Testing the The SIDKICK PICO - Dual stereo SID chip emulator for the C64 - Full test

Thank you Artic Retro for spreading the word about this great Frntc creation. Also good to note that Frntc makes his creations available for non-commercial use. (no price gouging allowed)

Tommy, I really enjoy your videos especially the C64 related ones. I've built 20 SID Kick Picos for the C64s I repair. One thing I discovered in the configuration settings for mono SIDs is if you set SID #2 to something other than "none", the output volume of the SID is increased a fair amount. I've tested this on version .14 and .202 of the SID Kick Pico software.

Many thanks for this thorough introduction to stereo SID hard- and software. I begin to understand how this is handled watching your video. For those watching in planning to also attach the DAC sub board it might be an option to attach it by simply using five short wires instead of the pin header. This would allow to place it anywhere within the case to also not interfere with the tape port connector housing and to feed cables through another hole as said by you, Tommy. When you played the PicoSID directly connected to your sound capturing inputs I noticed hiss sounds. Those might be the signal pitching, was the volume level too high in the end maybe? All in all a very entertaining and massively educational video.

Digiboost: the 8580 played back samples at a reduced volume, as sample playback depended on a bug in the 6581. I believe without it set, the SIDKick will play back those samples similarly at a lower volume. One example, Turbo Outrun tunes will show this up very obviously, playing both samples and synth sounds, as will many of the more advanced music demos. A simple hardware hack was often used on 8580 C64's to boost the volume of digital sample playback, hence "digiboost". I used a pot on one C64 so I can fine tune the sample levels.

That’s cool! I recently got a breadbin and the seller didn’t tell me about the fake atmel sid. I play back my tune and instantly heard it wasn’t a SiD and sure enough. Luckily the seller had the SID still and we swapped them. But this SidKick pico actually doesn’t sound bad at all. Maybe I should do a video on assembling one and doing some spectrum analysis and scope comparisons. I always like to make videos others haven’t don’t yet. But first my true random generator with a radioactive decay source on my C64. So much time and effort goes into this videos for us old GenX geezers 😂Keep it up though, you have a new sub!

Awesome job Tommy. Sounds great.

Nice SID Tommy. You did a great job to that machine. Greetings from Steven from the Netherlands

Very nice video, thanks ❤

Thank you for a great video. I bought the device with dac from restore-store. I will try it on my c128😅

I have three c64 mother boards that is just missing the SID chips. I need to make a few of these :) thanks for the video!

I think the Pico sounded pretty well to be honest! I'm still lucky enough to have 5 out of 5 working sids.. C128, C128D, C64C and Ultimate 64. Only one 6581 (still my favourite one)..

DigiBoost is only for the new SID chip. The old ones (6581) does no need it. C= "fixed" the bug(feature) on the master volume ($d418) on newer SID chips which means "Ghostbusters" would not work on a new SID chip wihtout DigiBoost. There is a software fix though (and is probably fixed in many cracks), but original games written for the 6581 would not work.

wow very nice video ❤❤

Did you need to flash with new FW after installing the DAC, or did you still use SKpico_PWM_LED?

What music you have playing at 1:11?

Recording from the loudspeakers, come on that's too much retro.