I ordered 5 from some hong kong seller and the next day he sent me a refund, saying they were out of stock. So, not sure if it was a fake product or what. BTW the refund is still processing... 😁

amigo-mexicano wrote:

I ordered 5 from some hong kong seller and the next day he sent me a refund, saying they were out of stock. So, not sure if it was a fake product or what. BTW the refund is still processing... 😁

Very similar to my "luck". I've tried to buy 6581s two times from China, both times got refund in few days.
Sourcing those from eBay is quite expensive in Russia.

If someone finds a good chinese dealer, please let us know! 😀

for 6581 all chinese are fakes. try to get from reliable sources or remove them from dead c64 breadbins.

I got mine!
Shipped on February 6. Received at the post office on February 16.
Total shipping time from Russia to Canada was 10 days. I'm super impressed!

Got my SID chip today (6581) so I unboxed the card, installed the chip, the bracket, and tested the card in my retro-PC.
Success! It worked flawlessly with Ultima VI.

Thank you Fagear and everyone else involved in this awesome project !

@addendum
I did a silent (and slow) unboxing and assembling video (SID, bracket) of the card, if someone wants to see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGBa_sShwZ0
At the end is also a short demonstration of Ultima VI on the SSI-2001 replica.

My 6581 SID arrived from Canada. So i put it in the card and it work great! Tested with Ultima VI and Bad Blood.

I subscribe what Beegle wrote, so thanks Fagear and everyone else who contributed to the project.

I just wish we achive the same level of success with the Covox Sound Master Project.

EDIT: Anyone knows how to launch F19 Stealth Fighter with Innovation board? All i can do is get PC Speaker sound.

EDIT2: Nevermind i found it.

Beegle wrote:

Total shipping time from Russia to Canada was 10 days. I'm super impressed!

As am I. 😲

Beegle wrote:

I did a silent (and slow) unboxing and assembling video (SID, bracket) of the card, if someone wants to see

Good video, thanks!

Beegle wrote:

Success! It worked flawlessly with Ultima VI.

carlostex wrote:

My 6581 SID arrived from Canada. So i put it in the card and it work great! Tested with Ultima VI and Bad Blood.

You better check your SIDs with some hm... *.SIDs. Because I think I've discovered that my MOS6581R4 has defective filter... 😢 Read below for details...

Some news here.
I've got 8 * 8580R5 from shock__, every SID is tested and works great:
1988_Top_40_MEGAMIX.sid
Acid Jazz.sid
Airwolf_Mix.sid
Blackmail_Tune_1.sid
Castlevania_64_Mixes.sid
No_Good.sid
Peanut_Pleasure.sid
Rambo_3.sid
Ruzzians.sid
Zybex.sid
All *.SIDs were played with old alfa-version software from bristlehog (SIDTEST1) on a PC with AMD K6-2 533 MHz. This CPU was not enough for the task, so the speed is a little bit slower than it should be. My K6 refused to work @550MHz. 🤣

And I've found something interesting...
I've noted previously that SIDTEST1 was buggy on some files: sometimes not all voices worked or volume was lower than should be (and even was jumping back and forth). And what do you think... with new 8580 everything works normally! Every *.SID plays back as it should: volume is ok and voices are in place.
This leads me to some bad thoughts... I don't think that emulator code used in SIDTEST1 is IC-dependent to produce such a difference. More likely it is a bad filter circuitry in 6581R4 that I have (and I think bristlehog's SID is defective in the same way). Filter is used in music?.. Here comes trouble! Volume jumps, voices disappear.
Ruzzians.sid: [6581 (defective?)] vs. [8580]
No_Good.sid: [6581 (defective?)] vs. [8580]
Zybex.sid: [6581 (defective?)] vs. [8580]
Please note that 6581 was playing on a PC with CPU @866MHz, but 8580 was playing on a PC with CPU @533MHz. Almost two times slower. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Ruzzians.sid: from the start there is bass sound with floating high-pass filter (@8580). 6581 outputs nothing. After that bass line is probably uses filter again, so we have insane volume jumps according to bass notes. In the middle of the *.SID there is floating filter on 8580 once again, but 6581 plays back almost silent and no evidence of filtered sound.
No_Good.sid: almost the same, from the start 6581 outputs only two voices, 8580 outputs three and the third one is bass line with floating filter. In the middle of *.SID volume on 6581 is jumping a little, 8580 plays back fine.
Zybex.sid: the same. Bass line on the 6581 is not present at all (that leads to silence in the middle of the melody), 8580 has the bass line and filter works on it like it should.
Those damaged SIDs are well-known already and the most common malfunction - not working filter circuitry.

Also I have to note that power supply noise pickup is noticeable... Accessing HDD, loading CPU leads to some audible sound effects, when SID is not playing. And it seems like with 8580 this noise is a little bit stronger. 😢
Well, this is inherit from original board, there is not much difference from original board in power supply circuitry. I think there will be next SID-based project, SSI-2001 compatible. 🤣

And I've noticed that software emulation in foobar2k (based on ReSIDfp) sounds not as good as real hardware 8580. Sometimes it plainly muddles some voices and overall sound is messy. Real 8580 sounds crisper and brighter. 😀

Where can we get bristlehog's SID player and *.SID files?

carlostex wrote:

Where can we get bristlehog's SID player and *.SID files?

SID files are here.
bristlehog had already shared alfa version on phantom.sannata.ru, so I think he will not kill me if I put his link here.

