Hi to everyone! Do some of you remember the good ol'' Commodore 64 computer? One important thing why this computer was so much better for games than other home computers of that time is: the SID Chip. It sounded GREAT, no other computer allowed to have such cool music for games. I *love* the sound of this chip. Does anyone know, if it is possible somehow, to access a C64 with a PC, and then control the SID chip? Or, even better, I have heard of one who built an ISA board with 4 SIDs, for stereo sound, 2 SIDs each channel. You could even let one SID influence oscillators of another SID. However, the most important is, that you can control the synthesizer via PC. But alas I don''t remember were I found this, nor the name of this project. I found a page, with a device called "SID station", it has a SID and a processor, some buttons and switches, and a MIDI interface. But it costs $8000... need I say more....

Happily, if you want to utilise the sid chip for your music there are a myriad of options (more, I''m sure, than I list here!);

1) Get your old C64, get searching and find the old music making programs. They are out there, but you need to get them on to the c64 - dont ask me how! (search for this too!)- Some ones that I can remember were Future Composer and Ron Hubbard''s Editor (go Ron!)

2)Much easier - get the best c64 emulator "CCS64" homepage: http://www.computerbrains.com/ccs64 (I think) then search for the music roms

If you''ve ever used this programs you''ll know that they are a bit of a headache to get used to. Bloody hexadecimal! So I would suggest:

3)"The SIDStation" - www.sidstation.com. Yep, as you say, it''s expensive - but combines the coolest music chip with the most funky synth design to create a beast that is really truly fun to play with! You can do what I do and sneak down to the local dj store and plug in a minidisc recorder when no one is watching and desperately get samples and make some loops, or make the choice to spend a bit of cash and go for...

4)the QuadraSID 6581 VST plugin! (by reFX) Yep, Its out there and it rocks! It is the equivalent of having c64''s playing together! It emulates them perfectly, you can use it in Cubase, Logic Audio or even fruityloops(sort of), and to quote the manual, is "Beta-tested by Chris Hülsbeck, the C-64 SID guru"! Can''t get better than that!

I dont know about the ISA board you found - it sounds cool but!

Cool!


Hey, I didn''t even know that Chris Hülsbeck is
known outside of Germany (living there, well, here, too)


Where can I get the QuadraSID 6581 VST plugin ?
Well I''ll search....
I have the poor-man''s version, "Micro Logic AV",
but only 3.5, dunno if newer plugins are supported.
(hey, I''m a student)

However, in general I prefere _hardware_.

(btw:
no software would get a 100% SID clone.
Although the SID is a digital synth,
the filter''s in the chip are analog.
They even differ a bit from SID to SID


If I was rich, I''d buy the SID station.

Hey, Bill Gates has too much money, do you think
he would buy me the SID station, if I asked friendly,
and swear to always buy M$-ware ?

Thats the beautiful thing with VST synths and physical modelling though, they can do a pretty darn good job of trying for 100%!

They QuadraSID sounds beautiful! It even has a option labeled "SID bug"!

I think MicroLogic AV supports VST 2 synths. You should hope it does or think of swapping to Cubasis (cubase's younger sibling)!

Send me a mail if you cant find any info on the QuadraSID

Edited by - nmoog on January 30, 2002 2:46:28 AM

tested it with a friend''s VST
umm... could you tell me how to set the delay
between touching and playing lower?

AND: you said, it would work with logic,
do you know how? or do I have to dowload a different
plugin? (only found one)


"...Ron Hubbard''s Editor..."
do I err... I could swear the guy''s name was RoB ...



however, Thankyou for the hint, I didn''t know
QuadraSID before. Sound''s awesome!

nah!!

I hate cubase''s _clumsy_, unconvenient midi editing.

and I use MIDI a lot.

And Logic''s studio-like mixer is quite nice :-)
(well, tried cubase enough. I love logic too much,
nobody would be able to make me switching to cubase :-)

ha ha! Ron Hubbard! I was thinking of the philosopher/humanintarian/scientology guy L. Ron Hubbard!

I knew he wrote sci-fi and poetry, but I didn''t know he wrote crankin'' c64 tunes!

How embarrassing!

I agree with your gripes about Cubase - Logic is a bit more professional, but as I grew up on the tracker side of the fence I am more inclined to go with audio than midi (I am slowly learning however. When I started music I had barely touched a piano, let alone a MIDI keyboard! And I know this is detremental to my abilities - please dont remind me!)

I honestly can not figure out Logic Audio''s audio side even though I have installed different versions several times! Now I use Cubase because its what I know and Pro-Tools just keeps crashing!

hhmm... what do you mean by "cannot figure out
logic''s audio side"

don''t you get it working at all?

Well, do you have a soundblaster live?
If so, then start setup (not sure, if this one in the program,
or the extern), and search for a setting name like
"number of sound channels" or something like
this, and force it to be exactly 2.

logic supports more than 2 only with emagic''s
"AUDIOWERK" 8-channel audio board.

Strangely, the setup set this value to more than 2
after installation, and my audio didn''t work, until
I found this.
(only with sb-live. sb16/32 work withour problems)

You also have to check the box "PC-AV" in the audio settings
within the program.

If the box is checked, and you get strange noises at
program start, it''s likely that above mentioned setting
is wrong.

Hello UnshavenBastard!

Try this:

"This is a C64 music tracker, just running on PC. Can pack/relocate songs directly to SID format as well as to PRG and raw binary file. Music routine takes 12 rasterlines max. to execute."

http://www.student.oulu.fi/~loorni/software/goattrk.zip
As for the SidStation, I realise you probably put one ''0'' too many in the price.. the price is US$ 580.

hhmm... well, the last time I watched the sid station
page was over a year ago... did it cost several
thousand dollars a year ago? don''t know...
maybe I remember wrong.
Also maybe that more people noticed the existence of
the sid station, and they could decrease the price,
because more people are buying it.
(however, I could imagine that the number of people who
buy modern synthesizers is slightly higher...)

thanks for the url.