Newb Questions

[Bluegazing]

I found out about the MidiBox a few days ago. I used to own a SidStation when it first came out. Argh! Anyway, I couldn't find a FAQ and wanted to know a few things. Is the matrix on the top left of the Wilba box a sequencer? Also, for someone who doesn't have soldering experience, how difficult is the project to build and source the parts?

I remember that my SidStation only used 1 chip for 3 note polyphony. Is that the case with the MidiBox if I only used 1 chip? Thanks.

[SammichedSince2010]

my noob-to-noob advice: get wilba's excellent sammichSID kit! it's well documented and comes complete with all the necessary parts (excluding the sid chips - which he has run out of somewhere along the waiting list). i recently built one myself with only very little soldering experience. for a total noob, it's not exactly easy to build, but thanks to the good documentation, it's perfectly manageable. definitely much easier than building an mb-6582 (the one with the led matrix).

the sammichSID box uses two sid chips for either stereo or up to six voice polyphony. it probably could be used with only one sid chip inserted, but why would you want to do that? as for the three rows of leds on the sammmich sid box: as mentioned by wilba in the sammichSID thread, they are there only for maximum bling. they seem to indicate the levels of the three voices of each sid chip - and generally look very pretty (as long as you don't use blue leds - which would look crappy, fry your retinas, and destroy your karma). to learn more about the midibox sid, it might not hurt to read the manual. ;)

if you really have no soldering experience at all, i would strongly recommend reading a few soldering guides and practising a little before building the actual kit. you could start by desoldering and resoldering some parts from the mainboards of the two c64 you will source the sid chips from. :)

Edited March 14, 2010 by SammichedSince2010

[Smithy]

Everything you need to know is available on:

http://ucapps.de

http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/ - The Wiki

and by searching on the forum.

The community encourages people to read first and then ask questions, just to let you know. :thumbsup:

Edited March 14, 2010 by Smithy