looking for a small physical 8-bit synth

it needs to be small, and it only really needs to be able to generate bassy square waves.

i say 8-bit synth because I would like the tones to be somewhat dirty (like a gameboy sort of tone) and because it doesn need a filter or proper envelope (immediate attack, immediate release and no decay).

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

  On 11/11/2010 at 5:44 AM, Backson said:

it needs to be small, and it only really needs to be able to generate bassy square waves.

 

i say 8-bit synth because I would like the tones to be somewhat dirty (like a gameboy sort of tone) and because it doesn need a filter or proper envelope (immediate attack, immediate release and no decay).

 

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

you can get this thing that plays in the old nes systems and control it by midi.

gameboy and nanoloop.... i heard the old grey game boys are chunky... not sure about MIDI but i know it can be done

  On 11/11/2010 at 6:47 AM, hahathhat said:

gameboy and nanoloop.... i heard the old grey game boys are chunky... not sure about MIDI but i know it can be done

i have nanoloop 2.0 for the advance. fuck i don't understand it at all. i can't get past making a simple pattern and then tweaking the sound/ it's doesn't help that the manual is ESL. i have heard that nanoloop 1.0 is far easier to program BUT soundwise it's not as powerful as 2.0

  On 11/11/2010 at 6:35 AM, yek said:

  On 11/11/2010 at 5:44 AM, Backson said:

it needs to be small, and it only really needs to be able to generate bassy square waves.

 

i say 8-bit synth because I would like the tones to be somewhat dirty (like a gameboy sort of tone) and because it doesn need a filter or proper envelope (immediate attack, immediate release and no decay).

 

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

you can get this thing that plays in the old nes systems and control it by midi.

SID chip?

perhaps just go backwards and google for gameboy midi sid midi nintendo midi or whatever strikes your fancy

(jazzband midi pro)

  On 11/11/2010 at 8:10 AM, Backson said:

  On 11/11/2010 at 6:35 AM, yek said:

  On 11/11/2010 at 5:44 AM, Backson said:

it needs to be small, and it only really needs to be able to generate bassy square waves.

 

i say 8-bit synth because I would like the tones to be somewhat dirty (like a gameboy sort of tone) and because it doesn need a filter or proper envelope (immediate attack, immediate release and no decay).

 

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

you can get this thing that plays in the old nes systems and control it by midi.

SID chip?

sid chip is from c64. sammichsid is pretty good though:

http://www.midibox.org/blog/?p=60

  On 11/11/2010 at 8:22 AM, hahathhat said:

perhaps just go backwards and google for gameboy midi sid midi nintendo midi or whatever strikes your fancy

 

(jazzband midi pro)

that has provided little help. I thought I'd save time and ask the Music Makers.

a bit more information that may be helpful us that I've discovered the sound I want to recreate comes from a YM2149 chip. So i guess my ideal solution would be synth that uses that chip, especially if was just a concise little circuit, that can be triggered by a MIDI keyboard and the parametres changed using the knobs on the controller. That last part I'm a bit hazy on how/if that would be possible.

but yeah, I'll be googling. I hope someone with expertise can show me a simple solution.

ym2149 is the chip used in atari computers (st, ste etc) iirc, so it's basically all square waves, which could be emulated on a gameboy running lsdj or nanoloop. i don't know about nanoloop but lsdj has midi support, and i know there used to be special built midi cables for the old gray gameboy available (check ebay).

this is just if you really want to go proper oldschool with the hardware though, you could easily make these kind of sounds (classic 8-bit arpeggios, dirty square leads etc) on a pc running renoise (or any tracker based sequencer, i don't know about piano roll ones since i don't used them), since again, it's all just simple square waves anyway.

/rant

edit: OR, you could go and get yourself a real atari st/ste/falcon (since they have midi support / built in midi in out) and learn how to use this and go for the real thing.

oh and then there's this vst

  On 11/11/2010 at 10:18 AM, data said:

oh and then there's this vst

 

well... funny thing...

that's the synth I've used for ages. I love it.

