CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@nina_kali_nina Trully, we should all own a barometer.

@blitter
>does just 8bit audio
No it's not, it's signal path is analog, it's just controlled by 8-bit signals, like the rest of the computer

>has zero polyphony
No it doesn't it has 3 osciallators, each equiped with it's own Amp envelope. If you want to be a stickler, it'd technically still paraphony in proper Synth terms due to shared filter, however the use of filter is optional so it's really not, it's 3 voices.

>The Yamaha 8 bit sound IC of that period was much better
You'll have to define a lot here, because AFAIK Yamaha did not have full voice ICs in 1982, when C64 first came out, it only started making devices with FM IC's which could act like like full voices in 1993, at which point a single IC could only do one voice at a time, so whether a single voice FM IC is better than C64's 3 voices, with a filter, with the integrated envelopes (which in Yamahas were handled by the central processor, I think), with 3 ring modulators AND with the option to turn osc 3 into an LFO and give it;s envelope to the filter is HIGHLY debatable, and that's not even mentioning the hacks found later, which allow it to play samples.

Also not to mention there are 2 versions of the SID 6581 and 8580, with 8580 being much cleaner, if without some of the OGs character, but that wouldn't fit the initial time period, by the time it came out yes, Yamaha chips were probably better, but C64 was stuck with the same specs it released with, so it's not a fair comparison.

Other Than FM, they made clones of General Instruments' AY-3-8910, which was also an 3-voice but it had no filter and only one envelope, and Texas Instruments' SN76489, which could only do 3 square waves at 16 discrete volume levels, with no envelopes. The only advantage those had over SID was noise generation.

>Yamaha had less succes than the SID
I have literally no ide where that one came from. The original 1983 chips powered the DX7 synth, which singlehandedly ended the era of analog synthesis raign and usable synth UI for a number of years and the later chips were all over the place. OPL2 powered most IBM PC compatible sound cards, and their other chips made it to many consoles and arcade cabinets. Notably one of those - YM2151 - made it to a modern retro computer called Commander x16, which was literally made in Commodore's own image.

Yamaha wiped the floor with SID.

In fact I suspect that the main if not only reason we never saw an officially released synthesizer using SID as it's voice, despite the fact it was made as a Synth Voice chip, as stated by the designers (and honestly even as logicly implied by the design itself), is the release of Yamaha DX7 year after C64 and the subsequent, aforementioned death of Analog Synths' prominence

>SID was everywhere
No. It only ever officially made it to C64 and C128, maybe some other offshoots I don't remember RN, but they'd all be based on the 64. The plans were there, but they went nowhere. I don't believe they even made it If you think you heard it somewhere else - it's probably the AY chip.

Also, of course I'm not the absolute authority on ANY of this. But I have dedicated a lot of time to studying Both the SID chip, and electronics history in regards to synths and personal computers, so I'm not too concerned about anyone verifying my claims.