midibox IIgs

[mythicbeast]

Hi, I am a complete newcomer to this,and haven't tried to build anything, but I was thinking of using the midibox platform to control the chip from an apple IIgs...

would this be prohibitivley hard for a novice to do? has anyone tried it before?

or is there any way that anyone knows of to controll an intact apple IIgs's soundcard through midi, or some sort of apple software?.

thanks for any help...

[stryd_one]

Hi, welcome :)

Maybe you could tell us more about that chip, what it can do, what you would like to do with it?

[drin]

From Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIgs):

Audio was generated by a built-in sound and music synthesizer in the form of the Ensoniq Digital Oscillator Chip (DOC), which had its own dedicated RAM and 32 separate channels of sound, which were paired to produce 15 voices, in stereo audio.

Chip details can be found at http://www.apple2.org.za/gswv/USA2WUG/A2.LOST.N.FOUND.CLASSICS/SOUND.GS.5503.ensoniq.txt.

Shorter version: http://www.apple2.org/faq/FAQ.sndmusic09.html.

-drin

[stryd_one]

Interesting....

Needs external filters of course.... And amplitude control perhaps... I need more data.

Additive Synth? Sampler? Wavetable thing?

Geez I don't even know if it's DIP or SMD yet, but I'm guessing not SMD given it's age...

[mythicbeast]

man... I have no idea about that DIP SMD jargon, but that second link from drin is pretty comprehensive, it seems like its just a digital rom synth with a few waveforms and amplitude modulation

[DrBunsen]

Nope, it's RAM not ROM, so you can load waveforms, and it supports sampling audio into RAM too.  Two problems: the noise bug mentioned further down the second link, and there just aren't as many IIgs's out there as there are C=64s or old Soundblasters.

[mythicbeast]

so that would mean any game on an apple IIgs could load any custom waveform it wanted? that must be why those synthesizers sound nothing like the computer does, it would probably be easier to find a way to midi control a IIgs emulator

[mythicbeast]

what I mean is I bought a used ensoniq synthesizer that uses the same chip thinking it would sound something like the sounds an apple IIgs would make, but it does not sound anything like that. so the IIgs chip must have some kind of default waves, right?

[stryd_one]

Not to mention the filters etc...

Your standard 4 cylinder small car engine and the engine from a cessna 172 aren't too different but the overall effect is not quite the same ;)

[mythicbeast]

allright, well I found that the last os for the IIgs came with an application called synthLAB that could control everything in that chip on a really basic level. there are windows emulators called xgs or kegs32 that come with a rom called crate which will run that os. what I was thinking of i gues would just be a hardware box dedicated to running synthlab, -which also can load user waves and sample in a really primitive way- it would be pretty good i guess, just synthlab with a built in midi interface and possibly sampling, but no computer.

anyway, I would never try it now that i have the software. too much work. thanks for the help

[timofonic]

Here are interesting info on an older forum post:http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=4067.0

I don't want annoy, only let's see if we can discuss this old idea again ;)

PS: I think in the future the forum will need a smart thread merging and cleaning.

[DrBunsen]

mythicbeast, you realise the SID was made by the people who started Ensoniq? 

I must say the ESQ-1 is a nice synth for old-school digi/analog 8 bit CEM filtered fun.  Around $200 or less for the rack module.

[mythicbeast]

Allright... its been almost a year since this thread started, but the idea has been popping into my head again, so I'm ressurecting it now that actually have a bit of electronics (but digital circuit) experience.

some encouraging replys on this thread: http://www.midibox.org/forum/index.php?topic=4067.0

its interesting thatthe faq answer is mentioned because I hadn't read it sounds damningly true; that if you have to answer thequestionat all you probably won't be able do do it. still the things you could get out of that chip would be pretty awsome. most of all the proscpect of sampling, and cheap wavetable synthesis. but the sampling especially.

I do have the esq-m and I have to say, the presets are terrible. also any digital fetishism that maid me buy it is really not there inthe sound of it, the filters gloss everything over. its actually too analouge! if you turn the filter off, the loaded patches are actually designed too well, its actually more realistic than alot of 90s era digital synths. anyway, if I thought I could do it, I might just take the chip out... another possibility though, would be to try sample playback or wavetable stuff without changing the hardware (on the esq) but instead interfacing some how with the eprom cartridge input to dump new waves into it that could correspond to wave slices of a sample and then have the machine cycle through the patches. thats beside the point though...

I guess the question I have is: If the mirage which is a sampler uses the same chip as the esq, or a IIgs, then what is being done to the chips to have them utilized so differently?

it makes me think that making a midiboxed ES-5503 super synth/sampler box. would be possible after all, think about the possibilities: sampling, cheap sample manipulation-type effects, user wave based rom (or ram) synthesis, wavetable etc...it could be pretty good box if buildable 

[DrBunsen]

Why not build a MIDIbox controller for all the editable parameters in the ESQ?