Music Construction Set

Will Harvey's Music Construction Set
Publisher(s)	Electronic Arts
Designer(s)	Will Harvey Richard Plom (Atari ST)
Programmer(s)	Will Harvey (Apple II) Richard Plom (Atari ST)
Platform(s)	Apple II (original) Atari 8-bit, Atari ST, C64, IBM PC
Release	1984

Will Harvey's Music Construction Set (MCS) is a music composition notation program designed by Will Harvey for the Apple II and published by Electronic Arts in 1984. Harvey wrote the original Apple II version in assembly language when he was 15 and in high school. Despite his only published software being an abstract shooter, Lancaster for the Apple II, Harvey's name was included in the title. MCS started as a tool to add music to that game.

Music Construction Set was ported to the Atari 8-bit family, Commodore 64, and the IBM PC (as a booter), then later to the Atari ST. A redesigned version for the Amiga and Macintosh was released in 1986 as Deluxe Music Construction Set.

With MCS, the user can create musical composition using a graphical user interface, a novel concept for the era of its release. Users could drag and drop notes right onto the staff, play back their creations through the computer's speakers and print them out. The program came with a few popular songs as samples. Most versions of this program required the users to use a joystick to create their songs, note by note, which could be a lengthy and time-consuming process for a long song.

The program took advantage of advanced equipment for those who had it. For example, the IBM PC version allowed the user to output audio via the IBM PC Model 5150's cassette port, so they could send 4-voice music to their stereo system. The same program also took advantage of the 3-voice sound chip built into the IBM PCjr and Tandy 1000.

...
Wikipedia