Extra-Sound

Extra-Sound

Creator	Tobias Herre
Released	2008-0?-??
Platform	Commodore 64
Website	surfpoeten.de/apps/extrasound-c64/

Extra-Sound is a music editor programmed by Tobias Herre in East Germany 1989 and publicly released in 2008.

One music file holds 15 songs, 125 patterns, 32 instruments, and 31 filter envelopes. Each instrument combines three free-form envelopes altogether for pitch (for vibratos), semitones (for chords), waveform (for drums), and two pulse widths added up. Anytime in the patterns, you can start any of the filter envelopes (taking SID chip limits into account) and toggle portamento temporarily or permanently.

Every pattern is displayed like a table, with one row per beat, and notes and extra settings in columns, similar to trackers. Unlike trackers, though, patterns remain compressed in memory, similar to Jens-Christian Huus's editor (also not public in 1989).

The music file can be relocated to any memory location (and no longer loaded into the editor) and embedded into a game. Sound effects are not supported, although Atomino (C64) works around it.