TheFumigator

So, whats new guys?? I've seen FM project has been updated, what exaclty? Laters! Fumi

Hello everyone, I'm about to build the PIC programer for finally burn my 18F, however, looking at the board layout (http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_burner_v1.brd) with eagle, I found 2 strange things compared to the circuit design (http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp/mbhp_burner.pdf), that I want to clear off before drawing the thing into the copper side of my board, these strange things are related to the DB25 connector: -there are several pins joint and going to ground on the circuit desing that are not that way in the board layout. -there's a strange track in the board layout that goes from one of the DB25 pin to nowhere, despite looking like a tree... doesn't look as doing something. Thanks in advance Fumi

Great to see midibox growing more and more!

Reverb is ok, maybe a way to enable and disable it? I think you should join TK and see if both can make a new synth together ;-) so maybe all the swin sid capabilites pops up, this way it doesn't have to be a simple sid simulation but something else, more complex, and less specific, right?

Great! :D What about a pic of the yamaha chips side?

not sure if its that easy to implement, maybe someone with more electronic knowledge could answer us this question. However, even the designer has updated its code some time ago "to better support the TDA1543 DAC". Don't know but it seems far from easy...

2 korgs are too much, 3 its an outrageous number :o I wish synths would appeared like daisys in my country as it happens in France... but that will never happen :-\ BTW, je sais français, j'ai allé au lycée français de Montevideo presque tout les annés du lycée. Je un peut oublié le français mais bon... je peut lire parfaitement et j'ecoute musique trés souvant. ;)

yeah, the special mbsid is what we discussed in the sid section. We concluded that the swin sid was hard to make due to rare components (the TDA1543 is nowhere available)

oh its true, I haven't seen the second one. 2 identical sweet korgs, imagine, you have replacement parts so at least one is going to work for a long time... sorry for my ignorance but, isn't it better to make an external CV to midi converter? or none of these Korgs have CV input? or there's a disadvantage I ignore? ???

LOL, I feel like at home in this forum, I think that with my knowlegde on programming and electronics I could fit better in here. What I'm building is the FM, but if you think the price of shipping the sid alone is low enough, then you are welcome. Still, I want to make the FM first and if I succeed then I would follow with a midibox sid.

Yeah, exactly! Thanks TK However, suppose I want to get out of the computer, can I easily add 2 buttons (? back ; ? fordward) to move through the 128 presets? Also, 2 more buttons to jump 10 more positions so I can reach a preset that is far in the list (ex: wanna reach preset nº 85, I would need to press "?" 85 times, while if there are 10-, 10+ buttons available, I would have to press the +10 button 8 times, and 5 times of the +1 button to reach preset 85 in this example) Or better, a v-pot... but it would need an lcd to see in which preset you are on.(unless you guide yourself with your ear...) Thanks in advance TK

:o That synth is gorgeous. Its a Korg PS 3100, priced 1000 $ ~ 2000$ http://www.vintagesynth.com/korg/ps3100.shtml I would probably tremble too much while retrofitting that thing... and probably do it wrong. :-X

I'm stuck too, its not available nowhere here, nor even in Spain :-\ However, its only a DAC, there should be an alternative... a modification to the board may be necessary tho... Still, not going to give up, with or without a SID, I'm building the FM first. ;)

yeah, they look gorgeous. Usually, I just nail the wholes a little bit, before drilling, so the pick can enter the whole without alignment problem. How is the liquid called in english? (the one that eats copper? I haven't found a good translation, I just call it iron perclorhide but I don't think I got it right)

