Johey

I am glad I started this thread. This gave me valuable insights in the multiengine. I only thought the multiengine was a way of making the MB a 24 voices polophonic synth, but that is obviously wrong. I will play around with that. Thank you for all suggestions! Now I think I know what is the next step. :)

Okay, thanks! That feels a bit limited, doesn't it? Or do I misunderstand? This is how I do a typical SID tune in a tracker for one single SID: First I do the drum n bass track on channel 1. Here I typically use two or three different instruments alternating. In the next channel I do chords (or rather arpeggios fast enough to sound like chords). Here I use to or three instruments (one for each chord type, like major, minor and septima). Then on the last channel, I typically do a melody with one or two instruments. All in all I typically use five to ten instruments on one single SID chip in my tune. Limiting myself to a total of four instruments on eight chips feels like the opposite way to what I was hoping for when building the machine. :) Though, maybe the drumkit engine is somewhat close to what I want. And I understand one instrument is more powerful in the MB than in a SID tracker, so I might be able to use one instrument for what I normally use several, so the comparison might be a little weak. Anyway, assigning several patches to one core should be possible... That's my humble opinion. :)

Now I'm away abroad for the weekend, but next week I will hopefully have a few hours for playing around with the MB. I am grateful for the tips! Will try the randomiser, but I like to have control, so I will likely spend more time actually trying to understand each parameter. If I can take control over the wavetables like I can with a SID tracker, I think I actually can find it useful. One question which might be in the manual but I must have missed when I read it: I assign a MIDI channel to one or more cores. That I understand. Now I can play four sounds without doing a program change. But can I also assign different patches to different keyboard keys within one channel? Useful for playing drums for instance. Now I'm talking about the lead engine. I could use the drum engine, but if so I would like to use the patches only, not the sequencer. Don't know what is good practise or even possible here. Maybe it was a mistake installing the preset bank. Perhaps erasing it would be a good idea, or at least more it away from A. Yesterday I saved my first patch! Very much like the tutorial patch by some reason :) but with modwheel assigned to cutoff (which by some reason affected left and right channel very differenty, although both channels were selected, but that's another story).

I was actually hoping for you to come cheering me up, Peter - the master of actually using the MB6582! :) I guess you're right about creating your own patches. That is something I must spend some time with. How do you prefer creating your patches? In some computer based patch creation software or right on the machine using the control panel? Then, do you save the patches in a bank or do you send them from your sequencer over sysex? The latter I haven't even tried and don't know if it is even possible... Why I ask is because I think I need some hands-on tips so I can focus on creativity rather than looking for how to do things... Btw... I've bought and sold a number of hardware synths the last two years. Never found one that sounds like I want. Heck, I'm not even sure I like synths. Still, I really love the C64 sound. I've made a handful of SID tunes the last 15 years, so I know I like that. :) Other than that, I rather play my balalaika than my Minibrute (though the x0xb0x is quite fun to play with for half an hour now and then). Hope to fall in love with the MB6582 for real soon though.

Yes you can use the mb6582 as it was four sammichSIDs... Oh well, at least for leads, drum and base. Multi and supersaw I don't know... They might require all cores themselves, but maybe you can select which to assign. I don't think this is the problem though. Maybe it's hard to explain what I want, likely because I don't really know... :) But ok. What I really want probably is a tracker, like goattracker for instance, but with 24 channels and MIDI. That would be the definition of awesome. I have only played around with the default patchset. Maybe I can do more of what I want by creating my own wave tables. That might be the next step in the evaluation.

So last Christmas I finished the construction of my MB6582. It was what I though the optimal synth for me, as I'm a big sucker for C64 game and demo music. Now it has passed almost a year. I've played around with it now and then, but just realizing it doesn't sound as I want. Heck, this should sound 8 times as good as a C64, right? Well, I cannot even get it sounding like one. Have anyone used the MidiBox SID for making chiplike music? Or is it used only as yet another all-in-one synth for ambient leads and fancy drum n base? I need inspiration and hints on how to use it the way I want to. Maybe 8 chips are too much for me. Maybe what I need is something like the MSSIAH?

The encoder is discussed in It may or may not be the same issue.

They will be usable anyway. You have voltage regulators in the MBSID.

From what I have understood the revised license implicitly allows you to sell up to ten boxes a year. :smile: Would you care posting a photo or two? Would you post to Sweden, and if so, how much is the shipping?

That looks awesome! Do you build the case as well as cutting the panels or how can I get my hands on a complete one?

Ok, jag återkommer när jag vet mer.

Congratulations! Very nice build and an even nicer tune. Hope to hear more from you! :)

Jag känner en som kanske har kvar sin sammichSID. Han tänkte sälja den förut för 2500 kr. Om det är intressant kan jag kolla med honom.

You know, there are people in Sweden too. :)

It's alive!

5V is signal currency, ie. perfectly normal for data pins. 5V is "binary 1" and 0V/GND is "binary 0". Only pin 28 should have 12V for 6581 and 9V for 8580/6582.

Haven't tried myself, but I guess it would make sense controlling sustain with velocity, providing attack and decay is both zero? Edit: Oh, okay. No display might add some difficulties. But I guess you could load a patch created on another box.

Haha. :tongue:

Oh. Didn't know that. Maybe one should experiment with different values to bring new potentially interesting sounds? :)

Have you measured the voltages while everything is connected, including the sids? If the power supply is bad, it might drop too much while heavily loaded. And remember there are different capacitors for 6581 and 8580. I don't know what effect to expect by using wrong type.

Super! What instruments are you using in this one? Any MB6582?

Let's just split jojje's and my order if it doesn't fit in one box.

I can imagine! Can you drill and engrave aluminium panels with this?

Sold to henning. Thanks for a nice chat! Enjoy!

Wow, this is awesome! Very good job!