[ViewVC] Annotation of: cebix/SIDPlayer/README


  SIDPlayer, Version 4.1
  A SID tune replayer

  Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer


License
-------

SIDPlayer is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
Please see the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for
details.


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 produce
beeps, 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.


System Requirements
-------------------

SIDPlayer runs on all Unix systems supported by SDL (which includes Linux,
FreeBSD, Solaris and Irix) and on BeOS R4.5 or later versions.

Successfully tested systems include:
 - Linux/i386
 - BeOS/x86 R5
 - BeOS/ppc R4.5


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). Most SID music
available on the Internet is in this format.


Installing SIDPlayer
--------------------

See the file "INSTALL".


Using SIDPlayer under BeOS
--------------------------

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 displays 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 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 slider in the bottom right of the window can be
used to adjust the replay speed.

The SIDPlayer menu has three items:

 - "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer
 - "Sound Control" opens the sound control window (see below)
 - "Quit" quits SIDPlayer

To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit
SIDPlayer, close the window or select the "Quit" menu item.

Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be controlled with the keyboard:
  P          : Play/pause
  S          : Stop
  N          : Next song
  Esc/Space  : Stop
  Left arrow : Previous song
  Right arrow: Next song
  Q          : Quit


Using SIDPlayer under Unix
--------------------------

SIDPlayer currently only works as a command-line application. It is invoked
as follows:

  sidplayer FILE [song_number]

"FILE" is the name of the PSID file to be loaded. The optional "song_number"
specifies the number of the song to be player (instead of the default song).
SIDPlayer cannot detect when a song has finished, so you have to use Ctrl-C
to quit it.


The Sound Control window (BeOS only)
------------------------------------

Sound post-processing is controlled with the "Effect" pop-up menu and the
"Delay" and "Feedback" sliders. The available effects are "None" (no post-
processing), "Reverb" (simple reverb) and "Spatial" (reverb with phase
shift, intended for headphone users).

The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID
filters on or off.

The "New SID Chip" checkbox selects the type of SID chip to be emulated.
Currently this only affects some combined waveforms.

The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the stereo
panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized voices, 1
sampled voice).


Where do I get PSID files
-------------------------

The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID
Collection (http://hvsc.c64.org) and the "NemeSIDs" archive
(ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used for testing
during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work.

Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the "PSID
Demo" directory.


Support
-------

Updates of SIDPlayer are available on the official SIDPlayer home page:

  http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SPMain.html


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
V2.4 - Shows name/author/copyright in ISO-Latin1
V2.5 - Converted panning/volume sliders to BSlider class
V3.0 - Unified PPC/x86 release
V4.0 - Now based on Frodo V5 CPU/SID code (more efficient CPU emulation,
       post-processing effects (reverb, spatial), prefs manager), replaced
       faster/slower buttons by slider, added popup menu and sound control
       window, ported to BeOS R5 with new Media Kit, implemented CIA timer
       speed control, and SIDPlayer can now also be used as a CL-Amp plugin
V4.1 - Runs as a command-line application under Unix (requiring SDL)


