Creating sounds from the data sheet?

[GregoryEAllen]

This module is really fun! I made a breadboard with an SN76477 when I was a kid.

Is there an easy way to translate between what I see on the data sheet and what I see in VCV? The data sheet has resistors and capacitors, and the units in VCV are not necessarily obvious. I thought maybe the hover text gave me a pin number and a value, but that doesn't seem right.

Any thoughts on a Rosetta Stone to give access to the wealth of old TI documentation for making various sound effects?

[msdlogic]

Hi! Sorry for taking so long to get back to you! I haven't checked in on this project in awhile. I took a VCVrack break, but I'm getting back into music lately.

So cool you breadboarded this!!

I really like your ideas of having the module be a Rosetto Stone of knowledge about the chip. I could see hovering over and seeing the pins or maybe laying out an entirely new module that literally shows the chip and pinouts with connected dials to adjust all of the values. That would be very cool. The SoftSN was based on the Remco Sound FX Machine, so it's limited in exposing all the detail that you are talking about.

In the SoftSN module, all of the dials and switches co-respond to pin positions, but it's not clear which ones. These controls are "virtual" electrical components including modeled resistors, capacitors and switches. It sounds complicated, but it's actually very simple to simulate specific real audio electronics in software. A resistor just lowers a value by x (or acts as a potentiometer) and a capacitor has a charge/discharge software function that increases a number (charge) and then decreases it at a certain rate proportional to "current". I tried to set the values of the components to tune the system to approximate the Remco Sound FX Machine, but I gave it wider range and exposed all of the chip features and most external component values within ranges, where the Remco doesn't actually expose all the pins, nor allow you to adjust all of the external resistors and such on the control surface.

It's not perfect.

You definitely want to check out the Remco Sound FX Machine. I have a crusty one that works!

https://www.matrixsynth.com/2009/09/remco-sound-fx-machine.html

There's a manual that comes with it with settings for different sound effects. I was able to get some of them to work, but it's a little fiddley compared to putting the settings on the Remco itself. But it is the same chip! Let me know if you find any cool settings and share them with me. I'll put them on youtube

I couldn't find the full manual, but I have one. Let me know if you can find it. Maybe I'll scan it in.