The Incredible Musical Keyboard for the Commodore 64 

5:34 most 80s thing you'll ever hear

5:35 you couldn't have the quintessential 80's sound and not play such a classic.. Not only do you have a solid foundation of musical chops, but your abilities in both electronics and programming are quite inspiring.

As a pianist/composer AND a technerd. This interest me. This interest me GREATLY!

Gives a whole new meaning to "KEYboard"

Can we please have more "Dave brushing his cat" montages

Wow man, I'm impressed by the scope of your technical knowledge. This is an awesome channel.

Was not expecting a C64 modern software designed by you. Nice.

I just HAD to laugh with the "loading intermissions" at 4:16 and 5:57.

I remember writing my own software to play music on my freshly bought PET-2001, somewhere around 1978. The PET didnt have any soundchip so i had to code everything (machinecode) using the Userport. Ofcourse it didnt have all the features a SID chip had, but i still managed to get some nice sounds (including glissando, vibrato) from it, using the small keys on the keyboard. Spend hours of playing that thing. It was great! Still love the older Commodores...

2:17 ultima 6, so iconic, iolo knew his craft.

I used to have the Sight and Sound version of this for my old C64 back in the day. I had forgotten all about its existence. Thanks for the trip down memory lane!

Holy cow, we leave really close together. I recognize the shopping center you were at. It's close to my house.

This is very cool, it's a lot like the mini-analog synth I own.

A little off-topic: what a beatiful Cat you have. And thanks for the Video, is very informative, as usual.

43 year old here. Awesome! Keep up the good work.

I may finally get the old C64 out from under my bed and start messing with it if I had the keyboard.

I never tire of the creativity and specific explanations you provide in your videos. thank you.

amazing video as always! Can't wait to see more of your Sidkeys program!

I've been a fan of this channel (and your other one) for months, and I had no idea that you had the chops to be writing kick-#$@ music software for ancient computers in assembly code. That looks hella impressive, man!

i do love hearing Ultima being played. 8-)

Former Sight & Sound employee and C-64 programmer here! Thanks for the flashback.

This video brought up my hopes in humanity!🙂

C64 SID music is some of my favorite music. I don't know what it is about the SID chip, but it rocks!

Man I love this channel David! I hope you keep making these videos. A perfect combo of retro fun and excellent presentation and production.

6:00 perfectly fits with the music

This channel is like taking your first weapon in a video game and kitting it out to be semi-useful in late game.

5:34 my tiny mind exploded. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯

Kudos to the gent behind this channel. It's one thing to carry on about something on RU-vid, but it's quite another to knuckle down and do something about the limitations of the subject matter as he did with his own software. The know-how on display here is heartening to see. Too many poseurs and not enough wow-ers on RU-vid. I was lucky enough to come across a cib Commodore Music Maker many, many years ago at a pawn broker, literally sold as a toy in that section alongside crappy remote control cars, etc. for absolute peanuts. While I did not have a C-64 at the time, the gear-head in me jumped for joy. Especially as the SID station came out at about that time and had me highly intrigued. With the carts and software available today, I am glad I didn't walk out of that shop empty handed.

For those wondering what game the song at 8:25 is from: Warhawk for the Commodore 64

i would really have liked to grow up back in the day. computers seem so simple nowadays while computers back then seem genious, i mean they were so limited in everything and yet they got everything to work the way they wanted.

0:30 jesus does anybody else hear that high frequency sound

Oh man. How I wished I had this as a kid. I never knew this existed and that is badass.

Have you ever tried circuit bending, if so can you do a live demo or show what you have done. Thank for the great videos!

Loved it when you played jump

Damn, so much power is that little breadbox. It blows me away.

What is the name of the game at 8:25? You really went above and beyond with this video.

Wow, you Sir have awesome skills! Programming music software and games for such old computers and composing cool tunes to boot. And those loading time montages are simply hilarious.

3:35 DROP THE BASS

I wrote software on the VIC-20 way back in the early 80's called Del's Piano. However, I don't why I didn't call in Del's Organ, because it was meant to replace my Bontempi organ after it bit the dust. I could have probably adapted it for that. However, my VIC-20 along with all the tapes, were lost when I moved in 86, so everything was lost :(

Any more info on SIDKeys? I would really love to get my hands on it.

love this stuff I had it all and the sci max and all the sci, Dr T and korg and Yamaha. I had 2 yamaha cx5m. tons of music maker software for c64. yamaha and Atari. man I miss all that. and more. being a music loving nerd was the best. great vids play on.

5:17 The exact same sound of my computer's fan XD

"Jump" chords on a C=64... priceless. You've just made my day;)

Did anyone notice the INCREDIBLY painful high-pitched hum at 0:30? It's driving me insane!! >o

You are getting better and better in these reviews! Please keep it up!

@5:44 JUMP!!!

Excited to see your software in action! I'm a long time chiptune artist so any new software is always exciting. Just as a small correction (as I understand it) when you can play multiple notes (one per oscillator) through a single processing chain it's called paraphonic. I believe the C64 SID would fall under this.

oh gosh, tell me about it. It took me forever to get my 2 unicorns.

The use of Ulitama riffs keeps bringing me back... :D

How am I just seeing this now!?!? So many memories. I had the Sight and Sounds keyboard for my C64 many many moons ago. lol Awesome video as always.

