Commodore 64

I've got the Prophet 64 cart. and the Engineers at Work midi interface both of which are modern additions to the commodore 64.

I use a standard, brown breadbox-style c64 and an original monitor although I intend to get an SX64 (executive portable version) soon.

It's pretty easy, but you have to spend some time with it. You pretty much have to read the manuals. It helps if you already know how to program sequences on a 303 and 909. The manuals are pretty clear, but it's just sort of slow working with old computers.

The presets sound alright. The most annoying part is that if you want to save your own patches/patterns you need a disc or tape drive. As of yet, I do not a either (in function order).

The Prophet 64 software has 4 modes:
Sequencer - which i haven't touched
Monosynth - a monosynth function with a tb-303-style sequencer and pro-one-style interface
Bassline - a bassline synth/sequencer who's interface is based on the 303
Drummer - a drum machine with an interface based on the tr-909
*note that these are just interface styles and that they DO NOT reflect the sound of the instruments they look like.

No built-in effects.

It has lots of expansion capabilities. Mostly modifications. As mention before I bought a midi interface for it that allows me to sync it with other synths/drum machines, which is pretty much the only way it is useful. I intend to add a knobs modification that will allow me to tweak four user-selectable parameters in real time. Also planning on adding a 1/4" output and possibly a PSone-style LCD screen. You can (should) also get a disc drive or tape drive save your patches.

This is where this machine shines. Sounds. It is absolutely perfect for adding a raunchy-chip flair to any acid rig. It's not expressive at all. Hell, it doesn't even have a keyboard playing mode (biggest downfall), but have those tweakable parameters. They can be tweaked via atari joystick, atari paddels, or knobs mod.

Seems pretty sturdy. I've had no problems thus far. I would gig it with no backup and intend to, but I never have a back up for any of my gear. Who does? It seems like such an odd question. The only reason I would be reluctant to gig it is becuase I would have to drag the TV along too. That's why I am getting an SX64 and/or doing the lcd screen mod.

I've not dealt with Commodore, Prophet 64, or Engineers at work.

Well, maybe a little with engineers at work. When they shipped my product, it took a long time (seems to be a problem with all chip-gear) so I sent them a message. It was hard to find anywhere to send it. I couldn't find any email addresses so I FAQ boxed it or something. They never responded but the package came the next day so I didn't care. They even threw in a midi cable.

I really like. I swear I do. It's kind of hard to tell by this review.

If it were stolen, I probably wouldn't replace it.

Getting it all set up and everything ended up costing me alot more than I originally intended. In fact, I initially did it because I thought it would be cheap, but you need the computer, monitor, cables (often not in the bundle), program (pricey and all the way from sweden), and midi interface (also a bit pricey and all the way from the netherlands) before you can do anything. Also, it's kind big with the monitor and all.

I just feel like I'm never done buying stuff for it, modding it, etc.

It's a bit of a headache to deal with, but it holds a special place in my bedroom studio. Plus it has a massive cool factor.

(the price below reflects roughly how much everything has cost me so far and I got the monitor for free)

Here si one of the many letters(I should have posted the others)
asking about the Commodore 64: My reply is first, then the question.


To Ronan:

The best, easiest, and cheapest way to make music on the
C=64 is with the Music Machine cartridge. You can
buy them in a pawnshop(if they really don't understand what it
does) for about $5. With it you can choose basic sounds, types
of waveforms(sawtooth, square,etc.) and a reverb-type sound.
Also the cartridge has a cheesy drum machine which I have not
figured out how to use yet.

Since you have a Commodore 64, just check out pawnshops in
your city. You'll be bound to find one collecting dust somewhere.

The three music products you mentioned are very different.
Music Maker is as far as I know on disc. Music Machine
is on cartridge, and the other is a extra keyboard that hooks up to
the C=64 WITH DISC to make music. I have only personally
come in contact with Music Machine.

