Chip Sound of the 1990s with Hardware in 2026: Way More Than Retro! – Perfect Match
New Hardware That Nails Old-School Chip Sound
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Chip Sound of the 1990s with Hardware in 2026: Way More Than Retro! – Perfect Match · Source: GEARNEWS
The chip sound of the 1990s doesn’t need a dusty Amiga anymore. Here’s the next Perfect Match for you: three pieces of hardware that fit together nicely and might spark your next track. This time, 8- and 16-bit sounds shaped by old computers and video games get a new coat of paint for modern music production.
Chip Sound of the 1990s: Which Hardware Brings Authentic 8-Bit and 16-Bit Sounds to Your Studio Today?
Chip Sound of the 1990s Without the Floppy Disk Drama
Commodore Amiga, ATARI ST, Nintendo NES, Game Boy, Super Nintendo, SEGA Mega Drive, and the DOS PC with a SoundBlaster card: that’s the home turf for this article. We picked a few pieces of gear that fit this world and give you chip sound with modern means.
Nobody says you have to sample old consoles, fight Guru Meditation error messages, hunt for viruses on 3.5-inch floppies, or check whether the CRT monitor still lights up. Everything here is brand new and comes with the features you actually expect in 2026. Sweet!
On top of that, we added a few alternatives and some links at the end, in case you want to go further down the rabbit hole.
Twisted Electrons MEGAfm MKII and Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis: SEGA Mega Drive Sound
The Twisted Electrons MEGAfm MKII is an FM synthesizer loaded with two YM3438 FM chips. That chip ran in several arcade cabinets, in the Japan-only FM TOWNS II 16-bit computer, and in some SEGA Mega Drive models. Exactly why you get sounds here that remind you of 1990s chip music, plus the classic FM tones that still show up in tracks today.
MEGAfm MKII runs eight algorithms and offers four voice modes. You can play chords, but also fat monophonic basslines or wide unison patches with 12 voices. Three LFOs take care of modulation, and an arpeggiator with a transposable step sequencer in the style of Roland‘s SH synths is on board too.
The real star is the control layout. Most of it runs on sliders, and for FM synthesis that might be the best way to discover sounds and twist them on the fly. This video shows that MEGAfm is a wildly cool synth that works for all kinds of electronic sounds, not just chip stuff:
Compared to its predecessor, MEGAfm MKII sounds a bit “cleaner”, which is no drawback. Want more old-school grit? Throw a bitcrusher on it and push the chip character further to the front. You can get the Twisted Electrons MEGAfm MKII here at Thomann*.
An interesting alternative is the Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis*, although it’s a portable groovebox rather than a standalone synth. Besides the FM engine, you get a PSG and a PCM engine for selected tracks. Both are modeled after the SEGA Mega Drive too and deliver sounds that MEGAfm MKII can’t.
One difference matters, though. The sounds in the Sonicware groovebox (here’s our news article) come from emulation, while MEGAfm MKII works with authentic chips. Since LIVEN Mega Synthesis is built as a groovebox, a sequencer comes with it. So this one box alone gets you music with convincing chip sound, and mixed with other sound generators it gives your productions a very distinctive flavor. It also runs on batteries, which makes it great for mobile jams. And the price helps: for 269 euros right now, you can do a whole lot with this portable groovebox!
Twisted Electrons Blast Beats: The SoundBlaster Groovebox
If you want to bring 1990s chip sound into today’s studio, Twisted Electrons has a fitting groovebox with Blast Beats. It’s FM again, but this time inspired by the SoundBlaster cards with YMF-262 chips, which were hugely popular among PC freaks and gamers in the 1990s.
Blast Beats gives you six drum voices and four synth voices. So besides drum grooves, you can program solid basslines and leads too. That makes it an ideal sidekick for MEGAfm, which shines on chords and FX sounds.
Just like on MEGAfm, almost every parameter lives on a fader (56 in total!). That turns sound design into a joy and makes real-time tweaking extremely effective. The 64-step sequencer brings clever functions like probability and a random generator, so grooves stay varied without much effort. And you can record the fader movements. Blast Beats becomes a creative powerhouse that does way more than typical chip sounds.
