TRS80 CoCo Controlling 5U Modular Synthesizer

video upload by Danniielle OConnor

Short but pretty cool.

"This is a quick test of a new step sequencer program I wrote for the TRS80 CoCo 1. Audio from the six bit output of the CoCo is fed into the Second Sound UniSyn audio to synth converter. The UniSyn control voltage and gate outputs then trigger the modular.
I have added external sync input to this version of the sequencer program and am using the joystick fire button to test that function."

The Making of a TRS-80 Voice Synthesizer - Talker/80

Published on Mar 14, 2020 Michael Wessel

via Michael Wessel, who brought us the Speak&SID:

"New dimensions in voice synthesis for the iconic Trinity computer from 1977!

Talker/80 is a new speech (voice) synthesizer for the TRS-80 Model 1. It offers DECtalk-based natural sounding speech, and can emulate the "official" TRS Voice Synthesizer as well as the VS-100 Alpha Products voice synthesizer. The original software runs without changes / patches. Both the VS-100 and the TRS Voice Synthesizer utilized the Votrax SC-01 speech chip. The SC-01 is "emulated" by means of DECtalk here (phoneme mapping).

Everything is open source, including the firmware sources and Gerbers:

https://github.com/lambdamikel/Talker-80"

Pulse Eternal | CoCo-Musik | Ear Has Not Heard

Published on Aug 19, 2019 SynthTweaks.com

Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer / CoCo Sequencer

"'Ear Has Not Heard,' is the first track written and recorded for the upcoming Pulse Eternal album, "CoCo-Musik."

Visit www.PulseEternal.com for more Pulse Eternal music.

This album features the Radio Shack TRS-80 Color Computer 1 (AKA the CoCo) playing the Second Sound ACO160 pitch to CV/gate/emvelope & MIDI converter evaluation kit. The ACO160 then controls the Roland System 8 synthesizer via MIDI and www.Synthesizers.com modular Moog Unit synthesizer via analog control voltage and gate signals.
More information on the Second Sound ACO160 can be found at www.SecondSound.com"

Alpha Products VS-100 Voice Synthesizer For TRS-80

Note: Auction links are affiliate links for which the site may be compensated.

via this auction

"comes with the instructions and paperwork as shown"

Some pics including some of the inside, the ribbon cable and paperwork via this new listing.

The only one other was featured here back in 2011. That was also the only other Alpha Products post. Curious if they made anything else.

CLICK FOR MORE »

"SOUNDS FOR A TRS-80" ARP2600 & MAKE NOISE RENE PATCH TUTORIAL

"SOUNDS FOR A TRS-80" ARP2600 & MAKE NOISE RENE PATCH TUTORIAL from Kip Kubin on Vimeo.

"I was trying to stretch my use of voltage inverters to create more interesting and varied timbres in a sequence using Ring Mod as the sound source.

I also wanted to use the Rene as a playable instrument and allow the grace notes to be random. I'm still wrapping my head around the RENE but it's already has opened me up to new ways of using sequencers in my work."

A Vintage 16K Music Demo (William Tell Overture)

YouTube via VironCybernet. Music starts at 3:05
"This was made by Garry and Linda Howard in 1982. There was a 32K version... but... The code was published in a magazine and the terms of use were to type it in and save it on a tape and then run it as is, which is what I did, having to push either 30000 or 60000 keys, I only had 16K so I typed in that version. The longer version had the less interesting part of this melody.

Before it plays you can hear what the program data sounds like on the tape as it reads almost 16K of data from the tape at about 1200 baud.

It's not a copyright violation to run it and show it to people as it is, because that is what it is for.

I can describe the USUAL musical sounds from this machine as sounding very much like the buzzer on a game show when someone gives a wrong answer. This program probably made the best sounding music ever with the TRS-80, and I show it to you because it's on an 8-bit 16K machine with usually crappy sound, like my 1985 synthesizer disk for the Apple II, and it's a historic demo that was famous with people who had TRS-80's but is almost forgotten now.

And also it is either evidence or proof of concept of getting a lot of high quality sound or music without much memory, certainly much less than an MP3 of it would need."