Best source of SID/Chiptune sounds?

Hey guys, I am looking to add some SID/Chiptune style sounds to my arsenal. I know the monomachine has the SID emulator in it, but are there any other good sources of video game style sounds? Even a good sample CD with some of those blip bloop style noises would be great!

Can anyone recommend anything? Hardware or software?

Looking at a bunch of the samples used in my favorite chiptune .S3Ms, I notice that a lot of them consist of basic single-cycle analog waveforms. You could probably do well by taking any bog-standard analog or VA synth, running the output through a decimator/bitcrusher effect, and sampling to your workstation of choice. To emulate chords the way that the old chips and formats did, you'd run the analog/VA synth through an arpeggiator at upwards of 200 bpm, and then sample the output.

Or you could take the low road and just rip samples out of whatever .MODs, .XMs, .S3Ms, and etc. suit your fancy. Inglorious, and somewhat dastardly, but effective. Sample ripping was actually fairly common back in the day, though it wasn't exactly something to be proud of.

Incredible... exactly what I was looking for, just bought it, thanks a lot!

You also have reFX quadraSID, for SID stuff

Chipsounds seems like a good way to go. Nice and easy access to the great sounds. Don't think it will be up to par with an actual SID type synth, but pretty neat and for the price you can't go wrong.

I've been playing with Chipsounds all day. I dare to say it, but this very well might be the best software purchase I've ever made.

You also have reFX quadraSID, for SID stuff

If it's SID sounds you want, this is a great way to go on the software side of things. For hardware, the new HardSID modules are nice. (though you still program them from the computer)

This was the first thing I thought of as well. I'm always after synth lead sounds that remind me of my old Commodore 64, and I've always been able to get what I want with modeling synths (can you guess which ones?) and a decimator effect set to 8-bit, and either 11 or 22kHz.

For me, the quintessential chiptune lead sound always starts with a square wave, with pulse wave modulation. The Mono/Poly was especially good for these sounds, and the software version is terrific too, especially because the decimator effect is right there.

You guys should check out the Chipsounds plugin, its about a lot more than just a square wave.

I just did check it out, it looks awesome. I know there are lots of other places to go other than square waves... That lead sound is just my habitual starting place.

Looks like and easy interface. Seems to offer at lot of extras from similar products. Haven't fired it up yet. Bought at intro price!

I forgot to mention the obvious, using actual hardware.

The majority of my music is done using a Game Boy with LSDJ. http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/non-usb-cartridge

LSDJ is a tracker program and is my preferred method.

There's also Nanoloop, which is more visual-based.

1.5 for Game Boys that take original carts (original Game Boys, Game Boy Colors, Game Boy Pockets, Game Boy Advanced, Game Boy Advanced SP) http://nanoloop.com/specs15.html

Which can be purchased here. http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/nanoloop-1-5

There's also 2.3, which is for GBA, GBA SP, GB micro, DS, and DS lite. http://nanoloop.com/specs23.html

Which can be bought here. http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/nanoloop-2-3

Then there's good ol' Trippy-H, a little (very minimal) program that can be found in GB Pocket Camera. This can also be purchased in Kitsch-Bent's store. http://store.kitsch-bent.com/product/new-japanese-game-boy-camera

ALSO, just released in a limited quantity of 20 is Trash80's Arduinoboy Mini, which is a MIDI communicator to the Game Boy for syncing with the above programs or for using Trash80's program mGB, which allows the Game Boy to work as a sound module for MIDI.

Information here: http://code.google.com/p/arduinoboy/

Can be purchased here: https://www.8bitpeoples.com/store/product/67

I'm not really the go-to guy for stuff outside of Game Boy (I would be if I could afford stuff outside of Game Boy), but there are TONS of other options for C64, NES, etc. Just look into it.

free plugins are great for this.

try unknown 64, or quantum 64, or stuff like that.x

These are horribly inaccurate and when used can be spotted by anybody as such. Chipsounds is really the only way to go as far as getting an accurate sound. If you can't buy that, Tweakbench has the best-sounding free stuff but again isn't the most accurate and only works on PC, the latter being why I never use it.

Aside from actually using an Elektron SIDstation, I have found that the Clavia Nord Modular/MicroModular can excel in creating these timbres.

cheers,

Ian

I was going to mention the SID Station, but they're fairly difficult to get a hold of these days.

I also get a lot of these sounds out of Waldorf Largo. Some of the combined and ring modulated sounds are a little tricky on non-SID instruments though.

I still have your former "Custom Rack."

cheers,

Ian

I still have your former "Custom Rack." cheers, Ian

Nice! I've been thinking about doing another project of this sort. I had a working, but completely bashed up, brush-painted-white, filthy knob, missing buttons 808 that I was going to rebuild for a friend, but I didn't have time when I had it. He moved, so he needed to take it with him.

Roland SH-7 is amazing at those tones... bit rare though

interesting, they sound great to me, and are my main source of sid sounds (the UI is really tweakable) and live or recorded, everyone loves how they sound, so i guess accuracy isn't that important in this situation.x

actually, i thought the Tweakbench stuff was crap and deleted them pretty quickly. for free SID-based VSTs at least, i think 38911bytes, Basic64, and Unknown64 are worth having around. of course the best one is QuadraSID, but everyone knows that.

Chipsounds does look good, but it seems they use samples of the originals for the most part (which isn't necessarily a bad thing, i guess).

It depends on the chip and the feature. Sometimes, they thought synthesis was better; sometimes they realized that sampling is the only accurate way to go, as some stuff is unemualtable. They site the combined waveforms of the SID as an example of the latter. Actually, most of the SID is sampled because nobody is ever happy with emulators of it. Even then, Chipsounds isn't the most accurate for SID, and he's still working on improving it.

Basically, if you want an accurate SID sound, use a real SID chip.

really impressed by the new videos, looks like a great VST either way.

i'm curious about SID drum sounds though. are there many (any?) presets that showcase trademark SID drum sounds? also, i see you use LSDJ, can this really nail the sound of the Game Boy? how about the WAV channel or noise channel drums like in LSDJ?

The Game Boy is good. The only problem is that the inability to have the wave channel of it run through multiple waveform frames in succession. I do this all the time on my Game Boy. The only way to really fake this is to mouse over the waveform box randomly while playing, which is a pain in the ass.

On that note, it's certainly better than any other emulation I've used. The noise is fantastic. I use nothing but noise for my drum sounds, and I've been getting great great stuff out of this software.