randy@athena.mit.edu (Randall W Winchester) (11/25/87)
The SFX Sound Expander is an FM synthesizer made by Das Musik Geschaft, Stuttgart, West Germany, and marketed by Commodore Business Machines (UK) Limited in Europe. I was able to get my hands on one, and I'm really impressed. The SFX is a small box which plugs into the cartridge expansion port on the C=64/128. It has an extra slot for an additional cartridge, line audio output, and a connector for an optional keyboard. From the User's Guide: "The FM Operator Type-LII (OPLII) is a new type of sound generator designed for use with Captian systems and videotext systems. This device uses the same frequency modulation (FM) system used in our Music Synthesizer Yamaha-DX7 and other similar instruments." The device is capable of a 9 voice simultaneous voicing mode, a 6 melody/5 rhythm sound voicing mode, and a Speech synthesis mode. It includes a built-in vibrato oscillator and an amplitude modulation oscillator. The demo software that is packaged with the unit is not very useful, but it includes a set of patches, one-finger chords, and sets up the QWERTY keyboard as a music keyboard. The sound output is excellent. The patches provided are some of the usual shimmering DX7 patches. Considering the price of this box (about $150 US) and the quality of it's sound output, I find it amazing that Commodore hasn't decided to market this product in the US. I would think it would be a big seller. I have a few questions for the net. Is this product available in Canada? Is there any software available that can be used for composing and making new patches? Speech synthesis? This device has been available in Europe since sometime in '85, so I'm guessing there might even be some public domain support for it. How about mail order? Does anyone know of any European mail order companies that will do business with us here in the States? Any help will be very much appreciated. Randy Winchester