Are there any other simple to use sound synthesizer chips that can be controlle

TonyA

Hi,

I know about the speakjet, but are there any more simple sound synthesizer chips that could be controlled with the BS2?

(I know there must be, since a lot of sound synthesis is mu controlled).

The speakjet is advertsied mainly for use in generating speach-like sounds, could it also generate musical notes?

Thanks for any info,

Tony

Fe2o3Fish

The only chips that I know of that are "simple" to use are rather obsolete and relics
these days. I liked TI's SN76489 (and family). This little 16-bit DIP chip had three
oscillators and a pseudo-random noise generator with "programmable" attenuators
for each, I believe. It went into a number of home computers of the day (late 70's,
early 80's), one of which was the TI Home Confuser, er Computer. The oscillators
were simply programmable divide-by-N counters so square waves were the name of
the game. Not pure tones but... lots of nifty noises!

Probably a little more capable sound chip was the General Instruments AY3-8910
(and family). Again , square generators at best and a few IO ports. As with the
TI chip, the GI and TI are accessed via 8-bit parallel interface.

Google for both of these part numbers. Finding chips to purchase could a be tad
difficult but still do-able, I believe.

The SpeakJet, a chip I like(!), can do musical notes. In fact, there's something
like five oscillators in there so... Oh, the SJ does have a serial interface for
general speech and sound generation! Search through the Yahoo groups for
the SpeakJet group -- a few folks on the list are generating music with it!
Look in the files section for some KeWl demos!

Just off the top of my pointy head,

-Rusty-

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
-Rusty-
--
Rusty Haddock = KD4WLZ = rusty@fe2o3.lonestar.org
**Out yonder in the Van Alstyne (TX) Metropolitan Area**
Microsoft is to software what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking

Vern Graner

TonyA said...
Hi, I know about the speakjet, but are there any more simple sound synthesizer chips that could be controlled with the BS2? (I know there must be, since a lot of sound synthesis is mu controlled). The speakjet is advertsied mainly for use in generating speach-like sounds, could it also generate musical notes? Thanks for any info, Tony

Though this may not exactly fit the bill, the Rogue Robotics uMP3 player not only can play MP3/WAV etc. files, it also has the ability to playback very precisely controlled tones. Though you would not be able to choose a waveform (i.e. triangle/sine/square) or ADSR Envelope parameters, you would be able to get precise frequencies for notes. Here's an excerpt from the manual that covers the tone generator capabilities:

Rogue Robotics Manual said...

Play Tone
PC T [noparse][[/noparse]tone]
o optional tone is a value between 0 and 255
Tone Frequency = Base Frequency * d/128
tone value = base frequency value + divider value (d)
Hex
Value
Decimal
Value
Base Frequency
0x00 0 44100 Hz
0x20 32 48000 Hz
0x40 64 32000 Hz
0x60 96 22050 Hz
0x80 128 24000 Hz
0xA0 160 16000 Hz
0xC0 192 11025 Hz
0xE0 224 12000 Hz
T he frequency divider value d (1 through 31) will give a range
of dividers from 1/128 through 31/128 (a divider value of 0,
will produce no sound).
E.g. Base Frequency of 48000 Hz, and a divider value of 16
gives a Tone Frequency of 48000 * 16/128 = 6000 Hz – the
tone value used in the command would be 32 + 16 = 48
Description
This command plays a tone derived from the parameter. The tone is played
indefinitely until the MP3 receives either the Play Tone command again with no
parameter, or the Stop Playback command. If a file is being played while the
Play Tone command is received, it will resume playing if the Play Tone
command is received with no parameter.
Example
>PC T 65{cr}
>

I have sucessfully used the tone generator to create 1000hz tones for setting recording levels and also as a "in a pinch" function generator. It's pretty neat capability and a nice unexpected bonus in this cool little gadget.

As another option, you could pursue using MIDI out from the BSII (Jon has some excellent articles on this in the Nuts and Volts articles) and use it to drive a low cost "general MIDI" synth of some type...?



Vern

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
[code]

Vern Graner CNE/CNA/SSE | "If the network is down, then you're
Senior Systems Engineer | obviously incompetent so why are we
Texas Information Services | paying you? Of course,if the network
http://www.txis.com | is up, then we obviously don't need
Austin Office 512 328-8947 | you, so why are we paying you?"

steve_b

There's also the V-stamp from RC systems http://www.rcsys.com/modules.htm

I bought their 5volt/130second module...and to be honest...I haven't touched it yet!
Have a list of projects and no time to do them....don't relaly have the time to be on here either....but here I are! [noparse];)[/noparse]

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
·

Steve

"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."

TonyA

Hi, Thanks for the great info. I think I'm going to try out the speakjet, seems easier to get going with the BS2. Seems like it has better features and sound than the others. I like the V-stamp, but I don't need the recording option, very interesting though.

Thanks again,
Tony

Fe2o3Fish

Just got RC System's 8660 Evaluation board last week. The 8660 is what's on the V-Stamp.
The sinusoidal generators are only good from 0 to 4400-Hz but to a resolution of 10-Hz.
Still, nice and pure sine waves are hard to come by. And being able to mix voice synth'
with pre-recorded sound files and local generators looks to be rather interesting.

FWIW...

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
-Rusty-
--
Rusty Haddock = KD4WLZ = rusty@fe2o3.lonestar.org
**Out yonder in the Van Alstyne (TX) Metropolitan Area**
Microsoft is to software what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking

steve_b

Fe2o3Fish.....keep us posted to how you make out.
I have the feeling I won't get to any good stamp projects until the winter gets here (can't find my golf ball in teh snow!!)

▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔
·

Steve

"Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that's ours and ours alone. Something that can't be learned... something that's got to be remembered."