Christian Bauer
<Christian.Bauer@uni-mainz.de>
Revision:	1.7
Committed:	2000-12-19T19:37:54Z (23 years, 11 months ago) by cebix
Branch:	MAIN
Changes since 1.6:	+2 -1 lines
Log Message:	testing the CVS->Mail gateway
#	User	Rev	Content
1	cebix	1.1
2	cebix	1.6	SIDPlayer, Version 4.1
3	cebix	1.5	A SID tune replayer
4	cebix	1.1
5	cebix	1.5	Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer
6	cebix	1.1
7
8			License
9			-------
10
11			SIDPlayer is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
12	cebix	1.7	Please see the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for
13			details.
14	cebix	1.1
15
16			What is SIDPlayer?
17			------------------
18
19	cebix	1.3	SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID on
20	cebix	1.4	the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped-down
21	cebix	1.3	C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the C64.
22			SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it cannot run
23			any C64 programs.
24	cebix	1.1
25
26			Why would I want to listen to C64 music?
27			----------------------------------------
28
29			The C64 had the most advanced sound capabilities of all home computers in
30			the early 80's. While other computers of that time were only able to produce
31			beeps, the C64 had a complete 3-voice analog synthesizer on its MOS 6581
32			sound chip (called "SID" - "Sound Interface Device"). Even some more modern
33			computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound.
34
35			The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR
36	cebix	1.3	envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects like
37			ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit sampled
38			sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including the
39			filters.
40	cebix	1.1
41			There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for
42			the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune
43			replayers on nearly every existing computer platform. One big advantage of
44			SID tunes is that they take very little hard disk space: most are only 4-8K
45			in size.
46
47
48	cebix	1.5	System Requirements
49			-------------------
50
51			SIDPlayer runs on all Unix systems supported by SDL (which includes Linux,
52			FreeBSD, Solaris and Irix) and on BeOS R4.5 or later versions.
53
54			Successfully tested systems include:
55			- Linux/i386
56			- BeOS/x86 R5
57			- BeOS/ppc R4.5
58
59
60	cebix	1.1	Supported file formats
61			----------------------
62
63			The only SID tune file format supported by SIDPlayer is single-file PSID
64			files (these have the signature "PSID" in the first 4 bytes). Most SID music
65			available on the Internet is in this format.
66
67
68	cebix	1.5	Installing SIDPlayer
69			--------------------
70
71			See the file "INSTALL".
72
73
74			Using SIDPlayer under BeOS
75			--------------------------
76	cebix	1.1
77	cebix	1.3	SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give the
78			name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file onto
79			the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played.
80
81			The SIDPlayer window displays some information about the currently loaded
82			PSID file and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting
83			and stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song
84			contained in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the
85			total number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of
86			the tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be
87			used to adjust the replay speed.
88	cebix	1.1
89	cebix	1.3	The SIDPlayer menu has three items:
90	cebix	1.1
91			- "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer
92	cebix	1.5	- "Sound Control" opens the sound control window (see below)
93	cebix	1.1	- "Quit" quits SIDPlayer
94
95			To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit
96			SIDPlayer, close the window or select the "Quit" menu item.
97
98			Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be controlled with the keyboard:
99			P : Play/pause
100			S : Stop
101			N : Next song
102			Esc/Space : Stop
103			Left arrow : Previous song
104			Right arrow: Next song
105			Q : Quit
106
107	cebix	1.5
108			Using SIDPlayer under Unix
109			--------------------------
110
111			SIDPlayer currently only works as a command-line application. It is invoked
112			as follows:
113
114			sidplayer FILE [song_number]
115
116			"FILE" is the name of the PSID file to be loaded. The optional "song_number"
117			specifies the number of the song to be player (instead of the default song).
118			SIDPlayer cannot detect when a song has finished, so you have to use Ctrl-C
119			to quit it.
120	cebix	1.1
121
122	cebix	1.5	The Sound Control window (BeOS only)
123			------------------------------------
124	cebix	1.1
125	cebix	1.3	Sound post-processing is controlled with the "Effect" pop-up menu and the
126			"Delay" and "Feedback" sliders. The available effects are "None" (no post-
127			processing), "Reverb" (simple reverb) and "Spatial" (reverb with phase
128			shift, intended for headphone users).
129
130	cebix	1.1	The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID
131			filters on or off.
132
133	cebix	1.3	The "New SID Chip" checkbox selects the type of SID chip to be emulated.
134			Currently this only affects some combined waveforms.
135
136			The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the stereo
137			panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized voices, 1
138			sampled voice).
139	cebix	1.1
140
141			Where do I get PSID files
142			-------------------------
143
144			The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID
145	cebix	1.3	Collection (http://hvsc.c64.org) and the "NemeSIDs" archive
146			(ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used for testing
147			during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work.
148
149			Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the "PSID
150			Demo" directory.
151
152
153			Support
154			-------
155
156			Updates of SIDPlayer are available on the official SIDPlayer home page:
157	cebix	1.1
158	cebix	1.3	http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SPMain.html
159	cebix	1.1
160
161			History
162			-------
163
164			V1.0 - First release
165			V2.0 - SID filter emulation, better envelope generation
166			V2.1 - Implemented notch filter, 60Hz replay now works, added faster/
167			slower buttons, compiled for BeOS DR8
168			V2.2 - Improved the 6510, triangle waveform is now 12 bits, output
169			clipping, stereo output, corrected SID sustain behaviour,
170			reading from a write-only SID register returns the last byte
171			written to the SID, combined waveforms sampled from a 6581R4
172			V2.3 - Corrected BRK, DCP, ARR and LAS instructions, volume levels up
173			to 200% possible, compiled for BeOS DR9
174			V2.4 - Shows name/author/copyright in ISO-Latin1
175			V2.5 - Converted panning/volume sliders to BSlider class
176			V3.0 - Unified PPC/x86 release
177			V4.0 - Now based on Frodo V5 CPU/SID code (more efficient CPU emulation,
178			post-processing effects (reverb, spatial), prefs manager), replaced
179			faster/slower buttons by slider, added popup menu and sound control
180			window, ported to BeOS R5 with new Media Kit, implemented CIA timer
181			speed control, and SIDPlayer can now also be used as a CL-Amp plugin
182	cebix	1.5	V4.1 - Runs as a command-line application under Unix (requiring SDL)
183	cebix	1.1
184
185			Christian Bauer
186			<Christian.Bauer@uni-mainz.de>