Polyphonic Tunes On The Sharp PC-E500

March 17, 2026 by Lewin Day 5 Comments

If you’re a diehard fan of the chiptune scene, you’ve probably heard endless beautiful compositions on the Nintendo Game Boy, Commodore 64, and a few phat FM tracks from Segas of years later. What the scene is yet to see is a breakout artist ripping hot tracks on the Sharp PC-E500. If you wanted to, though, you’d probably find use in this 3-voice music driver for the ancient 1993 mini-PC.

This comes to us from [gikonekos], who dug up the “PLAY3” code from the Japanese magazine “Pocket Computer Journal” published in November 1993. Over on GitHub, the original articles have been scanned, and the assembly source code for the PLAY3 driver has been reconstructed. There’s also documentation of how the driver actually works, along with verification against RAM dumps from actual Sharp PC-E500 hardware. The driver itself runs as a machine code extension to the BASIC interpreter on the machine. The “PLAY” command can then be used to specify a string of notes to play at a given tempo and octave. Polyphony is simulated using time-division sound generation, with output via the device’s rather pathetic single piezo buzzer.

It’s very cool to see this code preserved for the future. That said, don’t expect to see it on stage at the next Boston Bitdown or anything—as this example video shows, it’s not exactly the punchiest chiptune monster out there. We’ll probably stick to our luscious fake-bit creations for now, while Nintendo hardware will still remain the bedrock of the movement.

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A Look Inside The Creative MB-10 MIDI Blaster

March 3, 2026 by Maya Posch 16 Comments

Before it became viable to distribute and play music tracks on home computers, the use of FM and Wavetable synthesis was very common, with MIDI Wavetable-based devices like the Roland MT-32 and SC-55 still highly sought after today. The Creative Midi Blaster MB-10 that [Yeo Kheng Meng] reviewed and tore down for an analysis isn’t quite as famous or sought after, but it provides a good example of what Creative Labs was doing at the time in this space.

Released in 1993, it definitely has more of a popular style vibe to it than the utilitarian Roland devices, even if this means highly impractical curves. In the list of features it claims Roland MT-32 emulation, which would have made it quite a bit more useful to the average user, including gamers of the era. Games like DOOM supported these MIDI devices for audio, for example.

In terms of price only the Roland SC-55ST comes close to the MB-10, similarly dropping a screen and a host of features. In terms of features the MB-10 claims far fewer instruments than the SC-55 variants, with even with the slightly higher priced SC-55ST massively outgunning it in raw specs. So would you ever buy the MB-10 back then and consider it a ‘good deal’? If $100 in 1990s money was worth losing full MIDI compatibility for, then it seems the answer was ‘yes’.

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Building The Haxocorder

February 26, 2026 by Jenny List 9 Comments

The Haxophone is an open source MIDI saxophone project that has achieved some popularity. It’s caught the attention of [Shieladixon] not because she is a saxophonist but because she plays the recorder and is dissatisfied with existing MIDI recorder peripherals. She’s set about modifying the device to produce the Haxocorder, a better MIDI recorder.

The video below the break is the third of a series, of which part one and part two deal with the Haxophone and the shortcomings of her existing recorder peripheral. She’s replacing the Pi Zero of the Haxophone with a Pi Pico in a Zero form factor, and simplifying its design significantly to remove unnecessary features. The result is a versatile instrument capable at a touch of becoming the full range of recorders, which she demonstrates with some nifty duet work.

The upstream Haxophone project can be found here if you are interested, and we hope she follows this up with a release of her mods to make the Haxocorder. Meanwhile if you feel you might have seen her work before, she’s the brains behind the MIDISID.

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The Engineering Of A Jimi Hendrix Performance

February 26, 2026 by Jenny List 32 Comments

The guitarist Jimi Hendrix had a unique sound which has influenced countless musicians over the decades. He achieved it through mastery not only of his instrument, but of the complex feedback relationship between amplifier, environment, and guitar — coupled with a series of effects pedals including some then-unique ones made for him. Musical commentators have pored over his work for decades, but a recent piece in IEEE Spectrum is particularly interesting as it examines things from a technical perspective.

