The SFX Sound Expander was made by Commodore UK. It's based around a Yamaha OPL2 FM sound generator. It was basically a SoundBlaster for the C64/128. There were also some companion products, such as the SFX Sound Sampler (piece o' junk) and a full-size 64 key keyboard. There was a SEVERE lack of software to support this product. It certainly was released in the UK and was probably only rare on this side of the Atlantic. I had Jim Brain include it in his canonical list of CBM products where you can also find the CBM model numbers. I doubt that CBM could get FCC approval for the device for sale in the US, as it seems to kick out vigorous RF at NTSC color burst frequency. It probably screws up most of the tv sets in the neighborhood (certainly every set in my house) when I turn it on. The sound from this device was far better than that from similar devices for the 8x86 machines. It seems to have better audio isolation from the data bus and picks up less noise. The optional keyboard has full size keys and decent action, quite playable. Commodore would have had a great product that would have had a couple million more C64s fly off the shelves if there was better software to support it. I remember seeing a picture of the SFX Sound Expander and keyboard on someone's web site - I think it was in a gallery of orphaned computers. It looks a lot like a 1750 REU except that it has a cartridge expansion port (with hinged cover) on the top, an audio and keyboard connector on the side, and the case is SX64 dark grey plastic. See my Commodore web site at http://web.mit.edu/randy/www/antigrav/ Randy ************************************************************************** * Randy Winchester * randy@mit.edu * PO Box 426074, Cambridge, MA 02142 * * (617) 253-7431 * http://web.mit.edu/randy/www * ************************************************************************** - This message was sent through the cbm-hackers mailing list. To unsubscribe: echo unsubscribe | mail cbm-hackers-request@dot.tcm.hut.fi.
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