Additional Sound Chip Suggestions...

Discuss anything related to the VIC
sjgray
Vic 20 Hobbyist
Posts: 115
Joined: Thu May 03, 2007 6:46 pm
Location: Markham, ON, Canada

Re: Additional Sound Chip Suggestions...

Post by sjgray »

cbmeeks wrote:I love chip tunes. I know the SID is the big king in these parts (and for good reason) but that doesn't stop me from loving other sound chips like the AY-3-8910 and the SN76489. I also love being "period accurate" as much as I can. Meaning, a 64 voice polyphony sound system on a VIC-20 would probably feel out of place.

So, I've been thinking of what sound chip I'd like to add to my current project for the VIC-20. The SID, AY and SN are easy targets and I'm most familiar with them. Although, I've been thinking about learning more about the OPL2 chips like the YM3812. A 9 voice SoundBlaster for the VIC-20 would be cool but might slightly violate my "period accurate" rule.

Of course, that rule doesn't have to be strictly enforced. :-)

Anyway, if you were designing an expansion for the VIC-20 for the purpose of adding additional audio, what would you add? SID only? One or two chips? I wouldn't want to go extreme overkill but I'm curious what you guys think.

Thanks!
So many options... SID has the advantage of a large library of C64 code that could be ported over. Great sound and true-to-CBM. AY was very popular and period true. The YM3812 was also used in the C64 SFX sound expander so there's also code there (and schematics). The extra voices are nice.
POKEY is interesting but I'd opt for the SID first. SN chip might also be interesting to try. Lots of various game consoles and computers used it.

I have designed a board for the C64 using the YM2413. http://www.6502.org/users/sjgray/projec ... index.html
I may eventually make a VIC-20 version once I verify it working on the C64. It has the advantage of being a low-pin-count chip with a built-in DAC so it would need minimal parts. It also has a lot of voices. It was used in some MSX machines.

Steve
User avatar
Muzz73
Vic 20 Hobbyist
Posts: 141
Joined: Thu May 03, 2012 12:12 pm
Location: Farmersville, CA,
Occupation: Consultant

Re: Additional Sound Chip Suggestions...

Post by Muzz73 »

Wow. That'll be great! Keep us posted!
BCNU,
Louis
Post Reply