Elektron has announced that it’s restarting production of the SidStation, a unique sound module based on the Commodore 64’s sound chip. The production run is limited to 100.

The new batch of SidStations is built exactly like the previous ones. All original parts have been hunted down to assure the original sound.

The SidStation is a MIDI-controlled synthesizer with real-time controllers. Many synthesizers built today are made to fit a current trend to a specific market. SidStation is not one of them. It is built with love and dedication, and capable of producing really unique sounds that can not be recreated on any other instrument.

The heart of the SidStation is the sound generating chip from the classic home computer Commodore 64. This sound-chip, the MOS6581 SID (SID for Sound Interface Device) was developed in the early eighties by Bob Yannes at MOS technology. It’s a very unique-sounding marriage of analogue and digital techniques. However, the trend in sound synthesis soon changed towards sampling technology, and nothing like it has been produced ever since. The rediscovery of the SID-sound is a pleasant surprise for all sound explorers looking for something more exiting than the current crop of analogue imitating ‘virtual’ synthesizers.

It takes certain programming techniques to get the most out of the MOS6581. More than 20,000 lines of assembly code takes the SID-chip from being a quirky piece of silicon, to become a friendly music instrument. The SID-chip is basicly just a tone generator (with a special sound), and the SidStation OS realises all features like LFO’s, wave/note-tables, arpeggiators and filter envelope. Thousands of young hackers of the C64 has devoted years of their lives exploring all possibilities of the MOS6581. In the development of the SidStation, inspiration and experience has been gathered both from this hacker scene as well as traditional synthesizers.

Features:

• MOS6581 SID-synthesis
• Brushed aluminium casing
• Alfanumeric backlit 2×16 LCD display
• MIDI 3*DIN5P In/Out/Thru
• 1/4″ line level audio out
• 1/4″ line level audio in (routed through SID-filter)
• Dimensions: 240W x 70H x 200D [mm]
• Powerful and friendly SidStation OS
• Three oscillators, phase accumulation synthesis
• All oscillators syncable (ringmodulation and synchronization)
• Sweepable pulsewidth modulation
• Resonant multi-mode analogue filter
• Portamento, individual for all oscillators
• Variable interval-independent portamento time
• Unique wavetable function in form of 3-track mini-sequencer
• Flexible 4-part LFO modulation system
• Extensive MIDI support

The price of this batch of SidStations is set to EUR 920 inside the European Union and USD $950 for USA and outside EU. The price is subject to change. The units will be sold only by Elektron to end customers directly from their web site.

For more information, visit the SidStation site.