Euclidean sequencing on the Great Conjunction FM synth - quick demo

video upload by Arman Bohn

The Great Conjunction FM synth is based on the YM2413 chip.

Smooth flowing rivers of beats w/ Great Conjunction FM fragment synth & M8 tracker

video upload by Arman Bohn

"M8 Tracker on the left is playing some soft pads underneath the constantly evolving Great Conjunction.

This is an early prototype of the YM2413 based synth which runs three sequencers concurrently (one pseudo random & 2 Euclidean).

There is no programming of specific notes. What control you have over specific sounds quickly yields to the motifs of interactions and conjunctions between the sequencers."

Loscha presses Play: Yamaha PSS-270 Demo 𝓑𝓲𝓵𝓵𝔂 𝓙𝓸𝓮𝓵 𝓙𝓾𝓼𝓽 𝓣𝓱𝓮 𝓦𝓪𝔂 𝓨𝓸𝓾 𝓐𝓻𝓮 has VERY weird instruments

video upload by Edward Jones

"The Yamaha PSS-270 is from the FM Synthesis line of keyboards.
The audio generation is handled by the YM2413 OPLL chip.
The OPLL is very well documented. Please look here for more information - https://www.smspower.org/Development/...
This chip has direct audio out, no DAC required.
One output is the Main voice out, and the other is the Percussion out.
On this unit, the Percussion and Main are both routed through the chorus unit. The chrous is MN3102 and MN3206, controlled by a fixed LFO. There is no feedback on the chorus. This could be added for a much more flangier effect."

SOS arcane

video upload by studio snippets

Spherical Sound Society ARCANE (first posted here), and Oxi Instruments One seqeuncer.

Some pics and additional info on ARCANE:


via Tindie

"ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-TEMPO. It controls the tempo/speed

-BASE REGISTER. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy. Better left it around 3 o'clock position for more musical results. Turning it to the center and left side produces more noisy/glitchy and chaotic outputs. You have been prevented!

-INTENSITY. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a very playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound patterns

-SEQUENCE. It let you browse between sequences. Turn it to select random patterns

-DISPERSION. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic. This and intensity are a very playable pair and both are related. Once you tuned something that you like, try to do variations playing this pot and INTENSITY one

-COMBINATION. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different. At minimun it produces a 16 step sequence. At maximun it produces a 8 steps sequence. Between is where the magic happens, and it recombines and produce generative patterns via bitshifting and logic operations of the sequences.

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. If you have been playing in the BASE REG pot center/left side and it has turned too chaotic or noisy, just put BASE REG pot around 3 o'clock and press reset. It will come back to more musical landscapes.

Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear. To accept external clock set TEMPO pot at minimun.

It comes fully assembled and ready to play or as as full kit or basic kit for you to build it"

ARCANE New Firmware 1.1 Demos

video upload by SPHERICAL SOUND SOCIETY

"So Im updating the ARCANE firmware. Now the buttons do some byte operations directly to the registers of the Yamaha chip, making the thing way more playable in a logical or musical way.

I have also tweak the ranges of the pots and added a totally new feature to the "sequence" pot that I will document when its ready

The firmware update will be free for existing ARCANE users and new units will ship with it.

/*/*/*/*/*

ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-Tempo. It controls the tempo/speed

-Base Register. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy

-Intensity. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a veru playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound explorations

-Sequence. It let you browse between sequences.

-Dispersion. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic

-Combination. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear

It comes fully assembled and ready to play."

Arcane Firmware Update - 3 Jams Snippets

video upload by SPHERICAL SOUND SOCIETY

"So Im updating the ARCANE firmware. Now the buttons do some byte operations directly to the registers of the Yamaha chip, making the thing way more playable in a logical or musical way. I have also tweak the ranges of the pots and added a totally new feature to the 'sequence' pot that I will document when its ready

Here I have some audio jams recorded in better quality in soundcloud:

Spherical Sound Society · Arcane new firmware audio jams

The firmware update will be free for existing ARCANE users and new units will ship with it.

/*/*/*/*/*

ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-Tempo. It controls the tempo/speed

-Base Register. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy

-Intensity. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a veru playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound explorations

-Sequence. It let you browse between sequences.

-Dispersion. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic

-Combination. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear

It comes fully assembled and ready to play.

You can get assembled units, kits and PCBs at:
synth/">https://www.tindie.com/products/jc204...
https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/94101..."

