When I decided to start giving workshops and selling parts kits for people to build and use the A_SID synth (my name for a breadboard version of Christoph Haberer’s fantastic open source SID emulator on a chip), I had one goal. Make it accessible.

Christoph’s website expresses some frustration in expressing a seemingly simple project to beginner level users. The reality is that his excellent (and well documented code) are a little tough for a beginner at electronics and coding.  I’ve hoped that my pre-flashed chips, added instructions, sample Processing code and beginner breadboard building plan make it a lot easier to understand and use.

Since my recent A_SID workshop at Blip Festival 2009, I feel that I’m on the right track. Within a week, Sebastian Tomczak (a.k.a. Little scale) has released Arduino code and a Max/MSP patch to control the little chip via MIDI.

Here’s a demo video of a quick routine running the chip from Ableton. Thanks Sebastian! I’m sure this will help others!