Robotic Audio

Synth · Coming soon

Bitstorm

Seven classic sound chips, computed the way the hardware did it.

Notify me at release Read the manual
Bitstorm's window on its CHIP page: four NES channels as layers across the top, then the SID filter, the scope with the chip's registers and the global settings
  • 7 sound chips
  • 4 layers per note, up to 16 voices
  • Chip mode, a channel per layer
  • Tracker macros per layer
  • 3 drawn envelopes, 2 LFOs, 16-slot matrix
  • Arpeggiator and a 16-pattern tracker
  • 4 effect slots

What it does

Seven sound chips from the machines that made game music, each computed from how the hardware worked. Stack four of them on every note for big, modern chip sounds, or play one chip channel by channel as the composers did, with tracker macros shaping every note, an arpeggiator and a tracker to write the tune in.

Seven chips

The C64's SID with its two models and filter, the NES, the Game Boy with its drawn wave, the AY of the Spectrum and Atari ST with its buzzer bass, the Atari's POKEY, the Amiga's Paula playing its samples or yours, and the Mega Drive's four-operator FM chip.

Computed like the hardware

Each chip is worked out from how it behaved, its timers, steps, noise registers and output stages, at twice the sample rate with its edges band-limited, so it sounds like the chip and not like aliasing.

Stack them, or play the chip

Poly mode stacks four layers, any chips you like, on every note. Chip mode makes them one chip's channels, each playing a note of its own, by round robin or by MIDI channel.

Tracker macros

Volume, Arp, Pitch and the chip's own choice (wave, duty, mixer, distortion, sample or algorithm) drawn a step per frame, with loop and release points, the way trackers shape every note.

Modulation

Three drawn envelopes, two LFOs, MIDI and four macro knobs through a 16-slot matrix, into each layer's pitch, level, pan, pulse width and FM brightness and the SID filter.

A tracker inside

Sixteen patterns with a column per layer, notes, volumes and effects (arpeggio, slides, volume), played as a song with your DAW or a pattern per MIDI note, and an arpeggiator that steps in tempo or in the chip's frames.

Dressed for each machine

The window takes the colours of layer 1's machine, the C64's blue, the Game Boy's greens, the NES's grey, the arcade's black.

Presets from every machine

From C64 Sync Lead, 6581 Growl Bass and Overworld Square to Paula Choir, Mega Drive Slap Bass, Tracker Demo and NES Band.

Listen

Audio demos

Audio demos are on their way.

Look

Screenshots

The CHIP page, four NES channels playing together
The CHIP page, four NES channels playing together
Tracker macros and the Game Boy's wave table
Tracker macros and the Game Boy's wave table
The tracker, a column per layer
The tracker, a column per layer
FM operators
FM operators
Modulation
Modulation

Details

Specs & requirements

Read the Bitstorm manual

Type
Chip-tune synthesizer, up to 16 voices (instrument plugin)
Chips
SID (6581, 8580), NES 2A03, Game Boy, AY-3-8910 / YM2149, POKEY, Paula, YM2612
Formats
AU, VST3 and Standalone
macOS
macOS 11 or later, Apple Silicon and Intel
Windows and Linux
VST3 and Standalone
Sound design with Claude
Optional, with your own Anthropic key: describe a sound or a tune and Claude sets Bitstorm to play it, the song in the tracker included (macOS and Windows)
Status
In development, version 0.1
Price
To be announced