Commodore 64 User manual

THE

MUSIC

MACHINE

Table

Contents

Introduction........................................................................ 2

Keyboard.............................................................................2

GettingStarted...................................................................3

Changing Octave................................................................4

ChangingWaveform...........................................................4

SelectingNumber

Voices..............................................5

SelectingKeyboard Mode..................................................6

Selecting Keyboard

Effect

.................................................6

Rhythm Accompaniment...................................................7

Pitch Control...........

..........................................................7

Instructionsto M

CHINE.....................................8

INTRODUCTION

The MUSIC MACHINE cartridge you have purchased

allows you

play your Commodore 64 computer like a

musical instrument, using the music synthesizing

capabil

ity

this computer. Your computer keyboard

transformed I

nto

a synthesizer keyboard, complete

w1th

percussive accompaniment.

The cartridge has been designed

with

flexibility in mind.

Ratherthan having the variety

musical tones being one

a number

preset selections, there are a number

parameters you can mix and match, allowing you many

combinations

sound type, special effects, and

keyboard playing style.

KEYBOARD

The keyboard is laid o

in three sections:

1) Keyboard section

Left and right control section

Percussion section

1. The keyboard section Is

id out like a piano

organ,

starting from thenote'C' (the Q key)

on up through

one and a half octaves to

'A'

(the t

key).

The sharps

and flatsareselectedbyhittingtheappropriatekeyonthe

uppermost row (for example, 'C#'

the 2

key).

The left and right control sections consist

three

keys each, and are located forplaying convenience below

and at the left and right

the playing keyboard. The

left

set

control keys are used

select the KEYBOARD

mode(the C = key) and EFFECT(the SHIFTkey),and the

WAVEFORM (the Z

key).

The right set

control keys are

used

changethe startingOCTAVE

the keyboard (the

CRSR

keys) and the number

VOICES that are played.

The percussion section consists

the four function

keys positioned

the right

the keyboard. These con·

trol (from top

bottom):

ON/OFF

(f1)

RHYTHM SELECT

(f3)

TEMPO

(f5)

TEMPO DOWN

(f7)

GETT

STARTED

Making sure yourCommodore 64 computerIs turned off,

insert the MUSIC MACHINE cartridge, and turn on the

computer. A musical staff and the ·mode Indicators

should appear on the screen.

they do not, turn

off

the

computer,reinsert thecartridgeand turnthecomputeron

again.

The

Indicators:

The number

the right of the message OCTAVE in·

dicates the starting octave of the playing keyboard. 'Mid·

dieC' isthe lowestnote

octave

The highest octave is

6,and the lowest octave is

The symbol to the right

the message WAVEFORM in·

dicates the type of sound which will be produced. The

symbol shown is the shape

the sound waves. The

_f\_

" indicator, for example, is the sawtooth

waveform, which because

its

abrupt shape (not

smooth) gives a rather tinny sound.

The test next

the message EFFECT shows which

special effect(if any) is in operation

the notes played.

The number

the rightof the messageVOICES indicates

thenumber

voiceswhichcan

heard simultaneously.

Forexample, when in

"1"

voice mode,

a noteis played,

the nextnote will stop the first note,since onlyonevoice

will be heard at a time. See the section on Selecting

Number

Voices.

The text ne

the message KEYBOARD indicates the

way the keyboard will

Interpreted. For example,

whether a note will decay,

will

continuous for as

long as a key is held down, etc.

The five linesacross the screen are the musical staff. If,

forexample, you nowpress the note 'C' (theakey) on the

the screen. Ifyou nowpress the

'0'

(theW

key),

you'll see

playing keyboard,you'

see that the note is displayed

that the musical staff moves over, and the note Is also

· displayed.

CHANGING OCTAVE

When your computer is first turned on with the MUSIC

MACHINE cartridge installed, the OCTAVE indicatorwill

show"4".Thismeans that the playing keyboardwill start

at 'C' in octave 4 and go up through 'A' in octave 5.

If you play note 'C' for exampl

then press 'OCTAVE

DOWN' (the

CRSR

down key), and play 'C' again, you

should hear the note is now one octave lower. Also, the

OCTAVE indicator should show

"3".

The octave can

adjusted from 1(the lowest)

6 (the highest).

TIP:

Often It ispossible to change the octave while play-

Ing, ratherthanmovingyourhand rapidlyupanddown the

playingkeyboard.

Experiment-

withpracticeyoushould

see thisIs ofteneasierthan rapidly moving from the lower

part of the playing keyboard to the upper part, and vice

versa.

CHANGING WAVEFORM

When your computer is first turned on

with

the M

MACHINE cartridge installed, the WAVEFORM Indicator

will

show"

_l\_

" indicating that the type

sound that

will

played at that point Is the sawtooth waveform,

which has a brassy quality.

Ifyou play note 'C' forexample, then press'WAVEFORM

SELECr

(the zkey), and then play

'C'

again,you should

hear the note has a different sound quality(timbre), the

square wave. The WAVEFORM indicator will

now

show

"_rL.