The sid station is the C=64 chip. I haven't had the oportunity to
try one of these units out, but I think the C=64 can do the same thing
with the right software and hardware add ons.

As for trades and such. Usually Commodore users aren't really interested in doing trades but morerso cash transactions. Just
use the excitr search engine and type in Commodre 64.
This will lead you to the many C=64 sites and some for sale and wanted
sites.

Even if you can't find the sound cartridge right away, don't give up.
The Commmodore 64 with cartridge will be (in the future) like the
Roland 303 is now. Back in the late eighties most musicians thought
the Roland 303 was shitty at what it was designed to do (music accompniment). But now that little machine fetches 2000 bucks on
the used market.

If you have anymore questions, contact me.

Charles Gray

>From: "Ronan Farrell" <>
>To:
>Subject: C 64 Music
>Date: Sun, 05 Dec 1999 17:48:22 GMT
>
>Hi, i saw your article on c64 music on synth zone or something and i
>was wondering if you could give me some info on making music with
>c64.
>i have one for ages and although i know it is possible to do stuff
>without software this seems to be very difficult. i have heard of
>various programs such as music composer , music man , and music
>maker
>are thes one and the same or what? any help would be greatly
>appreciated . also, are there any sites on the web which do trades
>or stuff like that for commodore as i doubt i would be able to find
>this software elsewhere. Im thinking of getting the sidstation but i
>want to check out what the commodore can do first.
>Once again,help appreciated, Ronan.
>

I would just like to add: Thanks for all the replies about this
great musical tool. If I get many more, I may just have to create
my own website with more info on this unit.

For all you C=64 musicians out there. Put up a posting here
about your C=64 computer and what software and or hardware you
are using with it to make your particular brand of music.

Charles Gray


P.S.: A perfect 10 for all those inventive enough to make music with
the C=64.

This is an interview with SID chip Designer. It shows what capabilities the C=64 HAS.

Did Commodore ever plan to build an improved successor to the SID ?
I don't know. After I left I don't think there was anyone there who knew enough about music synthesis to do much more than improve the yield of the SID chip. I would have liked to have improved the SID chip before we had to release to production, but I doubt it would have made any difference to the success of the Commodore 64.

Can you give us a short overview of the SIDs internal architecture ?
It's pretty brute-force, I didn't have time to be elegant. Each "voice" consisted of an Oscillator, a Waveform Generator, a Waveform Selector, a Waveform D/A converter, a Multiplying D/A converter for amplitude control and an Envelope Generator for modulation. The analog output of each voice could be sent through a Multimode Analog Filter or bypass the filter and a final Multiplying D/A converter provided overall manual volume control.
As I recall, the Oscillator is a 24-bit phase-accumulating design of which thelower 16-bits are programmable for pitch control. The output of the accumulator goes directly to a D/A converter through a waveform selector. Normally, the output of a phase-accumulating oscillator would be used as an address into memory which contained a wavetable, but SID had to be entirely self-contained and there was no room at all for a wavetable on the chip.
The Sawtooth waveform was created by sending the upper 12-bits of the accumulator to the 12-bit Waveform D/A.
The Triangle waveform was created by using the MSB of the accumulator to invert the remaining upper 11 accumulator bits using EXOR gates. These 11 bits were then left-shifted (throwing away the MSB) and sent to the Waveform D/A (so the resolution of the triangle waveform was half that of the sawtooth, but the amplitude and frequency were the same).
The Pulse waveform was created by sending the upper 12-bits of the accumulator to a 12-bit digital comparator. The output of the comparator was either a one or a zero. This single output was then sent to all 12 bits of the Waveform D/A.
The Noise waveform was created using a 23-bit pseudo-random sequence generator (i.e., a shift register with specific outputs fed back to the input through combinatorial logic). The shift register was clocked by one of the intermediate bits of the accumulator to keep the frequency content of the noise waveform relatively the same as the pitched waveforms. The upper 12-bits of the shift register were sent to the Waveform D/A.
Since all of the waveforms were just digital bits, the Waveform Selector consisted of multiplexers that selected which waveform bits would be sent to the Waveform D/A. The multiplexers were single transistors and did not provide a "lock-out", allowing combinations of the waveforms to be selected. The combination was actually a logical ANDing of the bits of each waveform, which produced unpredictable results, so I didn't encourage this, especially since it could lock up the pseudo-random sequence generator by filling it with zeroes.
The output of the Waveform D/A (which was an analog voltage at this point) was fed into the reference input of an 8-bit multiplying D/A, creating a DCA (digitally-controlled-amplifier). The digital control word which modulated the amplitude of the waveform came from the Envelope Generator.
The Envelope Generator was simply an 8-bit up/down counter which, when triggered by the Gate bit, counted from 0 to 255 at the Attack rate, from 255 down to the programmed Sustain value at the Decay rate, remained at the Sustain value until the Gate bit was cleared then counted down from the Sustain value to 0 at the Release rate.
A programmable frequency divider was used to set the various rates (unfortunately I don't remember how many bits the divider was, either 12 or 16 bits). A small look-up table translated the 16 register-programmable values to the appropriate number to load into the fr

