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. :
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 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.
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
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: 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****
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
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?
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.
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.
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 
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.
