Sample Playback on C64 at 44.1KHz - Just For Fun

Here's a very short video demonstrating sample playback on a C64 at 44.1KHz / 4 bits using a SID 8580. Due to size limitations, I was limited to 60,000 4-bit samples.

Because I used the Commodore 64 model with the SID 8580 in it, the audio output was so very quiet; i had to add about 30 dB of gain. As a result the audio was very noisy, and so I have also added a low pass and a high pass filter, to make it slightly more bearable to listen to. I would love to try this out using a Commodore 64 with a SID 6581 in it.

Sequencing Sega Master System YM2413 Drums from iPod Touch via TouchOSC and Max/MSP

Today I've been working on a setup whereby an iPod Touch / iPhone running TouchOSC can sequence and manipulate the drum channels from a YM2413 inside of a Sega Master System.

I would have simply made my own patch for TouchOSC, but I was having some troubles uploading it to my iPod, so I simply mapped data from the default 'Beatmachine' template.

The following parameters can be changed from the iPod Touch:
• Rhythmic sequencing
• Step-wise pitch sequencing
• Global pitch transposition
• Global note length
• Individual drum volume control
• Tempo

Here is the mapping at the moment. I am hoping to add a 'loop' save / load type mapping, where the user can build up a loop, save it, change the loop until it is a different thing entirely, and then come back to original easily (with 9 such 'save slots' available).






The YM2413 has five basic drum sounds, kick drum, snare drum, tom, hi hat and cymbal.

In the video below, the only effect that has been added to the direct output from the Sega Master System is a bit of a delay line. All other changes in sound are a result of changing the parameters of the sequence or changing the parameters inside of the YM2413.

Muon Detector Live at the Planeterium on October 24!

The muon detector built by Robert Hart will be featured in an upcoming concert organised by Darren Curtis and Pitt Bradlet of Sacred Resonance. The detector will be used in conjunction with audio mappings that I have developed, such as real-time sample triggering and synthesis. The event will take place at the Adelaide Planetarium on October 24th. Details are as follows.



NADAUM EXPERIMENT

2 Sessions at 7pm and 8:30pm. Presented at the Adelaide Planetarium for 1 hour

NADAUM - [Universal Sound Current]

Nadaum is the experience of the universal sound-
scape. It is an activation and experiment merging
images and sound from Cosmic Rays, to Solar Wind.

Allowing the creative soundscape to emerge
in a live music performance, incorporating
the resonance of background sounds of crystal bowls.
The merging of the ancient and modern composition
of Yantra to Mantra.

Sacred Resonance (Darren and Bradley) Live Music-Visuals

Crystal Bowls (Allen Stevens)
‘Cosmic Muon Detector [ by Robert Hart ]
(Cotrolled by Seb Tomczak)

$20 & Conc $15
(Group 3+)
Bookings a must

http://www.sacredresonance.com.au

Bay to Birdwood 2009

Today I took part in the Bay to Birdwood Classic Car Run. My dad has a Renault 16 from 1973, and so I decided to join him when he decided to enter the event.

There is something beautiful about old machines, about technology that is fundamentally different from the current generation of devices and machines. I think this general appreciation of mine stems from my interest in chipmusic; I can remember that when I was younger, I had no interest in old technology and old machines.

Swapping Out 6526 ICs

I have had to swap out one of the 6526 CIA ICs on a working C64 of mine. This particular C64 has a special place in my hear; its been to Newcastle, Melbourne and Sydney and has also been played at the opening of the Adelaide Festival of Arts.

So anyway, the 6526 CIA #2 IC seemed to be delivering somewhat corrupt information, so it simply had to be swapped. I happened to have another C64 lying around with a broken SID chip, which I cannibalised for parts.

The donor C64...

The recipient C64...

iPod Touch & TouchOSC Controlling a C64

I made a quick video of using an iPod Touch and TouchOSC to control a Commodore 64 in real time.

