MIDI-80 for the TRS-80

I have created a new 512 KB bank-switched memory expansion for the Model I - with it, and a slightly updated MIDI player program that can make use of the extra memory, I am finally able to play back large MIDI files. Demo video: 

Really appreciate it, Hackday - thanks much! 

https://hackaday.com/2025/06/01/its-midi-for-the-trs-80/

I have uploaded a short Tracker tutorial (Version 1.98 at the time of this writing) to YouTube; a recent customer asked for some form of documentation, as I currently don't have anything about the Tracker program in the Github repo. Here you go, hope it helps!

Here is the latest creation from DOWNPOLY, who is by now using MIDI/80 Tracker 1.98 and its parallel-port clock synchronization mechanism in order to synchronize multiple MIDI/80 Tracker machines:

It is now possible to synchronize multiple Trackers running on different machines:

Here is a demo video.

The latest version of the Tracker, Version 1.96 (tracker5/cmd on the disk images) is now sending an external clock signal over the parallel port, on Data 0. Another TRS-80 Tracker can then be configured to latch on to this external clock by setting it into external clock mode with the ' key. The receiving TRS-80 Tracker is called the secondary, and the clock generating Tracker the primary. Enable the external clock mode on the secondary with the ' key. Then start playback as usual, in pattern (P) or song playback mode (!). As usual, you can always refer to the help page for key bindings (H). The secondary Tracker is frozen until it starts receiving the clock signal from the primary Tracker via the parallel port cable; the tempo setting of the secondary will be disregarded, as the tempo is determined by the external clock from the primary. External clock can be en- and disabled using the ' at any time; also, with the exception of the tempo setting, recording and all the other Tracker operations and settings work identical as if the internal clock was used.

To make the cable, simply connect the Centronic ports of the two machines as follows: GND to GND (e.g., Centronics pin 2; note that there are multiple options for GND), and the Data 0 output (Centronics pin 3) of the primary to the BUSY input (Centronics pin 21) of the secondary. And easy way to construct the cable is to cut two TRS-80 printer cables in half, and solder the wires together:

... celebrating the newest member of the TRS-80 MIDI Studio: the Behringer Wave, a clone / recreation of the legendary iconic PPG Wave 2.3 from 1982! Created by Wolfgang Palm, the inventor of Wave Table Synthesis, in my birth-town Hamburg, Germany. 

It's mind boggling how much he achieved with so little, back in the day. All of the PPG software was programmed in bare-metal 6809 assembly language, no C-compiler, no libraries, nothing.

Thank you, Behringer, for bringing this legend back to life, and for making it affordable! Now everybody can experience the magic that radiates from the legendary instrument. The build quality and sound is amazing!

Just getting my feet wet, but here is first demo using the latest MIDI/80 Tracker 1.95 and the S2 for drums. Enjoy!

Finally, the Tracker software is becoming more feature complete. By now, I have

• multiple patterns (A-Z)
• pattern chaining = song mode (a song is a sequence of patterns, and can be looped)
• load & save
• MIDI real time tracking via MIDI IN socket from a MIDI keyboard
• real time tracking from the TRS-80 keyboard
• quantization
• some pattern tools (e.g., the ability to copy patterns)
• etc.

TRS-80 Musician DOWNPOLY is using MIDI/80 for his productions: 

Thanks for the shout-out and the great music, Joel! It is quite amazing what he achieves with this setup. You can listen to his music on his channel:

https://www.youtube.com/@downpoly

Most of his songs are using the Orchestra soundcard for the TRS-80, played interactively via George Phillips' STORCH program, and the drums are coming from MIDI/80 using my Drum Tracker program.

He is using an amazing number of effects as well, plays the Orchestra soundcard through a wah-wah, etc. Worth listing and watching. 

I have a little Drum Tracker demo video online as well:

The https://homecomputerguy.de/en/ has created a new batch tool that makes MIDI song disk creation a breeze - check it out here!

https://github.com/lambdamikel/MIDI-80/tree/main/midibatchconv

He also published some demo videos: