BrianK wrote:I'm wondering if there is a REMOTE possibility that that Tangerine Dream controller keyboard could be made to work - you'd have to make PCBs (not easy but possible from scans and photos of ours) and stuff them, flash some ROMs etc etc. But considering what the system could be, you actually have the HARD PART, that controller. The rest is an old computer, which might be buildable...
While possible in theory, i don't plan to copy the original system. I will recreate it with current technology, so maybe this ends up with a small box that is attached to the DB25 connector of this keyboard, with USB to the computer, where you have Audio, MIDI any a serial terminal collection. Just as an example, my ideas are not complete to this level of detail. There already was a project like this, based on FPGA, my original idea. But as FPGAs have proprietary windows-only development environments, i still boycott them but go for generic micros, having enough experience with them.
I don't want to spam this thread with this recreation project (but i might create a new thread about it when the time is right), due to lack of time, there is not a lot to tell anyway currently. But i meanwhile carefully analyzed all the functional units (DK Synergy, not GDS, but this is just because there i have all the schematics, firmware and software sources and so, and later, it should be possible to adapt it to GDS-style with a small amount of changes) and even started recreating the heart of it, the oscillator board, with some lines of code.
This oscillator is a very fascinating design of a DSP running some simple microcode, built with tons of then-current logic gates and PROMs. It should not be a problem to recreate the functionality (not emulating the circuitry!) 1:1 with a modern Cortex-M micro. Using the original tables, the final results of the calculations will be the same, and after re-implementing the firmware and synhcs in C/C++, the firmware and the oscillator code can be integrates enough to get exactly the same behavior as the original, synhcs might end up with a wxWidgets based GUI, talking to the rest via USB.
But it will take time. The project it too complex to work on it from weekend to weekend, i need some weeks in a block for this, so it has to wait until the next summer vacation. And even then, it's not sure if not other stuff eats up this time once again. It's not that i started the DK Synergy recreation idea yesterday, i have this in mind since at lest 4 years. But at least i have the necessary materials since half a year now, so technically, i can start now, and from time to time, i take some hours and try something.
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