JMS

i have one of these xr-2206 chips sitting here, i was wondering this very same thing... can we hook one up to a midibox core and build some synth software for it? (or should i build the function generator i had planned on building with it?) hmmmm....

a Hot Glue Gun!

here is a soundbyte from the drum engine and internal sequencer. NOTE: this is the first time i ever touched it ;) enjoy! --JMS Untitled (2).mp3

here's the story so far: i ordered some parts a couple weeks ago from a nice little web shop and soldered them together. i de-soldered ever so patiently as to not burn up, a sid from a c64 i've been sitting on for about 3 years. the c64 was bought on ebay for like $15 us including shipping. the in-progress synth has 1 6581 sid that was manufactured in the 51'st week of 1983. it's at the stage where i can play, switch and edit patches. i need to build one single power supply for the unit, make some panels for the empty holes in the case and be done with it!! from the c64 of course i re-used the sid. i also reused the power jack and some other port on the back for my midi in/out sockets! i'm still pondering using the power supply parts of the c64 mainboard as a decent power board for the synth or just building one with all new parts. thanks TK and midibox crew for the nice project docs! pics attached, when i get the inside wiring done i'll post more!

thanks for posting the pics! i always enjoy peeking inside machines like this... it looks kind of similar to the s2000 (the only hardware sampler i've opened up) which had to be torn apart and the floppy drive replaced before it was even usable... geez!

prototype datawheel picture before it was all mounted in the box... scroll wheel and the encoder from an old mouse i had laying around, the encoder acts as a hub on one side, a small LED acts as the hub on the other side which in turn is able to light the whole deal up... i mounted a switch that was salvaged from the same mouse under the LED "hub" which is mounted in a way to allow it to travel enough to trigger the switch without breaking the legs after repeated use. it's working awesome! as far as looks go, remember i said PROTOTYPE in the first sentence of this post! mouse parts, super glue and bits of plastic = encoder/datawheel!

mmmmm'kay... i've now at this point used BOTH Millennium AND Mesa II... i'm pretty sure they are VERY CLOSELY related... i'm thinking maybe Akai bought thr rights to Millenium or something and called it MESA II. i've never used MESA I, so i can't comment on that. while playing around with both software packages... i have determined MESA II to be a more rounded (less buggy) tool. therefore i am going to strongly disagree and reccomend anyone who is using or going to be using an akai s2000 hardware sampler use MESA II instead! NOW... back to my sequencer project... this thing will let me program in a song like a1->a2, a2->a3, a3->a1... everything is fine until i hit PLAY and then it reboots everytime. (i tried 352 times, lol) what am i doing wrong? i can't figure it out... the rest of the functions on this box work flawless so i'm pretty sure i got it all wired and programmed correctly. thanks for reading this... and thanks ahead of time for any advice on what may be the cause of my reboots...

i'd be intrested in one of these pcb's or kits if you have any around.. i just got a unmodded c64 that's just waiting to be a sid donor... EDIT: it's been a while.... oh! ?

lol...

i'm a self titled computer technician, fixing or building computers for anyone that's willing to pay me and maybe a charity case here and there. (with some actual training in electronics engineering at vocational school) hmm... as far as my current day job i started out as a machinist, building dies to stamp things out of steel with huge presses.... then i ended up doing packing, invoicing and shipping awesome car parts all over the world with the same company. i still get to get my hands dirty in the shop when i get bored of the office, oh, i get to run parts between different tool shops around town and check out all the huge machines in other peoples shops. in the past i've delivered pizzas, made pizzas, been a short order cook, washed dishes at a few bars, ran huge cnc machines making parts for who knows what, assisted in the assembly of huge robot cells for delphi/honda/GM/toyota (subcontract of course), i've even worked at mcdonalds a couple different times. in my spare time i like to take long walks on the beach and build midiboxes! ADDED LATER: Those speakers up there look loud!

word. i got the scsi card and mesa installed though i have no cable yet, i'm half tempted to look up the pinout and make my own. believe it or not, i don't think the midi sample transfer is all that bad, but, editing keyzones is a bit tedious on the front panel. the s2000 has an awesome two part datawheel to make up for it. ;) i was thinking of contacting the name of jsynthlib. is he a midiboxer? because that program looks very slick... and i don't know how easy or hard it would be to add the s2000... i do appreciate any tips on the both of them (s2000 and seq2.4) thanks!

i'd rip the electronics out of the plotter, hook up your own motor drivers and a build a z-axis and mount a dremel on it then run it all with emc2 from linuxcnc.org

the s2000 got here this morning... i brought it home at lunchtime and plugged it in... NO LUCK! i had to rip it apart and replace the 3.5 floppy drive before i could even use it including extending the power cable by two inches to reach the new drives power plug (standard pc floppy drive, FYI) after all that i had to spend about 3 hours figuring out hot to get samples onto it through midi, then saving them to disk. (TIP, for anyone else: use "Wav_Akai"). then i spent another two hours figuring out how to assign each sample to a keyzone. (getting close!) so now we have an 808 drumkit saved to the floppy, a kick, snare and hit-hat are mapped to C_2, C#2 and D_2... and we have liftoff! the seqv2.4 is running a 16 step pattern and sequencing the sounds of the s2000! w00t! now... how does the song mode work on this old seq? or how do i chain 4 - 16 step patterns together?