Using the default 'Keys' patch for TouchOSC, a number of parameters of the Commodore 64s sound chip, the SID, can be controlled:

• Note on and off commands for two octaves' worth of piano keys
• Attack
• Decay
• Release
• Filter frequency
• Filter resonance
• Enable / disable triangle waveform
• Enable / disable sawtooth waveform
• Enable / disable pulse waveform
• Pulse wave duty cycle

Although this is only a preliminary mapping, I do like where this is going from a performance point of view, and I will be working on better / more meaningful mappings in the near future.

C64M: My Commodore 64 MIDI Interface

This morning I finally got around to designing and building a prototype Commodore 64 MIDI interface. I will be releasing the schematics and programming for it at some stage. My main aim is to have an array of C64s at my control.

Timothy Carroll: The Future of Australian Folk Music?

Two days ago I heard a beautiful song on the radio, Timothy Carroll's Alicia's Song. Intrigued, I purchased the album for Bread & Circuses. Although a few of the songs are a little too mainstream for me (for lack of a better word), there are some amazing tracks that more than make up for it. My personal favourites are Danshyttan, Under the Blackwoods and of course Alicia's Song.

The thought that 'some of the tracks are too mainstream for me' brings up some interesting questions, such as what makes one folk track more mainstream than others? I think that for my tastes, part of what draws me to folk music is the perception on the part of the audience of some sense of authenticity - and how well this sense of authenticity is manufactured by using appropriate production techniques, intelligent songwriting and a convincing performance.

A successful folk music song for me is one where the songwriter is able to create the illusion of authenticity (both in terms of a powerful narrative and emotional content) and convey this sense convincingly through the recorded medium.

Anyway, I digress.

For me, the answer is 'probably yes'.

3 Sega Sample Kits for BeatMaker (iPhone)

Today I picked up the brilliant application BeatMaker for iPhone and iPod Touch. It is a great combination of a simple interface with enough flexibility to do some interesting things with it.

Here are three Sega kits for BeatMaker:

• YM2413 Drums (recorded from a Sega Master System 1)
• YM2612 (recorded from a Sega Mega Drive 2)
• SN76489 (recorded from a Sega Master System 2)

Marty Kraham AKA TV Death Squad: Chipmusic Thief

Via nitro2k01:

"The buzz in the 8-bit community the last 24 hours has been Marty Kraham from Oklahoma, who promotes himself as a chiptune artist under the name of TV Death Squad, but whose whole repertoire seems to consist solely of material from other artists. Here’s a recap of the discussion about him. What started as any Myspace kid uploading Random (Note, the artist known as Random) songs, continued as a successful search for other songs he might’ve plagiarized and ended up as a fruitless attempt to find something about this guy that isn’t fake..."


Via Goto80:
"Sure, we can condemn plagiarism and appraise remix-appropriation-whatever. But really – how do you come up with the idea of releasing full songs that you had nothing to do with, like Laromlab did? Why would you want to perform live with recordings of other people’s tracks? Would you think that you could get away with it? If not, what kind of motivational drives are stronger than (un)consciously knowing that you will be labeled as a faker?..."

Dot.AY's Aussie Chipmusic Mix on Triple J Tonight!

Dot.AY says:

"Hey everybody I have an all Australian Chipmusic mix going on popular national radio station Triple J on the late night show SoundLab from 11pm-2am (AEST) with an interview as well...

http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/soundlab/


You should be able to stream the show from when it starts until next sunday at the above link

the whole playlist is here

http://gameboyaustralia.com/2009/09/aus … ple-j.html

hope you can listen in !!!!

thanks"



His mix includes my track titled 'The Merchant' from Error Repeat (NES and SMS).

I Am Looking For Old Mobile Phones...

Someone that I know needs some old mobile phones for an upcoming performance and sound project.


