Elektron Musical Instruments

>Is it possible to build oldskool C64 rithms with a sidstation? And then, 
>how are the patches arranged? (Can I assign C#2 to bassdrum, D#2 to snare, 
>E#2 to hihat, etc and build a drumbank this way?)

Although the sidstation can achieve the oldskool drum sounds, its usually 
only possible to trigger them as you would if you had built the sound on any 
synth (one per patch).

You build single drum sounds in the table editor (all 3 oscilators have a 
wavetable.) If you've never used a sid tracker before, the wavetable looks 
like a step sequencer with assignable waveform, pitch etc. for each step. If 
you set the playback rate fast enough this sequence can sound like a snare 
or a bassdrum. Its also possible to build whole beats this way (but this is 
very tricky compared to a c64 tracker.)

Unfortuneatly you can't assign each oscilator to a different note / midi 
channel. So you can only really play one sequence/drum sound at a time. The 
operating system on the sid is set out like a synth.. so even if it had 
assignable midi channels - normal drum machine funtions eg. copying and 
pasting single drum sounds wouldn't be possible without an external editor. 
Instead, All 3 oscilators are grouped as a patch, which seems like a bit of 
a waste. So while the sid is great for lead sounds and single drum hits the 
kind of opperation which you talk of would not be available without a major 
O.S. re-build.

There are a few ways to get around this. One is to set your wavetables to 
different drum sounds, trigger when you want a hit, mute the oscilators via 
midi and use a program (ive used max/msp for this) to send controllers to 
unmute the oscilators as they are needed. (extremly back asswards.)

Of course, there are also a few alternatives to building the beats on the 
sid. I usually use goat tracker (pc bassed sid tracker) save the file as a 
sid.. and play back using ASID mode. (a funtion on the sidstation which 
allows you to play sid tunes via sysex from your computer on the sid.) Iv'e 
also attempted to build an ASID drum machine in Max. with quite nice 
results. but this is unfinnished due to 8 bit sysex grief .

>Is the noise coming out of the C64 chip really that terrible?

No not at all.. the noise is one of the best bits. It isnt really noise. 
what happens is that the oscilators don't stop when you stop playing, so the 
backround noise is just a tuneful variation on the last note you played. 
sometimes it even blurts out a big groan.

It really is a fantastic instrument  with morr character than any other 
synth ive ever used. though a drum macine it aint'.

>Where can I find MP3's only using SidStation ( I already downloaded all the 
>mP3s on sidstation.com)

Hmmn, I know alot of the guys at ww.micromusic.net use Sidstations. but most 
sid fundamentalists use trackers.

/Steven

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