KVR Audio

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Sun Mar 15, 2026 1:56 pm

Mind you it's a detailed process, but very interesting.

mothra · Post by **mothra** » Sun Mar 15, 2026 2:31 pm

MAME has had synths and drum machines for about a decade now.. Whether they completely work or not is a different story..

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sun Mar 15, 2026 4:15 pm

New machines marked as NOT_WORKING

Casio SK-5 [DBWBP]
Driving Simulator [Jorge Valero, MetalliC, rtw]
Fortune Wheel [coolmod]
Hohner ADAM Advanced Digital/Analog Musical Instrument [DBWBP]
La Rana [Museo del Recreativo]
LeapFrog Leapster Explorer [David Haywood]
Lexibook Compact Cyber Arcade TV - 120 in 1 (JL2370) [Sean Riddle, taizou]
Lexicon LK-3000 [hap, Sean Riddle]
Philips :YES [Svenska, rfka01, Carl]
Play Sonic 4 [Juan Romero, ClawGrip]
Super Chexx (EM Bubble Hockey) [ClawGrip]
VS Mahjong Triangle [system11, Ivan Vangelista, Vas Crabb]
Yamaha AN1x Control Synthesizer [DBWBP]
Yamaha DX100 Digital Programmable Algorithm Synthesizer [DBWBP]
Yamaha SY35 Music Synthesizer [DBWBP]
Zooty Drum [xuserv]

sprnva · Post by **sprnva** » Sun Mar 15, 2026 9:42 pm

There's a lot of cool stuff in MAME, just in various states of development. You have to use them like standalone hardware (send midi to them and route audio back to your daw).

Here's a vibe-coded vst3 port of the Ensoniq SD-1. Maybe some others will try porting MAME engines to plugins this way.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Sun Mar 15, 2026 10:07 pm

Thank you. This is great. If you get stuttering, you can change the engine buffer in settings.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Mon Mar 16, 2026 3:32 pm

Just saw the Ensoniq one on YT. Great demo song.

RexXx · Post by **RexXx** » Mon Mar 16, 2026 5:15 pm

A MAME VST3 WRAPPER would be very nice.

autodafe · Post by **autodafe** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:40 pm

I really got interested in the topic and made some videos about MAME synths in the last months, there are some wonderful emulations, some "not so good" or at least "not yet finished" or even "not working" but it's promising to see them come alive.
Here's a video comparison I made for the YAMAHA TX81Z, which I believe sounds really really close to the real thing:

autodafe · Post by **autodafe** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:42 pm

RexXx wrote: Mon Mar 16, 2026 5:15 pm A MAME VST3 WRAPPER would be very nice.

there is a very OLD project called "amame" which bundled some emulations, but it doesn't seem to be working on modern machines. I have tried recompiling it for modern Macs/PCs but it's really painful to do because it uses some now unsupported stuff.
I have been thinking about a wrapper too, but my coding skills are too limited, even with the aid of some AI tool

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:47 pm

autodafe wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:40 pm I really got interested in the topic and made some videos about MAME synths in the last months, there are some wonderful emulations, some "not so good" or at least "not yet finished" or even "not working" but it's promising to see them come alive.

Has the TX81Z been made into a plugin?

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:54 pm

autodafe wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:42 pm there is a very OLD project called "amame" which bundled some emulations, but it doesn't seem to be working on modern machines. I have tried recompiling it for modern Macs/PCs but it's really painful to do because it uses some now unsupported stuff.
I have been thinking about a wrapper too, but my coding skills are too limited, even with the aid of some AI tool

Xhun Audio has expressed some interest in doing this.

autodafe · Post by **autodafe** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 6:18 pm

Uncle E wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:47 pm Has the TX81Z been made into a plugin?

In MAME, yes, see my video above.
otherwise a swiss company created Exakt, a "clone" plugin which can read patches : https://www.sonicbits.com/

autodafe · Post by **autodafe** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 6:20 pm

Uncle E wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 5:54 pm Xhun Audio has expressed some interest in doing this.

good to know, and I guess he's Italian, I might write him an email sooner or later...

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 6:40 pm

autodafe wrote: Tue Mar 17, 2026 6:18 pm otherwise a swiss company created Exakt, a "clone" plugin which can read patches : https://www.sonicbits.com/

Sadly, I didn't get great results with that one. The plugin-that-must-not-be-named is spot-on.

osiris · Post by **osiris** » Tue Mar 17, 2026 8:10 pm

Surely AI could write a wrapper. The biggest problem I have is you have to have all the SDK stuff installed and I have no room on my computer.

Someone used the MAME game emulator for synths (Yamaha, CZ-101, even saw ANX)