[LAU] SID chip emulation?

[Paul Coccoli]

On 4/19/07, James Stone <jamesmstone at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Apr 19, 2007 at 05:48:10PM +0200, Sebastian Gutsfeld wrote:
> > Hi James,
> >
> > "James Stone" <jamesmstone at gmail.com> writes:
> >
> > > Does anyone know of a linux based synth that emulates the sound of the
> > > C64 SID chip? I would love to use that sound in some pieces, but I
> > > have never been able to find anything very usable.
> > >
> > > Perhaps something could be used from the libsid/libsidplay libraries??
> >
> > Sidplay2 uses ReSID for sound emulation. There are two other programs I
> > know of that use this library:
> >
> > * Goattracker (http://cadaver.homeftp.net) but you have to be familiar
> >   with a tracker interface and some SID internals
> >
> > * VICE C64 emulator (http://www.viceteam.org)
> >
> > Try Paul Slocum's Cynthcart (http://qotile.net/cynthcart.html) or the
> > good old JCH editor (http://chordian.dk/files.htm?c64) with its cool
> > polyplay mode for realtime play on the computer keyboard.
> >
> > Another option is Legasynth
> > (http://www.reduz.com.ar/cheesetronic/index.php?section=4), but I don't
> > think this sounds very close to a real SID.
> >
>
> Thanks for these suggestions.. They all sound quite sensible. I
> will look into them all.. sound like nice ways to generate good
> samples.
>
> Legasynth is closer to what I was envisaging though.. Although I
> have never managed to build it successfully.. I keep going back
> to it thinking "I've been using Linux for 6/7/8/9.. years now.. I
> _must_ be able to get it to work now" but with no success..
> Perhaps I will go back and try again. IIRC, it depends on a load
> of old libraries that are not too common. If it doesnt sound much
> like a C64, I'm not so interested though.
>
> What I was really envisaging was a nice realtime synth with midi
> input and pref. jack output to generate some nice 8 bit sounds
> and some decent glitchy dirty sounding noises. I imagine
> something could be built under PD, but I don't really know where
> to start.
>
> I will also look into the vst plugin, which is probably closer to
> what I wanted, but I really object to using non-native audio
> stuff on Linux.. I have got stuff working before, and it always
> seems much more resource hungry, and less stable than it really
> should be.
>
> James
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>

I've wanted to use resid to write either a standalone or DSSI synth
for years now.  Never had the time.  I think it would be a fun project
though.  I'm not sure what the UI would look like...

I remember starting to attempt it at one point, but I never got the
resid code to generate any output.  It was an unusual interface, as
you had to call a tick() function or something like that every n
(where n < 44100) samples to run the chip emulation and get an output
sample.