This is more info on the music capabilities of the C=64. If you have the Music Machine cartridge or Sound Expander FM Module, then you can make music easily on this computer/keyboard.

Sounds Great!!!

Totally Reliable!

None, the company is no longer in business. But there are many websites on the net that have enough info to help you with.

If there are any people with experience in making music with this machine, put a submission in. I know you guys are out there. It would be interesting to have more input about different musical aspects of the Commodore 64 and the extra hardware you can hook it up to.
P.S. For those of you who are not into the Commodore 64, but have old stuff collecting dust and you can't bear to just throw it away. Since that would be wastefull, give your old Commodore equipment to me and I'll pay the shipping cost to get it to me. My e-mail is below, so contact me. I would really appreciate that and I would put your non-wanted Commodore stuff to good use.

I just wanted to correct and update my last review of this product. The cartridge that you need to convert the Commodore 64 into a synth is called "MUSIC MACHINE." You need this cartridge if you are to make you C=64 into a synth.

Yes, Here it is. Did you know you can convert your old Commodore 64 into an vintage synth with drum machine. There is cartridge you can buy used somewhere which is called "Music Man". This cartridge transforms the current configuration of COMPUTER into Sythesizer and Drum Machine.

Polyphony? No I don't think so, but the keyboard action is great and super easy to use. Yes it does witht his cartridge. It can not be expanded, but there are probably other music cartidges you can find. No pressure sensitive keys. No expandable memory. No sequencer.

Now here we get to the sounds. There are very realistic vintage analogue synth sounds.
Here are the effects:Different Sythesizer sounds Reverb Delay Split octave Drum Machine *All sounds rage from 4 bit to 8 bit. All the sounds and reverbs are good, but the drum machine is really horrible(good for a laugh though).

I can depend on this unit. It has lasted this long and it is from the early 1980's. I would not use it on a gig at all, because i have not figured out how to get the signal to amplify out of anything else except a T.V. . There is probably some simple solution though.(Like a cable).
*IF SOMEONE KNOWS HOW I WOULD BE ABLE TO DO THIS E-MAIL ME AND LET ME KNOW.

Customer Support? Commodore went out of business sometime in the very early 1990's Getting the cartriage or the computer repaired would be easy, but upgrading it would take some work. I have heard of it being done.

If it were stolen. giggle giggle...I would just go to another pawnshop and buy another one. The catriage would be harder to find. The Commodore 64 came with:The computer Disc Drive Power adapter and cords 2 joysticks The "Music Man" cartridge cost me 5 bucks, but I had to look all over the city for it. I made sure the owner of the pawnshop did not know how much I really wanted this cartridge or computer.
I love it because it is a neat way to make music. I love the synth sounds and effects, but I hate the drum machine sounds.
Buy one and try it. It is just a really cool instrument to add into your music.