| 1 |
cebix |
1.1 |
|
| 2 |
|
|
SIDPlayer, Version 4.0 |
| 3 |
|
|
|
| 4 |
|
|
A SID tune replayer for BeOS |
| 5 |
|
|
|
| 6 |
|
|
Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer |
| 7 |
|
|
Freely distributable |
| 8 |
|
|
|
| 9 |
|
|
|
| 10 |
|
|
License |
| 11 |
|
|
------- |
| 12 |
|
|
|
| 13 |
|
|
SIDPlayer is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. |
| 14 |
|
|
See the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for details. |
| 15 |
|
|
|
| 16 |
|
|
|
| 17 |
|
|
What is SIDPlayer? |
| 18 |
|
|
------------------ |
| 19 |
|
|
|
| 20 |
|
|
SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID |
| 21 |
|
|
on the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped- |
| 22 |
|
|
down C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the |
| 23 |
|
|
C64. SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it |
| 24 |
|
|
cannot run any C64 programs. |
| 25 |
|
|
|
| 26 |
|
|
|
| 27 |
|
|
Why would I want to listen to C64 music? |
| 28 |
|
|
---------------------------------------- |
| 29 |
|
|
|
| 30 |
|
|
The C64 had the most advanced sound capabilities of all home computers in |
| 31 |
|
|
the early 80's. While other computers of that time were only able to produce |
| 32 |
|
|
beeps, the C64 had a complete 3-voice analog synthesizer on its MOS 6581 |
| 33 |
|
|
sound chip (called "SID" - "Sound Interface Device"). Even some more modern |
| 34 |
|
|
computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound. |
| 35 |
|
|
|
| 36 |
|
|
The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR |
| 37 |
|
|
envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects |
| 38 |
|
|
like ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit |
| 39 |
|
|
sampled sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including |
| 40 |
|
|
the filters. |
| 41 |
|
|
|
| 42 |
|
|
There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for |
| 43 |
|
|
the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune |
| 44 |
|
|
replayers on nearly every existing computer platform. One big advantage of |
| 45 |
|
|
SID tunes is that they take very little hard disk space: most are only 4-8K |
| 46 |
|
|
in size. |
| 47 |
|
|
|
| 48 |
|
|
|
| 49 |
|
|
Supported file formats |
| 50 |
|
|
---------------------- |
| 51 |
|
|
|
| 52 |
|
|
The only SID tune file format supported by SIDPlayer is single-file PSID |
| 53 |
|
|
files (these have the signature "PSID" in the first 4 bytes). Most SID music |
| 54 |
|
|
available on the Internet is in this format. |
| 55 |
|
|
|
| 56 |
|
|
|
| 57 |
|
|
Using SIDPlayer |
| 58 |
|
|
--------------- |
| 59 |
|
|
|
| 60 |
|
|
SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give |
| 61 |
|
|
the name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file |
| 62 |
|
|
onto the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played. |
| 63 |
|
|
|
| 64 |
|
|
The SIDPlayer window some information about the currently loaded PSID file |
| 65 |
|
|
and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting and |
| 66 |
|
|
stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song contained |
| 67 |
|
|
in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the total |
| 68 |
|
|
number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of the |
| 69 |
|
|
tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be used |
| 70 |
|
|
to adjust the replay speed. |
| 71 |
|
|
|
| 72 |
|
|
Clicking and holding the right mouse button in the SIDPlayer window will show |
| 73 |
|
|
a pop-up menu with three items: |
| 74 |
|
|
|
| 75 |
|
|
- "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer |
| 76 |
|
|
- "Sound Control" opens the sound control window |
| 77 |
|
|
- "Quit" quits SIDPlayer |
| 78 |
|
|
|
| 79 |
|
|
To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit |
| 80 |
|
|
SIDPlayer, close the window or select the "Quit" menu item. |
| 81 |
|
|
|
| 82 |
|
|
Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be controlled with the keyboard: |
| 83 |
|
|
P : Play/pause |
| 84 |
|
|
S : Stop |
| 85 |
|
|
N : Next song |
| 86 |
|
|
Esc/Space : Stop |
| 87 |
|
|
Left arrow : Previous song |
| 88 |
|
|
Right arrow: Next song |
| 89 |
|
|
Q : Quit |
| 90 |
|
|
|
| 91 |
|
|
SIDPlayer can also be used as an input plugin for CL-Amp by Claes Löfqvist. |
| 92 |
|
|
Simply copy the program to your CL-Amp "Plugins" directory (you have to copy |
| 93 |
|
|
it, placing a link won't work) and rename it to "in_SIDPlayer". |
| 94 |
|
|
|
| 95 |
|
|
|
| 96 |
|
|
The Sound Control window |
| 97 |
|
|
------------------------ |
| 98 |
|
|
|
| 99 |
|
|
The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID |
| 100 |
|
|
filters on or off. |
| 101 |
|
|
|
| 102 |
|
|
The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the |
| 103 |
cebix |
1.2 |
stereo panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized |
| 104 |
cebix |
1.1 |
voices, 1 sampled voice). |
| 105 |
|
|
|
| 106 |
|
|
|
| 107 |
|
|
Where do I get PSID files |
| 108 |
|
|
------------------------- |
| 109 |
|
|
|
| 110 |
|
|
The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID |
| 111 |
|
|
Collection (http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music) and the "NemeSIDs" |
| 112 |
|
|
archive (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used |
| 113 |
|
|
for testing during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work. |
| 114 |
|
|
|
| 115 |
cebix |
1.2 |
Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the |
| 116 |
cebix |
1.1 |
"PSID Demo" directory. |
| 117 |
|
|
|
| 118 |
|
|
|
| 119 |
|
|
History |
| 120 |
|
|
------- |
| 121 |
|
|
|
| 122 |
|
|
V1.0 - First release |
| 123 |
|
|
V2.0 - SID filter emulation, better envelope generation |
| 124 |
|
|
V2.1 - Implemented notch filter, 60Hz replay now works, added faster/ |
| 125 |
|
|
slower buttons, compiled for BeOS DR8 |
| 126 |
|
|
V2.2 - Improved the 6510, triangle waveform is now 12 bits, output |
| 127 |
|
|
clipping, stereo output, corrected SID sustain behaviour, |
| 128 |
|
|
reading from a write-only SID register returns the last byte |
| 129 |
|
|
written to the SID, combined waveforms sampled from a 6581R4 |
| 130 |
|
|
V2.3 - Corrected BRK, DCP, ARR and LAS instructions, volume levels up |
| 131 |
|
|
to 200% possible, compiled for BeOS DR9 |
| 132 |
|
|
V2.4 - Shows name/author/copyright in ISO-Latin1 |
| 133 |
|
|
V2.5 - Converted panning/volume sliders to BSlider class |
| 134 |
|
|
V3.0 - Unified PPC/x86 release |
| 135 |
|
|
V4.0 - Now based on Frodo V5 CPU/SID code (more efficient CPU emulation, |
| 136 |
|
|
post-processing effects (reverb, spatial), prefs manager), replaced |
| 137 |
|
|
faster/slower buttons by slider, added popup menu and sound control |
| 138 |
|
|
window, ported to BeOS R5 with new Media Kit, implemented CIA timer |
| 139 |
|
|
speed control, and SIDPlayer can now also be used as a CL-Amp plugin |
| 140 |
|
|
|
| 141 |
|
|
|
| 142 |
|
|
Christian Bauer |
| 143 |
|
|
<Christian.Bauer@uni-mainz.de> |
