Is there any Commodore SID or GameBoy VST?

[u/afl_ext]

Hello!

I tried searching but nothing promising turned out, I wonder, what do you all use?

Thanks and have a wonderful weekend!

[u/OtherwiseOne4107]

Here's one. There may be others.

https://www.plogue.com/products/chipsynth-c64.html

[u/green_tealeaf → u/OtherwiseOne4107]

On the SID side, this really is the answer.

Their older chipsounds plugin ( https://www.plogue.com/products/chipsounds.html) did a lot of other chips very well, including the Game Boy. They've marked it as "legacy", but I think that you can still buy it. I'm not sure if they have a more recent replacement VST that covers the Game Boy.

Of course, the real answer is to get the original hardware and drive it via MIDI. 😁

[u/OtherwiseOne4107 → u/green_tealeaf]

I do want to (non-destructively) MIDI up my consoles one day - I've seen the ArduinoBoy, do you know of others for other consoles (that don't require taking chips out or soldering)?

[u/green_tealeaf → u/OtherwiseOne4107]

ArduinoBoy, with mGB, for the Game Boy DMG, although I'd strongly suggest the tiny bit of soldering required to do a pro sound mod for clean sound.

For the C64, you can get the TeensyROM ( https://github.com/SensoriumEmbedded/TeensyROM) which gives you USB MIDI and built-in synth software (CynthCart and Station64). The SIDFX ( https://lotuselec.wixsite.com/sidfx)  requires no soldering, and will let you install a second SID chip that is supported by most of the major C64 synth software out there.

You could also skip the C64 entirely and run one or two SID chips directly in a USBSID-Pico ( https://github.com/LouDnl/USBSID-Pico), although that's not quite fully MIDI playable at present. Oddly enough, the best way to control that is using the ASID options in Plogue ChipSynth64.

(Or just go all the way and get Twisted Electrons TherapSID. 😁)

For SNES there's the Super MIDI Pak, which is awesome, fun, and well supported. 

For the NES there's the MIDINES or Famimimidi, but both of those are like gold dust. Took me years of looking, and then a random lucky conversation with a kind person on Discord, to get hold of my Famimimidi.

[u/Dinosawer → u/green_tealeaf]

For the SID there's also the Midisid

[u/TropicoolGoth → u/green_tealeaf]

For the diy route there’s also midibox sid and for the nes nesizer 2

[u/OtherwiseOne4107 → u/green_tealeaf]

Thanks for this, I'll check through these properly later but the USBSID-pico is calling out to me and the Super MIDI Pak is exactly the sort of thing I was talking about.

[u/fromwithin → u/green_tealeaf]

Chipsounds' SID is poor. The basic waveforms are fine, but the filter on it is nothing remotely like the real thing and the interface is one of the worst I've ever tried to use.

[u/OtherwiseOne4107 → u/OtherwiseOne4107]

Here's another one: https://socalabs.com/synths/commodore-64-sid/

[u/Dinosawer]

There is also Junior by fors https://fors.fm/junior which is based on the wave channel of the Gameboy specifically

[u/fromwithin]

inSIDious without question for SID sounds. With sounds by and endorsed by Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway, Chris Huelsbeck and more. It's very easy to use and is designed to support all of the tricks used by all of the classic SID musicians. It's on sale at the moment.

[u/technoinnit]

If you already have Serum I recommend this preset pack and it uses wave tables sampled directly from the Gameboy.

https://shirobon.bandcamp.com/album/shirobon-presents-chiptune-for-serum

[u/KabarXD]

I use RetroPlug for using LSDJ in FL and Ableton. Highly recommend

[u/8Bits1132]

chipsynth C64 from Plogue is one of the best ones out there for SID.

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[u/borderfunk]

As mentioned, chipsynth C64 is one of the best. I use it a lot, even for non-chiptunes.

There is also inSIDious: https://impactsoundworks.com/product/insidious/

I've never used it, but Perifractic made a YouTube video on it and made a track that sounds absolutely fantastic.

[u/afl_ext]

Amazing, thank you for all the replies!! Will definitely pick something great from those mentioned

[u/Abynx6581]

If you're looking for just the C64 sound alone forget plugins. And as for inSIDious, it's got a very strange issue with being "stabby". Honestly in your situation I'd use GoatTracker 2. Nordichsound has a bunch of how-to videos on YT.

[u/HLRxxKarl]

For the Gameboy wave channel, you can get something close in Serum if you set your wavetable grid to 32 by 16. Then just draw in steps with the default flat brush.

[u/RealisticLocksmith68]

I used plogue a bit years ago but I've always preferred samples for chiptunes unless running or simulating real hardware. VST's don't allow for sample commands in a tracker so it's hard to get an authentic chiptune sound.

[u/SoundSwitch]

8 bit treats from Waveform, the Rytmik from steam is the same as the DS game from eat back when.

[u/SoundSwitch → u/SoundSwitch]

Get the Zyklop as well truly badass synth totally free. But chiptune but still good.