First of all, i’m a total noob to this.. so be patient
I’m new to this forum, but been a fan of Midibox Sid for to long without doing anything about it..
I’m a music producer witin the EDM genre, more specific Progressive trance/breaks/House and Techno. I use mostly software, as you can get everything you need. Bought QuadraSID from REFX some yars ago, but i feel that its not eenogh for me… Now i want to build my own MidiBox SID (with a lot of help of course).
I’m always been a fan of commodore 64 games and music, and i have 4 commodore 64s. And i guess (since they all work and have sound) the Sid chips works, but have no idea wich SID Chip is in wich commodore, and i guess there could be lots of different ones… those commodores i have was bought in 1982-83 and one in 1984. Is it only MOS 6581 wich is mostly used in Midiboxes, or does it matter at all?
I’m guessing i can use 1 chip to generate sound, but i also guess, more chips = more features/options?
I can’t wait to get this project started, but I have no deadline, so hopefully this will be learning by doing over time.
Welcome aboard! (I dont think there are any gurrrls here, maybe smithy :turned: )
There are 3 different chips that are consider “SID” chips and the midibox SID is compatible with all of them:
6581: Original chip in C64. Bunch of revisions of this, bit noisey, “flawed”, 12V powered (the MBsid has be built accordingly, it has options for both)
8580: Later, revised SID used in C64C and 128 machines. Improvement to chip, now 9VDC powered
6582: What the 8580 evolved into (identical), used in add-on sound devices
They all have similar sounds and features, the controls will be the same for all.
Right now, you have 3 options as far as building one goes:
Contact Wilba and get on the sammichSID wait list (complete kit)
Purchase MB6582 boards and partial kit from SmashTV. He offers a mainboard PCB and parts kit and the control surface PCB, you will need to source display, SID, and CS parts and buy a case and panels, everything is well documented in the WIKI, this can take 1-8 SID chips
Purchase a Core8 and mbSID pcb from smash as roll your own. Most advanced option, but has the most flexibility. You can get this running with just a LCD a few buttons and an encoder but a pretty steep learning curve if you are not into this kind of stuff.
I just opened up 2 of my commodores, and viola, 2 x 6581’s. Just got a phonecall from a guy wich have a commodore for sale, so i buy one for gaming aswell
I guess for my Midibox, 4 chips will be enough since i have 4 commodores (soon to be 5 i guess!)
And I the sammichSID kit wait list is waaay long? They seems rather popular these days.
i will use a commodorecase for the Midibox, but with nice colours or even wrapped. many cool pictures of midiboxes on this forum.
Hi, if you are into filters and resonance, the 8580 / 6582 are better than the 6581, just what altitude said. Also I´d highly recommend building the MB6582, as it is fairly easy to build and you have eight slots for SIDs, which really rocks (Sammich is “only” 2)
I think i will go for the MB6582 as its seems to be the one i’m looking for. Filters and Resonace isnt that important for me, so i guess i stick to the 6851 chips i already have. Not sure if both 6851 and 6852/8580 can be combined in the same synth?
