page_title: ALF Products
section_title: Apple Music II / Music Card MC1
hierarchical_section_title: ALF Products / Products / Apple Music II / Music Card MC1
caption_attribution_description: English: ALF Products Inc. Music Card MC1 circuit card, front side.
context_page_description: ALF Products Inc., or ALF, was a Colorado company primarily known for its computer-controlled music synthesizers and floppy disk supplies and duplicators.
context_section_description: After the original Music Card MC16 had been selling in volume for some time, engineers at ALF learned that Texas Instruments (TI) had put essentially the entire MC16 card's circuitry into a single integrated circuit, the SN76489N. TI had significantly reduced the pitch range and tuning accuracy, compared to the MC16, and reduced the 256 envelope/volume levels down to 16 (and the 78 dB range down to 28 dB). TI added a pseudorandom number generator circuit which could be used to create white noise effects similar to what ALF had demonstrated on the AD8 synthesizer using random amplitudes, although TI probably intended it more for sound effects than for simulating percussion instruments.
  ALF designed a card with three SN76489N chips, thus allowing nine simultaneous voices (similar to three MC16 cards). The product was originally named "ALF's Apple Music II" and was later renamed (at Apple's request) "Music Card MC1". Rather than starting at the same pitch as the lowest note on a piano (A0, the A below the C three octaves below Middle C) like the MC16, the MC1 started 15 semitones higher, at C2 (the C two octaves below middle C); and rather than having an 8-octave (96 semitone) range, it had a 6-octave (72 semitone) range. The Music Card MC16's software was modified to operate the MC1.
caption: ALF's second music card for the Apple II, the MC1.
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