The Toymakers Ep. 1 - Commodore 64 Sid Chip Synth Part 1

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Episode 1 of a series where we chronicle every detail as we build, test, play, and perform with our own custom instruments. Our end goal for this project is to produce a professional quality album where every sound is produced by our own hand built instruments. All of the music you'll hear in this series are tracks that we've thrown together over the last few years.

In this episode we will be salvaging a very special chip from a very special computer. The Commodore 64 was the most sold computer, ever. And for me it was my first computer. One of the quirks that made this little machine so memorable was it's unique sound. This computer's sound engine was built around a little bit of magic called the SID chip. What made this chip so distinct was partially it's strange mix of analog and digital design, along with a long list of short cuts and quick fixes that had to be implemented into the design due to a very very tight release schedule. When you add it all up, you get a unique type of warm fuzzy distortion and odd modulated pitch shifting waveforms that any computer fan old enough to remember the 80s will recognize in a heartbeat.

Starting a project like this is a bit of a gamble. The chip we want to use has been out of the production since the 90s. In order to even get one, you have to find someone willing to sell you one they have (hoping it's not a scam), or pull one out of a C64 yourself. Being a big fan of the computer it's self, I don't want to encourage people to break good machines just for the sid chips, and I wouldn't break one personaly so what we decided to do was to buy some old broken machines and salvage any parts that we can use. This, in and of it's self, is a gamble as well because there are many variants of the sid chip out there in the wild and we want a very specific one: the 6581R4. This revision is the first chip that was made using the higher grade of silicon found in all later sid chips but was a version before they 'fixed' all of the bugs that we love so much about the original design. One bug that they fixed caused the newest chips to lose a great deal of their low frequency band, something we want to avoid because the synth we are building will be specifically for bass lines!

So in this part you will see how the c64 comes apart, where the sid chip is located, where some of the components of the power supply are placed, and you'll see us cleaning and preparing the outer case of the c64 to be modified into a 25 key keyboard (the keyboard assembly you see in the video is recycled from a m-audio oxygen8 v2, which will be featured in it's own episodes).

So, enjoy the video, if you have any questions at all please post a response and we'll do our best to answer them. If you'd like to keep up with our project please subscribe.

Thanks for watching!

Category:

Music

Tags:

• commodore
• 64
• c64
• sid
• chip
• chip tune
• instrument
• synth
• homemade
• diy
• electronics
• breadboard
• salvage
• 80s
• retro
• 8 bit
• original
• music
• make
• desoldering
• pcb
• prototype
• whisker
• recycling

[Kousaburo]

My name is Sid Chip!

Not really.

Anyway, does anybody know if the SID was used for or in any pop records?

[whisk0r]

@Kousaburo Check out SlayRadio for SID remix goodness

[xxbox6191]

hey Toymaker do you know too change devices on heavy 1541 c64 disk drive becouse my 1571 disk drive is built in too commodore 128D and there both device 8 I wanted too change 1541 disk drive, or making it easy change the device on my commdore 128D too device 9 please help!

[whisk0r]

Sorry, on that one you'll have to search around the net.

[lidarman2]

So this means my C64 is worth something?

[whisk0r]

At least $50USD. Depends on what bits you have with it, etc.

[1787dude]

IM GOING TO FUCKING MAKE ONE OF THESE!!!!!!!!

[12al34]

How about a Commodore 128? Does anyone know where that is? I think I found it: 6581 CBM / ?485 (? representing a rubbed out number, probably 1).

[KaslarProductions]

right on.... :)

[whisk0r]

There is a ton of work left to do before we can even think about making one for any one else.