Music Master claims to turn your C64 into a synthesiser. How easy is it to use, asks Russell Jones?

Sound production may be one of the Commodore 64's most powerful features, but realising the computer's potential as an electronic music synthesiser is notoriously difficult. The Sound Interface Device (SID), precisely because of its sophistication, is complicated to use. Music Master is the latest of several programs which help you make the most of the C64's sound.

The program uses a screen-based keyboard, so users are likely to learn something about music as they work through it. Packages such as Musicalc tend to use more complex displays, so the music learning in these may be confined to more abstract aspects of sound.

Musical information is entered with just a few keystrokes, using a form of musical notation which can be easily learned and understood - even by the least musical. This basic information is extended with parameters which control the frequency, volume, waveform and enveloping of the notes.

Music Master allows you to enter reasonably long pieces of music - up to about 1500 notes - using all three voices. Naturally, you can save such sequences to tape or disk for future playing or editing. They can also be stored in a way that allows inclusion in your own Basic programs. The manual has a section on Basic interfacing, with an example program. Data is saved in a sequential file, but only a reading list is given for getting polyphonic sound.

Special effects include synchronisation, ring modulation, gate control, filtering and detuning. Voice three can be used to modulate notes by disconnecting it from the sound path while still generating its waveform and envelope. Modulation is achieved by copying the contents of voice three's SID registers into the frequency, pulse width and cut-off registers for voices one and two. Such techniques give access to a wide range of tonal qualities and you can spend hours experimenting.

The tape-based package comes with a couple of sample tunes, but the disk version has over ten complex pieces of music.

There's a fairly comprehensive 31-page booklet, which details all Music Master's features and their use. The four appendices include a summary of commands and options, background rhythms, a glossary and suggestions for setting up sound effects. However, the booklet doesn't really do justice to the power of the program. For instance there's no index and some readers may think there's too much detail, too soon. There's nothing on music theory, and too little on converting sheet music to Music Master data.

The heart of the program is the keyboard display. This is a standard piano layout and allows you, for instance, to select the octave for each note.

All you do to enter the notes is press the keys which correspond to the notes shown. A mark appears on the relevant piano key and the note is played and stored. The display is clearly laid out and easy to grasp, even in black and white.

The useful help facility directs you to the features available. One such is the ability to load already-defined musical sequences for playing and/or editing.

Each note can be produced through any of the C64's voices and there are ten preset sounds, such as flute, electric piano, clarinet and drum. These may be altered to create different sounds and the new preset values saved to disk. There are options which allow you to test out the effects of varying such aspects as its attack, frequency, or decay. Voices two and three can be used to play background music for auto-rhythm accompaniment.

There are 17 preset sounds for each of the two channels, including 8-beat hi-hat and snare, Rock/Latin bass drum triplet arpeggios and Samba snare. Tempos may be altered and the 18th accompaniment may be configured according to taste.

An awful lot of thought and work has been put into Music Master. The impressive examples on disk give a good idea of its power and scope. But what a pity the documentation doesn't match the same high standard. It plunges beginners in at the deep end and its generous detail can just make it hard to find information.

Features 4/5
Documentation 2/5
Performance 4/5
Overall Value 4/5