"Hi All

I am DESPERATELY seeking unwanted MOBILE PHONES (particularly with Bluetooth) for a sound project that I am undertaking - I need as many as possible.

If you have an old mobile phone that you no longer require, or know someone who does, I would gladly appreciate it.

Many thanks"


I thought that maybe some readers would have some old phones to spare? Please comment or send me an email. I am happy to pay for postage if you're not in Adelaide.

Birthright (Sega Master System with YM2413)

Although this track might not be for everyone, please bear with it to the end.

Inspired by lyrics from the recent Paul Dempsey album:

"New rays of light must fight for a place between the leaves
So son, don't seem surprised to find no shade beneath this tree
Just like Abe you can't think twice
When offered your piece of the franchise
now every kid expects a birthright"

Of interest might be the fact that all timbral / textural changes from 0:00 to 1:58 are produced by changing only once parameter very slowly over time (modulation depth). This results in what I think as a really varied range of sounds. That's something that I quite like - the idea that a single parameter in synthesis can completely change the perception of the output.

For those interested: made with a Sega Master System PAL 1 with YM2413.

URL: http://8bitcollective.com/music/little-scale/Birthright/

The J Arthur Keenes Band Covers 'Dallas, Four AM'

The J Arthur Keenes Band has covered my track 'Dallas, Four AM' using acoustic instruments. You can hear the cover here. The original track can be found here.

Sega Mega Drive / Genesis Sound Comparison Page

URL: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/sega_comparisons/

"There are many hardware and software options available to those that are writing music for the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis video game console. Each option has its own unique flavour of sound upon playback, in terms of tone colour, spectrum, clipping / overdriven waveforms, signal to noise ratio and the amplitude of the signal.

The aim of this page is to provide composers and musicians with an opportunity to listen to a number of the different models of Sega Mega Drive / Genesis. "

YM2413 Custom Voice Editor

I have made a custom voice editor for Max/MSP. The idea is to make it easier to edit the appropriate MIDI CC data for the custom instrument for the Sega Master System FM chip. The following parameters are controllable via the editor:

• AM on – modulator
• AM on - carrier
• Vibrato on – modulator
• Vibrato on – carrier
• EG type – modulator
• EG type – carrier
• KSR on – modulator
• KSR on - carrier
• MUL – modulator
• MUL – carrier
• KSL on – modulator
• KSL on – carrier
• Total Level – modulator
• Rectify – modulator
• Rectify – carrier
• FM Feedback – modulator
• Attack – modulator
• Decay – modulator
• Sustain – modulator
• Release – modulator
• Attack – carrier
• Decay – carrier
• Sustain – carrier
• Release – carrier

YM2413 Pitch Bend Function

This evening I added a linear +/- 7 semitones pitchbend function to the YM2413 setup for the Sega Master System MIDI Interface.

Eighteen Year Journey to Whale's Mouth (YM2413 track)

http://8bitcollective.com/music/little-scale/Eighteen+Year+Journey+to+Whale%27s+Mouth/

YM2413 Drums Sample Pack

This sample pack contains the drum sounds from the YM2413 sound chip, when configured as recommend by Yamaha in the application manual. The audio has been recorded directly from hardware.

http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/downloads/sample_sets/little-scale_YM2413-drums.zip

Simultaneous SN76489 and YM2413 MIDI Support

I've added simultaneous support for the SN76489 and the YM2413 sound chips for the Sega Master System MIDI Interface.

Tuning the YM2413 Drums

I have added support for the 'rhythm / drum' mode of the YM2413 chip for the Sega Master System MIDI interface. The SN76489 is mapped to MIDI channels 1 - 4. The YM2413 is mapped to MIDI channels 5 - 13. Normally, the YM2413 has 9 identical, pitched channels. However, the chip also has a mode whereby the resources that make up channels 7, 8 and 9 can be used to form five simultaneous percussive sounds.

