gibson@unc.UUCP (Bill Gibson) (08/02/84)
A few weeks ago, there was a request for information about various languages and compilers for the C64. This request was spurred by the lack of worthwhile magazine reviews for many of the products listed and by the lack of "test drive" policies at software dealers ( a lack which is admittedly based on practical economics ). I've had the same problem in looking for all the music software which I see advertised in magazines by mail-order houses. Some programs have gotten cursory reviews in various mags, which is just as bad as no review to someone interested mostly in the juicy details. I got my C64 mostly to use the SID (Sound Interface Device) chip, but that chip is useful only from machine language - BASIC is far too slow to fully use the chip. I can, of course, use a compiler or assembler to design my own music software ( and in the end I'll probably have to if I want to really use the SID ), but I'd like to buy a program so I can get on with some music in the meantime. Thus cometh another software review quest : --------------------------------------------------------------------- Anyone who's had a close working relationship, especially hands-on experience, with C64 music software, please relate your experiences. If you have no such experience, but have pertinent information about any such programs, send me me whatever you know. Following is a list of the programs I have heard of; information on these or any other is appreciated : 1 ) CodePro 64 - Systems Management Assoc. 2 ) Kawasaki Synthesizer - Sight & Sound International 3 ) MusiCalc - Waveform 4 ) Music Construction Set -Electronic Arts 5 ) Musicomp - Computer Alliance 6 ) MusicWriter 64 -M'Soft 7 ) NotePro II - Electronic Lab Industries 8 ) Studio 64 - EnTech 9 ) Synthesound - Human Engineered Software (HES) 10 ) Synthy-64 - Abacus 11 ) The Staff - Professional Micro Service 12 ) Voice Box - Alien Group ( I can't guarantee all the company names are right. ) What I'm looking for is a program which accepts statements in some "music language" (e.g. PLAY C6,A5,G6) and interprets ( or compiles) the language so that musical events are timed accurately. Editors which allow graphic entry of notes on a staff are also interesting, but are less likely to allow one to modify SID parameters during playback. Specifics of a "good" music system would include the ability to "software patch" the outputs of Oscillator and Envelope Generator 3 to various points for modulation (e.g. filter registers); changing of voices at specific points in playback; realtime input (via paddles/ joysticks) during playback to control filters, etc.; and some fairly friendly form of entering all this junk (although a user-hostile program that efficiently satisfies the preceding qualities would be acceptable). In short, flexibility is the key. As usual, please send mail only to me, not the net ( in hopes of a large volume of replies ), and I will summarize to this newsgroup if I get enough replies for a summary. Thanks Very Much, in advance Bill Gibson gibson@unc
paul@ism780b.UUCP (08/14/84)
I have a couple of C-64 music programs:
Music Construction Set (Elephonic Farts) - I feel really stupid for having
bought this turkey. There no SID control (11 or so predefined
sounds is all you get - pick 1 each for the upper and lower staffs).
Music entry/editing is cute but tedious. The display is white-on-black,
no other option, which besides being boring is NOT one of the more legible
combinations on most TV sets. The controls don't work well. A sloppy
port of a toy program.
Musicalc (Waveform) - much better, but still not perfect. They
call it a "synthesizer and sequencer" rather than a music
composer, and that's pretty accurate. You can manipulate all the
SID controls to your heart's content while the music plays -- but
the music is limited to 240 "steps", where a step is equal to the
shortest note time in the piece. You can manually switch between
any of 32 240-step "scores" and any of 32 different sound
settings (all in RAM at once). Musicalc 2, which I don't have,
is supposed to allow linking scores together to make a longer
piece. There's a realtime keyboard mode (recording or not), and
a graphic score editing mode (which I like better). There is a
"modulator" feature for feeding back voice 3 into the SID
controls, but aside from that you can't have the program change
the waveform for you automatically during a score. The real bad
news is that with all these features, every key on the 64 means
umpteen different things depending on which mode and submode
you're in, and whether the shift and/or Commodore keys are down.
It's the most amazingly modal (as in "what mode am I in?") user
interface I've ever seen. Let's see, there's sound control mode
(with switch and slider submodes), several varieties of keyboard
mode, score edit mode, score/preset select mode, mode selection
mode.... But you can get used to it eventually.
Apologies for posting to news instead of the person asking about
music software, but I'm too lazy to figure out how to mail to him.
Besides, my opinions are sure to be of universal interest :-).
Paul Perkins -- INTERACTIVE Systems
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