Looking for HARDSID alternative

SomethingUX · January 16, 2014

I'll be the first on to tell you, I'm a total noob at this MIDIbox thing. I just caught on to what's going on here, and I've been instantly hooked. Here's why I'm seeking you guys out:

I've been planning on getting a HARDSID 4U for a while now for primary use in my little home studio music gig thing I do. Finally decided that now is the time and I was nearly ready to take the plunge. I coincidentally also switched over to Mac as my music machine, and after seeing that Mac support for the HARDSID is non-existent, I was fairly crushed. I've been using MSSIAH carts on two C64's for a while now and while they are very cool standalone, as a dedicated external piece of hardware it's a pain to get setup, not to mention I don't want to harm the C64's during travel or a gig. Looking for alternatives, I found the MIDIbox and all of the wondrous things it can do.

Here's where I need some direction: I looked over the MIDI SID Walkthrough (http://www.ucapps.de/midibox_sid_walkthrough.html), and although quite a bit of it goes over my head, I'm a fairly fast learner, and not too bad with a soldering iron. Basically, I'm looking to build a MIDIbox that allows me to control the parameters of two SIDs in a single box. I don't need any control panels, or anything. This is to be a strictly standalone audio module.

Any suggestions for a newcomer?

Hawkeye · January 16, 2014

Hola and welcome to the forums,

youÂ´re in the right place and the in the right time, the MIDIbox line of SID synths beats any other SID synth on this planet :-).

A suggestion, if you are into soldering and want an expandable unit, consider the MB6582 - you can start with 2 SIDs in the beginning and grow up to 8 SIDs, and it sounds awesome!

Here is a (self advertisement :-)) small walkthrough of how to build the control surface:

If you have any questions, there are many helpful people around here :smile:

Many greets, and enjoy!

Peter

Edited January 16, 2014 by Hawkeye

SomethingUX · January 16, 2014

Thanks a bunch! That guide really does help out. I'm thinking that the MB6582 really is my best bet. I would like for it to be rackmountable, so a custom case is in due order. Are all parameters available via MIDI commands? I'm big on programming and slow modulation, and occasionally use my DAW as the source of these modulations so they are in time with certain sequences and whatnot.