inSIDious
Ultra-accurate emulation of the legendary Commodore 64 sound chip.
$64
The signature sound of the Commodore 64 SID chip, now in your DAW.
A unique sound with tons of character, a flagship of 1980s video games.
Every feature of this legendary chip, recreated as accurately as possible.
Obsessively developed over 5 years by a veteran video game musician and programmer.
Choose between the original idiosyncratic 6581 or more consistent 8580 chip.
Runs in the free Reaktor Player (VST, AU, AAX formats).
An extraordinary chip.
In 1981, Bob Yannes of MOS Technology set out to create something unlike any computer sound chip before: a combined analog/digital synthesizer utilizing three digital oscillators and an analog filter. The SID chip was so far ahead of the competition in the computer and video games space that nothing came close to its sonic capabilities for the rest of the decade.
It’s a noisy, buggy, weird, raw sound chip with a lot of character, and countless brilliant composer-programmers learned to use it in experimental ways to make their music sound more rich and complex. Now, inSIDious makes it possible for you to bring that sound into your DAW, with none of the bugs and all of the character!
Fully featured.
inSIDious gives you all of the features that make the SID chip so beloved, without any of the shortcomings of the physical unit. The SID chip has three independently accessible digital oscillators that can generate 4 fundamental waveforms: Pulse, Sawtooth, Triangle, and Noise. These can in turn be combined, synchronized, or filtered to make a huge range of sounds from extra waveforms to sound effects to chip drums to massive mono leads and basses.
Better still, inSIDious takes up almost no disk space — only 35MB — because it uses true synthesis instead of samples!
Two modules to choose from.
Two major versions of the SID chip were created: the 6581 and the 8580. On paper, both have the same feature set; however, the 6581 contained a number of flaws in its design and manufacturing, which contributed to the sound and made the 6581 truly unique. The 8580 was designed to fix these errors and as a result is more accurate to the original specification (or, as some would say, more boring).
While both are broadly the same, they are also subtly different. inSIDious lets you choose between accurately recreated 6581 and 8580 variations, each with LFO, env, and keytracking.
Created by the greatest of the greats.
inSIDious includes 350 snapshots, featuring sounds contributed by some of the greatest C64 video game composers and sound designers of the 1980s and beyond — modern SID artists (LMan, Jason Page, Rapture, Jammer, Mark ‘TDK’ Knight) as well as classic heroes from the Commodore 64’s heyday (Chris Huelsbeck, Rob Hubbard, Martin Galway).
Explore inSIDious
100% authentic oscillators
Step sequencer for classic arps
Powerful sound shaping
Multimode filter
What people are saying about inSIDious
“This is a very authentic SID feature and sound emulation!”
Chris Huelsbeck (Composer, Turrican, Great Giana Sisters, Shades (and many more))
Artist Testimonial – Chris Huelsbeck
“If you’re looking for authentic analogue SID sound for your DAW, make no mistake – this is the only plugin on the market doing it right. Creating patches for inSIDious was a joyride indeed. If you’re familiar with the real SID chip, you’ll feel instantly at home with this soft synth. But even if you’re not, the user interface is straight forward tidy and user-friendly. However, inSIDious offers more than familiar oldschool flavours, this beast is highly usable for creating all kinds of modern, unusual sounds.”
LMan (Artist & SID Master)
Artist Testimonial – LMan
“I can tell you this is the most accurate-sounding SID software synthesizer you will ever hear… I basically believed I was working with a Commodore 64 via some incredible new graphical interface. InSIDious allows me to create gigantic arrangements in perfect sync.”
Martin Galway (Composer, Rastan, Wizball, Arkanoid, Comic Bakery (and many more))
Artist Testimonial – Martin Galway
“I had a good deal of fun setting up odd patterns using various speeds for the three channels and experimenting with the filter settings. Over 350 presets are included that sound great and cover as wide of a spectrum as is possible with a synth of this caliber….Basically I was having too much fun with it to notice much else.”
Rob Mitchell (SoundBytes Magazine)
inSIDious – SoundBytes Magazine
FAQ
Is this a VST plugin?
Not exactly! This instrument is a sample library (or ‘virtual instrument’) designed for the Kontakt plugin. Kontakt itself IS a VST plugin (also available in AU and AAX formats). In other words, to use this product, you will first load the Kontakt VST plugin in your DAW (FL Studio, Live, Logic, Pro Tools). Then, you’ll load this instrument within Kontakt.
How is this product delivered?
All of our products are downloadable. Within a few minutes of placing your order, you will receive an email with a product code that is used to download your purchase. Specific instructions for activation and installation will be linked directly from the email.
Will this work in my DAW? (FL Studio, Pro Tools, Ableton, Logic…)
Yes! Our instruments work in ANY DAW that can load the Kontakt Player VST plugin (AU plugin for Mac, or AAX for Pro Tools).
Will this Kontakt instrument work on my system (MacOS Sierra, Windows 7, Windows 10, etc.)
We always recommend users have this Native Instruments compatibility list bookmarked:
Check the minimum required Kontakt version in the Requirements section of this page, make sure you’re able to run at least that, and you should be good to go!
Break the rules like 8-bit creators did.
Composers had to use clever techniques to get around the limitations of the SID chip. You can recreate these techniques with the Step Table in inSIDious, which gives you access to a loopable step sequencer where you can change the waveforms, pitch, and pulse width values — and synchronize these changes to your DAW.
The Step Table is a way to use inSIDious as a simple wavetable synthesizer in the same way that the original 8-bit musicians did. It is modeled on how music drivers were programmed on the Commodore 64 and can be used to create various sound effects, 8-bit drums, and other interesting and unusual sounds.
Obsessively recreated.
inSIDious is a true work of love developed over 5 years to be as close as possible to the real thing. This project was led by Mike Clarke, a veteran video game musician and programmer, who spent his formative years playing Commodore 64 games and listening to their music. It was this music that set him on the path that defined his entire career and gave him huge respect for and admiration of the SID chip and the sounds that it could produce.
- Trapped inSIDe House Jammer 3:26
- Ocean Loader 5 Jonathan Dunn (arr. Fabio Marinelli) 3:10
- Megasid 2066 (mastered) zircon 4:56
- Space Duregungle Mark Knight (TDK) 5:54
- inSIDiots Unite LMan 5:43
- Turrican Subsong 2 Vince DiCola (arr. Fabio Marinelli) 3:51
- FireSIDe Jason Page 3:29
- Ocean Loader 3 Peter Clarke (arr. Fabio Marinelli) 3:04
- Last Ninja 2 Central Park Loader Matt Gray (arr. Fabio Marinelli) 4:28
- Last Ninja Wastelands Ben Daglish (arr. Fabio Marinelli) 4:21