[sdiy] synth chip

[Byron G. Jacquot]

>Aren't there any chips currently in production that have waveform 
>generators, noise generators, filters, etc all on the chip?  I really 
>want to build a super tiny synth with lots of sounds.  More 
>impressive that way, I guess.

Of you're not afraid of digital stuff, check the Holtek and Crystal Semi
catalogs got their general MIDI synth engine and ROM chips.  I think both of
them (and maybe others, too) made essentially the core of a synth on a chip,
just hook up power and MIDI for a quick, cheap polyphonic synth.

Yamaha have also made several things like this.  There are the notorious
OPL3 & OPL4 (anyone care to refute those part numbers?) FM chips, which were
used on a lot of pre-wavetable PC sound cards.  There's also their soundcard
add-on synth board, which fit on the "Waveblaster" connector of a bunch of
cards.  It's their GM/XG soundset on a little board, needing not much more
than power and MIDI connections, and it responds to a fairly wide set of
MIDI commands.  A web search should find you the needed details to build a
synth around one, if you're so inclined.

Byron Jacquot