[LAU] Sound Chip as a synthesizer on Linux. Thoughts, ideas?

[Rob]

On 07/10/2014 10:52 AM, Fede wrote:
>> I also think that producing OPL3-quality FM synthesis with the OPL3's
>>  polyphony is trivial for today's CPUs, which is why you don't see 
>> those technologies around much anymore.
> Yes, it might be trivial, but as with every hardware piece there is a 
> sound to it, which I like and want to know what's possible with them 
> (specially since I can't afford a nice analog synth at the moment).

FM is actually digital synthesis, though some implementations included
analog filters. What the OPL3 produces cannot be any different than what an
effective emulation of it can produce. It literally outputs digital data
which needs to be converted by an external DAC, which is normally right
there on the same board.

On the other hand, SID's synthesis is analog, something that really
confused me as a 15-year-old trying to make video game sound effects but
which I really appreciate today. I think the only reason we don't see more
"SID in a box" devices for the increasingly popular chiptune culture is
that chiptune composers seem to favor Nintendo devices like the NES and
Game Boy. But the SID is much harder to emulate accurately than those, and
an external box would really be desirable (if one doesn't find a way to
just network a C64 to do it, which may be cheaper).

>> But the periodic appearance of hobbyist-level SID-based devices for 
>> modern PCs indicates you're not the only one with this sort of idea.
> I used to think of these devices as hobbyst's things, but (specially 
> regarding the MOS SID) their demoscene users tend to take some art out 
> of them. And they actually were designed with a musician's perspective

By "hobbyist" I mean "hand made one at a time by hobbyists", as opposed to
"mass produced in Chinese factories". It's certainly not a judgment on
their quality or the art that one may produce with them. I still have a
Commodore 64 myself, and while I'm more than happy enough with emulation of
its sound for the most part, I do recognize that analog synthesis does have
qualities that
simulations of it don't... and vice versa.

At any rate, speaking of the hardware SID specifically, what you're looking
for is definitely possible... the hardware may still be available:

http://amigakit.leamancomputing.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=842&currency=USD

but the Linux driver site seems to have disappeared in the last year:

http://web.archive.org/web/20130812052953/http://llg.cubic.org/cw/

Rob