In fact the SidStation is a compact and fairly light unit, though at the same time the casing feels quite robust.
The SidStation is a synth for anyone who loves creative synthesis with a rough-and-ready lo-fi edge to it and who has a taste for the offbeat and the unique.
The bulk of navigation and editing from the front panel is done via a numeric keypad with keys from 0 to 9 and A to D, plus star and hash keys, as on a telephone.
The SidStation operating system stretches the chip to its limits by updating all SID6581 parameters up to 200 times per second.
Over 100 customers have bought the beta version of the SidStation, tested it thoroughly, and given suggestions on various areas that have been perfected for this v1.0 release, helping to produce a mature and very stable product.
On delivery the SidStation is filled with interesting preset sounds with easily accessible key parameters through the four direct controllers.
Now, four years after the introduction of the SidStation, Elektron has announced that it's stock of factory new SID chips is coming to an end.
The final 100 units are fitted with a laser etched number on the front, counting from 100 down to 1.
These will be the last SidStation units ever produced, and will be sold in the order of their numbering, starting from 100 going down to the final number 1.
Vintage Synth Explorer - Elektron Sidstation(Site not responding. Last check: 2007-10-29)
The heart of this synthesizer is the sound generating chip from the classic home computer Commodore 64.
Features of the Sidstation synth module include a rotary wheel for easy data entry, an alpha-numeric 2x16 LCD display with back-lighting, audio input and output, 3 syncable oscillators with traditional (triangle, sawtooth, pulse) waveforms, nice resonant filters, arpeggiators, effects and ring modulation.
Some in your face samples and effects created by the Sidstation demonstrating some of the Sid's more peculiar sounds and effects.
I´ve got a sidstation and a voyager (ae) too and I think this is a great combination.
The only problem I´m still fighting with, is that the voyager is sending cc-messages always when you turn any knob and the sidstation is receiving them.
playing too) as soon as you turn the filter knob of the moog the sidstations sound is changed randomly (there is a logic behind this but you have to analize which parameter is changed by which controler of the moog).
Sidstation Sound-Chiprecycling at its best ACHTUNG, DIESE ÜBERSCHRIFT GILT FÜR SIDSTATION 1 + 2.
DAS IS NE DOPPELSEITE. Die Sidstation ist wohl der erste Synthesizer, der aus einem immerhin schon siebzehn Jahre alten Soundchip, dem SID konstruiert wurde.
Durch einen Hardwarebug rauscht der SID-Chip und damit auch die Sidstation allerdings ganz ordentlich, weswegen ein Noisegate manchmal nötig werden wird, ausserdem sind die Oszillatoren nie hundertprozentig leise.