The available waveforms are:

Triangular A

Sawtooth _/\__

Square

___I"L_

Narrow Pulse

_Jl_

SELECTING NUMBER OF VOICES

When your computer is first turned on with the MUSIC

MACHINE cartridge installed, the VOICES Indicatorwill

show

"1",

Indicating that only one note will be heard at

any onetime.This means that when

you

playone note,'C'

for example, and then play another note right away, the

first note will be halted

lhe second note which, in ef·

feet, replaces the first note played.

you nowpress the'VOICE

SELECr

key(the rightSHIFT

key),

changing the indica

tor

"2",

two notes can be

heard at the same time. Since you are in "DECAY" mode

at first (more about that later), each note decays when

played,

a piano,

heara number

notesbefore

they die away and are gone,

you

must play them fairly

rapidly. Having

"2"

active voices means that two notes

can be played, let'ssay note'C', then note 'E', butwhen a

thirdIs played, thefirst('C')willbehalted. Onlytwocan be

heard at any one time.

you press the'VOICE

SELECr

key once more, allthree

voices

will

beactive, and the sound now becomes more

orchestrated, rather than a soloist.

SELECTING KEYBOARD

MODE

When your computer is first turned on with the MUSIC

MACHINE cartridge installed, the KEYBOARD indicator

will show "DECAY", indicating that each note decays

when played,

on a piano.

By pressing the 'KEYBOARD

SELECr

key (the

key),

the KEYBOARD indicator will change to "SUSTAIN". If

you now play a note, you'll see that the note remains

for

long

you press the key. This allows you to play

your computer more like

organ.

By pressing the 'KEYBOARD SELECT' key again, the

KEYBOARD indicatorwill change

"HOLD".

you

now

play a note, you'll see that the note remains

con·

tinuously. Dependent

the number of playing voices,

you can hold one, two,

three notes simultaneously.

SELECTING KEYBOARD

EFFE

When your computer is first turned on with the MUSIC

MACJ:liNE cartridge installed will show "NONE", in·

dicallng the notes will be played without special effects.

By pressing the 'EFFECT

SELECr

key (the

left

SHIFT),

the EFFECTwillchange to"GLIDE".

you nowplayafew

notes, you'll see that the tone glides from one note to the

next. In "SUSTAIN"

"HOLD" KEYBOARD mode, you'll

see the "GLIDE" effect more clearly.

pressing the 'EFFECT

SELECr

keyagain, the EFFECT

indicator will change

"VIBRATO".

you now play a

note,you'll seethat thetoneisplayed withvibrato(rapidly

changing frequency, going up, then down, and upagain,

continuously).This Is best used

"SUSTAI

"HOLD"

mode.

By pressing the 'EFFECT SELECT' key once more, the

EFFECT indicator will change to "SPECIAL". This is

where each noteplayed

sounded through twovoicesat

the same time, to give a richer harmonic quality

the

note. You will notice the difference Immediately. The

number

activevoices ismeaningless in

this

mode, soIt

is reset to

and cannot be changed while in

this

mode.

RHYTHM ACCOMPANIMENT

The percussion sectionallows a number of different per-

cussion sequences to be played while you are playing.

Since the rhythm accompaniment uses one voice, only 1

2voice modescan be selected (i.e.,3voice mode is

not

allowed), because the music synthesizer chip has only

three voices.

pressing the 'PERCUSSION ON/OFF' key

(f1),

a beat

will begin. The 'TEMPO UP' (f5) and 'TEMPO DOWN' (f7)

keys allow you

change the speed.

you have a paddle

game controllerattached

port 1,thatwillbe yourtempo

control.

There are seven different rhythms built in for you to

choose from with the 'RHYTHM SELECT' key (

f3)

By starting out with a slow tempo, you can help yourself

Improve your playing by slowly increasing the tempo.

PITCH CONTROL

You may wish to playyourCommodore64computerwith

the MUSIC MACHINE cartride along to songson a radio,

television, record player,

tape. A pitch control adjust·

ment was included to allow for differences between the

tuning of the cartridge, and the

music

being listened to.

The 'PITCH

'(the Ckey) and 'PITCH DOWN' (the Xkey)

can be used to adjust the pitch of the sound(s), and can

also be used to actually transpose the keyboard withex-

perimentation.

INSTRUCTIONS

MUSIC

MACHINE

Command

Notes(keyboard

starting

'C')

Sharps

Keyboard (holding

the notes)

Effect

Waveform

Number

voices

Change

the

octave:

raise

lower

Percussion:

ON/OFF

RHYTHM SELECT

TEMPO UP

TEMPO DOWN

Pitch control:

down

Key

a through

arrow

(entire second row)

,3,

5,6,7,9,0

,pound sign

Commodore key

three choices

sustai

hold,

and decay

SHIFT

the

left

four choices

none,

glide, vibrato and special

Zkey

triangular, sawtooth, square,

and na

rrow

pulse

SHIFT

the

right

CRSR

left

CRSRdown

C key

X key

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