yeah, that was what I thought, the way the midibox uses the sid is much more intensive than how the C64 uses it. Which makes me suspect it could not work the way it should... Taking that off, the SwinSID designer states that the thing has much more features, like wavetable synthesis and other, but as it doesnt have software support, he says, then the only use you can give to a SwinSID is replace a real SID, at least temporally or for experimenting. It could interesting tho, to make use of those special features in a Special MidiBOX for SwinSID, but of course that dream could be real only if the mastermind of midiboxes is interested ;) You are missing these: 1- People could want to have a synth without having to carry a laptop, and even if there tons of soft plugins available, lone hardware is still hardware. 2- no SID softsynth have the amount of IN and OUT that the midibox SID has. Due to that, you can't achieve in software nor even half the sounds you achieve with the midibox SID. 3- LOL, did I read well? you don't have to program the AMTEL, the hex file is available in the site. Just burn and you have a SID wannabe ready for it. Also the board seems simpler if you already built any midibox. 4-The sound doesnt tell me bad things... it sounds different of course, the filter could not be even near, but again, you still have a synth in your hands, no computer involved and no C64 cannibalizing needed. BTW, the differences I found in the ogg demos....its evident that the SwinSID had its built in reverb turned on during the recording of those. The reverb alone could be a good reason for going for it... I think I could dare... if it doesnt work, then the solution is simple: get a real SID and replace the SwinSID. I could still use it to build the portable sid player.... not as fun tho... Mmm, to buy a C64 internationally, there's no way for me I'm afraid. There's no Pay Pal in Uruguay, but me and my family we don't have credit card btw. Moreover, the customs could ban everything that is introduced to Uruguay making the dispatch a very tedious and costly burocratic process so... I'm limited to an FM box, or getting the AMTEL chip, or, try to get a C64 somehow. I still can get the packages from my mother, since its person to person box and even if they will open it to see what the hell is in there, an old C64 wouldn't be attractive enough ban, specially if its scratched etc. Here, the prices of vintage computers are really high, almost double what the AMTEL chip + burner costs, but however, there are tons of MSX, and no C64 for sale. :(

Hi everyone! I couldn't hesitate to post this, as the search function didn't throw any result. It has been posted in misc section but I think it would be more significative to post it here. To the point: If you can't find a SID chip (my case where I live), or you don't want to cannibalize a C64, here's an alternative: as it works in a real C64, I'm pretty sure it can work in a midibox but don't know how good. I think it could be a great idea to give it a try, its better than nothing, you can also put a real sid in a midibox once you find one but in the meanwhile use a SwinSID. Judging by the sound, I think I could give it a try: http://www.swinkels.tvtom.pl/swinsid/ The project consists on a board featuring a "PIC" (or sort of), the ATMEGA8515 (15€ aprox, and its programer could be an appollo I2C, for 21€), The board is SID pin compatible, meaning you insert the board into its socket somehow... or via a bunch of cables. The thing simulates the whole SID chip. This question would be to the midibox sid designer, maybe the SwinSID isn't perfect, that could mean the midibox could crash or not work at all?

Great addition to alternatives. Not in the same case, but I'm going to build the Pic burner before... do you know if the PCB could be improved... ???

Its very interesting, specially if its hard to find a C64 in your place (my case), or you don't want to cannibalize a C64. You could build your midibox sid and make it work with swinsid until you find a real sid What is a pitty is that physically you are replacing the original SID with a board that has the AVR chip (meaning that the pin compatibility is present via a mess of cables from the SwinSID to the SID socket) Even if the designer claims that the proyect can't show its full potential due to the lack of software (the SwinSID has new features like wavetable synthesis, not as a fixed instruments but as a real wavetable synth), I think as it can act as a hardware SID then it may be a good replacement, and judging by the sound demos, it sounds different, but it may have interesting results in sound. My only concern is that the midibox SID makes full use of the original SID, meaning that SwinSID has to emulate every corner of the SID chip, not only for working on a C64, but it also has to work to whatever could use a full use of the SID... If that's not the case, supposing the emulation is not 100% perfect, then I guess a midibox SwinSID could crash?

Hi everyone! I'm new around here, its amazing quite a bit to see people building midiboxes from the other side of the planet eh? Actually sharing the same synthesis passion, also a vintage sound lover (btw I come from the vintagesynth forum where actually brought me to here, just to discover the amazing midibox projects! many thanks to the designer!) So I'm planning building an FM box, as is far more easy to find an old ISA sound card with the yamaha chips than a commodore 64. Moreover, vintage computers are really expensive around here. Almost all components are available locally, except the PIC which I asked my mother to send it to me from Spain and I have it here now. There are some questions I would like to ask before going green led: 1) I've seen several guys on this forum claiming that the core module doesnt send midi messages. does anybody discovered the frequent error made by the builders that makes the midibox to act that way? 2) I don't think I get the Crystal. "Paralel cut"? is there a good way of recognizing a normal crystal from a parallel cut one? also, I think I should go the spanish section and ask the perfect translation of that kind of Crystal. 3) Now the 2 cents question: which controls would you add keeping costs to a minimum (considering those more interesting ones to add)? what if I don't add any led indicator nor LCD? For now, I'm not planning going for controls (for now)... I'm thinking just in the core, opl, and a 128 stick as first step. Probably I would add just 2 buttons to move forward and backwards in the patches. This way at least I can free myself from the computer monitor. Then in a future, I would add a panel or something, but at first I want to get it working. I can translate every doc to spanish if there's people interested. I also know french too. Thanks in advance