Soundmonitor cheat sheet

From Soundmonitor · print · built 2026-08-31

Reference

Cheat sheet#

keyaction
X / SYS 4096leave / restart the editor
SHIFT+I, Yinitialise: all steps → $BE00, defaults
Zsound page; F1/F3 select sound number; type the 24 bytes top-down; RETURN leaves
RETURN on a bar addressopen the bar's note display; RETURN back
N / Pplay from FIRST STEP with SID init / play on-off at CURRENT STEP
F3 / F5set FIRST STEP / LAST STEP at the cursor
TR columntranspose in semitones, 00–7F up, FF–80 down (0C = octave, FC = −4)
ST columnadded to every sound number in the bar
RETURN under ARP/Sbase-settings page: bytes 0–1 CIA timer lo/hi (hi "35–50"), 2 coarse tempo 0–4 (smaller = faster), 3 bar length ($20, $30 for 6/8, $40 double), 4 fade-out (FF none, 10 fast … 30 slow), 5 volume 00–0F; next lines = arpeggios of 8 semitone steps, e.g. minor 0c 07 03 00 0c 07 03 00
arpeggio per noteset option bit 3 (digit 4) on the note; the byte after the last note selects it: 08 first, 10 second, 18 third, 20 fourth …
O (+SHIFT) · CLR · K · , . /keyboard octave · sound · key-transpose · voice for live play
F7play on the keyboard (CTRL = C, 1 = C#, …; border red); F7/RETURN back
R, Q, F7record: pick the track, quantize (1 = 16ths, 2 = 8ths, 3 = quarters, 0 = none), record — bar addresses must be filled in first
£invert option bits and show the digit
SHIFT+=copy the FIRST…LAST STEP block to the cursor
LSHIFT+Scopy a sound, a bar or an ARP/S line
SHIFT+INS/DEL / DELinsert / delete a step
SHIFT+@clear the bar under the cursor; on ARP/S: write default settings and two arpeggios
T, SHIFT+S, SHIFT+L, $file type (Soundnumber / Complete Song with routine / Steps only), save, load, directory
SYS 49152starts a "Complete Song" file from BASIC

Sound registers (source: s-64er-soundmonitor-article): 0 waveform+gate at key-on (11 tri, 21 saw, 41 pulse, 81 noise; +2 sync, +4 ring, +8 test) · 1 AD · 2 SR · 3 portamento target · 4 pulse width · 5/6/7 pulse-EG up time / down time / step (> 30 "gets dirty") · 8 waveform at key-off (10/20/40/80) · 9 pulse-EG restart (1x) and portamento mode (x1 up, x2 down, x4 once) · 10/11 portamento speed lo/hi · 12/13/14 vibrato depth / speed (00 fast … 7F slow, bit 7 = start direction) / delay · 15 fine detune · 16 filter type nibble (FF = leave the filter alone, avoids clicks) · 17 resonance + voice mask · 18 cutoff · 19/20 filter-EG up/down time · 21/22 filter-EG step lo/hi · 23 filter-EG mode + trigger voice.

Recipes from the article: bass 41,09,99,00,20,10,10,10,40,10,00,00,00,00,00,00,FF,… · lead 41,08,7C,00,60,10,10,10,40,10,00,00,10,07,1A,00,FF,… · flute 11,09,99,00,00,00,00,00,10,00,00,00,10,06,10,00,FF,… · bass drum 11,09,09,01,00,00,00,00,10,01,FF,00,… (a triangle pulled down once) · snare 81,09,09,01,00,00,00,00,80,01,10,30,… · "Rambo theme sound" 41,08,7D,00,00,20,10,10,40,10,00,00,10,08,1D,00,FF,… · ring-mod effect 15,08,7A,10,00,00,00,00,14,01,20,23,… (instrument-design).