Yeh it’s good to have you aboard swinkels 
Oh no I broke my stealth!
Yeah! I hold out no pipe dreams that it is 100 percent SID sound.. BUT.. I can imagine mixing a set of SIDS and a set of swinSIDs.. could produce some interesting voices.. not to mention a few tricks impossible on a real SID..
and, notably, gives hope for people who cant get their hands on SIDs.. or… dare I say it, when they simply are no longer available.
Any news ?? Is it already usable as normal SID replacement ?? The homepage says it’s compatible to all SID applications.
Status: got the parts, haven’t found the time yet to build the circuit
Best Regards, Thorsten.
Here a short update: I tested SwinSID last weekend, and was a little bit surprised about the behaviour of the official release. E.g., the pseudo stereo and reverb effect is always active (which eliminates powerful pulse/saw hooks), the DCA envelope is not fully functional (e.g. missing attack phase), and filter is not supported at all.
Swinkels informed me, that he is now working on an improved version.
I’m curious about the results - from the planned features list it could be a very interesting alternative for the 8th SID socket of my MB-6582 base board
Best Regards, Thorsten.
Hi TK!
Nice to see you testing the Swin ;D Do you think it’s worth to build the swin as a 1to1 replacement and wait for further updates ?
What do i need to burn the firmware ?
I ask because i’m using a not fully working SId (mentioned in a early thread @german) and before searching eb** i would try the swinsid. It looks promising also without any special functions.
best regards
Christian
Not got time to try this, but there is some AVR Moog filter code in the latest version of AVRsynth from
http://krue.net/avrsyn/ there are samples on the site. This might be patchable into the SwinSID.
I have the AVRsynth board up and running, but I can’t do any panel work until some other stuff is clear, so I haven’t done more than a functional test. The filter samples are a lot better than the original AVRsynth filter.
My long term interest in the AVRsynth is to split it into Master/slaves and make a polysynth.
I have used a simplified avr programmer like this and It works very well.
http://elm-chan.org/works/avrx/stk200.png
The new avrsyn filter is quite good, but too bad it is noisy ( probably 8 bit calculations )
I will try to port my own implementation of lowpass filter from SwinSID2 to original SwinSID soon.
Hi Swinkels!
Does this mean you are working on a new version of the old SwinSID with only 3 channels ( like the original ) ??
OK. the atmega adapter should be no problem but what software do i need to transfer the firmware ??
PonyProg is a very nice program for flashing AVR.
Yes, i will try to add more new features to standard SID emulation instead of pseudo-reverb effect.
I will release new firmware this weekend with following changes:
-
Linear Attack support
-
Logarithmic Decay and Release
-
2 x oversampling instead of interpolation
-
No reverb effect
After some testing from you I will implement a lowpass filter soon.
Here you can download and test the new firmware with features as above
www.swinkels.tvtom.pl/swinsid/swinsid_20070727.hex
TK already tested it and found some distortions with high frequencies but in most cases it should work fine.
Wow, this owns.
Swinkels, can we get some decimation?
Good call!
While playing high notes with full spectrum waveforms like sawtooth and pulse you can hear some harmonics. , but this is a standard effect with simple wavetable synthesizers.
I am still working to improve sound quality and add new features to SwinSID with help and testing from TK. When I finish we will release music demos and comparisions, so please be patient
OK, I’ll be patient.
Is it ready yet?
Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?
Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?
Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet? Is it ready yet?
Is it ready yet?
;D
wow wow wow…
marrage of two totally awsome hardware projects.. ;D
tear.
Yeah … nice SID union ;D
Hope the pcb’s will be available at the usual places (smash/mike)
best regards
I guess the wavetable-related harmonics on high notes sound like aliasing? If so, I’m just imagining an acid-type line (bassline engine) played using high notes on an unfiltered SwinSID - it could sound pretty trippy. :o :o :o
how is the fusion going ??
is it possible to run the swinsid mono like the orig. SID ?? and what parts do i need therefor ??
Don’t worry, development is still in progress; Swinkels sends me a new firmware almost every day!!!
I’m sure that you would be frustrated, if you would have build the circuit based on the schematic of two weeks ago, just to notice that it isn’t compatible with the future firmware anymore.
I can already bring you down from the illusion, that a 100% accurate SID emulation cannot be expected.
An AVR is not a Pentium, sample rate is low and it is impossible to oversample the sounds often enough to eliminate alias effects. So, for everybody who wants pure SID sound, keep searching for the original…
…and use SwinSID in addition!
Main advantages of SwinSID:
- you will be able to access a wavetable synth with the mighty MBSID V2 engine!
- no ADSR envelope bug
- more waveforms
- Swinkels is planning to add FM and Morphing effects
- a fat and –> dirty <– filter!
- nobody prevents you to add analog circurity in addition!
Since I’m currently more busy with testing SwinSID than writing demo tunes, I’m not able to give you some typical chip effects and tunes which can be realized very easily and which sound very similar to the SID.
Therefore I will just give you an untypical bassline (created with the Lead engine) just to demonstrate how cool the filter sounds since about 3 hours
-> http://www.ucapps.de/mp3/swinsid/swinsid_preview1.mp3
Note that this is not a representative demo - SwinSID is not just an “additive synth emulation”, the potential is much higher!
Some hardware related info:
please wait before buying the stuff - as mentioned above: specs are not stable yet.
Meanwhile I’ve switched to a PCM1754, which is a pretty good audio DAC (normaly used in CD players).
I especially like the de-emphasis options, which adds some crunchyness
But this chip has two disadvantages: like the TDA1543 it isn’t produced anymore (Farnell and Digi-Key has some in stock see findchips.com), and it’s a SMD part. But it shouldn’t be too difficult to solder, even for beginners.
So - if you want to support design, please help to find alternative solutions.
Second fact: yes, there will be a PCB. Swinkels just suggested today to use two AVRs instead of one, since it would only cost you 2 EUR more, but would bring so much more…
Of course, everybody who is interested could already join the beta testing process - just build the circuit given at Swinkels homepage. If you are not able to find the TDA1543, search for the PCM1754. The pin mapping and audio output circuit is described in the datasheet.
Another tip: the 24 MHz crystal “24,0000-HC18” from Reichelt cannot be used (it’s a 3rd overtone crystal) - just use an integrated oscillator like “OSZI 24,000000” instead.
Please be patient, and don’t bring us into pressure - something really cool is growing up, and this needs time!
Best Regards, Thorsten.