Studies for small sound generators are results of the research conducted in the field of sound production devices from the past and their contemporary usage. I started the process in 2015, finding the first of the chips, YM2413 in a toy keyboard from (mid?) 80s. With chip extracted from original PCB and re-soldered onto a test board with Arduino, I followed the datasheet and wrote the code that will enable sending data to chip via serial (usb). In order to exploit all the features of the sound generator, I used RTC (real-time composition) library for PureData by Karlheinz Essl, made in Ircam during the 90s, for generating data structures for all available sound parameters of approximately equal complexity. Since this setup proved very versatile and applicable in numerous musical situations, I decided to continue the search for the chips in old computers, game consoles and other sound producing devices and use them in a similar manner. Due to technical limitations, some adaptations were needed from case to case. The exact same procedure like with YM2413, I exploited with YM2203 and Atari Pokey. Commodore SID chip turned out to be very prone to damage, and at the same time expensive and hard to find, so after two chips destroyed, I decided to modify my approach and use the chip in the original computer. It turned out it is possible to control SID in a similar manner over user port, so I opted for this approach for safety reasons. Similar procedure is used with Amiga Paula, but with the keyboard port hacked, since the software similar to the one I used for previous examples was already available. Korg Monotron seems like an “intruder” here, and it is, in terms of design and origin, but as it turned out, it is a very hackable little device that needed very few modifications in order to be used in aforementioned way. After all experiments and try-and-fail attempts, I ended up with what can be considered small sound generators benchmark that can demonstrate “true” hardware possibilities of the device under test, with somewhat acceptable aesthetic effect, in terms of music and/or sound art, although this was not the original intention. None of these devices were meant to be used like this. After all experiences, I decided to modify my approach a bit more, so this seemed like the right moment for publishing results achieved so far, because what is expected in the future will be considerably different and not suitable for same album. In a way, this can be considered as volume one.

Given the situation with epidemic, online publication seemed the most proper, but compact cassette tape recording is available on demand with noise reduction of your choice.