The Chipophone: An 8-bit synthesizer

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By John Baichtal
Posted 2010/07/22 @ 12:05 pm
Category Music

Linus Ã…kesson’s Chipophone is a 8-bit synth built into an old electric organ.

All the original tone-generating parts have been disconnected, and the keys, pedals, knobs and switches rerouted to a microcontroller which transforms them into MIDI signals. Those are then parsed by a second microcontroller, which acts as a synthesizer.

The synthesizer is implemented on an ATmega88, an 8-bit microcontroller with 1 kB of RAM and 8.5 kB of ROM. It receives MIDI data at a jumper-configurable baud rate and produces a 12-bit mono line out signal.

The Chipophone

BY John Baichtal

My interests include writing, electronics, RPGs, comics, scifi, hackers & hackerspaces, 3D printing, building sets, & toys.

In the Maker Shed

Telegraph Decoder Kit by Spikenzie Labs

Arduino Robot

Ultimaker 3D Printer

BrushBots

3 Responses to The Chipophone: An 8-bit synthesizer

Shadyman on July 22nd, 2010 at 1:52 pm said:

Sweeeeeeet. Mind you, the fade-out was a bit grainy, but still an epic piece of 8-bit hardware

PS, I knew I recognized this website from somewhere… This is the same guy that made the Craft AVR-based VGA graphics/music thing: http://www.linusakesson.net/scene/craft/index.php

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gekizai on July 22nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm said:

Crowning Moment Of Awesome (even though Linus isn’t a fictional character.)

See this for an explanation of my apparent non-sequitur:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/SugarWiki/CrowningMomentOfAwesome

And yes, I’m certain it qualifies as CrowningMusicOfAwesome as well.

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Pedro Guimaraes on December 25th, 2011 at 3:29 pm said:

Dude, your project is awesome, but your demonstration KICKS ASS! Using feet and hands to perform old classics in such complete way was HIGHLY impressive. I wish I had that baby chipophone to play a little as well! congratulations!

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