MIDISID is a new portable 6-oscillator Synthesizer (purple/black) using two Nano SwinSIDs for recreating the iconic Commodore 64 sound.
Let’s stay with retro sounds. Yesterday I wrote about the new AudioKit Saga Synth for iOS, allowing you to recreate authentic 16-bit sounds on the go. Now I have something for hardware lovers. But we must reduce the bit resolution to 8-bit and travel back to the legendary Commodore 64.
Musician and developer Sheila Dixon from PeacockMedia has published the MIDISID, a new intriguing portable Synthesizer with a retro engine.
MIDISID
The core of Sheila Dixon’s new Synthesizer uses two modern SID recreations (Nano SwinSIDs) and produces 6 oscillators, each with 4 waveforms available per voice. For creating more rich sounds, it also has ring modulation and waveform sync.
Then it also has an ADSR envelope, a built-in filter, and modulation, including PWM and vibrato. Additionally, there is a built-in arpeggiator.
Sheila Dixon says:
The most recent version will run 2 x SwinSID Nanos (which I can supply) or 2 x ARMSIDs. It should run real SIDs (There’s a video on my channel where I’m running it with a real 6581).
However, I state that I don’t support real SIDs as I can’t take responsibility for people’s 40-year old chips that may be at breaking point or already broken in ways that they didn’t appreciate before they had the ability to control all of the parameters.
MIDISID has three modes allowing you to play .mid files or plug in a MIDI controller such as a keyboard. You can choose from preset sounds or dive into the parameters. This allows you to create sounds from scratch and store them on the hardware.
Connectivity
Connection side, it has a 5-pin DIN for MIDI in. Plus, you can work with several modes allowing you to map notes to voices in different ways for monophonic and polyphonic playing.
The synth also responds to note on/off, MIDI program changes, and control messages for the pitch bend, mod wheel, and more. More are in the works.
It ships fully built and tested, with two SwinSID Nanos, custom firmware, and a manual.
A fun little synth with an iconic sound. A perfect instrument for fans of C64 sounds.
MIDISID is available now for $180 USD in black or purple on Tindie or Etsy.
More information here: PeacockMedia
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