Modifying a 45 Year Old SWTPC To Play Synthesizers.

The SWTPC STORY IS QUITE THE 8bit (with some 16 bit functionality) SAGA
Come see the SWTPC 6809 at @THISMUSEUMISNOTOBSOLETE :-
-------
ROBERTS GIT HUB :-
-------
Massive thanks to :-
-------
OUTRO SONG :-
-------
CORSHAM TECH :-
-------
List of Gear/Electronics I USE :-
-------
THANKUS HUMUNGOUSO to :-
Darren Mackay
DeltaByte
Steve Jones
Paul F
Cameron Luteraan
Ande Spenser
Arnix T-Bone
Vaz Daqui
Eric Painter
Jason Kuehl
Aaron Ritter
David Boudreau
Roland G. McIntosh
casey
Joe Pino
David Dolphin
Matt Followell (PDP-7)
Miles Flavel
-------------
Chapters
0:00 intro/history
1:57 functional concept
4:03 the hardware prototype
9:44 the repair
15:35 beginnings of it working
17:10 the computer
20:36 the sequencer
25:50 THE MUSIC JAM
30:37 Outro
-------------
if you want to donate to the electronic component fund! Paypal :-
-------------

#retro #computer #synthesizer

[LOOKMUMNOCOMPUTER]

it goes without saying massive thanks to everyone involved in this, especially to robert for diving in and bossing the code and setup. make sure to say hey to him over on the github!

[novoiperkele]

Hmm.. Mum, he does have a computer after all :)

[praetorprime]

Oh man, LOOK MUM BROKEN COMPUTER, you're consistently pushing out mind-blowingly inspirational videos. Please never stop.

[LFOVCF]

A man who makes no mistakes, makes nothing.

[mjrippe]

As a huge fan of SWTPC, I have to say this is the most amazing thing I have heard from one of their products. I have a Psych-Tone and one of their stereo amplifiers which are both fantastic. If this software was available "back in the day" it would have changed music history.

[mogemulation]

Small point of fact, the Fairlight CMI used a total of 3 Motorola 6809 CPUs - two on the main CPU card, one on the additional CMI-07 peripheral board. The music keyboard itself had a dedicated Motorola 6802, and the MIDI/SMPTE board had a dedicated Motorola 68000.

Source: I emulated the Fairlight CMI IIx in MAME. :)

The closet to 9 6809s would have been the III-series from 1985, where each channel card had a dedicated 6809 while still using the original CPU board, totaling to a whopping *ten* 6809s, plus a pair of 68000 CPUs for handling other duties.

[TRo]

It is crazy, no matter which hardware you used, i can cleary hear your unique style how you make music! like a signature of you.

[EdEditz]

Absolutely blows my mind how you get these things to do what you want. Awesome to see! :)

[McTroyd]

The funniest part... I've got calculators on my desk with more memory and processing power than that whole computer. Yet, they will never control a synthesizer with the swagger of that SWTPC. Really flippin' awesome, Sam & team! Thanks for sticking it out. Now I want to see if I can find one to try this! 👍

[spazimdam]

Well that's a proper use for a SWTPC 6809 in my opinion. Well done Sam! Cheers.

[countzero]

Wonderful project Sam!
This is reminding me of when I wrote a BASIC program on a Sinclair ZX81 to use it as a sequencer and drum machine back in the early 80s. For the I/O port I used the Maplin 8255-based 24-bit I/O port kit, with Port A used to drive a DAC0801 chip to provide voltage control, Port B to drive a set of analogue drum voices (twin-t and noise generator - similar to the one you buit a while back on the channel), and Port C to drive an analogue multiplexer (a pair of CD4016 analogue switch chips) to provide polyphony via the DAC - Sadly the ZX81 wasn't fast enough to give reliable polyphony on more than 3 voices, but at least it could play simple 3-note chords, but it was amazing as a monophonic sequencer/arpeggiator.

Cool stuff - I think I still have most of the hardware in a box up in the attic (including the I/O board, though I know I don't have the ZX81 anymore), and now I'm tempted to dig it out and see about operating the I/O board from a parallel printer port on an old DOS laptop - that should be fun writing a more complex sequencer in QBasic or something similar :)

Even in the days of MIDI, it's still great fun to mess around with this old stuff :)

[scottwood]

IT TAKES A CREW TO KEEP THIS STUFF RUNNIN’, WELL DONE MATES!

[RetroBytesUK]

Really great video, lovely to see Pete, everyone should know a Pete, or in fact that Pete. With Adrian, and Dave it was almost like having a retro fest in one video.

[sphelx]

Well done mate, you've done such an incredible thing here. It's so raw! Directly addressing memory banks like that! Wicked! <3

[monsflorumdeus]

Dud ye're real ispiration for musicians. As a musician I start to building my own analog synth just because of your videos and a lot of times something doesn't work as it should, the only thing that push me forward to finish it is just project as this one, so nothing is unpossible, just keep going on good work ye're amazing talent!😊

[DennisGentry]

This is super inspirational. No one starts out awesome at hardware tweaking like this (board-level repair), but get good because they made a bunch of mistakes and learned from them. I love that you have all these super capable, smart, helpful friends.

[spindlenine]

Really fun video. Loved the backstory to go with the walkthrough and the performance. Well done!

[jamesbruton]

I'm glad your PSU was PAT tested... in 2002 ;-)

[shieladixon]

This is a fantastic story, and it has turned into an amazing piece of equipment, I love what you are able to do with the combo of live and sequenced - all via a serial terminal. Brilliant! I know some of those people, what a great team - hello Pete, hello Adrian, hello Dave. Great work Sam.

[dragonhed]

Man ur doing things that people would only dream of doing this is so awesome in so many levels and the ending was epic!!