hi! i decided to post pictures of my 8-bit music lab too today. enjoy!
the 8-bit music lab!
this project contains the following: a modified commodore64 (named A), and another modified (and painted) commodore64 (named B), a 1541 disk drive for c64, a datasette tape for c64, a gameboy classic (with the nightsight apparatus) and a small-size tv!
software i use on c64's are prophet64 (which is discontinued by now) and cynthcart. prophet64 is a cart that has 4 programs built-in: a mono synth, a bass synth, a drummachine and a modern DAW interfaced sequencer. cynthcart is a cart that lets you use your c64 as a primitive synth that you can play live no latency! the author of cynthcart also gives you the .prg file so you can put the program in hardware such as MMC64. i converted the prg file to an ordinary WAV file with a tool called wavprg. and recorded the output to a casette while playing the wav file, and voila! i can load the cynthcart using my datasette for c64!
the c64 A has 1 mono in (for filtering external sound sources) and 1 mono out. i added 5 pots to the A, one for the feedback mod and four to control stuff on prophet64's bass synth. (such as cutoff, resonance, accent, decay etc.)
the black one, c64 B, has no input but has 1 stereo output! because i added another SID chip with the sid2sid board that came with the prophet64 i bought. 2 SID chips lets me have 6 voice polyphony when using the p64 sequencer and stereo chorus effect when using cynthcart.
i also added a built-in gamepad to this c64, B, because i wanted to use the mouse pointer in p64 sequencer but don't want any additional gear such as a joystick or a mouse (which means more room and more cable). i built another button next to the fire button, which acts exactly like pressing f5, because pressing f5 does the job of right click of mouse, in p64 sequencer. btw, that button also strangely gives you a C major chord in cynthcart, which has no logical explanation to do so :D (because you can get a C major by simply pressing Q, E and T :).
the c64 B also has 3 pots and a optoresistor (which cannot be seen in the picture because it's black and very tiny). one pot controls some parameters assigned on cynthcart (such as LFO depth, pitch bend etc.) and one control the SID filter. i put a switch to choose between the pot and the optoresistor, to control the filter. and i put one pot for the feedback mod again. it used to produce a feedback with alternating pitch with the filter control, strange! and since i also put a optoresistor to control filter, the B automatically became some sort of optical theremin too! check out the video.
i also use a gameboy with little sound dj software. i bought a nightsight apparatus which has a lightsource and a magnifying glass, to give you the chance to use the gameboy in dark places >:). the sound output of gameboy goes through the input of c64 A, so i can filter the sound of gameboy too!
i also have a 1541 disk drive for c64, which lacks the serial cable to connect it to c64, so i built one myself. i also built a cable which connects the gameboy's userport to c64's userport, which i use to sync lsdj to p64. you can find more info about this on the p64 forums.
and i have a crappy small-sized tv, to see the interface of p64. (it's not needed when you play it, it's needed to load the patterns i saved). but the p64 bass synth is very much like the tb303 it simulates. you can program it, compose cool bass riffs and play it without a screen on-the-fly! (but i'm too lazy to do this, plus i love the advanced random composer ;)
this is my stuff to produce totally 8-bit stuff. i'm planning to do some bloody dnb stuff with this gear and a friend of mine which'll gonna play acoustic drums. and maybe some another friend to play sax :).
software i use on c64's are prophet64 (which is discontinued by now) and cynthcart. prophet64 is a cart that has 4 programs built-in: a mono synth, a bass synth, a drummachine and a modern DAW interfaced sequencer. cynthcart is a cart that lets you use your c64 as a primitive synth that you can play live no latency! the author of cynthcart also gives you the .prg file so you can put the program in hardware such as MMC64. i converted the prg file to an ordinary WAV file with a tool called wavprg. and recorded the output to a casette while playing the wav file, and voila! i can load the cynthcart using my datasette for c64!
the c64 A has 1 mono in (for filtering external sound sources) and 1 mono out. i added 5 pots to the A, one for the feedback mod and four to control stuff on prophet64's bass synth. (such as cutoff, resonance, accent, decay etc.)
the black one, c64 B, has no input but has 1 stereo output! because i added another SID chip with the sid2sid board that came with the prophet64 i bought. 2 SID chips lets me have 6 voice polyphony when using the p64 sequencer and stereo chorus effect when using cynthcart.
i also added a built-in gamepad to this c64, B, because i wanted to use the mouse pointer in p64 sequencer but don't want any additional gear such as a joystick or a mouse (which means more room and more cable). i built another button next to the fire button, which acts exactly like pressing f5, because pressing f5 does the job of right click of mouse, in p64 sequencer. btw, that button also strangely gives you a C major chord in cynthcart, which has no logical explanation to do so :D (because you can get a C major by simply pressing Q, E and T :).
the c64 B also has 3 pots and a optoresistor (which cannot be seen in the picture because it's black and very tiny). one pot controls some parameters assigned on cynthcart (such as LFO depth, pitch bend etc.) and one control the SID filter. i put a switch to choose between the pot and the optoresistor, to control the filter. and i put one pot for the feedback mod again. it used to produce a feedback with alternating pitch with the filter control, strange! and since i also put a optoresistor to control filter, the B automatically became some sort of optical theremin too! check out the video.
i also use a gameboy with little sound dj software. i bought a nightsight apparatus which has a lightsource and a magnifying glass, to give you the chance to use the gameboy in dark places >:). the sound output of gameboy goes through the input of c64 A, so i can filter the sound of gameboy too!i also have a 1541 disk drive for c64, which lacks the serial cable to connect it to c64, so i built one myself. i also built a cable which connects the gameboy's userport to c64's userport, which i use to sync lsdj to p64. you can find more info about this on the p64 forums.
and i have a crappy small-sized tv, to see the interface of p64. (it's not needed when you play it, it's needed to load the patterns i saved). but the p64 bass synth is very much like the tb303 it simulates. you can program it, compose cool bass riffs and play it without a screen on-the-fly! (but i'm too lazy to do this, plus i love the advanced random composer ;)
this is my stuff to produce totally 8-bit stuff. i'm planning to do some bloody dnb stuff with this gear and a friend of mine which'll gonna play acoustic drums. and maybe some another friend to play sax :).
this was the loooong (but still not complete) explanation of my 8-bit music lab, i hope you enjoyed reading and decide to do this stuff yourself too! you know, i need some partners to create a 8-bit band sometimes :P, until the next post, take care!
