Dix
Newbie level 1
- Joined
- Sep 12, 2003
- Messages
- 1
- Helped
- 0
- Reputation
- 0
- Reaction score
- 0
- Trophy points
- 1,281
- Activity points
- 39
I´m writing not only of own interest but also on behalf of a good friend of mine who´s been a very gifted basic programmer for many years.
Since I´ve been into mostly analogue electronics it finally struck me
I just have to make use of the benefit that a combination of our skills would be upon this.
While looking for intro paths into the world of microcontrollers I have been
somewhat disappointed. The numerous links founded, to different
sites about pic, avr etc seem to the this day, to present a lot of mishmash info.
A quite typical presentation is by the maker of a page, showing a programmer for a 16F84 and then having some compiler to make a led blink, usually later found in info read elsewhere to have severe limits and restricted only to some applications.
This topic may look a bit frustrated and over-sarcastic. However I contend
that sofar, I haven´t found any good site presenting a logic way to get into the depths of better knowledge!
Me and my buddy wish to share a common interest, synthesizing audio
by synthesizers. We have both individually owned a high number of synths and studio gear in the passed so we know what has been going on in that business. We also have been doing extensive sound programming on a variety of synthesizers.
He has then done very advanced software synths and I have been doing
analogue filters and digital delays to mention some of it. So.. combining
software programming, microcontrollers and analogue electronics is our goal.
I read about a danish synthesizer module called DROID-3, based
on a 40-pin RISC-processor, however nowhere mentioned which one.
That construction is likely to have been optimized. Yet still, the sound delivered from that module is very lo-fi and it doesn´t save any patches. (Why didn´t they include any extra sram?!).
We want hi quality sound but the synthesis may be simple because
we can start with simple waveforms like square, sawtooth and tri. Then
modify these waveforms by so called pulse widht modulation or some other clever but relatively simple technique. The output should be in 16-bit
format and hopefully 44.1 kHz words/s. Actually two outputs making that
doubled. A d/a with serial input used after. Also, we must have a midi input to control the unit. Midi has been used in the music synthesizer industry for 20 years and is rather slow, 31.625 kbit, serial.
Maybe two microcontrollers can be used too.
Suggestions needed! Is it possible that a 16F87x or the faster 18Fxx could be used to handle the speed? An sram must be added unless any of the bigger pics are considered, to handle signal calculation, and an eeprom in order to save patches ie the parameter data for each and all of the sounds.
The new dsPIC-series? Something else? Avr?
And which compiler would be appropriate? What can be done withMicrochip´s own MPLAB? I downloaded it and saw it had high level, basic looking commands. They say Basic is easier than C so what about JAL? I havent used basic for more than 20 years so it could be a little easier for me to get through it by means of using a basic compiler. Even though my friend knows basic that much I figured it would beneficial
if I also learn it eventually.
My problem is time to look for where to climb on. Time is money and so on..
Which sites, among all thousands, which type of microcontroller and which program?
In my efforts to get to know more, I have made a swedish forum site
about microcontrollers and electronics since there are only two or three others in this country, which is very strange.
Thanks for reading,
Dick - Sweden
**broken link removed**
Since I´ve been into mostly analogue electronics it finally struck me
I just have to make use of the benefit that a combination of our skills would be upon this.
While looking for intro paths into the world of microcontrollers I have been
somewhat disappointed. The numerous links founded, to different
sites about pic, avr etc seem to the this day, to present a lot of mishmash info.
A quite typical presentation is by the maker of a page, showing a programmer for a 16F84 and then having some compiler to make a led blink, usually later found in info read elsewhere to have severe limits and restricted only to some applications.
This topic may look a bit frustrated and over-sarcastic. However I contend
that sofar, I haven´t found any good site presenting a logic way to get into the depths of better knowledge!
Me and my buddy wish to share a common interest, synthesizing audio
by synthesizers. We have both individually owned a high number of synths and studio gear in the passed so we know what has been going on in that business. We also have been doing extensive sound programming on a variety of synthesizers.
He has then done very advanced software synths and I have been doing
analogue filters and digital delays to mention some of it. So.. combining
software programming, microcontrollers and analogue electronics is our goal.
I read about a danish synthesizer module called DROID-3, based
on a 40-pin RISC-processor, however nowhere mentioned which one.
That construction is likely to have been optimized. Yet still, the sound delivered from that module is very lo-fi and it doesn´t save any patches. (Why didn´t they include any extra sram?!).
We want hi quality sound but the synthesis may be simple because
we can start with simple waveforms like square, sawtooth and tri. Then
modify these waveforms by so called pulse widht modulation or some other clever but relatively simple technique. The output should be in 16-bit
format and hopefully 44.1 kHz words/s. Actually two outputs making that
doubled. A d/a with serial input used after. Also, we must have a midi input to control the unit. Midi has been used in the music synthesizer industry for 20 years and is rather slow, 31.625 kbit, serial.
Maybe two microcontrollers can be used too.
Suggestions needed! Is it possible that a 16F87x or the faster 18Fxx could be used to handle the speed? An sram must be added unless any of the bigger pics are considered, to handle signal calculation, and an eeprom in order to save patches ie the parameter data for each and all of the sounds.
The new dsPIC-series? Something else? Avr?
And which compiler would be appropriate? What can be done withMicrochip´s own MPLAB? I downloaded it and saw it had high level, basic looking commands. They say Basic is easier than C so what about JAL? I havent used basic for more than 20 years so it could be a little easier for me to get through it by means of using a basic compiler. Even though my friend knows basic that much I figured it would beneficial
if I also learn it eventually.
My problem is time to look for where to climb on. Time is money and so on..
Which sites, among all thousands, which type of microcontroller and which program?
In my efforts to get to know more, I have made a swedish forum site
about microcontrollers and electronics since there are only two or three others in this country, which is very strange.
Thanks for reading,
Dick - Sweden
**broken link removed**