Monomachine DSP oscillators and filters in software?

[thumperjack]

since it’s discontinued how feasible would it be for monomachine brains to be ran on software? since it’s 100% digital and runs on really really old computer tech is it a simple task to run those oscillators and filters in a VST? i would pay good money again to get those oscillators and filters in software to use with other control methods. nobody makes dirty crunchy spitty screaming resonant distortion DSP like anymore except dirtywave himself

20 years is a really long time for a product as infamous as monomachine to go without getting an emulation or a port to let it live on with a mouse tail

[thermionic]

It’s not a simple task to emulate super-low latency embedded platforms. however nothing is impossible, of course!

Since the software is written in assembly for the specific processor utilized, you would need to rewrite all of the code for a general purpose platform or emulate the processor(s) entirely which can require a lot of CPU power.

From a long-dead thread I see- “SFX-6 has two Motorola DSP 56303s with one Motorola Coldfire 56206e for the operating system”

[Jukka]

@thermionic

Motorola DSP 56303s

Interesting.

Check out this thread :

DSP56300 (Access Virus) emulator (very alpha, no GUI)

Some good progress has been made on an open source project to emulate the Motorola DSP56300 chip (as used in the Access Virus, along with a whole bunch of other 90s synths from Waldorf, Novation, Nord etc.) and it can now run Virus B and C ROMs as a VST! Only had a little play but it sounds legit and you can listen to all the factory presets using program change messages. It’s fairly heavy on the CPU, being an emulator. https://dsp56300.wordpress.com - bit of a write up at https://www.musicra…

It would be a lot of work but it might be possible to emulate the hardware in software and run the existing code.

To reemphasize — this would be a lot of work, and potential not possible, but the Access Virus emulator is a encouraging parallel.

[license]

@thumperjack

nobody makes dirty crunchy spitty screaming resonant distortion DSP like anymore except dirtywave himself

I think you’ve got your solution right there.

Alternately, learn Max or SuperCollider and roll your own gnar.

[avantronica]

@thumperjack

since it’s discontinued how feasible would it be for monomachine brains to be ran on software?

@thumperjack

i would pay good money again

It’s worth keeping in mind that despite being a legacy product Elektron may have legitimate concerns if (where applicable) their Intellectual Property is exploited …

[tdmusic]

@Jukka

To reemphasize — this would be a lot of work, and potential not possible, but the Access Virus emulator is a encouraging parallel.

Yeah the Virus emulator is such an impressive achievement and I guess proof that some pretty remarkable things in this area are possible with enough effort! The MAME arcade emulator is actually able to support the MD/MnM firmware in some capacity, it can’t create any sound or anything but I believe the new MD firmware project got started by messing around with this… assembler hacking is not for the faint hearted though