Table of Contents

VOICE

VIC-20 C64 C16 Plus/4 C128 X16 M65

Selects various properties like waveform, tone, filters, etc. of a voice. The command is also used for turning a voice on or off. The command implements a uniform interface to the VIC, TED, SID and VERA chips, however differences between the sound capabilities of these chips must be considered as explained in more details below.

Syntax

VOICE <voice_no> <subcmd> [<subcmd> ...]

Where <voice_no> is a number identifying the voice register. This must be a literal number on almost all platform, except the X16 where a numeric expression is also accepted.

  • <voice_no> must be between 1-3 on C64 and C128, except for dual-SID systems, where a number between 1-6 is accepted
  • On VIC-20, voices 1-4 can be used
  • On C16 and Plus/4, only VOICE 1 or VOICE 2 are available
  • The number of voices range from 0 to 15 on the X16
  • The M65 supports voices 1-12

The command is then is followed by at least one of the following:

  • ON or OFF VIC-20 C64 C16 Plus/4 C128 X16 M65
  • LEFT or RIGHT X16
  • TONE <tone_value> VIC-20 C64 C16 Plus/4 C128 X16 M65
  • ADSR <attack>, <decay>, <sustain>, <release> C64 C128 M65
  • WAVE SAW|TRI|PULSE|NOISE VIC-20 C64 C16 Plus/4 C128 X16 M65
  • PULSE <freq> C64 C128 X16 M65
  • FILTER ON|OFF C64 C128 M65
  • VOLUME X16

Examples

' Clear all registers
SOUND CLEAR
VOLUME 15
' Set up voice 1 for a high-pitch sawtooth wave but do not turn it on yet
VOICE 1 WAVE SAW TONE 2500 ADSR 0, 7, 12, 1
' Turn it on
VOICE 1 ON
' Set up voice 2 properties and turn it on immediately
VOICE 2 WAVE PULSE PULSE 450 TONE 400 ADSR 9, 7, 10, 4 ON
' Change its tone while the voice is still on
VOICE 2 TONE 2300

VOICE ON|OFF

Turns the voice on or off. Supported on all platforms. 

VOICE <voice_no> ON
VOICE <voice_no> OFF

On X16, ON turns on the voice in both left and right channels.

VOICE LEFT|RIGHT

X16 Turns the voice on or off on the left or right channel only. 

VOICE <voice_no> LEFT
VOICE <voice_no> RIGHT

VOICE TONE

Sets the tone (frequency) for a voice. Supported on all platforms. 

VOICE <voice_no> TONE <tone_number>

The <tone_number> means a different value on each platform.

VOICE WAVE

Sets the wave form for a particular voice. 

VOICE <voice_no> WAVE SAW    ' sawtooth
VOICE <voice_no> WAVE TRI    ' triangle
VOICE <voice_no> WAVE PULSE  ' pulse
VOICE <voice_no> WAVE NOISE  ' noise
  • On C64 C128 X16 M65, each voice can take any wave form.
  • On C16 Plus/4, voice 1 is always PULSE and voice 2 can take PULSE or NOISE
  • On VIC-20, voices 1, 2 and 3 are always PULSE and voice 4 is always NOISE

VOICE PULSE

Sets the pulse frequency for a particular voice. Only works if the waveform of that voice is set to PULSE. Supported on C64 C128 M65 only. 

VOICE <voice_no> WAVE PULSE PULSE <freq>

Frequency must be a value between 0 AND 4096.

VOICE ADSR

Sets the envelope for a particular voice. Supported on C64 C128 M65 only. 

VOICE <voice_no> ADSR <attack>, <decay>, <sustain>, <release>

All four values are expressions that must evaluate to a number between 0 and 15.

VOICE FILTER ON|OFF

Applies or removes filter for the particular voice. The filter properties must be set using the FILTER command. Supported on C64 C128 M65 only. 

VOICE <voice_no> FILTER ON
VOICE <voice_no> FILTER OFF

VOICE VOLUME

Controls the volume of the sound with a logarithmic curve; 0 is silent, 63 is the loudest. Supported on X16 only. 

VOICE <voice_no> VOLUME 0 ' Voice is silent
VOICE <voice_no> VOLUME 63 ' Voice is loudest

See also