INSTRUCTION MANUALS LINKS BELOW FASTFINGERS 3 FINISHED ''THE ULTIMATE MIDI SEQUENCER AND SID SOUND ENGINE'' SO HERE IS THE LATEST FASTFINGERS 2 NEWS
Fastfingers2 FOR A SHORT TIME can be ordered in a few new configurations.
SAJTRON PERFORMS CHIP DROP WITH FASTFINGERS 2 World of Commodore 2020 Toronto Canada
INSTRUCTION MANUALS LINKS BELOW NEW FASTFINGERS3 INSTRUCTION MANUAL ! FASTFINGERS2 INSTRUCTION MANUAL revised
A FEW FASTFINGERS SOUNDS IN THIS The cartridge version is coming soon. So here is the new LFO update to Fastfingers2. Tapping repeatedly the = will turn on LFO , select 16 different preset speeds and keep it on until you hit the ] to bring the speed down and turn it off. These buttons are logically NEXT to each other on the C64. Right hand button up and left hand button down. Glide has been moved to the RETurn key.Tremelo and Swirl are redundant and have been replaced with this LFO. WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE AS SOON AS A MIDI KEY IS HIT (UNLESS YOU DISABLE DISPLAY FOR SMOOTHER RESPONSE) NEW DYNAMIC ADSR STEP EDITOR FOR FASTFINGERS The C64 FastFingers2 AND FF3 MIDI interface and software are basically FINISHED.
FRIENDS OF FASTFINGERS
FINAL TOUCHES
NEW FRONT PERFORMANCE PAGE FOR FASTFINGERS
NEW TRANSPOSER EDITOR FOR FASTFINGERS 2 This will make real time recording unnecessary and thus real time recording will be removed to allow for a few new functions. Fastfingers will become a fully functional step sequencer with arpeggios which will automatically transpose guided by this transpose memory.
A BLAST FROM THE PAST ...SEPTEMBER 1991 COMPUTE MAGAZINE
FEEDBACK ANYONE?
It works !!!! The C64 Fastfingers interface part that is, like a charm! The picture above is the 3 STAGE version with pitch tracker and sound chip. The MIDI interface alone will have fewer components
DEC 18 2014
I was creating easy to load packages yesterday for various pitch tables ,based on A , including 440 NTSC 432 NTSC 440 PAL and 432 PAL . PAL versions are for the EU . These single file versions load everything including SOUNDS at once.
DEC 14 2014
The sequencer has now been broken up from a 256 note sequencer to 16 X 16 note sequencers....or you can have sequences strung together. Also new pitch tables with microtonal tuning and alternate tunings has been added.
October 16 2013 ...C64 FastFingers Lead Synthesizer report and update... My PIC CHIP midi port is working sending NOTE ON and NOTE OFF properly and response is very good. I'm tweaking software on both sides...PIC and C64 FastFingers side and soon I'll be adding Velocity to the mix....not sure about Continous Controllers though yet.
NOVEMBER 2012 PREVIEW NEW FOR 2013 sept. 2012 I'm trying to wrap up the Fastfingers project with MIDI and move onto my next project....a complete PIC chip synthesizer. july 2012 Today I began BASIC MIDI routines with the C64 Expansion Port Sentech/Passport type MIDI interface, mostly to check my MIDI interface and also to re-familiarize myself with the MIDI commands. I was able to get my Kawai K3 to play a slew of notes which I sent to it by way of a fornext loop. So the MIDI programming re-begins..after almost 30 years. So hopefully I will be able to integrate this into Fastfingers. This in only HALF of the BASIC programming. The other HALF is to also RECEIVE notes from a MIDI keyboard to trigger the Fastfingers sounds. Dan In the mid 80's, Robert Moog came to Wayne State in Michigan to speak. After showing off his new Kurzweil keyboard, he took the time to look at the Fastfingers software project and was very impressed with it. Hal Chamberlin, the writer of "Musical Applications of Microprocessors", said of Dan Laskowski, after seeing Fastfingers, "a born programmer."
