Anybody? Crickets? Chiptune obsession anyone? @looms? @PentalagusMusic? @Jeanne? @glooms? @Bunker? @darenager? @Octagonist?
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The C-64 was the first computer, as far as I know, that introduced trackers and host the legendary SID sound from the chip labelled after the same name.
While it’s charming with just three monophonic voices and the very distinct sound the SID chip produces, were you to acquire a 64 today and the gear needed to make it work over MIDI, I would still guess that at some point, you’d be underwhelmed by its limitations, however charming it is.
I wrote my first stumbling pieces of electronic music on a C-64 tracker. Even back then, it was a fairly painful experience, despite the fact that we had no other options at the time 
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I’ve got a boxed C64C here that a work colleague gave me when he emigrated. I didn’t get any software with it sadly.
Even the boss is interested
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@Funk_Illuminati have a look through this thread
I don’t have any experience with the Moog Song Producer other than seeing it online a few times, IIRC around 10-15 years ago a number of new old stock ones appeared for sale on eBay US and appeared on Matrixsynth blog. It always looked interesting, although I don’t know how useful it would be today.
There is quite a thriving scene for C64 stuff, with lots of new peripherals and software still being made today, including quite a few music making tools and hardware.
The C64 itself is a pretty capable synth, given its age and with some caveats, but if you are determined to get a C64 setup working IMHO it is well worth it. Although obviously it is associated with chiptune, it is also capable of a wider range of sounds than typical chiptune stuff. It has a really nice PWM, some people say it is their favourite PWM sound.
I don’t use my C64 setup all the time, but it is great to have there when I feel like using it, I use mainly Mssiah, Cynthcart, Defmon, Midislave and a few other programs.
If you want to use it with midi Mssiah and Kerberos are both excellent and work well.
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if you really want to go down the C64 wormhole you have to find eight and then build one of these.
http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/wilba_mb_6582
four note Polyphony, with two SID chips per note, so three oscillators each for L/R channel on each note… it is quite the synth.
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the things that will probably annoy you about the C64/SID chip:
noise
there’s a bug with the ADSR envelope that makes playing staccato notes a bit hit and miss without workarounds to silence notes.
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I have a couple of the SID voice chips lying around somewhere. I’ve always meant to build one into a module, but haven’t gotten around to it. 
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I have a gate pedal. Thank you so much @the_duckchild and @darenager. And Scott. And Bunker. And Jeanne. Oh and @circuitghost!
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C64 was my first computer, and I consider getting an empty C64 (the later version that looked more like an Amiga) case and put a MiSTer in it since youtube has have gotten me nostalgic and into games - i bought my first game controller two years ago for my PC and never had a console 
Apart from that, I’m actually not in chiptune aesthetics (what is generally associated with that word), which is of course not the SID’s fault.
This is cool (my fav youtuber showing an album on a cardrige on his SX64):
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Hashtag dream synths
Building a Commodore 64 from completely new parts:
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The 600 is one of the few Amiga models I’ve never owned (though that day may come). I love these things about it:
- its compactness (no number pad)
- it has PCMCIA like A1200 (though it’s slightly buggy sometimes) (a PCMCIA to CF adapter with the appropriate software running on the Amiga side can actually mount a CF card [under 4GB] that can be shared with/used in the Octatrack btw … I wouldn’t do this with your production card though)
- can fit (solid state) hard drive inside
- 2 megs chipram, I think
- expandable
- ECS mode can use low-end VGA with an adapter (not as nicely as AGA can)
Things to check though:
- the capacitors may need replacing
- the OS may be 2.x and may be best to upgrade (unless you can get by with it, which is totally possible/reasonable)
The A600 would be a mean machine using OctaMED SoundStudio — that program is a beast (there are tracker commands that send ARexx commands to other programs running on the Amiga – interprocess communications in a tracker 
) . I also like using Sample Wrench (which can also be scripted over ARexx) and … well, tons of other s__t on the Amiga. (Bars & Pipes Professional is an amazing MIDI environment, reminiscent of M4L, but it could take years to master and it’s not without its bugs. Gotta collect all the tools.)
re: C64 – I use my MSSIAH cart quite a bit; especially for the Drummer module. Used Drummer and the Sample player quite a bit on the middle/latter tracks of my jamuary2023 experiments, fed into the AK.
I know @darenager has written a lot about C64 here and elsewhere. I too have had MUSICALC for many many years, with the keyboard attachment. I don’t use it very often; the disk is copy-protected and if it goes bad, it’s impossible to load the program.
I also have (& use & love) a HardSID ISA in a ThinkPad Docking Station but that’s a whole other story.
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the noise can sometimes be worked around. a lot of implementations/users ignore the ‘audio in’ pin on the video cable. if the ‘audio in’ is simply wired to something (so it is properly grounded/closed) then that can eliminate a lot of the noise. at least, that’s my experience on the 6581
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feature not a bug in my eyes anyway
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This is (robot reggae) LYFE.
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Whoa, thanks for the link on Kerberos… didn’t know about this one before.
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here you go, 50 seconds of random life affirming noises made by between 1 & 8 SID chips stuck through a random ableton reverb setting.
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