Awesome 8-Bit Synth Made Out Of An Old Organ!

Linus Akesson’s Chipophone is a homemade 8-bit synthesizer, designed for live chiptune playing.

It has been built inside an old electronic organ. All the original tone-generating parts have been disconnected, and the keys, pedals, knobs and switches rerouted to a microcontroller which transforms them into MIDI signals. Those are then parsed by a second microcontroller, which acts as a synthesizer.

Details at the Linusakkeson site.

7 thoughts on “Awesome 8-Bit Synth Made Out Of An Old Organ!

  1. awesome! brings back good memories. life was simple and innocent, cos i was young. what did i know about atom bombs, i was throwing them on make believe monsters. thx for this nice post. good job linus!! not only are you a gifted technician (apparently), but also blessed with good playing skills

  2. This is fantastic. Wouldn't it be cool if there was an "8-bit adapter kit" you could glom onto old electric organs. You can get them for nothing on Craigslist, but they sound pretty horrible.

    This conversion, though, looks like it would be fun to play.

  3. This makes me smile so much because I often see current equipment repurposed to encapsulate 80s nostalgia, but this appears to be a 70s organ pushed forward in time? Linus' Mario renditions are fantastic… watching the C64 arping later on is BRILLIANT. Going to watch the rest soon, this needs my focus.

  4. This makes me smile so much because I often see current equipment repurposed to encapsulate 80s nostalgia, but this appears to be a 70s organ pushed forward in time? Linus' Mario renditions are fantastic… watching the C64 arping later on is BRILLIANT. Going to watch the rest soon, this needs my focus. And the website docs on "the making of" too, enlightening.

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