Mercurial > hg > xmms-sid
annotate README @ 199:6117c326cc3e
Updated documentation
author | Matti Hamalainen <ccr@tnsp.org> |
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date | Wed, 18 Aug 2004 15:23:05 +0000 |
parents | 5cb9c9e9a020 |
children | ec8b735f5418 |
rev | line source |
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7 | 1 XMMS-SID - SIDPlay input plugin for X MultiMedia System (XMMS) |
1 | 2 ============================================================== |
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3 Programmed and designed by Matti 'ccr' Hamalainen |
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4 (C) Copyright 1999-2004 Tecnic Software productions (TNSP) |
1 | 5 |
7 | 6 MD5 Algorithm code for song-length database handling |
7 by L. Peter Deutsch <ghost@aladdin.com> | |
8 (C) Copyright 1999 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved. | |
1 | 9 |
10 | |
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11 Short Introduction |
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12 ================== |
7 | 13 XMMS-SID is a plugin for XMMS (X MultiMedia System) which provides |
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14 support for playing Commodore 64 "SID tunes", which are music |
199 | 15 from old Commodore computer software including games, demos, etc. |
1 | 16 |
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17 |
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18 |
171 | 19 Installation requirements and recommendations |
20 ============================================= | |
21 Refer to file "INSTALL" for information about what XMMS-SID requires, | |
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22 where to get those required packages and how to install. |
1 | 23 |
199 | 24 Some words on which emulation library you should choose to install |
25 and use - it depends somewhat on your system and personal preferences. | |
171 | 26 |
27 | |
28 - libSIDPlay v1: This is the old SIDPlay v1 emulation library. Its | |
29 emulation is "frame-based" and not very accurate. The waveforms | |
30 produced are harsher and emulation if SID filter is far from | |
31 accurate. | |
32 | |
33 libSIDPlay v1 requires very little CPU power, it is faster and | |
34 may have fewer bugs due to being more mature software. Many | |
35 distributions have pre-built packages of it, not something that | |
36 can be said of libSIDPlay v2. Some people may even like the | |
37 harsher sound produced by libSIDPlay v1. | |
38 | |
39 Drawbacks are: worse emulation, eventually weakening compability | |
40 as new SID-tunes/files are ripped into "RSID"-format which | |
41 libSIDPlay v1 does NOT support. | |
42 | |
43 | |
44 - libSIDPlay v2: New, next generation modular SID-emulation framework. | |
45 Along with reSID-library it produces probably most accurate emulated | |
46 representation of SID-chip available. This, however, comes at high | |
47 cost: libSIDPlay2 tends to eat CPU like popcorn, depending on the | |
48 selected emulation options. It is also less spread, not as many | |
49 distributions/operating systems come with pre-packaged libSIDPlay2, | |
50 so you may have to roll your own. | |
51 | |
52 Also the API-stability of libSIDPlay2 is not yet 100%, there may | |
53 be changes. Bugs are evident, though many of them will be fixed | |
54 eventually. | |
55 | |
56 | |
173 | 57 - libNanoSID: An obscure binary-only emulation library that only plays |
171 | 58 special ZSID-format files, which are not compatible with PSID-formats. |
59 Pros: Fast emulation, supposedly good filter-emulation. | |
60 Cons: Does not support normal PSID-files directly, binary-only library | |
61 which only works on x86-Linux architechture. | |
62 | |
63 | |
64 Conclusion thus is as follows: If you are using an old system with not | |
193 | 65 much spare CPU-power, choose libSIDPlay v1. On a relatively recent |
66 system (more powerful than Pentium III 500MHz) you may wish to choose | |
67 libSIDPlay v2, although your mileage may vary. | |
171 | 68 |
69 libNanoSID is for those who need support for ZSID-format, most people | |
70 don't have any reason to concern themselves with it. | |
71 | |
1 | 72 |
73 Usage | |
74 ===== | |
7 | 75 Using the plugin is quite simple: if you are familiar with XMMS and |
76 SIDPlay, then you already know how to use XMMS-SID. Configuration | |
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77 should be self-explanatory for most part, here are few tips: |
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78 |
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79 * XSIDPLAY-compatible song-length database is a file that contains |
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80 lengths for most songs in High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC). I |
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81 highly recommend that you download the database and configure |
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82 XMMS-SID to use it. The SLDB is available at |
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83 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/5147/sidplay/sldb.html |
7 | 84 |
193 | 85 * SIDPlay2-emulation is heavier, but more accurate. So you need to |
86 have more CPU-power for it. | |
1 | 87 |
7 | 88 * Oversampling is available with SIDPlay2-emulation, it can further |
55 | 89 enchange the audio quality, but you need some really powerful |
90 hardware to run it smoothly. | |
1 | 91 |
7 | 92 * Filter-settings can be usually left as they are, unless you know |
93 what you're doing. | |
1 | 94 |
7 | 95 * If the plugin doesn't recognize your SID-tunes, try checking the |
193 | 96 'Determine filetype by contents' option in the XMMS-SID config |
97 window. This is horrendously slow if you're reading a 10000-tune | |
98 playlist, though. | |
1 | 99 |
193 | 100 * For those who don't know it: Autopanning and stereo are not native |
101 to the original SID chip, but are extra options implemented in | |
102 libSIDPlay. So if you think that the tune does not sound as it | |
103 sounds on real C64, use the Mono setting. | |
1 | 104 |
105 * The "kb/s rate" box is actually the play rate in Hz, so you can | |
106 see if it's an NTSC or PAL song (if you haven't set the Force Speed | |
107 option). | |
108 | |
7 | 109 Also see FAQ for more tips, notes and such. |
110 | |
1 | 111 |
158 | 112 License |
113 ======= | |
114 XMMS-SID is distributed under GNU General Public License version 2, | |
115 see COPYING for more information. | |
116 | |
117 If you like XMMS-SID, you can thank me by distributing message | |
118 about it's existence and voting it on freshmeat.net. | |
119 | |
120 | |
121 Contact, support and new versions | |
122 ================================= | |
7 | 123 New releases of this plugin should be available at TNSP's WWW- |
124 homepages, see below for address. Bug-reports, suggestions, | |
158 | 125 patches, etc. should be sent to ccr at least for now, please see |
126 the homepage for latest information. | |
1 | 127 |
191 | 128 |
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129 IRC : The #xmms-sid on freenode has been TERMINATED. |
191 | 130 But I do idle on #xmms at irc.freenode.net |
131 (see http://www.freenode.net/) | |
1 | 132 |
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133 E-mail : ccr@tnsp.org |
1 | 134 |
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135 Homepage : http://www.tnsp.org/xmms-sid.php |
191 | 136 |