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SIDPlayer, Version 4.0 |
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A SID tune replayer for BeOS |
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Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer |
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Freely distributable |
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License |
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------- |
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SIDPlayer is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License. |
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See the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for details. |
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What is SIDPlayer? |
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------------------ |
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SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID |
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on the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped- |
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down C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the |
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C64. SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it |
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cannot run any C64 programs. |
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Why would I want to listen to C64 music? |
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---------------------------------------- |
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The C64 had the most advanced sound capabilities of all home computers in |
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the early 80's. While other computers of that time were only able to produce |
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beeps, the C64 had a complete 3-voice analog synthesizer on its MOS 6581 |
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sound chip (called "SID" - "Sound Interface Device"). Even some more modern |
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computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound. |
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The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR |
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envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects |
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like ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit |
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sampled sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including |
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the filters. |
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There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for |
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the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune |
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replayers on nearly every existing computer platform. One big advantage of |
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SID tunes is that they take very little hard disk space: most are only 4-8K |
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in size. |
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Supported file formats |
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---------------------- |
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The only SID tune file format supported by SIDPlayer is single-file PSID |
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files (these have the signature "PSID" in the first 4 bytes). Most SID music |
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available on the Internet is in this format. |
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Using SIDPlayer |
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--------------- |
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SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give |
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the name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file |
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onto the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played. |
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The SIDPlayer window some information about the currently loaded PSID file |
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and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting and |
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stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song contained |
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in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the total |
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number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of the |
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tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be used |
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to adjust the replay speed. |
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Clicking and holding the right mouse button in the SIDPlayer window will show |
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a pop-up menu with three items: |
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- "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer |
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- "Sound Control" opens the sound control window |
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- "Quit" quits SIDPlayer |
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To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit |
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SIDPlayer, close the window or select the "Quit" menu item. |
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Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be controlled with the keyboard: |
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P : Play/pause |
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S : Stop |
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N : Next song |
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Esc/Space : Stop |
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Left arrow : Previous song |
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Right arrow: Next song |
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Q : Quit |
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SIDPlayer can also be used as an input plugin for CL-Amp by Claes Löfqvist. |
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Simply copy the program to your CL-Amp "Plugins" directory (you have to copy |
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it, placing a link won't work) and rename it to "in_SIDPlayer". |
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The Sound Control window |
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------------------------ |
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The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID |
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filters on or off. |
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The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the |
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stereo panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized |
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voices, 1 sampled voice). |
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Where do I get PSID files |
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------------------------- |
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The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID |
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Collection (http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music) and the "NemeSIDs" |
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archive (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used |
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for testing during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work. |
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Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the |
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"PSID Demo" directory. |
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History |
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V1.0 - First release |
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V2.0 - SID filter emulation, better envelope generation |
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V2.1 - Implemented notch filter, 60Hz replay now works, added faster/ |
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slower buttons, compiled for BeOS DR8 |
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V2.2 - Improved the 6510, triangle waveform is now 12 bits, output |
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clipping, stereo output, corrected SID sustain behaviour, |
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reading from a write-only SID register returns the last byte |
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written to the SID, combined waveforms sampled from a 6581R4 |
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V2.3 - Corrected BRK, DCP, ARR and LAS instructions, volume levels up |
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to 200% possible, compiled for BeOS DR9 |
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V2.4 - Shows name/author/copyright in ISO-Latin1 |
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V2.5 - Converted panning/volume sliders to BSlider class |
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V3.0 - Unified PPC/x86 release |
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V4.0 - Now based on Frodo V5 CPU/SID code (more efficient CPU emulation, |
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post-processing effects (reverb, spatial), prefs manager), replaced |
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faster/slower buttons by slider, added popup menu and sound control |
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window, ported to BeOS R5 with new Media Kit, implemented CIA timer |
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speed control, and SIDPlayer can now also be used as a CL-Amp plugin |
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Christian Bauer |
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<Christian.Bauer@uni-mainz.de> |
