1. Not old. Vintage. :)

SimpleStereo V4 Demo

Discussion in 'SIG: Atari 8-Bit Hardware' started by Andy Barr, Jan 26, 2021.

  1. by Andy Barr
    Andy Barr

    Andy Barr Captain

    Blog Posts:
    0
    Not sure we've looked at this before, fellas...

    Atari SimpleStereo V4 board, featuring USB mouse/keyboard interface, 4 pokey chips, 2 SID (MOS8580) chips, 2 PSG chips, Soft-Synth like 32 channels sythetizer and 32 channels WaveTable with up to 8Mbytes of sample memory



    After a "quiet" opening, try Fast FWDing to approx 9:00 mins...

    In the words of the immortal, Borat...
    I like :)

    [​IMG]
     
    Vyper68 and M.D.Baker like this.
  2. by M.D.Baker
    M.D.Baker

    M.D.Baker Chief Officer

    Blog Posts:
    3
    Very Interesting indeed, but it's FAR too big to fit in either my 800 or my 1200XL with all of it's other upgrades. Pokeymax's have a footprint barely larger than the original Pokey chip so they fit very nicely. Plus, I already have a Pokeymax Quad + Covox V2 in my 800 and I just pre-ordered the Pokeymax V3 for my 1200XL which has all of this built in:
    s-l1600.jpg

    Features:

    • Quad Pokey
    • Dual SID
    • Dual PSG
    • Four channel Covox, with Paula style DMA
    • GTIA audio digital pass though
    • SIO audio mixing
    • PBI audio mixing
    • May be updated/configured via software on Atari
    • Larger 10M16 FPGA, leaving adequate resources for future enhancements
    • Spare 5V safe IO for future enhancements
    • $99 pre-order price tag
    • No original Pokey on-board that will cost you upwards of $100 IF you can find one if your Pokey fails
    Both have many of the same features and both have unique features, so I guess it depends on what you are looking for (also what does the SSV4 cost?), but, for me personally, even if I'd seen the SimpleStereo V4 before I committed to Pokeymax V3, I'd still go the way I did because of the features in BOLD above. And because the SSV4 is so damn big! I added the last feature in myself when I saw the SimpleStereo still uses an original Pokey.

    Also still available are PokeyMAX v2b, with M04 chip. Versions available: Mono, Stereo, Stereo plus Covox, Quad, Quad plus Covox. Price for Mono and both Stereo versions will be slightly higher but Quad + Covox will be slightly less(a few USD). The most expensive version of PM V2's which was the one I got for my 800 was $69.
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2021
    Andy Barr likes this.
  3. by M.D.Baker
    M.D.Baker

    M.D.Baker Chief Officer

    Blog Posts:
    3
    I do think he would be better off changing the name from SimpleStereo, as I've seen the threads before on AA and totally ignored them because I wanted more than "simple stereo," I've had "simple stereo" in all my Atari's for over a decade, and unless I'm doing DIY stereo upgrade, I want much more than that these days. I'm thinking of others, especially if this is cheaper than Pokeymax's, they may just look past it too.
     
    Andy Barr and nysavant like this.
  4. by M.D.Baker
    M.D.Baker

    M.D.Baker Chief Officer

    Blog Posts:
    3
    Another, un-advertised (They advertise in the feature list that it is configurable and programmable) feature of the Pokeymax, all versions, is that the Pokeyconfig.xex program allows you to configure the Pokeymax in many ways, and the settings are saved to the Pokeymax until you change them again with the Configure program, or you just apply them and quit and they stay in that configuration only until you power-cycle the computer. So you can set things up for an individual program before loading it with a soft or cold boot depending on what the program you want to run requires to boot. The more features the more configurable your Pokeymax is. But one standard feature is that all original mono software you can set to have the Pokey number 1 to play it's 4 voices out of either two stereo speakers, with 2 voices per Left/right and you choose what 2 of the 4 voices go to the left or right speakers. And also, you can select L/R and Center, and have any or all 4 voices coming out a center channel! If it has Pokey sound and uses 1 or more voices, it can be sent to any of 3 speakers. This goes for as many Pokey's as you have on-board. but there is only one set of settings for all Pokey's. But there is so much more that can be configured, look at all the choices in the screen shot below. For me, None of the PSG stuff works or SID, since I don't have them, just anything above PSG and below SID on the menu is what I have to control. This menu is not currently set the way I use it. I post another below that is.

    20210129_203819_HDR.jpg 20210130_111320_HDR.jpg
     

    Attached Files:

    Last edited: Jan 30, 2021
  5. by M.D.Baker
    M.D.Baker

    M.D.Baker Chief Officer

    Blog Posts:
    3
    Well, I was trying to look up more on The SimpleStereo V4, but I found less than @Andy Barr posted It's going to be sold by Lotharek, but there is no sign of it on Lotharek's store yet. If anyone can get there hands on Dev/User PDF manuals, or more technical details like the menu of a SimpleStereo configure program.

    After all, that wave-table synthesis is amazing, if only it came in a smaller package. Though I really haven't even heard of what my Pokeymax can do. I haven't heard Quad pokey sound out of it yet, only stereo, some of it mono and stereo PCM , but no Covox DMA or mod files yet. I have listened to the SID emulator through it, but that's possible with one Pokey. But my current version doesn't have SID on-board so I haven't heard the real thing on my Atari yet, but dual SID is included in V3, so my 1200XL will have it. and some of the other features listed that my V2 doesn't have.

    But only if the SimpleStereo V4 had a small footprint like the Pokeymax V3. I might have gotten both and replace the Pokeymax V2 and either sell it, or install it in my other 1200XL. That's the entire reason than I have a DIY piggy-back Pokey Stereo in my 1200XL right now. I couldn't fit the Dual Pokey board I had from my old 130XE with the Atarimax Warp+ 32-in-1 OS board to work in my 1200XL so I have it set aside for my friend Danny's 800XL. SimpleStereo looks to be the same footprint area as my old dual Pokey board. It There's no way I could fit the Simple Stereo in my 800 either even if I wasn't going to be installing a dual-PIA board.
     
    Last edited: Jan 30, 2021
    Andy Barr likes this.

Share This Page