Using Midibox SID in a 'traditional' way

[RogB]

Hi all,

Im new to this Midibox SID thing, and trying to do some research but struggling a bit, I hope you dont mind the newbie questions!

Basically, what I want to do is make c64 style chipmusic, which means relatively close to the restrictions of the original (well, with 2 sids) hardware. (im not too interested in using the SID as a modern synth - like massive polyphony, stereo, or emulating 303's)

So looking at the sammichSID, I see that it has 2 SID chips. from demos i've seen, its usually dedicated to one task in a song (like a bassline) So its hard to get a feel for how flexible it is.

I understand that the Midibox uses these things called 'engines' so presumably this is why its dedicated to one task?. (like lead where you can use polyphony, or bassline)

If I was to use it in a traditional way, i'd need 6 seperate monophonic channels, usually dedicated to one or more instrument.

eg

SID1

1 - bass

2 - lead1

3 - lead2

SID2

4 - bassdrum + hihat

5 - snare

6 - effects

(This would all be entirely mono. i realise the original c64 has only 1 sid and 3 channels but I dont want it to be hard for the sake of it!) :)

Is this what the Multi Engine is capable of? I think multitimbral is the word.. (midi isnt my strong point!) :)

I suppose what im looking for is similar to using Goattracker with a HardSID uno (the player, not the VST unit), but the hardsid players only support one SID at once.

This MSSIAH video is also very similar to what I mean.

Its got 6 channels (using 2xSids) and each channel is using a different instrument.

sorry for the rambling and also if this is a common question, I hope some of it makes sense.

many thanks!

Roger

[nILS]

Hiya RogB, welcome aboard! :flowers:

In layman's terms, the engines on the mbSID do, what a tracker does - they tell the SID chip what to do. If you want to go with traditional chip tune stuff, you basically want to bypass them.

Yes, the mbSID can do tracker-style songs ;) It supports the asid protocol for instance, which allows you to use any software supporting that. A while ago I was playing around a bit with my own tracker and added asid support so it can play over an mbSID. There's also a slightly buggy midibox-version of hardsid.dll that allows you to use the mbSID with anything that supports the hardsid protocol :)

[RogB]

Hi nILS, thanks for the reply and the welcome!

interesting to see that its kind of compatible with hardsid. Have you tried it with Goattracker? is there any latency when playing notes?

Presumably this means it works with winVICE too so you get authentic hardware sound from the emulator?

I've been digging around and stumbled upon this: http://www.midibox.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=fnp-sid which seems to be one of yours!

USB is cool, were there any plans to produce pcb's and kits for this?

I may just take the plunge and go for a sammichSID. it looks like a fun build (if I dont screw it up too much!. Way beyond anything i've soldered before though, so might have to get some practice in first. Or get a CORE and 2 SID modules and do it a little bit at a time?

thanks for the help, I know it must be frustrating to get questions like this when theres a lot of information available, but thats the problem, its very overwhelming, very quickly! :)

cheers

Roger

[nILS]

Yes, it works with goattracker, I haven't noticed any latency (using a gm5x5x5). IIRC Flemming tried WinVice and it worked as well.

Regarding fnpSID - since there's a major shortage of SID chips, it is doubtful that there'll be full kits. It's a fairly specialized build that does exactly what flexinoodle and I needed - if there's enough interest I am sure we can make up soe kits or at least run a bulk order for the PCBs.

Just keep reading some more :) There's a bunch of threads that discuss the benefits of each of the implementations - modular, sammich, mb6582 and fnpSID. Then pick the one that fits your purpose best :)

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask!

[Napalmtree]

The Hardsid.dll crashes all over the place, I found asidxp works great so I was curious about your asid tracker.

Any reccomendations? I'd just like a functional tracker built specifically for SID. Preferably running on any modern OS.

[nILS]

GoatTracker?

If you feel adventurous, there's a fairly stable development build of mine @ http://goo.gl/w4Ayr

[punkdISCO]

Hi Roger – welcome.

I am also a new MB6581 user and have come from a HardSID 4U background. I loved the HardSID and it features in most our tracks over the last 5 years. However, since day 1 it has never worked properly if you try to access more than 1 SID at a time. Im now a pretty happy MB user.

Im only jumping in on your thread as you mention the HardSID :yes:

Paul

[downerczx]

I've been doing exactly what you're talking about with Renoise and the multi engine the midibox sid. You can make an instrument per voice and then assign them to channels, and the send each track in renoise to a different midi channel.

[toadstool]

Thanks for providing the updated hardsid.dll nILS :thumbsup:, it really is very stable. I especially like the ability to change the flush method which seems to allow correct playback speed on a lot of the sid files that didn't play properly last time I tried (and the linux asid player version doesn't do this). It works perfectly with WinVICE2.3 and Goattracker2.73 on x86. Now... when will you be reprogramming the entire universe so that sammichSID will play stereo hardsid? :wink:

edit: erm..... :blush: ...yes, well, the above was supposed to be in

Edited November 9, 2012 by toadstool