Re: The next holy grail of the A2 software world

[Mitchell Spector <mitch2gs@hotmail.com>]

"Michael J. Mahon" <mjmahon@aol.com> wrote:

>Mitchell Spector wrote:
>
>>     Probably the same way programmers were able to produce 4 voice
>> music using the 1-bit internal speaker on the Apple II,
>
>I'm not aware of any more than 2 simultaneous voiced in the early
>days, namely, Electric Duet.

    I always thought Electric Duet (or Music Maker, another memorable 
multi-voice program) produced more than two voices. Thinking back,
I suppose it only seemed that way at the time.

>Do you know of a 4-voice player?

    I believe so. Digging through some disks...digging some more....and
yet more...ah, found it, knew I didn't imagine it! It's a small Integer BASIC
program called "Four Voice Music - Apple version by D. Kemp". Comes 
with a couple of demo song samples (Star Spangled Banner, Exodus theme, 
Deck the Halls, Dance of the Reed Flutes and Blues on the Downbeat).

    It sounds very similar to Electric Duet, only it seems to double up on
the existing two voices, as if more harmonized and fuller (rather like
playing chords on a piano versus pressing one key). If you'd like a copy
I can send over a copy of the disk containing it, SHK'ed or 2MG'ed.

Looking at the REM statements in the program itself, I found this
bit of info:

----------
"The sounds produced by this program can be only loosely described as 
music, due to hardware limitations. For a better class of noise, buy a D/A
converter board."

"Original concept of four voice music due to Hal Chamberlin - Byte, Sept 77
Song table coding: 
#1,#2 - Hal Chamberlin, 
#3- Armand Camus, Micro 2:3
#4 - Dave Kemp
#5 - L. C. Cargile"

"Apple Four Voice Music  
Using onboard speaker
Written by Dave Kemp
(c) 1979 By East Coast Micro Products"
--------------

Mitchell Spector