Usage:

1sidtest.exe <file.sid>

CPU frequency must be ~500 MHz (300 will do, but it will be slow playback, faster than 550 = faster playback). Port on the replica must set to the default 280h.

Thanks i will test now. I have a K6-III+. It's on a socket 7 board but i can still clock it at 500MHz. 83x6 = 500

EDIT: SID appears to be OK, at least it sounds a lot better than Fagear's 6581.

However when comparing to control SID's in the fake sids website it's difficult to tell. At least if mine has some kind of problem it should be minor.
In the mean time i kinda regret going for 6581's instead of 8580's.
Oh well, not a big deal. The SID sounds really close to what a good SID should sound.

EDIT2: The SID that came from Hong Kong is defective. Filter seems dead and sometimes on of the channels distorts.

Fagear wrote:

SID files are here.
bristlehog had already shared alfa version on phantom.sannata.ru, so I think he will not kill me if I put his link.

Thank you for this. The SID I received (MOS6581 - 1884) seems to pass the test.
No missing notes, no filter/volume problems, although playback was pretty slow on my P2-333 😀

The nice thing is that the sound is super clean.

Good news ... my SSI-2001 has arrived in Berlin
Bad news ... the customs got it, gonna be fun.

Gonna pick it up tomorrow.

EDIT: Picked it up and got lucky ... no additional fees paid (even tho everything was declared properly ... Berlin's custom office is "not so good") but 120 minutes spent waiting.

carlostex wrote:

SID appears to be OK, at least it sounds a lot better than Fagear's 6581.

Beegle wrote:

The SID I received (MOS6581 - 1884) seems to pass the test.

shock__ wrote:

Picked it up and got lucky ... no additional fees paid

Good news. 😎

carlostex wrote:

However when comparing to control SID's in the fake sids website it's difficult to tell.

It's strange, but for me "bad_sid5a.mp3" sounds better than "good_sid2". Either 6581R2 differs so much from 6581R4 or 6581R2 is defective (not "good") as well.

carlostex wrote:

In the mean time i kinda regret going for 6581's instead of 8580's.
Oh well, not a big deal. The SID sounds really close to what a good SID should sound.

You can solder in 78L09 IC instead of jumper link and swap filter capacitors for 22nF and you'll be fine. 😀

I've got some missing parts and assembled some more cards.

I've done some test with j^aws's boards (one configured for 8580, another for 6581).

Left board holds 8580R5, right boards is equipped with my defective 6581R4.
Both boards installed on a LS 5MVP3 with K6-2 @ 500MHz and set to the same port 280h.

I've recorded both boards in one file: LEFT channel is 6581R4, RIGHT channel is 8580R5. So it requires some skills to listen properly... 🤣
It is 99% confirmed that my 6581R4 is defective. Every time filter is used there is something wrong: loud pops, low volume, missing voices.
Airwolf_Mix.sid
Blackmail_Tune_1.sid
Castlevania_64_Mixes.sid
Rambo_3.sid

^^ Awesome - can't wait! I'm building a sweet 486 for these badboys...

Maybe it's me, but I think your defective SID on one of the channels might be helping the pseudo-stereo effect..?

A newer version of SID player. It runs normally on faster systems. Please report any issues you find. I know of one: there's random noise upon exit. You can stop the noise by running PX player (set to use Innovation hardware) over some MIDI file and then exiting it.

bristlehog wrote:

A newer version of SID player. It runs normally on faster systems. Please report any issues you find.

Thanks, I'll try it later. Probably next week.

Some stats:
Boards were sent to 10 users on this forum (total of 11 boards). Reception confirmed by 4 users. 3 boards for 2 more users are ready to be shipped.
Plus 7 users on phantom.sannata.ru got their boards (total of 12 boards).

Fagear wrote:

Thanks, I'll try it later. Probably next week. […]
Show full quote

bristlehog wrote:

A newer version of SID player. It runs normally on faster systems. Please report any issues you find.

Thanks, I'll try it later. Probably next week.

Some stats:
Boards were sent to 10 users on this forum (total of 11 boards). Reception confirmed by 4 users. 3 boards for 2 more users are ready to be shipped.
Plus 7 users on phantom.sannata.ru got their boards (total of 12 boards).

Let me add my confirmation, I got my board today, put in the SID chip I won off eBay and Ultima 6 sounds as it should. The joystick port works too.

Updated my blog entry with information : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/01/s … bedfellows.html

Great Hierophant wrote:

Updated my blog entry with information : http://nerdlypleasures.blogspot.com/2014/01/s … bedfellows.html

His nick is Fagear, not Faegar.

bristlehog wrote:

His nick is Fagear, not Faegar.

Yep.

And I don't think that "clones of the 74 series manufactured by V/O Elektronorgtechnica" is correct term.
These chips were produced by many manufacturers in USSR (they have their logos: link1, link2). Probably these ICs were exported via Elektronorgtechnica, but not manufactured.

And after USSR fell apart (in 1991) those manufacturers found themselves in different countries (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, etc.).
For example КР1087ВИ1 and DV74HC192AN on your board are made by the same manufacturer - Integral, in Belarus (years 1994 and 1996, after USSR).
КМ555ТМ2, ЛН1, АП5, АП6 are made by Mezon in Moldova.
К555ИД7 are made by Svetlana in Russia.

In USSR and still in ex-USSR countries we use our own marking scheme, hence the 555-series ICs. Some of them were clones of 54/74 series, some were not.