Yamaha recommends a predetermined frequency setting for each of the operators that constitute the percussion when in drum mode, but these preset frequencies can sound quite bland and boring. Instead, the mapping that I have chosen using channel 14 to actually trigger the sounds.

Any C received on channel 14 will trigger a kick drum sound. Any D received on channel 14 will trigger a snare drum sound. Any E received on channel 14 will trigger a tom sound. Any F received on channel 14 will trigger a cymbal sound. Any G received on channel 14 will trigger a hi-hat sound.

However, because these sounds are made using the operators that normally make up channels 7, 8 and 9, its still possible to tune the operators to a certain degree by simply sending MIDI pitches to MIDI channels 11, 12 and 13. This then essentially 'tunes' the drum sounds, giving a wider variety of sounds, and even the possibility of playing melodies using the percussive sounds (or at least playing some role in the harmonic structure of a work).

Have a quick listen to an example here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_other/useless/YM2413%20drums.mp3

Sound Bytes 5 November 20 on Kickstarter

It's important to get onto this everyone. Even if you can't make it to the show, any amount that can be donated (from USD$1 upwards) would be much appreciated by all of the organisers and artists. Thanks so much for your support!




"4 gigs down, Soundbytes has brought some of Australia's most amazing chip artists to Melbourne, up til now, we've been putting the gigs on for more or less donations but with your help, we can put some extra money into our first birthday party on November 20, to make it the biggest and best gig to date. We are famous within the Oz chip scene for bringing together Australia's premiere chip artists, and putting on shows that people travel cross country to catch. Quite simply, if it's chip and it's in Australia, you can probably catch it at a Soundbytes gig.

We want to reward; not only the artists who have paid their own ways to play our past gigs by actually springing for their flights for this one, but you, our loyal fans, whether you've already discovered us or are yet to do so. Kickstarter enables us to give you guys some amazing goodies for your pledges, and best of all helps us put on the greatest gig we can, the way only we can.

We have locked in little-scale, dot.AY, Dr Dollar Dollar (AKA Cool Thomas) and for the first time at Soundbytes - cTrix and have organised a showing of 'Reformat the Planet' that you just can't see anywhere else - only available to Kickstarter backers. Stay tuned to this page for updates as they come to hand.

Please remember Aussies funding amounts are in US$ (hence the somewhat strange amounts!)

Many many thanks (more than we can possibly say) to C-trix for the amazing video, 2Player Productions for allowing us to screen their brilliant documentary, the artists, for not only agreeing to play the shows for nothing but for taking time off work and spending their own hard earned bucks to get to the shows, Geoffery Gifford for being out American partner so we can do a Kickstart and of course to you for coming to out gigs and hopefully pledging to ensure our continued survival!"

Oversample Parameter Added to Sega Mega Drive MIDI

I've added another sample playback parameter to the Sega Mega Drive / Genesis MIDI Interface - an 'oversample' parameter. Basically, this is whereby the sample rate of a given audio sample (when channel 6 is in DAC mode) is kept constant, but a determined number of samples (0, 1, 2 or 3) are skipped during playback. The aim here is to give more control over the DAC channel, thereby being able to get a wider range of sounds out of it. Combining the oversample parameter with the playback rate parameter can produce some interesting results.

Multiplexing MIDI Output Streams with Arduino

Overview
Arduino can easily generate MIDI output data for use with external synths and modules or to take physical events and turn them into control data for use with software synths and applications etc.

Although the Arduino only has one Serial output, it is still possible to use a multiplexer to send multiple streams of MIDI data to multiple devices.

The idea is pretty simple. The Arduino still uses its TX pin for sending serial data, but uses an analog multiplexer to choose where that data is going (say, one of two MIDI outputs for example). The analog multiplexer that I have chosen is a 4051 and can 'route' the data to up to eight different places.


Hardware
The hardware side is very basic - RX goes to the common in/out on the multiplexer, and out/ins 0 and 1 are connected to two MIDI outputs. Digital pins 8, 9 and 10 control the 4051's address pins.

