Soundmonitor lineage and wiki pages: tracker-history/soundmonitor.txt, C64-Wiki.de, de.wikipedia

Three small pages that fill in versions, dates and the German-language view of soundmonitor.

Key claims#

• Lineage (tracker-history, citing HVMEC and CSDb): Soundmonitor V1.0, Chris Hülsbeck, "a.k.a. Music Master", 1986-10 → Soundmonitor V1.1 by The Leader/Computer Cracking Team, 1986-12-28, based on 1.0 → Music Master V1.3 by The Syndicate, 1987, based on 1.1 → Rockmonitor II by Marco Swagerman & Oscar Giesen, 1987, based on 1.0 with a "Digital channel" → Digitronix by RAB/The Lightning Duo, 1987, based on Rockmonitor II with "2 sample channels" — RAB on pouet: "basicly a Rockmonitor (1 digichannel) clone but by using 4bit samples instead of eight and 'mixing' them on the NMI you had 2 channels of samples and 3 channels of SID" (rockmonitor, chip-samples).
• C64-Wiki.de: "Der Soundmonitor (auch als MusicMaster bekannt)"; versions 1.1 (1986) and 1.3 (1987) reworked by other programmers; Rockmonitor as the best-known unofficial development "der auch die Verwendung von Sound-Samples gestattet"; published in 64'er 10/1986 pp. 53–64 and in "64'er Extra Nr. 13"; "Programm hat Kultstatus". Keys (their partial list): X exit / SYS 4096, SHIFT+I init, N, P, SHIFT+L, SHIFT+S (Soundnumber with Y/U, complete song, steps only), SHIFT+@ delete bar; keyboard mode O/SHIFT+O, K, , . /, F7, R, Q (1 = 16th, 2 = 8th, 3 = quarter, 0 = none); tips: $ in the load/save mask shows the directory; a "complete song" starts with SYS 49152.
• de.wikipedia: Soundmonitor was written in 1986 "im Rahmen eines Musik-Wettbewerbes" of 64'er and published as Listing des Monats 10/1986; the MusicMaster routine existed before the editor — Hülsbeck entered the contest with Shades and then built the editor around the routine; arpeggios "to simulate chords" with one voice, "in C64-Spielen sehr oft zu hören"; simultaneous editing and live recording; samples are not possible in Soundmonitor but fan versions (the Rockmonitor series) added them; To Be On Top (1987) as Hülsbeck's showcase of samples on the C64; "Der Soundmonitor bildet gewissermaßen den Ursprung der später auf dem Amiga und PC sehr populären Tracker-Software" (unsourced); the band Welle: Erdball still uses it.

Relevance to the wiki#

Version numbers and dates for soundmonitor and rockmonitor; the unsourced "origin of the tracker" claim, kept as (unverified) on tracker-scene-history.

Pages touched#

soundmonitor · rockmonitor · chip-samples · tracker-scene-history · shades