Awesome video as always David! But what I'd like to know is the actual loading time for the Sight & Sound and Kawasaki software. Although it's pretty clear that it must be quite long... :P

I hope you've continued support for your software, it looks like an actual synth interface rather than choosing 3 "instruments". Really impressive!

It took me 30 years to reveal that I do not need the ",1" when loading on C64 (as I have just learned it from someone, but nobody knew what was it for) :)

Unbelievable that this stuff is still usable! That's awesome!

You should make an episode on the SNES sound chip.

What a great review, well done, entertaining and informative. The sound expander is cool, but I think part of the magic of the SID chip is it's limitations. SID Keys is also very cool, congrats.

Can you do an episode about HOW ON EARTH YOU MANAGED TO LEARN AND USE ASSEMBLY LANGUAGE?!

As someone who's done some programming in 6502, I'm really impressed. You should write a book on it. Personally, I have a difficult time finding good tutorials for NES programming - they're usually disorganized and say, "Put this in here because." I'd love something a little more thorough.

THE 8 BIT COMIC SANS IS KILLING ME

What a great video. The c64 still sounds great. It's ridiculous that at the time of writing 58 people didn't like this!

Wait, did you ever pick up 4 cards? Cheater!

The keyboard also works with the software Sound Synthesizer by Gold Disk, Inc. and Laing Marketing LTD. 1985 out of Brampton, ON. Plays in monophonic. Has more voices and able to assign 3 of them to the first 3 keys after you push Enter key. Pretty cool

00:38 New version on comodore????? You know it's 2016?? Just joking,keep up great work

I am all about mic-ing instruments but I find your channel very interesting!Kind of want to get some of this 80's/early 90's gear

what is this soundtrack that he plays on 2:12

I am so jealous of your playing abilities. I've tried playing piano's and such before and the best I ever got was "Saints go marching in", which my parents got absolutely sick of haha.

Like the little Van Halen part classic 80s

Nice video, I happen to have an 'incredible musical keyboard' in my parent's basement, my father used the commodore 64 (with the audio chip mod, of course) back in the day to produce soundtracks for this documentaries. Your video has great historical value, thanks!

0:30 Holy shit, do you have a Cathode Ray TV on or something because that sound is annoying!

Music Machine. Brings back memories.

Can I get Sidkeys

Wow, just awesome! Quite an interesting add-on with a good idea behind, and then even own SW written for it! Well composed video, too, poking fun at the old toaster's ridiculously low data throughput :) (with its original SW, that is, due to the messed up serial port ending up requiring bit-banging the data through)

*Long load times.* Aw come on, it's not that bad, it's a part of the experience of 8-bit systems. If you want smokin' load times on a c-64, copy your stuff over to a solid state drive and let it run, run, run. But if you want to keep it pure, then a 1581 3.5" drive may be in the wings waiting for you./

the grocary scene is one of the best edited things on this chanel.

Video has cat... C Can Can't resist giving it a thumbs up aaaagh :D

Awesome,especially the super market shopping part of it

any info how to get 7:00 set up on my machine? that would be so much fun

I didn't think I would care much for this channel but I subbed anyways since I'm more interested in the technical/circuit board side of things. Now, I want to dive in and start making some retro chip tune type of music. Love this channel : )

What's the tune at 2:21

I can't seem to escape hearing the Ultima 6 intro theme when watching your videos. :) Great Video!

Hey can you do an addendum to this video about the Cynthcart? www.qotile.net/cynthcart.html Your software looks interesting as well. I'm looking forward to seeing more.

That is the most awesome thing I have seen in quite a while!

Pretty cool you are writing your own software for the C64.

Cats! More cats!

really liked it when you show the different effects & modes, like the new "electro" music

This video is awesome! The music systems sound surprisingly good

ow my, i havent seen that music machine software for ages...this was pure childhood nostalgia, good show 8-bit guy ! ;)

nice vid. Good to see people still developing for such platforms. Watching these vids are inspiring me to do something musical, I'm just not sure what yet though :)

I was the 207207'th viewer. :-) I owned (and own) that little keyboard (plus the cartridge of course). :-) That was a lot of fun to play around with.

Your voice is very calming. I love your videos!

Easily one of my favourite channels

Did the clean the floppy with alcohol trick and it's back up and running!! Soon as I get an SD card reader I'll pick up SIDkeys!

I had this and was my 1st synth haha PWM on the Sid chip is still to this day the best.

I had the Kawasaki Rhythm Rocker, and it rocked!

I do own that FM cartridge (Sound Expander), as well as the Sampler cartridge (Sound Sampler) that looks the same, but has a red label. I also have the original keyboard for it (with the original box). Didn't know it was so special.

Wish I could DOUBLE like! Can't wait for your video of your own SID Keys software :)

I actually owned a Commodore Sound Expander.. My mum got it for me at Christmas 1985had ish for the time it was brilliant. You could sequence.. had a very basic sampler like 4bit i think! But it got destroyed in a shed fire :-( wish i still had it for my studio now.. Great video.

Simplicity is everything. In time of low resources, they made miracle with it

OMG, I do not know how to play any instrument, but this is so fascinating. LOVE LOVE LOVE

Wow i remember having a version of this for the ZX spectrum back in the day called the music machine interface.So much fun