In the above schematic, PORTD refers to Arduino pins 0 to 7. PORTB refers to Arduino 8 to 15. Naturally, the Arduino boards still require a 5V power source (not shown in the schematic).

The above schematic can be easily adapted to accommodate up to eight MIDI outputs simply by adding additional DIN-5 sockets and mimicking the pin destinations of the two that are already shown.


Software
Here is some very basic Arduino code to test out the above schematic. Naturally, functions that goup together MIDI functions nested within functions that handle the multiplexing can be added to simplify the code for more complex operations.

void setup() {
 Serial.begin(31250);
 pinMode(8, OUTPUT);
 pinMode(9, OUTPUT);
 digitalWrite(9, LOW);
 digitalWrite(10, LOW);
 digitalWrite(11, LOW);
}

void loop() {
 PORTB = 0;
 Serial.print(0x90, BYTE);
 Serial.print(60, BYTE);
 Serial.print(127, BYTE);

 delay(500);

 Serial.print(0x90, BYTE);
 Serial.print(60, BYTE);
 Serial.print(0, BYTE);
 delay(500);

 PORTB = 1;
 Serial.print(0x90, BYTE);
 Serial.print(67, BYTE);
 Serial.print(127, BYTE);

 delay(500);

 Serial.print(0x90, BYTE);
 Serial.print(67, BYTE);
 Serial.print(0, BYTE);
 delay(500);
}

www.little-scale.com

A portal.

http://www.little-scale.com/

Homemade Muon Detector, Arduino and Max/MSP

I am fortunate enough to be borrowing a homemade muon detector from my friend Robert Hart of Hardhack.org.au, co-founder of Adelaide Dorkbot and all-round electronics and mechatronics guru.

You can find out more about the particular version of the muon detector that I have been experimenting with here: http://hardhack.org.au/geiger_muller_detector.

The basic concept is to use coincidence detection to filter out terrestrial radiation and leave only data that indicates cosmic radiation.

Today I got around to hooking the device up to my computer via an Arduino board. The model that I am borrowing has three Geiger-Müller tubes, and as such there are two main signals that I would be interested in, namely a coincidence detection for the top and middle tubes, and a coincidence detection for the middle and bottom tubes.

In terms of reading this data via the Arduino, it is actually quite a simple affair. I have connected the three coincidence outputs (top && middle, middle && bottom and ((top && middle) || (middle && bottom))) to Arduino pins 8, 9 and 10. These pins are equavalent to PORTB bits 0, 1 and 2.

Since the output from the detector is a 5V logic signal with a positive signal indicated a coincidence detection, it is then simply a matter of reading the output from PORTB via the PINB command, comparing this reading to the previously-sampled reading, and if the newer reading is different, then printing it via the serial port to the main computer.

The Arduino code is as follows:

byte previous;
byte data;

void setup() {
Serial.begin(57600);
DDRB = B00000000;
PORTB = B11111111;
}

void loop() {
if(PINB != previous) {
previous = PINB;
Serial.print(previous, BYTE);
}
}

It is then simply a matter of using software such as Max/MSP to read the byte and react accordingly. The simplest Max/MSP patch that will decipher the signals into bang triggers is this:

To explain the patch briefly, the metro 3 object is consistently querying the serial a 57600 object whether new data is in the serial input buffer. If there is, the serial a 57600 sends the incoming byte out of its left outlet.

Since the interest lies in bits 0 and 2 (the top && middle and middle && bottom signals), those bits need to be isolated. By first shifting the byte an appropriate amount, and then taking the modulo 2, the specific bits can be easily isolated and dealt with.

The change objects prevent false triggers. The sel 1 objects simply make it so that every transition in the logical signal from a 0 to a 1 will trigger a bang.

Tomczak speaks at the postgrad forum

I presented at postgraduate forum today for thirty minutes.