CARROLL%usc-isib@sri-unix.UUCP (01/16/84)
Re the Electronic Arts "Music Construction Set" and the C64 not playing all the voices: Several months ago, before getting MCS, I tried one of the music programs in the C64 Programmer's Guide, but it wouldn't play voice #3 at all...or so I thought. I discovered that if I turned the monitor volume all the way up, I could barely here that voice through the "video buzz" that was also coming out. I shelved the project for a while. Then I got MCS and couldn't get 5 of the available "instruments" to play...or so I thought: they could be heard, slightly, if I turned the volume up. I knew there had to be a problem, and my dealer said it was one of the ones that they had cleared up in newer C64s, and he gave me a new one. My C64 was less than a year old....if yours is, and your dealer won't help, contact Commodore directly. One of our hardware people here said that the chip in the older version may not have been "set up" properly, so that one voice didn't work right, but tiny traces of electricity could "leak" into that voice and put out a weak signal. ( My explanation is lacking, as I am not an HW type ) Other problems in older C64s were the video sparkle and striped backgrounds in some models. Most of the problems have been fixed by now, and if you have some definite bug in your C64, try and get satisfaction from the dealer or Commodore. I really don't know why there are eight pins for the monitor connection in the new models....the old five pin connection gave good video, too. Steve ( carroll@isib ) -------