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Graphic Interpretation - Hey! Did you hear this?
by Bruce Thomas

The Commodore 64 was sold to so many people because it was inexpensive and it had such an impressive list of features it could not be beat. While the Graphics side of the 64 impressed people with all of the different modes that were available it was the power of the on-board synthesizer that really threw a lot of customers for a loop. Looking at the original C-64 packaging there is more information on the box about the sound features of the machine than about anything else - including the graphics.

It is kind of ironic then that the arrival of GEOS trumpeted the graphical side of the system and didn't pay too much attention to sound. Sure, we can create wonderful documents using beautifully bitmapped fonts and detailed graphics but the 64 has so much more to offer. How many of us take advantage of the 64's sound within our favorite Operating System?

Quiet beginnings

While designing GEOS, Berkeley Softworks didn't pay much attention to the sound of the 64. The system arrived with only one program that did anything at all with sound. This was the Alarm Clock Desk Accessory (DA) and it really only made a few meager beeps. Even the arrival of the DeskPack didn't change the lack of sonic abilities. Only the game of BlackJack in this package used sound and, again, it was more a background item than a highlight of the program.

The C-64 is such a natural environment for Games that it wasn't surprising when they started to appear for GEOS as well. It was also no surprise that some Games made use of all of the features of the 64 - including the sound. In a previous article written for Commodore World magazine (Issue #20) I looked at some of the Games that exist for GEOS. This time we will look at other programs that bring out the musician in GEOS users.

SID who?

The sound standard was set early on for the C-64 with Compute!s Gazette's SIDPlayer program by Craig Chamberlain. This program allowed sophisticated music files to be created and shared amongst users. Thousands of SID music files were created.

To allow GEOS users to access this wealth of music a couple of programmers created players. Scott Resh created geoSID in 1989 and it is still available on the LoadStar GeoPower Tools disk. Roger Lawhorn made geoSIDPlayer in 1990 and it is a shareware program that can be found on the Software Guild Disk with all of the rest of Rogers' great GEOS programs (check the Roger Lawhorn folder on this CD). These are both useful programs for playing back SID .mus files. While both of these programs work wonderfully geoSIDPlayer has a cute little animated guy on-screen (from the Graphics Art disks by Those Designers) tapping his foot to the music.

If playing the music files wasn't enough there is also the GEOS Music Font File system that lets users actually write music in geoWrite using special fonts. This system will appear on the disk accompanying this issue so check it out if you are musically inclined.

Another handy program (with accompanying Font file) is SID_Printer by Charles L. Boling (1/25/90). This program does exactly what its name implies and produces acceptable quality printouts including support for 6-voice Stereo SID files.

Synthesizers

The C-64 was designed to be expanded with all manner of peripherals and there are programs available that make use of MIDI devices. If you happen to have a MIDI Interface for your Commodore and a Casio CZ Synthesizer you will want to check out CZLibrarian and CZEditor (both by Douglas Adams - check the GeoWorld 25A disk).

MusicBox V1.0 (8/28/88) is a music synthesizer for GEOS. This program (the Info box lists Obbie Zendik as the author but the shareware request says to send cheques to Cary Roberts) provides the user with Full Control over all aspects of the 64s sound from Icons and Menus on a single screen. Selected keys on the lower two rows of the keyboard are used for input. No provision is made to save files in this version and I don't think any of the planned future versions were written to implement the extra features talked about in the manual.

Both geoSIDPlayer and MusicBox can be found on this issue's Cover Disk or downloaded from http://www.giga.or.at/pub/c64/geos/geos64/sid/ on the Internet.

Francis G. Kostella wrote many fine GEOS programs and G.O. Bach ranks up there with his best creations. This Music Synthesizer program gives the user complete control over every aspect of the 64s sound. Unlike MusicBox, where the controls are all on one screen, G.O. Bach uses three editing screens. G.O. Bach goes one further than MusicBox by allowing musical masterpieces to be saved for later recall.

To accompany G.O. Bach, Wayne Dempsey wrote geoMusicPlayer, which as you might guess, plays the files created with the first program. Both programs will run on the 64 or 128 in 40 column mode and G.O. Bach also has an 80 column 128 version. These programs appeared on the GEOS Companion disk from RUN Magazine that is still available from Click Here Software.

Documentation for both programs is provided in the printed manual that accompanies the disk. While the G.O. Bach program is a powerful addition to the GEOS Family it may be hard to utilize its full potential. Three full pages of extra documentation, "you'll need to know to access the more complex functions", appeared in GeoWorld Magazine #25 and are not provided with the Disk package.

Overall, the options for using, creating and experiencing sound in the GEOS environment have improved immensely over the years. It is also possible, and desirable, to get some patch cables and connect your sound output into a small stereo system to experience the full range of sounds that our favorite computer can create.

Until next time, enGEOy your Commodore.