It centers around an electrical simulation of Hendrix’s effects chain, and makes an assertion that’s obvious on consideration but not the usual take on a Hendrix performance; that in his hands it became a wave synthesizer rather than the instrument itself. Certainly for anyone with an interest in analogue audio electronics as they pertain to musical synthesis it helps in placing the influence of the different circuits on the sound, and in hearing the familiar performances in a new light.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen someone take a modelling approach to a guitar effects chain, indeed it’s obvious something missing from the work above is the guitar itself.

Header image: Gemeente Rotterdam (Stadsarchief) CC-0.

Restoring A Yamaha DX7 Synthesizer

February 25, 2026 by Maya Posch 4 Comments

The Yamaha DX7 is one of the most iconic synthesizers that emerged in the early 1980s, and is still very popular today. That said, with even the newest of these having left the factory back in 1989, the average DX7 can use a bit of tender love and care. In particular the battered DX7 that [Drygol] recently got handed to ‘just fix the PSU voltage switch’. As it turned out, this poor DX7 had a few more issues than just a busted voltage selector.

Just a hint of cosmetic damage on this Yamaha DX7. (Credit: Drygol) — Just a hint of cosmetic damage on this Yamaha DX7.

In addition to missing slider caps and a vanished key, the paint of the case also had clearly lost a fight with various hard surfaces in addition to a thick coating of unidentifiable dust and grime inside the synthesizer. Feeling a pang of sympathy, [Drygol] thus decided to give the old girl a complete restoration.

After taking the synthesizer apart for a good scrub-down, the parts were assessed for further damage. This turned out to include the plastic stubs on some keys to hold a spring for which a replacement was modelled and 3D printed, along with replacements for the missing slider caps.

Next the case was painted, with a brand new Yamaha DX7 vinyl logo rather than trying to fix up the old paint and logo. With the outside fixed up, the broken and dodgy controls, audio jacks and potentiometers were addressed, followed by the busted onboard battery, leaving just the original voltage selector. This one got replaced by an IEC 60320 C13 jack, with the transformer hardwired for 230 VAC input, out of convenience grounds.

We’re always excited when [Drygol] sends in another restoration project — from a glowing Amiga 500 to vacuum-formed keycap covers, they’re always remarkable displays of ingenuity.

RP2040 Powers A MIDI-Controlled Soundboard

February 19, 2026 by Lewin Day 5 Comments

When you’re livestreaming, it can be tempting to fire off all kinds of wacky sound effects like you’re a morning radio DJ back in the heady days of 1995. If that’s who you want to be, you might like this soundboard project from [Biker Glen].

The build is based around an RP2040 microcontroller. It’s paired with an I2S digital-to-analog converter for sound output, which in turn feeds a small amplifier hooked up to a speaker or a line output. The RP2040 is programmed to respond to MIDI commands by playing various sounds in response, which are loaded off a microSD card. It’s able to act as a USB MIDI host, which allows it to work seamlessly with all sorts of off-the-shelf MIDI controllers like the MIDI Fighter or the Novation Launchpad.

It’s an interesting hardware solution to a problem that you could probably also solve with software on your streaming machine, especially if you’ve already got a USB MIDI controller. However, there’s something to be said for lightening the load when your streaming computer is already doing lots of hard work to truck video up to the cloud already. Files are on Github if you’re eager to replicate the build.

Soundboards are just fun, which is why we’ve featured them before. Meanwhile, if you’re whipping up your own streaming accessories at home, be sure to let us know on the tipsline!

Inside A Dutch Street Organ: The Art Of Mechanical Music-Making

February 18, 2026 by Donald Papp 17 Comments

[James]’ Mechanical Organ of Dutch origin has been around longer than he has, but thanks to being rebuilt over the years and lovingly cared for, it delivers its unique performances just as well as it did back in the day. Even better, we’re treated to a good look at how it works.

The organ produces music by playing notes on embedded instruments, which are themselves operated by air pressure, with note arrangements read off what amounts to a very long punch card. [James] gives a great tour of this fantastic machine, so check it out in the video embedded below along with a couple of its performances.

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