The Chipophone: An 8-bit synthesizer

Music
The Chipophone: An 8-bit synthesizer
chipophone2.jpg
chipophone.jpg

Linus Ã…kesson’s Chipophone is a 8-bit synth built into an old electric organ.

All the original tone-generating parts have been disconnected, and the keys, pedals, knobs and switches rerouted to a microcontroller which transforms them into MIDI signals. Those are then parsed by a second microcontroller, which acts as a synthesizer.

The synthesizer is implemented on an ATmega88, an 8-bit microcontroller with 1 kB of RAM and 8.5 kB of ROM. It receives MIDI data at a jumper-configurable baud rate and produces a 12-bit mono line out signal.

The Chipophone

6 thoughts on “The Chipophone: An 8-bit synthesizer

  1. Shadyman says:

    Sweeeeeeet. Mind you, the fade-out was a bit grainy, but still an epic piece of 8-bit hardware :D

    PS, I knew I recognized this website from somewhere… This is the same guy that made the Craft AVR-based VGA graphics/music thing: http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/craft/index.php

  2. gekizai says:

    Crowning Moment Of Awesome (even though Linus isn’t a fictional character.)

    See this for an explanation of my apparent non-sequitur:
    http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome

    And yes, I’m certain it qualifies as CrowningMusicOfAwesome as well.

  3. Pedro Guimaraes says:

    Dude, your project is awesome, but your demonstration KICKS ASS! Using feet and hands to perform old classics in such complete way was HIGHLY impressive. I wish I had that baby chipophone to play a little as well! congratulations!

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My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets & toys. @johnbaichtal nerdage.net

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