I'm actually trying to design a keytar that can emulate those bass textures. I've got a MIDI controller, and I want to redesign the case and include a YM-like synth inside the case. That's why it has to be small, and only require a MIDI controller to use.

but yeah, love that synth.

I believe this is what you want.

http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Main/SID-emulator

^ looks pretty good

A friend made one of these a few years ago, minus a nice case http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid.html

It's supposed to be tricky getting hold of legit SID chips now though.

  On 11/11/2010 at 8:10 AM, Backson said:

  On 11/11/2010 at 6:35 AM, yek said:

  On 11/11/2010 at 5:44 AM, Backson said:

it needs to be small, and it only really needs to be able to generate bassy square waves.

 

i say 8-bit synth because I would like the tones to be somewhat dirty (like a gameboy sort of tone) and because it doesn need a filter or proper envelope (immediate attack, immediate release and no decay).

 

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

you can get this thing that plays in the old nes systems and control it by midi.

SID chip?

http://www.wayfar.net/0xf00000_overview.php

is it really that hard to get a hold of a sid chip these days? i haven't been active in that scene for quite some time, but i've got 3 of them in my closet, and last time i looked to buy a cheap c64 it was just a few google searches away. also, i don't really see the need for all this fancy equipment (sidstation, sid emulator etc), it's just waveforms, and with a simple waveform editor they can be made to sound like whatever, as long as you know what sid actually sounds like. if not, there's always goattracker.

I agree on the hardware bit. It was a while back so I can't remember exactly, but it did take him a while to get a few C64s (that still had the chips) for a fair price. There was an influx of people selling phony chips too, either duds or relabelled ones. Seems a pretty niche market to scam to me.

  On 11/11/2010 at 10:02 AM, data said:

ym2149 is the chip used in atari computers (st, ste etc) iirc, so it's basically all square waves, which could be emulated on a gameboy running lsdj or nanoloop. i don't know about nanoloop but lsdj has midi support, and i know there used to be special built midi cables for the old gray gameboy available (check ebay).

 

this is just if you really want to go proper oldschool with the hardware though, you could easily make these kind of sounds (classic 8-bit arpeggios, dirty square leads etc) on a pc running renoise (or any tracker based sequencer, i don't know about piano roll ones since i don't used them), since again, it's all just simple square waves anyway.

 

/rant

 

edit: OR, you could go and get yourself a real atari st/ste/falcon (since they have midi support / built in midi in out) and learn how to use this and go for the real thing.

http://aeeprojects.blogspot.com/2007/02/bending-yamaha-psr-6.html

not quite what you're looking for, but uses a YM2413 :)

the Midines is probably the cheapest & by far the easiest option for external midi control . you just need an original 8-bit nes system and a midines cartridge. its an old nintendo cart with a midi cable coming out the back.

Vnsares uses it a lot on his later stuff

http://www.wayfar.net/0xf00000_overview.php

nanoloop is cool but im not aware of how to trigger midi on it externally, if it can be done i've never been able to do it successfully. only clocked it as a slave before

  Quote

And when I say small, I mean ideally it would just be a little circuit board because its gonna be inside something else. I saw one a while ago, but alas I've lost it...

nevermind, too big for you :)

Also, check out the MSSIAH cartridge for the Commodore 64.

MSSIAH

all very helpful, but I ignored you all and your talk of SID chips and found that this is essentially exactly what I'm after. Almost too perfectly!

however, it is not MIDI compatible yet, but I got in touch with the site and apparently they are working on a version that will support plain old MIDI inputs.

So thanks, but after all that Google served me much better.

  On 11/16/2010 at 12:55 PM, Backson said:

all very helpful, but I ignored you all and your talk of SID chips ........

So thanks, but after all that Google served me much better.

your original request was pretty vague, you have no one to blame but yourself

don't worry, i do!