ARCANE Jam (Generative Chiptune FM Drum Machine / Synth)

video upload by SPHERICAL SOUND SOCIETY

"There´s some audio interfernces from the phone. Obviously ARCANE output is clean, the interferences were caught at the recording time from the phone mic

ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-Tempo. It controls the tempo/speed

-Base Register. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy

-Intensity. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a veru playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound explorations

-Sequence. It let you browse between sequences.

-Dispersion. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic

-Combination. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear

It comes fully assembled and ready to play.

You can get assembled units, kits and PCBs at:

https://www.tindie.com/products/jc204...

https://www.etsy.com/es/listing/94101..."

chipsynth PortaFM: Now with OPL2!

video by Plogue Art et Technologie, Inc.

"This updated version of PortaFM now adds the AdLib/Sound Blaster's classic OPL2 (YM3812) emulation core to the existing OPLL core (hot swappable)
Video by [TSSF] https://youtube.com/tssf
Music by Madbrain (Hubert Lamontagne)"

"Vintage 'portable' FM synthesizer

This chipsynth is a unique two operator FM synth with a very quirky feature set.
The late 80's 'PSS' series was cheesy and made of plastic but had a very unique sound which was lost to time. Some of the most well known examples of synthesizers in this series include the PSS-140, PSS-270 mini keyboards and the SHS-10 keytar.
On home computers, the iconic AdLib and Sound Blaster lines of sound cards used the same line of chips to give a musical voice to the PC, becoming the core of the sound of 90's DOS games.

Not willing to just copy the past, we designed a NEW synthesizer that features the same sound generation found in these synthesizers, but this time with much more processing power to control and modulate its features, all in a convenient virtual instrument form.

PortaFM uses a pair of cycle-accurately emulated FM chip cores for its main synth engine, switchable between OPLL (YM2413) and OPL2 (YM3812). Another core is dedicated to the the drum sounds, and all of this can be layered creatively.

The unique 'lofi' quality of the OPLL and OPL2 chips was never recreated this accurately before. Plogue's experience of more than 15 years studying vintage digital sound generators was pushed to its limit. Brand new mathematical models were built using our custom Hardware-assisted systematic testing procedures by our in house reverse engineering team in Montreal.

Oh, and of course, it does not use ANY samples!"

https://plogue.com/products/chipsynth-portafm.html

Spherical Sound Society ARCANE: Generative Chiptune FM Drum Synth

video by ZElTGElST

Spherical Sound Society brought us the Opera Rotas Experimental FM Drum Machine posted here.

"ARCANE is a generative synth that lies somewhere between a synth, a sequencer and a drum machine, depending on how you interact with it.

It is based on an authentic Yamaha YM2413 FM chip; the one used in some arcade coin ops, MSX and in the japanese version of the Sega Master System.

To control it it has 6 potentiometers and 3 buttons. The pots are:

-Tempo. It controls the tempo/speed

-Base Register. It determines if the machine is more musical or glichy

-Intensity. The higher this pot, the more amount of notes and percusions sounding. This is a veru playable way of alter the generative composition by transitioning between the simple and complex sound explorations

-Sequence. It let you browse between sequences.

-Dispersion. the higher this pot, the most registers that we are writing on the chip, so the sequences get more complex and chaotic

-Combination. It multiplex, demultiplex and recombines sequences, keeping the output related but always fresh and different

It has 3 buttons, Left, Right and Reset. Reset is located in the arduino and is self explanatory. Left and Right buttons are to be determined as the firmware is still in development.

It has Clock In and Clock Out so you can synch it with external gear

It comes fully assembled and ready to play.

You can listen to some demos on soundcloud:

Spherical Sound Society · ARCANE DEMO

Spherical Sound Society · ARCANE DEMOS

You can get assembled units, kits and PCBs at:
https://www.tindie.com/products/jc204..."

EXPERIMENTAL SYNTHESIZER BASED ON AY-3-8910 CHIP

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

via this auction

"This auction is for an experimental synthesizer based on the General Instruments AY-3-8910 Programmable Sound Generator chip. The AY-3-8910 chip was used extensively in the early to mid 1980's as the main sound generator on a large number of commercial coin-operated video games. This chip has remained elusive to most since the extended data sheet is hard to come by. The chip was first manufactured by General Instruments from the late 1970's until the late 1980's, then a few were made by Microchip Technology. Early in the 1990's a pin-for-pin and functionally identical version was manufactured by Yamaha and sold under the part number YM2149F.