Want to know more? Check out our first look review. An interesting alternative here is the Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis from above, because it’s a groovebox too and handles drum sounds and beats.
If the focus shouldn’t be on yet another FM synth with a 1990s chip vibe, a more “classic” groovebox or drum machine* (Sweetwater*) works too. You can grab the Twisted Electrons Blast Beats here at Thomann*.
Elektron Syntakt: The Drum Machine and Synth That Also Does Chip Sounds
In the 2025 edition of this article, we featured the Polyend Tracker as an interesting piece of hardware for building 1990s-style chip sounds. Trackers originally ran on machines like the C64, Amiga, ATARI ST, or DOS PCs, which is why they fit the theme so well. They aren’t limited to typical chiptune sounds either: plenty of jungle and breakbeat tracks from the 1990s were built with trackers.
Unfortunately, the Polyend Tracker in its various versions is sold out almost everywhere and mostly available used, so we’re suggesting something else. And no, we’re not talking about software like Renoise or TRX-12, or a small handheld like the Dirtywave M8 (which now exists as an iOS app, by the way).
Instead, we’re looking at a drum machine and synth that many people don’t connect with chip sounds at first glance. We’re talking about the Elektron Syntakt!
This video should answer why we can recommend Syntakt with a clear conscience. As you can see and hear, the groovebox (since OS 1.30) handles chip sounds in the style of the C64 and other 8-bit computers with ease. The engine in charge is called SY CHIP. With it, Elektron brought the legacy of the famous SID Station into Syntakt, and into Analog Rytm too (with OS 1.70).
With its mix of digital and analog engines, Syntakt offers far more sonic ground than that, and maybe that’s exactly why it suits the idea of modern chip sound. It was never supposed to be all about sounds that are purely retro.
Still, here’s one more video, this time all about SID-style sounds:
The built-in sequencer and the typical Elektron tricks like parameter locks and trigger conditions make Syntakt a good partner for the rest of the gear in this article.
Building a small DAWless setup? Pair Syntakt with the Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis or the Twisted Electrons Blast Beats, and you can already get a lot done. It plays well with MEGAfm MKII too, although Syntakt’s MIDI tracks limit you to four voices at once. You can get the Elektron Syntakt here at Thomann* / Sweetwater*.
Bonus Level: Teenage Engineering PO-20 arcade for Chip Sound on the Go
One more tip before the conclusion: the Teenage Engineering PO-20 arcade* fits in your pocket (ideally with a case), runs on batteries, and its built-in speakers (!) deliver instant chip sound fun anywhere.
The little thing also sticks to a pocket calculator design that somehow tempts everybody to start tinkering. Despite the playful approach, PO-20 arcade is more than a toy, and it does more than chiptunes.
Conclusion: Why This Trio Is a Perfect Match
Want authentic 1990s chip sound with room to go way beyond it? Hardware like the Twisted Electrons MEGAfm and Blast Beats, the Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis, and even the Elektron Syntakt give you plenty of potential.
These boxes fit into a studio as well as onto a stage, and depending on the combination they work great for DAWless setups. LIVEN Mega Synthesis runs on batteries, so it suits mobile use or a few relaxed jams on the couch, and the same goes for the tiny PO-20 arcade! Two catches, though: LIVEN’s sounds come from emulation, and Syntakt tops out at four voices when it drives MEGAfm over MIDI.
Which pairing would you try first? Let us know in the comments!
- Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis: A Truly “Sonic” Synthesizer
- First Look Review: Twisted Electrons Blast Beats
- More from Perfect Match
*Note: This article contains affiliate links that help us keep Gearnews running. The price for you always stays the same! If you buy something through these links, we receive a small commission. Thanks for your support!*
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2 responses to “Chip Sound of the 1990s with Hardware in 2026: Way More Than Retro! – Perfect Match”
You forgot the Sonicware LIVEN Mega Synthesis with sounds ands tracks from Yuzo Koshiro !!
I started out on Amiga trackers, so I was super excited when hardware trackers started to be a thing. I tried the polyend tracker but it didn’t hit the spot at all. I’m now fully indoctrinated into the Dirtywave M8, it’s an incredible piece of kit. Get yourself a Teensy 4.1, download the headless firmware, try it for a while, and watch out for the release windows on the discord