Atari 2600 Full MIDI Interface for Music

[gamesDAMNED]

This is outstanding. Have you updated this software program since 2008? I suppose a good test of this MIDI interface is to recreate other people's 2600 chiptunes (8bc comes to mind). If you could replicate them perfectly, then we'd really be in business. Thanks for the terrific work.

[littlescale]

@gamesDAMNED Hi! I have not updated it, and the only update I would want to do at this stage is to add USB MIDI support. As this interface is very responsive and can play all notes at all volumes from all possible sounds etc on the Atari, I don't see why it couldn't replicate any other 2600 tune. In addition to this, it also support sample playback and sample manipulation (in terms of playback speed / pitch), so I think that it can music that sounds quite different to other 2600 music.

[cyberbrothers]

Cool

[alteredclone]

oh my holy god.

[nickpelkey]

i'm beyond interested in this project. i'd really like to get something like this up and running. any help would be greatly appreciated.

[farlepet]

Do you have a Schematic for it?

[RichardCyberPunk]

Did you use one TIA chip or two TIA chips ? I used to program the Pokey music chip on the Atari, and in the 90s, we put an extra Pokey in our beloved Atari 130Xe ,and then we had 8 sound channels, and stereo 8-bit sound. Oh,and another question, does anybody know how to program the very rare Atari AMY chip from the Atari XEM music machine prototype ?

[glennglog22]

just like fitghing glados music

[kotep777]

amazing ..so your using multiple sounds from the atari all at once?

really interested...have a modded atari and synthcart and the highly liquid box.....would [love to learn more about this!!!!!!!!

[aadz93]

hey i want to make a midi interface with the tia using a Siemens SAB8088-1-P 8-bit (10MHz) microprocessor and i want to know if this is possible. its a 40-pin chip in a DIP package.

thanks,

aadz93

[rickonami]

KOOL, never imagined after 30 years u hear the Atari sounds mixed like that.

[Tamanozke]

Oh my goodness. The 1:00 point was beautiful. The soft, not scratchy sound.

It totally makes me want to homebrew for the Atari 2600 now just to make a game with a sweet soundtrack...

Anyone know where I should start to learn?

[sburich1]

How much would you charge to make this interface? I have a 2600 that my kids dug out of the closet and I'm loving the sounds. Do you have schematics or instructions for your setup

[my4trackmachine]

this is gorgeous. do you have any music releases using exclusively the 2600?

[aadz93]

hey littlescale i want to make a direct midi interface to a tia of a 2600. do u no what are the audio inputs (or what pins on the tia makes the sound). on the tia. so if u can help please reply

[littlescale]

@aadz93 It depends - do you have an NTSC or a PAL machine?

[aadz93]

@littlescale ntsc

[aadz93]

@littlescale Oh and i have taken the tia out of the 2600

[littlescale]

@aadz93 Youll want pins 12 and 13. (13 is AUD0 and 12 is AUD1).

[aadz93]

isnt that audio out?

[aadz93]

@littlescale what i need to know is what pins do the signals for the audio go in the tia

[littlescale]

@aadz93 The TIA generates the audio.

[aadz93]

yeah i know that but what pins are the audio generators

[aadz93]

@littlescale sorry if i am bugging you but is there any pins that go to the audio generator

[littlescale]

@aadz93 No. Do you mean you want to control the audio generators? Then you need to write to the correct TIA registers. There are 6 audio registers - 2 x freq, 2 x vol and 2 x timbre. Off the top of my head I do not know which TIA registers are which, so you will need to search around for some sort of register map I suppose.

[aadz93]

@littlescale so you are saying there are no exact pins

[aadz93]

@littlescale oh i have the schematics of the tia if you want to see them

[littlescale]

@aadz93 Yeah I've seen the schematic. So you need to update the audio registers of the TIA. This is how the control over the audio generators is exercised. You basically send data, and the chip reacts by changing its audio output.

[aadz93]

@littlescale sorry the only thing i am confused is i dont know what pins to send the data to and what kind of format ( like a midi signal or like a audio signal)

[littlescale]

@aadz93 The data will be sent to pins d0 - d7, and the address will be sent to pins a0 - a5. Make sure that the cs lines and the r/w lines are set correctly in order to perform a write cycle to the TIA. The data "format" will simply be in the form of TIA register / data pairs - for example, to set the frequency of AUD0, do a register update of AUDF0 etc etc.

[aadz93]

@littlescale thanks!

[hankeys]

how da f u make this kind of music? its soft? or u have to own atari 2600??

[EvilKnebl]

its pc software controling a real 2600 via midi

[SupermarketSurvivor]

Need an 2600, you see Abletone Live which is just sending Midi to the 2600.

[chupathingy99]

Fucking little-scale. You make us all look bad.

[igouge]

aqualung?

[Froboz23]

That is sick. Nicely done.

I'm most interested in the very clean tones at 0:57. The smooth attack and decay is nice on the ears, and there is a subtle echo effect in there as well. I'm guessing the volume data is all coming from the midi device. But I'd like to achieve that same tone quality in a .asm file. Any hints on what the attack and decay would look like in assembly?

BTW, my 5-year-old was dancing to the music. He liked it too. =)

Thanks,

TROGDOR from Atariage

[glennglog22]

@Froboz23 today he's 7 right?

[KlonoaKawaiiDesu]

wow. this is pretty cool. ^.^ the music sounds like a techno tune. it's pretty impressive.

[nsputnik]

I need this. Please tell me how I can buy it!

[clemtinite]

this is fantastic

[dougd1015]

I'd have alot of fun with a Genesis or 5200 one of these.

Super cool!

*5 stars*

[zut25]

i love the sounds on 0:57

sounds awesome!!

actually the whole video is awesome

listen to Crystal castles

[rcon303]

me likey!!!

[plurp7]

NICE!!!! i have owned SynthCart for a few years now, and would LOVE to have this kind of interface. I am severely impressed. please let us know when you are going to release it, i will actually pay money to own this program even if i could get it for free. Great Work!

[petervanhaaften]

fantastic work. i would love to get my hands on this. any clue if/when you plan on releasing this (in whatever form that may be)?

[littlescale]

There is no release date set yet, however one thing is certain: it will be released, 100% positive.

[petervanhaaften]

i will await in anticipation.

[storerestore]

Cool project! And a great tune to demonstrate the functionality.

[stringanime]

I like this, but it makes me think of the music one might find playing inside a padded cell.

[failotron]

i love you so much man, cant wait for a how-to

[drzvook]

bravo!

[parisgraphicsvideo]

excellent!

[TEMPHUiBIS]

-]. i'm doing great man, working on 2nd album and music video, this video's great I love the atari sounds. I bet you could make the noizSPIKE-2600/R do a search on google, and take a look, it's cool .[-

[littlescale]

2nd album, thats great man! Hope its all going well :)

[kikencorp]

you b crazy man.

all awesome work as always!

[littlescale]

thanks! i'm very glad you like it :)

[atemhes]

encore encore we want more!

[littlescale]

hehe thanks :)

[everyonelovesbutters]

bravo mate :)

[littlescale]

cheers