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Published for the C64 and Amiga machines by Electronic Arts, Instant Music was a unique composition program. By use of either preset or created templates, complex symphonies could be made simply by plotting the notes and chords using the mouse pointer on the screen. As rules governing a piece’s construction ensured only the ‘right’ chords and structures could be created, the building blocks of the musical document comprised a mere series of collated coloured lumps.

The sequencer required no musical knowledge to operate, though the ‘artificial intelligence’ could be disabled for use by the musically proficient.

The closing music of both Concept Singles 9 and 10, plus all the music for number 11, were composed with this software. Thanks to its MIDI capabilities, use can be made with this software of not just the C64’s own SID chip but also of any MIDI instrument, including the Commodore Sound Expander synth’ plug-in. The Amiga version, oddly, has no inbuilt MIDI support at all, instead relying on the user to re-open the templates in another EA MIDI composition package.

If there had been an Instant Music 2 we could have enjoyed a more stable program with perhaps greater control over the SID. Another nice feature could have been a printout facility to properly script the musical notation. (Still, MIDI output into PCs running suitable SID VSTi and notation software could do such a job). It is also a pity that no C64 emulator appears to exist which can interact with the MIDI socket(s) found on most soundcards.

COMMODORE 64 VERSION:

PROGRAM DISK

MUSIC DISK 1

MUSIC DISK 2

Concept Single 10 data disk

AMIGA 500-ONLY VERSION:

Disk 1 Disk 2 Readme

(Amiga Note: For MIDI use open I.M. files in Deluxe Music. (It’s downloadable, with many other programs, here and here.))

The assumption is made that this program is Abandonware.