Sequencing an SP0256-AL2 Speech IC from Ableton Live

Description:

The SP0256-AL2 “Narrator” chip has appeared in many arcade games in the 80’s for speech synthesis purposes.

This video shows a hardware (“real”) SP0256 IC sequenced from Ableton Live via internal MIDI routing and a serial connection over USB. In the video, the left track is the SP0256-AL2 and the right track is a drum track that is playing back on a virtual sampler.

Lo fi guru Sebastian Tomczak notes “I didn’t really try to make words or phrases. Instead, i have tried to use the chip in a more musical way. I really like the sound quality and some of the address sounds heard from the chip. Nice and grainy.”

Very cool effects and demo.