This experimental unit breaks out each and every register used on the AY-3-8910 into switches and controls so the user can manually adjust each of the three tone generators and the envelope control by means of control panel knobs. In addition, the unit is pre-programmed to work via a 61-key keyboard through the Lupine Systems Series 400 Keyboard Interface Board (included but not pictured). This interface board allows the user to connect any single pole un-matrixed keyboard to the unit. The programming is set up to assimilate each keystroke into the appropriate musical note assigned to each key. The user may shift the octave up and down by 1 on each of the three generators. The user may also select from the pre-programmed musical scale tuning or variable off-key tuning or a fixed frequency note.

Full envelope control is provided through the AY-3-8910 envelope generator. Included with the unit and pre-wired is one Lupine Systems Series 400 Filter/Modulator which provides basic LPF function and a LFO for modulation control.

The unit also has full control over the way the keyboard is scanned and processed, including an arpeggiator and key repeat/scan direction control. The speed in which the keys repeat along with the pulse width of the trigger can be adjusted to create a variety of unique sounds.

The unit outputs sound via four RCA jacks, one for each AY-3-8910 audio channel (A, B, C) and one "composite" output, which is an even mix of A+B+C. The unit also outputs a TTL compatable trigger for external triggering functions.

An expansion interface is also included which originally was used for a MIDI interface and to operate a YM2413 based voice unit.

Included with this auction is the entire experimental unit, one Lupine Systems Series 400 Interface Module for Parallel (unmatrixed) Keyboards, one 26-pin ribbon cable (which connects the unit to the Interface board), and a set of schematics. The schematics are for the Lupine Systems Series 400 Mini, which is very very very close to this unit but some of the pin numbers for the connectors may not be the exact same. A copy of the software for the PIC16F73 microcontroller is also included on CD-ROM in MPASM (assembly) format so you can see how the processor does its thing.

Keyboard is NOT included with this auction! Any 61-key keyboard (or fewer keys say 48 key is common on old organs) will work as long as it is NOT matrixed (multiplexed) and has individual switches for each key with a common ground bus."

I created a new General Instruments label for these moving forward. There was one post featuring the AY-3-8910 from Little-Scale back in 2011 here.

CLICK FOR MORE »

Circuit Bent Yamaha PSS-140

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

"This modified Yamaha PSS-140 has 8 switches that control the data lines from the main CPU chip to the YM2413 FM synth chip. Each data line has it's own led that reacts to the data flowing between these chips. When switches are ON the keyboard will play as normal. When you change the position of one or more switches to OFF, those particular data lines will be disconnected.

Works with 6 AA batteries.


Listen to the sample that shows what kind of sounds can be created with this data line bend:"

LiveDrummer v000 for SEGA Master System YM2413

YouTube via littlescale — April 16, 2010 — "Last night I started working on a simple program for SEGA Master System that I hope to incorporate into live performances. The idea is to trigger drum sounds for each of the following buttons on the SEGA Master System joypad - up, down, left, right and button1. By holding down button 2 and pressing left / right / up or down, the user can select different drum sounds. The drums are synthesised by the YM2413. In this video, a delay pedal is used to start a loop."

YM2413 Drums Sample Kit for LSDJ (Game Boy)

YouTube via littlescale
"Get it here: http://milkcrate.com.au/_ot...

---- http://little-scale.blogspo..."

Sega Master System (YM2413) Controlled by MIDI Keyboard

YouTube via littlescale. follow-up to this post
"Sega Master System (YM2413) Controlled by MIDI Keyboard
---
http://www.little-scale.blo..."

Update:

Sega Master System (SN76489) Controlled by MIDI Keyboard

iPod & TouchOSC Controlling a Sega Master System with YM2413

YouTube via littlescale
"iPod & TouchOSC Controlling a Sega Master System with YM2413 (via Max/MSP and a MIDI interface for the Sega Master System).

http://little-scale.blogspo..."

YM2413 Custom Voice Editor for Max/MSP

YouTube via littlescale
"YM2413 Custom Voice Editor for Max/MSP
http://little-scale.blogspo..."

YM2413 drums on Sega Master System controlled via MIDI

YouTube via littlescale
"YM2413 drums on Sega Master System controlled via MIDI"