atari

Computerized sound has always been fascinating to me. Ever since DOS played Circus for me I've been hooked. Oh and don't forget all those old mod player programs from back in the day. You know the ones where really geeky goth kids put together the latest Depeche Mode song into a mod file. Ah those were the days.

Then along came Re-Birth from Propellerheads which emulated the old boss step sequencing synth and drum machine. I can't even remember how many hours I wasted making nonesense noises come from that program. After Re-Birth there came Reason, an all in one electronic wonderland. But what about the good old days?

The good old days have come back thanks to some really cool hackers out there. Paul Slocum has been creating all sorts of cool stuff. He's in a band called Tree Wave and they make music with an old 286 computer, a Commodore 64, an Atari 2600 and a dot matrix printer. Yeah that's right. A dot matrix printer. Can't get much more old school than that! If you don't belive me go check out their gear on their website.

Paul was nice enough to create a Synthcart for the Atari which is a bit limited but still cool. There is one guy out there working on MIDI control for that cart. That would be nice! Paul has also created a Cynthcart for the Commodore 64. You can buy both of those over at atariage.

So that covers the basics but what about the NES you say? Well there is a company called wayfar that is creating a device called MIDINES. I bought the 1.0.2 version a while back and it's loads of fun. Basically it gives you MIDI control over the synth inside a Nintendo Entertainment System. Rad!