michitakem

More awesome tips guys, thanks! I'm also realizing after reading more around here that just because someone uses a SID chip doesn't mean they make or enjoy Commodore 64-style SID music. :)

Thanks frailin! Lots of great tips (I will paraphrase your suggestions on my personal blog with a link here), and some I had considered but wasn't sure about. It struck me like a hammer (doh!) after you suggested it, since I'm very familiar with C64 emulators on Windows, to go find some old SID music creation software that ran on the C64....! That will allow me to "play around" and get used to mixing and making music with a SID - even if the emulator is a poor substitute for the real sound of a SID chip. Then of course will come the next steps...including ultimately one of the other ideas you listed. I'm not ruling out building a MidiBox, I just want to make sure I'm well prepared so I don't start it and give up mid-way with a mess of wires and stuff. BTW, out of curiosity, why is it that HardSID (I saw one solution for sale for the Mac, which I don't have) and other aftermarket items do not include the SID chips? I've seen the bulk sales here -- why can't the company that sells HardSID include SID chips in their solutions? Some kind of copyright thing or lack of supply? Anyway, thanks again, your response has gotten me fired up! ;D

Hi all, I'm an old C64 user from back in the day, and I have a musical background in bands (ha- I'm still poor at keyboards or reading sheet music, darned Suzuki method), but I've left off both for many years, only to return with interest after checking out the C64 Takeaway Podcast, and Remix Kwed.org I'd like to play around and make some modern remixes of old C64 game tunes - or original stuff - but want to incorporate a lot of cool old SID sounds. So that means I want to do the majority of it on my PC, maybe hook up a C64 if that makes sense. (Have no idea how to do even that - just some kind of serial cable transfer?) I do have some basic audio equipment for mixing. I have an old C64 I suppose I COULD modify --- and I loved the YouTube video demonstration of the "MIDIbox SID Bassline Session c64". However I doubt I'd have the time and patience to get a project like that right. At least not yet. I'd probably end up with an unuseable C64 and a bunch of wires and components hanging out of it. So...despite there being a lot of DIY here on this site, I was wondering if you guys had a good commercial suggestion -- say something like Prophet64, or heck, anything that would let me play around with some SID goodness without spending a month soldering something together. Heck, to get my feet wet I wouldn't mind it being a largely Windows/PC -based solution, though from what I gather the SID emulation is never quite the same. Any ideas? I don't have a big budget now to lay out for some expensive device, but may be able to justify one some time in the future. I live in the States, so if the commercial item is not available here then.... :'( Sorry if the answer is something really obvious, but I'm fresh on this scene and have no clue. I'm going into the WIKI here to see if I can find some basic how-tos. Maybe after playing around a bit I'll be ready to move on to making my own SID box... TIA! ;D