I finished up the first SammichSID today. It wan't much work any more just installing the panels. Here you can see a picture of the back panel with the paper still on it. If you click on the picture you can see a larger version and read the text that is engraved in it. You can also clearly see the C64 style power switch which I still think is a nice retro-touch. You can also notice that it has audio in next to the audio out socket. Both are stereo jacks by the way.
And here is a picture of the first finished SammichSID. I'm already a long way with the second one too by the way. So hopefully I can show you two very soon. In this picture you can see what I meant with the front panel and all the holes in it. It is made like a Honeycomb structure. Again you can also see the engraved text on the front panel. In the right top corner is also a logo. You can see it better in the picture below. Well enough about this time for action :)
I downloaded the latest Midibox SID firmware from the Midibox website. There is a special firmware version in the package you get for the SammichSID. After I uploaded it, it rebooted itself and gave the familiar bleeps that I knew already from the MB-6582. So far so good. Then I uploaded the presets with the new Java patch editor that is available. A very nice new tool by the way. Also that went well. Then it was time to hook up the audio and a midi keyboard to play on it. The first thing I noticed is how different the 8580 SIDs sound compared to the 6581 SIDs I have in my MB-6582. The newer 8520's sound much brighter and the filter seems to work better. But the 6581 seems to have more low end (bass) and sounds more vintage. So if you want to go into SID I think you should use both :) I can't say which I like more actually. Both is nice, but the presets that are made for the Midibox SID seem to fit the 8520's better. OK the only thing left to do is painting. I'm still not looking forward to that. I'm sure I'll screw it up. I'm good with electronics, but not with that kind of stuff.
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2 comments:
Why bother painting it, its the sound we are after not the the looks of the unit. Nice one. Be good to hear it in action
I'll try the painting, because it is the sound I'm interested in. Maybe it looks better with paint, maybe worse :) We'll see. Maybe I'll make some demo's, but I can't promise yet.
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