A more interesting use, would be to add novel programmable softsynth programs to it, IMO.

It wont have much ram, and the CPU is a bit weak compared to modern devices, but it should still be able to do interesting things.

wierd_w wrote on 2026-08-31, 22:26:

A more interesting use, would be to add novel programmable softsynth programs to it, IMO.

It wont have much ram, and the CPU is a bit weak compared to modern devices, but it should still be able to do interesting things.

I think you overestimate the capabilities of the device.

There's around 25.5 kilobytes of useful RAM, and there is no audio output on the device - the only I/O is the floppy drive and the MIDI ports.

It could still do interesting things, like produce dynamic drum rythms based on some input on its input port, or be used to dynamically intercept and manipulate inbound midi messages based on some rules, before sending them out again.

You dont *need* a large amount of ram for a serial transfer buffer, especially if there's no operating system to speak of.

Totally agree - I was thinking of creating some kind of arpeggiator. But that’s quite different to a soft synth.

Dynamic accompanyment generation (say, analysis of note pattern progression over a period of measures, used to generate 'harmonic parts' to accompany the provided musical notation sent on the input port) would be a synth of 'a sort'.

Might be accurate to call that a 'polyphony expander' or something though.

It would introduce nontrivial delay though. (needs to collect, then keep, a musical sample period to work with to derive accompanyment candidates with. that's several seconds of realtime delay)

Just spitballing ideas.