Atari Goes
VST!
When browsing
through the Atari MIDI forum, a member posted
about a unique VST plug-in capable of emulating
the YM2149 sound chip in an Atari computer.
Being the Atari man I am, this was an exciting
find. I have many Ataris which I use for MIDI
work and never got into the demo scene, but
this VSTi may change my mind!
![[Screen-shot: ymVST control surface]](images/ymvst.gif)
The facts ymVST
was created by Atari chip music freak, Gareth
Morris (also known as gwEm). It was inspired
by Music Mon 2. It was created using SynthEdit,
a modular soft-synth development application
for PC.
From what I can
pull from the interface, ymVST has these features:
- Oscillator
with four waveforms.
- SID oscillator
function.
- Noise generator.
- Portamento.
- Bend parameters
for pitch and noise.
- 4-note arpeggiator
with note and speed variation control, synchronized
to host.
- LFO with
depth and speed parameter synchronized to
host.
- Amplitude
waveform creator grid for making rhythms.
Playing ymVST Loading
it up in EnergyXT, I was able to get some very
nice sounds right away.You really need a delay
plug-in to bring out the sounds. In the above
screen-shot I am using Big Ticks Dual delay
freeware plugin (see below link) In playing
ymVST, you can click on the SID button and get
some cool flanging sounds. Theres all sorts
of waveforms to click on, with and a portamento
switch as well as funky arpegio effects. The
pitch bending function allows you to get envelope
sweeping effects as well pitch sliding sounds.There
is also the amplitude waveform grid for creating
rhythms. There is a speed function for this as
well.
![[Screen-shot: energyXT]](images/energyxt.gif)
The lead sounds
are very good and would fit well in a mix. No
filters here, but raw beautiful electric sound.
With portamento and delay, it could easily stand
up to the commercial VSTs out there. Some of
the lead sounds give me an impression of the
old Genisis sound, with Tony Bank's melodic
synthesizer material.
It says on the
FAQ (on the ymVST home page site) to have three instances
for authentic Atari chip music. Setting each
instance to a different MIDI channel and creating
patterns for each would be the way to go.
I actually created
a bank of 30 sounds which you can download below.
They are in FXP format (preset) which means you
must load one preset at a time, but it's workable.
If you do not
have a VST host in which to try this out, I
would suggest downloading the demo of EnergyXT,
which is a real fantastic tool. Then you can also download Big Ticks Dual delay,
and have the same set-up as above.
User comments
from the KvR forum After finding
out about this plug-in, I posted about it on
the KvR forum, a gathering place for computer
musicians. Here are some of their comments:
- Cool... I
really enjoyed toying around with this... revived
some old fond memories too.
- I was one
of those anti-Atari Commodore fanboys myself,
but this synth is a hell of a lot of fun to
just randomize and see what surprises it has
in store. Great find!
- Excellent
find Tim! I love the Atari lo-fi sound
as well.
- Oh hell yeah!
- Yep, just
tried it out. Excellent! Maybe not an
Elektron SidStation, but I can't complain about
the price and availability of ymVST! Exactly what
I need.
I was very glad
to see an Atari type venture as a VST plugin
which will get some use in a modern day world
of high tech computer music. Thanks goes to
Gareth for his SynthEdit creation. Long live
Atari and music!
tim@myatari.net
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