History of midibox SID (not technical)

[Kartoshka]

thanks for viewing this thread.

I'm very interested in finding information, related to the birth and becoming of the Midibox SID concept.

I guess, as the creator of the project, a man fully confident in this is Thorsten, and also maybe others, which i still don't know of.

I'd love to hear a story of how it all begun and you discovered/rediscovered the power of commodore's SID, and decided to build an OS and hardware for it.

Also, i think this information is a historical candy, and nice add to upload on midibox SID wiki' History page, side by side with techincal changelog.  ::)

Thanks in advance.

Kart

[nILS]

To be honest:

Are you tired of virtual synthesizers, samplers and wavetable machines? Are you seeking for the unique sound of the vintage homecomputer days. Did you know that the sound device from one of the most popular computers of the 80's - the C64 - can produce awesome sounds like a modern synth? Did you ever build a low-budget synthesizer by your own? Well, maybe the MIDIbox SID could be interesting for you. :-)

That's enough info for me ;-) If I were TK (which is kinda hard to imagine), I'm not sure if would want to go through the hassle of writing a fun to read little story when I could go spend my free time working on creating more history :D What I'm trying to say is: Do some research, check the google cache for old versions of ucapps and write up some history - if there's a pretty good base with a lot of info there already I think a lot more people will be tempted to contribute.

[seppoman]

do you know archive.org? a great place to travel back in time :)

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ucapps.de

S

[TK.]

Short story (what you can't find in the web): my first attempt for a SID synth and tracker was in the late 80s, the result has been published in the C64 magazine (german). A later version was capable of handling MIDI IO, but due to the high processor load, it wasn't working stable enough, so that I stopped further developments. I purchased an Atari ST from the money that I got for the article, started to focus on MIDI synths, and didn't use my beloved C64 for a long time.

In 2002, during some nostalgic hours with the good old C64, I tried some "MIDI slave" applications that I found in the web, but they were not powerful enough - they had limited modulation capabilities, and sometimes skipped notes when CCs are sent in parallel (most likely due to the same reasons I encountered years before). So, I considered to build a new MIDI interface for the C64 with large IO buffers to unload the processor, and to prevent data loss. It followed a simple chain of ideas: if somebody needs to build a microcontroller based extension board to get a stable MIDI connection to the SID, why not controlling the SID from the microcontroller directly in order to get rid of all the C64 related issues? -> The idea for MIDIbox SID was born :)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[Kartoshka]

;) i guess 'non-technical' description of MBSID birth is unavoidable.

Thorsten, first of all thank you for answer.

True, i could't find any bits of information about it, nowhere. You're the only source, which must be documented.  ::)

Lot of folks not realizing it, that's ok with me.

Why you chose SID chip as a heart?

Why not other sound-generating capable chips, which were widely available back then as well?

Is this was simple love of SID sound which you got experienced while working/playing with commodore software?  ;)

/edit: ...or accidental availability of that c64 at your closet to take out and experiment? Or maybe both...

[TK.]

Why you chose SID chip as a heart?

Why not other sound-generating capable chips, which were widely available back then as well?

Is this was simple love of SID sound which you got experienced while working/playing with commodore software?  ;)

/edit: ...or accidental availability of that c64 at your closet to take out and experiment? Or maybe both...

It was (and is) just simply love! :)

Best Regards, Thorsten.

[stryd_one]

Thanks for sharing the love TK :) (and that little bit of history for our inspiration!)

[sineSurfer]

http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.ucapps.de

wow, I knew about ucapps when the website still had black background... why it took me so long to be tempted?!!! ;D

and yes, thanks for sharing and spreading the love TK!

[Kartoshka]

i guess, no more questions for now?

then free beer from Kartoshka, please!  ;D

[yatagarasu]

TK is inspirational!

[Goblinz]

i guess, no more questions for now?

then free beer from Kartoshka, please!  ;D

Not too sure about that thing... Would it do a full pint?

Notice the beer with an oversized European head... In the UK we have customs and excise to make sure our pints are filled up to the mark and nothing less.

                G

[nILS]

g: Our glasses are bigger - so it's filled up to the mark AND you get the "oversized" head as a bonus  ;D

[Goblinz]

g: Our glasses are bigger - so it's filled up to the mark AND you get the "oversized" head as a bonus  ;D

  I dunno, I wasn't impressed with the fill level of my pint in the German youth hostel last year. The guy half filled it and then went to the reception desk and spent 20 minutes signing people in before reluctantly coming and filling it up by another quarter...... Not even a pint and flat and warm, the only redeeming thing was that I could sit in a bar and have a cigerette for the first time in 2 months.... Please tell me they aren't banning indoor smoking in Germany too!

    G

***NB, I aren't saying that all German pints are substandard****

[cimo]

you! Germans British Irish how do you dare complaining about your beers and beer glasses?

.. you should come here and taste our ... well let s call it beer .. Murphy in Cork, the bitter one in London, and .. south Germany oh delight!  8)

[nILS]

Heehee, Youth hostel worker in Germany = guy who just got out of high school and refused military service. What do you expect? ;-) How do I know? I did that as well ;-)

[Smithy]

you! Germans British Irish how do you dare complaining about your beers and beer glasses?

