Making 8-bit Music From Scratch at the Commodore 64 BASIC Prompt

In this video, I make 8-bit SID music on a Commodore 64 without any software apart from the built-in BASIC interpreter. This involves poking numbers into memory and hardware registers and writing machine code in decimal.

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The picture of Walt, borrowed from a C64 demo, was masterfully pixeled by The Sarge.

0:00 Introduction
1:57 Groundwork
8:50 Time and pitch
13:23 Interactive editor
17:11 Note on/off subroutines
23:14 Making a pattern
27:06 Varying the instruments
31:05 Drum hack
32:00 Final jam

[afogh]

I never expected that live code demo to inspire you to do such a massive job :)

Well done (as usual :)) - Very lovely concept :)

/Walt

[bozimmerman]

C64 coding should be an olympic event. There are not enough Like buttons for this video.

[AxelWerner]

Assembling machine language using C64 basic only AND developing a music editor AND player from it using every trick in the box, blows my mind. #GURU

[nicolasfleury]

Changing the line number while coding to duplicate the code fast, writing assembly directly through opcodes, using screen buffer as real time input, using color buffer to visualise notes parsing, … So much elegance in all this! And man, what an ear you have when tweaking the melody. I call it “”Art” 🙏

[VitorMartinsAugusto]

No way... This guy is either making fun of us and reading the code from a paper or he is programming directly in DECIMAL opcodes!
Using the REM lines as a live tracker with memory storage is bordeline genius and mad.
Being able to play the music by inserting the letters, representing notes, in realtime on the screen is amazing.
All in all, I feed mentally diminished after watching such a briliant mind.
Thank you!

[lftkryo]

Personal milestone: Today this channel reached 32768 subscribers, a number that won't fit in a signed 16-bit integer. I find it amusing and appropriate that the event was triggered by this video, in which the same thing happens to the variable F. =)

[dazdaz]

This video is ace.
I have still got my C64 from when I was 15 years old.
41 years later that keyboard clunking takes me back to a better time. .

[tappel]

The LIST trick and saving the melody to the program listing is really neat, never thought of using BASIC for that.

[lis]

Old computers can be fun and all but it's your creativity i am here for.

[_Bit]

I love how open and flexible the C64 is, right out of the box, and you've demonstrated that fact amazingly well here. The POKE and SYS of Commodore BASIC allows anything to be done with the right know-how.

[MichaelSievers]

I stumbled over this in my recommendations and was planning on having a short look. Instead you made it impossible to not keep watching, by playfully showing how to abstract away from the system's restrictions and use the language most appropriate to achieve the goal. Thank you for sharing this!

[TheRealShedLife]

Having grown up programming music, graphics, and animation in C64 BASIC, this blew me away. The comments below concur. What a brilliant C64 MASTER CLASS <3

[HiskoArt]

Kudos LFT, you bloody genius. It's so inspiring, I'm blown away

[mswcap]

Totally awesome! When I was a kid I had a C64 for the whole family. I programmed a lot in BASIC but never ever got to this level! And indeed, it's HIGHLY entertaining. Thank you!

[TimwiTerby]

The lesser-known successor model, the C128, had a BASIC command called “PLAY” that let you play music by specifying the notes. “PLAY "CDEFG"” would play a simple scale. There are letter/number codes to change octave, instruments, note lengths, insert rests, etc.etc.

[saulcross]

I am absolutely gobsmacked (in awe) by this - never seen coding music approached in this way. Genius.

[CommodoreGreg]

This video will never get the likes it deserves but this is INCREDIBLE! The research, planning, editing, tech factor, and entertainment value are fantastic. Well done sir!

[xard]

So what I'm seeing here is that you use the screen letter buffer as runtime memory and the basic provided movement and text input functionality as real time memory editor where the data also doubles as code which can be also serialized to storage memory with a press of an enter key?

I mean... WHAT?!

[jcl]

The fact that you remember the instructions set in decimal numbers blows my mind.

[jussipal]

Just mesmerizing to watch how well your mind works!
Thank you!