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How to Hook Up a MIDI Cartridge to a NES

The Nintendo Entertainment System's 8-bit sound chip creates unique sounds. The sound chip contains five synthesizers including: Two Pulse Code Synthesizers, one Triangle Wave synthesizer, a white noise channel and a digital sample channel. In recent years many artists have taken advantage of wayfar's Midines cartridge to play their NES like an instrument. The resulting music of these artists started the 8-bit rock, bit-core and chip music movements which produces music either entirely or largely using vintage analog 8-bit synthesis of classic video game consoles.

Things You'll Need

  • A MIDI device
  • MIDI cables
  • A Nintendo Entertainment System
  • wayfar's Midines
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Instructions

    • 1

      Purchase Midines by wayfar from their website (see Resources). Midines is a cartridge which allows an outside MIDI source to control the five synthesizers built into the NES hardware. The Midines cartridge is the only one of its kind.

    • 2

      Set up your NES for optimal performance with Midines. Use a power supply of 1000mA or greater and insert a game controller into port 1 of your NES. Turn your NES system on.

    • 3

      Insert the Midines cartridge into your NES system as you would a normal game cartridge.

    • 4

      Connect the MIDI out port of your MIDI device or sequencer to the Midines' MIDI DIN port. The Midnes can process data from a single MIDI controller, a multi-channel MIDI sequencer or the MIDI out port of your computer.

    • 5

      Set up the Midines MIDI options by selecting Mode. Press "Select" on the game controller to toggle between Mode 1 and Mode 2 on the Midines interface. Mode 1 provides a graphic interface but results in inferior sound quality. Use Mode 1 to change the MIDI channels (1-5) associated with the five audio synthesizers built into the NES. Press the "up" and "down" buttons to select a synthesizer and "left" and "right" to change MIDI channels. Mode 2 has no graphic interface but provides a cleaner sound. It is best to set up your MIDI channels in Mode 1 then press "Select" to switch to Mode 2 for playback.

Digital Music

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