Commodore 64 Music Maker Cassette

Very easy to use. This review includes an email I recieved that sheds
more light on this subject of Commodore 64 Sound Software. Very easy to play.
Personally I have the CARTRIDGE version where as Eric has the cassette
version which has a few extra features.

I think this is the software that came with the music keyboard the had to
be placed over the C=64 keyboard.
I don't have the keyboard but you can play on the keys of the computer.
When you start the program you see the keyboard on your screen. There are 8
different modes to choose from: the first 2 are for changing the presets of
bass and drums. They really suck!!!!!. The third mode is for polymode, here
is were you put the machine in polymode. It is 3-note polyphonic!!
Mode 4 is for changing octave. There is a reach of 6 octaves! Mode 5 is for
voice selecting. You can select 1 of the 8 preset voices, wich you can all
modify. Mode 6 is the most interesting part. First you select the
voicenumber(1 of the 8) than you select attack (0-15), decay(0-15),
sustain(0-15) and release (0-15). then you can select your waveform:
sawtooth, trangle, pulse or noise. In pulse mode you can adjust the
pulsewidth (0-50%). Then you can select a filter: lowpass highpass or
bandpass You select the cutoff frequency 1-12000 Hz. At last you can select
filterresonance(1-15).
Mode 7 is a very basic sequencer. record notes ,delete notes, record time
and playback is al you can choose from.
Mode 8 is the save/load mode where you can save or load your settings.
As you can see this is a powerfull piece of software!

Sounds great. Limited sounds compaired to todays computers and synths.

I have never had a problem with any Commodore products. I would
use this keybaord and cassette on a gig without a backup.

Commodore went out of bussiness in the very early 90's. There are tons
of net user groups out there, so don't worry.

I love Commodore music making. I WISH I KNEW MORE ABOUT IT. I am
learning right now, but soom I hope to release some music on
the net using the Commodore 64 with Cartridge.

Very easy.

I read your review on the C64 and it is good to see that there are more
people using this very underrated machine.
I learned to program the 64 at school (can you imagine how old i must be).
A year ago I bought an old 64 with discdrive, cassettedrive, joysticks and
games for 15 guilders (thats about 7 dollars). In the citylibrary i found a
book about making music on the 64. That involved making litle programs for
songs and effects. There where very nice programs for making phaser effects
and for ringmodulation. But it involved a lot of typing. I hate typing. I
also read in this book (written by a dutch guy, but i'm sure that are a lot
of other books about making music on the 64) that there is musicsoftware
available. After searching for a while i found a cassette with the music
maker program on it (this is an official c64 cassette). There are a few
things in this program that are different from the music machine cartridge
as you describe it. (I do not own the cartridge, still looking for one).
First of all there is a poly-mode on it where you can play 3 notes at the
time. Second, there is a very simple sequencer on it, just one track and it
does not work in poly-mode :( . The music maker program does not have
reverb or delay.
So if these differences between music maker and music machine are correct,
the best is to have them both!!!!!!!
If you want to know more about this program, e-mail me. If you have further
info on the cartridge i'd be happy to hear from you.

See you,


Eric

Super Sounds.

Hasn't Broken down yet!

Commodore has long since gone out of bussiness. Great machine and web support is out there

Go out and buy a Commodore now! An awesome machine if you have the right software or hardware.