Mercurial > hg > xmms-sid
annotate README @ 171:78e06aecad7f
Updated documentation.
| author | Matti Hamalainen <ccr@tnsp.org> |
|---|---|
| date | Fri, 13 Aug 2004 06:39:04 +0000 |
| parents | d3425d53be3a |
| children | 7515712b4af7 |
| 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 |
| 7 | 15 from old Commodore computer programs like games, demos, etc. |
| 1 | 16 |
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17 For the actual playing, XMMS-SID supports numerous emulator |
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18 engines, including the excellent libSIDPlay v1 and v2. |
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19 |
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20 |
| 171 | 21 Installation requirements and recommendations |
| 22 ============================================= | |
| 23 Refer to file "INSTALL" for information about what XMMS-SID requires, | |
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24 where to get those required packages and how to install. |
| 1 | 25 |
| 171 | 26 Some words on which emulation library you should select - it depends |
| 27 somewhat on your system and personal preferences. | |
| 28 | |
| 29 | |
| 30 - libSIDPlay v1: This is the old SIDPlay v1 emulation library. Its | |
| 31 emulation is "frame-based" and not very accurate. The waveforms | |
| 32 produced are harsher and emulation if SID filter is far from | |
| 33 accurate. | |
| 34 | |
| 35 libSIDPlay v1 requires very little CPU power, it is faster and | |
| 36 may have fewer bugs due to being more mature software. Many | |
| 37 distributions have pre-built packages of it, not something that | |
| 38 can be said of libSIDPlay v2. Some people may even like the | |
| 39 harsher sound produced by libSIDPlay v1. | |
| 40 | |
| 41 Drawbacks are: worse emulation, eventually weakening compability | |
| 42 as new SID-tunes/files are ripped into "RSID"-format which | |
| 43 libSIDPlay v1 does NOT support. | |
| 44 | |
| 45 | |
| 46 - libSIDPlay v2: New, next generation modular SID-emulation framework. | |
| 47 Along with reSID-library it produces probably most accurate emulated | |
| 48 representation of SID-chip available. This, however, comes at high | |
| 49 cost: libSIDPlay2 tends to eat CPU like popcorn, depending on the | |
| 50 selected emulation options. It is also less spread, not as many | |
| 51 distributions/operating systems come with pre-packaged libSIDPlay2, | |
| 52 so you may have to roll your own. | |
| 53 | |
| 54 Also the API-stability of libSIDPlay2 is not yet 100%, there may | |
| 55 be changes. Bugs are evident, though many of them will be fixed | |
| 56 eventually. | |
| 57 | |
| 58 | |
| 59 - libNanoSID: An obscure binary-only emulation library which only plays | |
| 60 special ZSID-format files, which are not compatible with PSID-formats. | |
| 61 Pros: Fast emulation, supposedly good filter-emulation. | |
| 62 Cons: Does not support normal PSID-files directly, binary-only library | |
| 63 which only works on x86-Linux architechture. | |
| 64 | |
| 65 | |
| 66 Conclusion thus is as follows: If you are using an old system with not | |
| 67 much spare CPU-power, choose libSIDPlay v1. On a new system (more | |
| 68 powerful than Pentium III 650MHz at least) you may choose libSIDPlay v2. | |
| 69 | |
| 70 libNanoSID is for those who need support for ZSID-format, most people | |
| 71 don't have any reason to concern themselves with it. | |
| 72 | |
| 1 | 73 |
| 74 Usage | |
| 75 ===== | |
| 7 | 76 Using the plugin is quite simple: if you are familiar with XMMS and |
| 77 SIDPlay, then you already know how to use XMMS-SID. Configuration | |
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78 should be self-explanatory for most part, here are few tips: |
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79 |
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80 * XSIDPLAY-compatible song-length database is a file that contains |
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81 lengths for most songs in High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC). I |
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82 highly recommend that you download the database and configure |
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83 XMMS-SID to use it. The SLDB is available at |
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84 http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/5147/sidplay/sldb.html |
| 7 | 85 |
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86 * SIDPlay2-emulation is heavier, but more accurate. So you need to have |
| 7 | 87 more CPU-power for it. |
| 1 | 88 |
| 7 | 89 * Oversampling is available with SIDPlay2-emulation, it can further |
| 55 | 90 enchange the audio quality, but you need some really powerful |
| 91 hardware to run it smoothly. | |
| 1 | 92 |
| 7 | 93 * Filter-settings can be usually left as they are, unless you know |
| 94 what you're doing. | |
| 1 | 95 |
| 7 | 96 * If the plugin doesn't recognize your SID-tunes, try checking the |
| 97 'Determine filetype by contents' option in the XMMS-SID config window. | |
| 1 | 98 This is horrendously slow if you're reading a 10000-tune playlist, |
| 99 though. | |
| 100 | |
| 101 * For those who don't know it: Autopanning and stereo are not native to | |
| 102 the original SID chip on C64&all, but are extra options implemented in | |
| 103 libsidplay. So if you think that the tune does not sound as it sounds | |
| 104 on the real C64 (or other SID using machine), use the Mono setting. | |
| 105 | |
| 106 * The "kb/s rate" box is actually the play rate in Hz, so you can | |
| 107 see if it's an NTSC or PAL song (if you haven't set the Force Speed | |
| 108 option). | |
| 109 | |
| 7 | 110 Also see FAQ for more tips, notes and such. |
| 111 | |
| 1 | 112 |
| 158 | 113 License |
| 114 ======= | |
| 115 XMMS-SID is distributed under GNU General Public License version 2, | |
| 116 see COPYING for more information. | |
| 117 | |
| 118 If you like XMMS-SID, you can thank me by distributing message | |
| 119 about it's existence and voting it on freshmeat.net. | |
| 120 | |
| 121 | |
| 122 Contact, support and new versions | |
| 123 ================================= | |
| 7 | 124 New releases of this plugin should be available at TNSP's WWW- |
| 125 homepages, see below for address. Bug-reports, suggestions, | |
| 158 | 126 patches, etc. should be sent to ccr at least for now, please see |
| 127 the homepage for latest information. | |
| 1 | 128 |
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129 IRC : The #xmms-sid on freenode has been TERMINATED. |
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130 But I do idle on #xmms at irc.freenode.net (see http://www.freenode.net/) |
| 1 | 131 |
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132 E-mail : ccr@tnsp.org |
| 1 | 133 |
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134 Homepage : http://www.tnsp.org/xmms-sid.php |