I'm ready to ship. The Fastfingers manual is 31 LOOSE pages. (25 pages of original manual, 5 pages of the Quick Start Guide and 1 page of 2011 updates). You can bind it any way that you want, staples, duo tang, 3 ring binder etc. It comes with 2 double sided diskettes (3 slight variations of the software and 2 variations of the sounds). This is all placed in a Zip Lock bag and shipped in a box the size of a cereal box. Send $19.95 (shipping not included) to PAYPAL techristian@teachmedrums.com Everyone please request a shipping quote. Of course, you need a C64 or C128 and a 1541 disk drive to run this !! Add ANOTHER $29.95 (shipping not included) and I will also add the MATTEL keyboard INTERFACE (NOT the Mattel Keyboard, just the hardware interface) shown in the videos. Total $49.90 (shipping not included) for Fastfingers Software and MATTEL keyboard interface combo. I EXPECT FASTFINGERS2 WITH MY CUSTOM MIDI INTERFACE TO RETAIL FOR $59.95 (shipping not included)
IN 1984 Dan was finished authoring music sequencing software called "FASTFINGERS" which was reviewed in the May 1986 "Computer Shopper" 6 years later, in 1991, Compute Magazine wrote "Fastfingers was written before the MIDI explosion, yet Laskowski programmed it for 256 sounds and even coaxed an extra sub octave out of the SID chip." The SID chip is the sound chip on the Commodore 64 for for those of you that don't know. The Compute Magazine also stated "The dearth of new software for the 64 has sent developers back to their closets to have another look at older programs to see if there's something to dust off and reissue. Fastfingers is one such program, and the question arises, does it still stand up? We are compelled to give a qualified Yes." OK now I'm going to list a few fun facts and history about the 2011 release of Fastfingers below each picture.
Back in 1984, before large fast hard disks, there was no way to save a whole song in real time. MIDI was just breaking in, so what I did was set up Fastfingers to record up to 5 minutes of high resolution recording ,time wise several samples per second. This took up memory AND DISK SPACE. So when you hit SAVE back then , the entire recording, updated sounds, arpeggios, and transpose bank were all saved to 160 "blocks" on the 1541 disk drive. This took 2-3 minutes and was also just as slow to LOAD. Because most of you now have access to hard disk recording , in 2011, I have released 2 versions of Fastfingers, of which you will receive BOTH. First the original, 160 block version and now a 31 block version SAVE which just saves your SOUNDS and ARPEGGIOS. 20 seconds is better than 3 minutes.....right !!! So for 2011 there is the LONG SAVE and SHORT SAVE versions.
March 20 2011
C64 or C128 "under the knife" for LESS NOISE !!! ONLY ATTEMPT IF YOU ARE EXPERIENCED WITH A SOLDERING IRON. I WILL TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY IF YOU FRY YOUR C64 !!!GET A TECHNICIAN TO HELP YOU IF YOU CAN'T PERFORM THE MOD YOURSELF !!! What worked for me in the end was that I piggybacked 2 6581 SIDS (Sound Interface Device) on top of each other. Pin 27 (Audio out) no longer touches the circuit board. The pins are lifted away and soldered to the center conductor of 2 shielded cables. Shorting Pin 26 (Ext IN) to GND worked fine for some non filtered sounds, but killed other sounds. I have instead CUT OFF Pin 26 so that it doesn't pick up noise from the PCB. If you need to plug your guitar into the SID, then this won't work for you. The SHIELD of the 2 shielded cables are connected to Pin 14 (GND) which I must admit is awkward. The other ends are connected to a stereo pair of RCA phono plugs. So what is the result? First off, MUCH LESS NOISE !! My SIDS never sounded so good. Second some of the sounds with heavy filtering or Noise sound like STEREO !! I guess that this is because each SID will produce a different set of random numbers for the NOISE wave. Also I used SIDS from 2 completely different batches. One was a very early one, housed in CERAMIC with gold pins and the other was in PLASTIC, from 2 different batches with at least 2 years between. Because of this, the filter cutoff characteristics were slightly different. These old C64 sounds are AMAZING in the Korg Kaossilator , clean and clear in Stereo! I can't do much more hacking to these SIDS. I might kill them with too much heat, but the next step would be to create a new CS (chip select) signal for the extra SID so it sits in a different memory location. Then I would reprogram FASTFINGERS so that it sends every other note to each chip.(not killing the RELEASE that way.) This is my C128 below, with only ONE SID chip. The hack is even uglier after 2 SIDs are piggybacked BUT WORKS !!
Below is a video using the Fastfingers Lead Synthesizer software for Commodore 64 and my drumming. I added a new Lightshow feature to Fastfingers, which changes the color of the in time with the music. All of the sounds are C64 Fastfingers sounds except for my drumming. |