t have the space for an c64 setup with monitor and so on…but i´m sneaking around the fpgasid, maybe there is someone providing an raspi-interface for these chips…
are they available anywhere or cloned or unobtanium (my vague understanding), haven’t hit that wiki yet - idly curious about all this given the evident alure of it all … must say (although not a Sid thing) i did rather enjoy my son’s Pocket Arcade, less for retro vibes, in places just because of the sweetness of sound
is there a way to even remotely fake a SID by assembling some of teh constituents of it or using subsets of other ICs to restrict the options ?
Yes, and there have been a few good shots at emulations, as I understand.
I haven’t tried any, nor am I really any sort of SID or chiptune afficionado (as my moniker might suggest otherwise). So take this with a grain of salt.
But for SID affairs, friends over at Midibox usually have got you covered pretty good:
What more could another program do as far accessing SID chips ability that MSSIAH can’t do? I’ve used the SID station and SID based eurorack modules and currently have MSSIAH but I don’t see what more the SID can do that MSSIAH doesn’t give you access to?
AFAIK, MIDIBox SID project is the most comprehensive SID ‘editor’ in HW form. It goes beyond what is provided by the SID chip itself and adds some extra modulations, stereo pairing of two or more chips (sounds really huge as no two chips are made equal), lead/bass/drums engines, ensemble (kinda like multi mode) and more.
I only have the original SammichSID (2x SIDs inside, no full-blown MIDIBox SID) which is a MIDIBox SID based project. There is very nice randomizer built in for each ‘engine’ type. It’s a great source of nasty chiptune craziness.
It isn’t that I find MSSIAH lacking really in that regard, but ideally I am after something where everything is all on one screen and a bit quicker to use. In MSSIAH you have to jump around a few screens and I don’t find it very quick to make sounds, the monosynth and sequencer cover pretty much most of the sounds I want though. Maybe it is better with a mouse but I don’t have one, I tried a mouse adapter and PC mouse but it was too erratic.
Yea that makes sense, I use it with a C64 mouse and I love it but I do see what you’re saying in that it’s supposed to be a DAW primarily so if you’re trying to just use it as a synth or to crate a sound pack especially without a mouse it’s definitely little more cumbersome.
I love MSSIAH though just like LSDJ on the gameboy it just does everything one would want to do. I really wish there was a tracker or DAW specifically for the NES out of all the sound chips of video game consoles thr NES is my favorite even though it’s comparatively very limited when held up to something like thr SID chip I just love the raw sound it it.
Yes I used MSSIAH to make quite a lot of sounds, I have the ipad app for the monosynth control which speeds things up a bit. Finding a C64 mouse is pretty difficult these days, they tend to sell for stupid money.
Still, I don’t think that all the sid sounds are possible using it, probably most instrument type sounds, but those kind of arcade sounds heard in some games which have much faster modulation - I think MSSIAH is using software generated LFO and filter envelopes which can’t go as fast as those - understandable given it is doing a lot of other stuff.