Hello,
new to the whole c64 thing. Beenworking mostly with gameboys but now dabbling a bit in the C64 ans mssiah.
Does anyone know if there are any benefits of using a 128 over a 64?
Any other thoughts will be appreciated.
Cheers!
Offline
Sweden
Offline
Nomad's Land
As far as making SID music is concerned, there are no benefits whatsoever imo.
Offline
England
id imagine that a c64 would be cheaper.
personally id pick a tracker over mssiah as well, unless u really like the midi and interface.
Offline
England
also i had a quick search on csdb, but you'd probably need to code something yourself take advantage.
http://csdb.dk/forums/index.php?roomid= … icid=54530
Offline
Yeah 128 has no advantages, apart from the 128D which has a drive built-in. Unless you specifically like Mssiah's workflow personally I'd go for any scene tracker made in the last 20 years instead, will more likely get you that 'c64 sound'. Before you pick one though I'd suggest trying some different tools in an emulator because working on Gameboy and C64 are quite different.
Oh, the older "breadbox" design c64 mostly have the 6581 SIDs, with the newer cream c64c having the 8580 version, and I just read the 128D does too. Most modern musicians favour the 8580 because it has fixed filter settings so your tracks sound pretty uniform on different machines, whereas the 6581 filters vary between batches of chips. The 6581 had a couple of advantages though as you could play samples with the volume register (favoured by old '80s demos, though there are workarounds for doing it on 8580) and the filters sound more crunchy with a bit of overdrive to the sound. 8580 filter is quite open, but you can still get that big old low-pass filtered bass sound out of it.
Last edited by 4mat (Sep 5, 2016 6:25 pm)
Offline
Brunswick, GA USA
If the filter on a SID doesn't sound as you like, change its filter capacitor.
Offline
Horsetralia
4mat wrote:
Yeah 128 has no advantages, apart from the 128D which has a drive built-in. Unless you specifically like Mssiah's workflow personally I'd go for any scene tracker made in the last 20 years instead, will more likely get you that 'c64 sound'. Before you pick one though I'd suggest trying some different tools in an emulator because working on Gameboy and C64 are quite different.
Mssiah is clunky as f*ck indeed - but in a live show setting the interface does have some pretty nice quirks that trackers don't really allow easily.
Personally I don't use Mssiah / Prophet for midi chains anymore (bassline / monosynth modules) - but the sequencer mode with 2xSIDs makes for a pretty nice environment for a live setup where you have reasonably high level of control over filters / SID quirks, and with the magic of Scannerboy's DIN / midi sync I can hang my electribes and other midi devices using Prophet64 as the master clock which is nice!
Offline
Sweden
Awesome guys great feedback. Ive gotten hold of a newer C64 with a mssiah cart so Ill start there.
What do I need extra if I want to use any other tracker?`Or any other tips. Like is it a good idea to have a SD card reader?
Offline
Russia
c64 I think better for music making, c64c and c128 are much bigger)
Offline
Russia
c64 I think better for music making, c64c and c128 are much bigger)
Offline
Jelly Stone park, MD USA
Peng wrote:
Awesome guys great feedback. I've gotten hold of a newer C64 with a mssiah cart so Ill start there.
What do I need extra if I want to use any other tracker?`Or any other tips. Like is it a good idea to have a SD card reader?
YES to an SD card interface. IMO it's almost a bare essential for most retro systems to be useful now-a-days. I do respect those that want a 'full experience' with floppy drives and data recorders and original media. But for cross development, and chip tuning with PC tools like GoatTracker, you need some (fast) way to move between the systems. Here is some basic info-
http://www.c64-wiki.com/index.php/SD2IEC
You could also go the Flash Cart route.
Yogi
Offline
Sweden
Ok, great. What is the best SD-card solution or Flashcart righ now?
Offline
France
Would you recommend this one :
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/SD2IEC-SD-Card-R … Sw3xJXnmGw
or this one :
http://www.ebay.fr/itm/SD2IEC-SD-CARD-C … 5Qd-9mDvXA
(almost the same price, the first one as a case)
for the second one, I don't understand why there are 2 versions, one for the cassette port, one for the user port, they say the cassette port is not compatible with plus-4 or SX-64, but the user port is compatible with everything, so why not only selling the user port version? (maybe an old stock). Is there a benefit to use the cassette port over the user port?
The first version (from Poland) seems to use the joystick port.
I'd use it with SidWizard (and probably other musical tools, but it won't be for much games so I don't really care if some packed games won't work)
Last edited by garvalf (Sep 7, 2016 7:01 am)
Offline
Nomad's Land
Definately the second one. The first one is an outdated version, and blocking a joystick port is obviously not convenient. I got mine from https://www.thefuturewas8bit.com when they were still selling v3.
About the user port vs cassette port I'm not sure, perhaps it's a matter of leaving the user port available when possible.
Offline
Sweden
Yeah because I have been looking at SD2IEC but Im not sure which version to get. I guess a v4 but then which power supply and extras.