[sdiy] Microprocessors for Music

[Fahl, Romeo]

Hmmm... 4x12 ADCs and 4 more DACs.  Sounds like a 4 channel digital
delay/looper waiting to happen!


%-----Original Message-----
%From: Grant Richter [mailto:grichter at asapnet.net]
%Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2004 11:22 AM
%To: Peter Grenader; synth-diy at dropmix.xs4all.nl
%Subject: [sdiy] Microprocessors for Music
%
%
%Synthmodules.com is not paying me anything, so I feel free to 
%discuss this
%regarding general DIY projects that could use a microprocessor.
%
%Writing C or assembler is not fun for me, but writing BASIC 
%is. I started
%writing BASIC when I was 11, so it is sort of a second language.
%
%In pursuit of a BASIC programmable analog synth controller, I 
%have built
%units based on the Sinclair ZX-81 and the Atari 800XL. Neither was fast
%enough under BASIC to be really useful (micros only had 1 or 2 
%MHz clocks).
%
%Out of the blue, Brice put together the PSIM-1 which is based 
%on the Basic
%Atom Pro, a 16 MHz Hitachi H8 with the MBasic interface.
%
%http://www.basicmicro.com/
%
%Well, gosh darn it if the thing isn't faster than sh*t. 
%Updating 4 x 12 bit
%serial DACs takes 400 microseconds and reading 4 ADCs and 
%updating 4 DACs to
%make a 4 channel chromatic quantizer takes a millisecond. This 
%is with BASIC
%language programming. As a rule of thumb, a single line of BASIC code
%executes in 20 microseconds. Also you can program MIDI and DIN 
%interfaces
%with BASIC.
%
%So, for one off and hobby projects where the $50 for the stamp 
%is doable,
%you could use a Basic Atom Pro and make the software 
%development end a LOT
%more approachable.
%
%If you just want to program, Brice has already done a nice job 
%packaging the
%Basic Atom Pro into a synth module. I worked with him to make sure the
%analog end was very stable and scaled correctly for 
%simultaneous analog and
%MIDI synthesizer control.
%
%http://www.synthmodules.com
%
%