Modern Sid Chip Substitutes [video]

Imagine a stack of 4 of them, nicely multi-timbral...

A light googlin says estimates are that the SID is maybe 2k transistors. I think a reasonable minimum is in the thousands.

Similar idea: https://monster6502.com/

But note:

> Does it run at the full speed of an original 6502 chip?

> No; it's relatively slow. The MOnSter 6502 runs at about 1/20th the speed of the original, thanks to the much larger capacitance of the design. The maximum reliable clock rate is around 50 kHz. The primary limit to the clock speed is the gate capacitance of the MOSFETs that we are using, which is much larger than the capacitance of the MOSFETs on an original 6502 die.

So if you built a SID using the same techniques and components, you couldn't run it in real-time without the pitch being way too low or without modifying the design. I'm not sure how hard this would be to avoid with better-spec'd components, but intuitively it makes sense for a much larger circuit to run much slower.

Yes. I remember listening to it on the radio. The DJ used the handle Hard Hat Mack. It was pretty awesome to hear SID music over the radio.

I found this archive:

- Recordings: https://www.transbyte.org/SID/KDVS.html - Playlists: https://www.transbyte.org/SID/6581.html

The download links seem to be 404 (I haven't tried all though). The playlist download works though (it points to HVSC).

After more digging, the underlying host arnold.c64.org is gone, but there are a few archives of the site. This should help re-construct the original links from the above page:

https://www.mmnt.net/db/0/0/arnold.c64.org/pub/sidmusic/lala... https://archive.org/download/arnold.c64.org

Its possible the authors are still around and have copies though. Given the era of the page, the content could probably be re-hosted and put in modern formats.

Yes. I remember listening to it on the radio. The DJ used the handle Hard Hat Mack. It was pretty awesome to hear SID music over the radio.

I found this archive that has some of the shows recorded, and set playlists (I'm giving two links as the site is using frames so the top level page requires you navigate the menus to get to these):

  - Recordings: https://www.transbyte.org/SID/KDVS.html
  - Playlists: https://www.transbyte.org/SID/6581.html

The set playlists (using HVSC) works. For actual recordings they're 404 from this site -- arnold.c64.org is gone. But there are a few archives of the arnold.c64.org site! This should help re-construct the original links from the above page:

  - https://www.mmnt.net/db/0/0/arnold.c64.org/pub/sidmusic/lala/ra
  - https://archive.org/download/arnold.c64.org  (download the whole thing and dig into pub/sidmusic/lala/ra)

Due to the era, most of the files are in RealAudio format; with a few MP3s as well. Wonder if this could all be re-posted somewhere in modern formats to make it more accessible.

Its possible the authors are still around and have more copies; doubtful KDVS has archives, maybe tapes buried in the library.

Anyway, hope this helps! Its a cool piece of history and brings back a few memories.