File: SIDPlayerV2_3.tar.gz Author: cbauer@iphcip1.physik.uni-mainz.de (Christian Bauer) Release: 2.3 (18.May 1997) Compatibility: DR9 (AA) Location: contrib/audio Description: SID tune replayer Notes: SIDPlayer Version 2.3 A SID tune replayer for BeOS (C) Copyright 1996-1997 Christian Bauer Stereo support by Marco Nelissen Freely distributable What is SIDPlayer? ------------------ SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID on the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped- down C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the C64. SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it cannot run any C64 programs. Why would I want to listen to C64 music? ---------------------------------------- The C64 had the most advanced sound capabilities of all home computers in the early 80's. While other computers of that time were only able to make "beep", the C64 had a complete 3-voice analog synthesizer on its MOS 6581 sound chip (called "SID" - "Sound Interface Device"). Even some more modern computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound. The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects like ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit sampled sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including the filters. There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune replayers on nearly every existing computer platform. One big advantage of SID tunes is that they take very little hard disk space: most are only 4-8K in size. Supported file formats ---------------------- The only SID tune file format supported by SIDPlayer is single-file PSID files (these have the signature "PSID" in the first 4 bytes). Using SIDPlayer --------------- SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give the name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file onto the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played. The SIDPlayer window some information about the currently loaded PSID file and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting and stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song contained in the PSID file. The '+' and '-' buttons make the music play faster or slower. The number of the song currently playing and the total number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of the tapedeck buttons. The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID filters on or off. The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the stereo panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 sythesized voices, 1 sampled voice). Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be controlled with the keyboard: P : Play/pause S : Stop N : Next song Esc : Stop Left arrow : Previous song Right arrow: Next song Up arrow : Faster Down arrow : Slower To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit SIDPlayer, close the window or select the Quit menu item. Where do I get PSID files ------------------------- The the two largest collections of SID tunes are "NemeSIDs" (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic) and "High Voltage" (http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music). These have been used for testing during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work. Twelve demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the "PSID" folder. History ------- V1.0 - First release V2.0 - SID filter emulation, better envelope generation V2.1 - Implemented notch filter, 60Hz replay now works, added faster/ slower buttons, compiled for BeOS DR8 V2.2 - Improved the 6510, triangle waveform is now 12 bits, output clipping, stereo output, corrected SID sustain behaviour, reading from a write-only SID register returns the last byte written to the SID, combined waveforms sampled from a 6581R4 V2.3 - Corrected BRK, DCP, ARR and LAS instructions, volume levels up to 200% possible, compiled for BeOS DR9 Copyright and distribution -------------------------- The program "SIDPlayer", this manual and the source code may be freely distributed as long as they remain unchanged and all files are included. The rights on the source code remain at the author. It may not - not even in parts - used for commercial purposes without explicit written permission by the author. Permission to use it for non-commercial purposes is hereby granted als long as my copyright notice remains in the program. You are not allowed to use the source to create and distribute a modified version of SIDPlayer. Christian Bauer