Pianocade Arcade-style Chiptunes Synthesizer

Technology
Pianocade Arcade-style Chiptunes Synthesizer

The form perfectly follows the super retro function of this arcade-tastic chiptunes syntesizer from Portmanteau Devices, the Pianocade. A monophonic square-wave synth deserves to be played with arcade buttons!

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The Pianocade’s built-in synthesizer is based on the sound hardware of the Nintendo NES and Game Boy (specifically, one of the square wave channels: it’s a monophonic square-wave synthesis engine with a 4-bit digital-to-analogue converter). Because it’s monophonic, it does what many early games did in lieu of chords: it cycles through the notes of the chord rapidly (arpeggiation).

It’s open source, and will come in both pre-built and kit form. Pre-orders are open at Pianocade.

via Engadget

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John Edgar Park likes to make things and tell people about it. He builds project for Adafruit Industries. You can find him at jpixl.net and twitter/IG @johnedgarpark

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