.. you should come here and taste our ... well let s call it beer .. Murphy in Cork, the bitter one in London, and .. south Germany oh delight!  8)

Hehe

As a Cork man, i let my county down,  - i don't like Murphy's Irish Stout.

As an Irish man, i let my country down -  i rarely drink!  :P

[Goblinz]

Heehee, Youth hostel worker in Germany = guy who just got out of high school and refused military service. What do you expect? ;-) How do I know? I did that as well ;-)

Is there a compulsary military service system in Germany? What happens if you refuse?

          G

[nILS]

Yes there is (although they're kinda getting rid of it atm). You have to go to the military after school or the age of 18 (with some exceptions like having kids, a company or the likes of course). You can't refuse military service, but you can refuse to bear arms. This used to mean writing a pretty long and detailed letter about how you cannot do so because of religion, the way you were brought up etc. Some years ago they would then bring you to court where'd you'd have to argue your case (nowadays they just accept the letter unless it's obviously copied from the net). If your refusal is accepted you have to do "civil service" - working in a hospital, youth hostel, senior residence - that type of stuff (you get to choose what you wanna do though - that's how I ended up in a youth hostel in a nice skiing region in the Alps ;-)). This also means you can never ever join the army or be drafted in any way. If your refusal gets rejected you either do your service or don't show up and most likely end up in jail.

[stryd_one]

I could sit in a bar and have a cigerette for the first time in 2 months.... Please tell me they aren't banning indoor smoking in Germany too!

Ack they just did it in .au too! :(

[nILS]

Ack they just did it in .au too! :(

They have just done that in Germany, BUT... They're realizing it's coming at a price and are discussing ways to allow exceptions for smaller pubs and so on.

[Goblinz]

Yes there is (although they're kinda getting rid of it atm). You have to go to the military after school or the age of 18 (with some exceptions like having kids, a company or the likes of course). You can't refuse military service, but you can refuse to bear arms. This used to mean writing a pretty long and detailed letter about how you cannot do so because of religion, the way you were brought up etc. Some years ago they would then bring you to court where'd you'd have to argue your case (nowadays they just accept the letter unless it's obviously copied from the net). If your refusal is accepted you have to do "civil service" - working in a hospital, youth hostel, senior residence - that type of stuff (you get to choose what you wanna do though - that's how I ended up in a youth hostel in a nice skiing region in the Alps ;-)). This also means you can never ever join the army or be drafted in any way. If your refusal gets rejected you either do your service or don't show up and most likely end up in jail.

Hmnn... Not sure what I feel about this. Personally I'm not a fan of the military, but if there's the option of doing "civil service" then it's not so bad. In the UK we have a real Yob culture (Chavs), who are generally fairly young youth's who enjoy drinking cheap cider and mugging people and filming it on their mobiles. I expect that something like national service would put them in line. Having said that, when I was younger I would have hated being forced in to the military.

            G

[Goblinz]

They have just done that in Germany, BUT... They're realizing it's coming at a price and are discussing ways to allow exceptions for smaller pubs and so on.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo. The one thing I was looking forward to this year was sitting in a German bar with a cigarette... You guys should revolt on my behalf.

In the Uk we just pretty much accepted it, so there are no exceptions. No smoking in enclosed public/places places, if you want to smoke in apublic/work place then it has to be outdoors with either no cover or a shelter with 50% open space round the sides

            G

[MTE]

You can't refuse military service

Wrong :P You can...with a simple trick ;)

When you must go to the military-doctor for the basic examination, you MUST go there or the police will catch you....OK, go there BUT dont let any doctor/Psychologist examine you.....when they ask you something, only say NO  ;D  ;D

If any doc cant examine you (and this is YOUR RIGHT to dont let any doctor do this), so you maybe can have infectious sickness or something they didnt know, and thats the reason why they dont put you to military...

Ive did this procedure 10 years ago....at my 1st examination I got cancelled for 2 years...they threat me for paying a punishment, I said OK, send me this per mail  ;D ...but this was only a fake to intimidate me ;) , no fine-letter arrived till today...

After this 2-Year-standing-back-period I must go for 2nd examination...there I did the same, Ive only said NO, NO and NO  ;D  ;D

and then I got my main-exclusion for fuggin military  8)

[nILS]

Wrong :P You can...with a simple trick ;)

Well, I was talking about the difference between refusing "military service" which you legally can't and refusing "to bear arms" which you legally can ;-) There's multiple ways to cheat your way out of service of course, but some of them are/were rather risky.

[lucem]

This also means you can never ever join the army or be drafted in any way.

Sorry to correct you nILS, but you _can_ be drafted to military service at any time, given the need ("V-Fall").

Every citizen inbetween ages 18 and 60 is by default military reserve, even if he (or she!) hasn't served before.

It may not seem likely, but in theory, although you refused to bear arms, you may be drafted and must serve.

By the way, military service _really_ isn't that much of a great deal - you spend the first three months in "boot camp",

which basically means paid adventure vacation for the most part, and afterwards you spend six months sitting aroud killing time in the barracks. Nothing more, nothing less.

In my case, serving in Central Medical Service, it was exactly like civil service in uniform.