hard plAYer

hard plAYer is an DIY 8 bit tunes hardware player, which allows you to listen to the same melodies you could listen to in some of the 80’s home computers and videogame consoles. In future versions, it will also work as MIDI synthesizer.

Its audio sound generator porcessor is the General Instruments AY-3891X – the same one that was used in vintage computers like the Atari ST, Amstrad CPC, Spectrum ZX, MSX, Oric, or Colour Genie, and consoles like the Intellivision or Vectrex. The YM-2149 was a Yamaha’s licensed version of this processor.

Specs:

• music is played by a real AY-38912 Programable Sound Generator 
• nearly everything is controlled through a monochrome 128×64 LCD graphical display with a 4 push-buttons interface 
• can play unpacked and deinterleaved YM files, stored in a SD or MMC card formatted in FAT32
• has a tiny file explorer to move through the folders to select the song to play
• simple audio looping options
• playing speed can be adjusted
• the independent channel volume knobs allow the user to control the A,B,C channels volume
• a MIDI input port is available to use the board as MIDI synthesizer ( it has also a MIDI output port ) 
• stereo RCA or stereo mini jack output connectors