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Working towards CVS 0.8
author Matti Hamalainen <ccr@tnsp.org>
date Wed, 04 Jun 2003 13:44:05 +0000
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1 XMMS-SID - Frequently Asked (and other) Questions
2 =================================================
3
4 - So what IS the SID and/or what are SID-tunes?
5 - Where to get SID tunes?
6 - Why isn't the sub-song control window skinnable?
7 - When using XMMS-SID with the OpenGL Spectrum Analyzer,
8 - Can I make my own SIDs??? How??
9 - XMMS-SID plays some tune badly!
10 - Do I really need to use the song-position patch?
11 - How do I use the song-position patch?
12
13
14 >---
15
16 Q: So what IS the SID and/or what are SID-tunes?
17
18 A: SID is abbreviation for the sound chip that was used in many
19 of the old 8-bit home computers manufactured by Commodore Inc.
20 in 1980's. Best known of those was the Commodore 64 home computer
21 (aka C64 or CBM64, also known as VIC-64 in some countries).
22
23 The Sound Interface Device (SID), designed by Bob Yannes, was
24 one of the most advanced sound chips at the time.
25 It's capabilities surpassed all of the other chips on the 8-bit
26 home computer market and even most of the ones used in arcade
27 game systems. Thousands of games were produced for C=64 in
28 1980's and beginning of 1990's, many of them having excellent
29 musical score.
30
31 Best of those tunes are still regarded to be legendary,
32 such as songs by Martin Galway (for games Arkanoid, Green Beret,
33 Yie Ar Kung Fu 1 & 2, Parallax...), Rob Hubbard (Commando, Auf
34 Wiedersehen Monty, Monty on the Run, Warhawk, Sanxion, Delta...),
35 Ben Daglish (Jack the Nipper 1&2, Way of the Tiger, Cobra, Avenger)
36 and numerous other famous composers. Some of them quit their
37 composing quickly after the 8-bit period, but some are still
38 working in the computer music business. (Including Maniacs of
39 Noise, Chris Huelsbeck, Richard Joseph and ex. MON member
40 Charles Deenen who worked with Fallout 1 & 2's musical score)
41
42 Today, years after the 'decline' of 8-bit computers, many composers
43 (mainly from C64 demoscene) continue to compose tunes for SID and
44 get most amazing things out of it -- things that the designers of
45 the SID would have never believed.
46
47 For example: SID has only three sound channels, but there are tunes
48 that use special techniques to "multiplex" them to sound like four
49 or even six channels. Also these three channels are "limited" to
50 synthesized sounds, kind like the FM sounds produced by old Sound
51 Blaster cards on PC. But again, using a certain 'bug' in SID chip,
52 composers were able to push the limits farther ... Martin Galway's
53 very famous piece on Arkanoid game was the "first" (later it has
54 been proven that Chris Huelsbeck's Bad Cat was the first but was
55 released later) to feature DIGITIZED SAMPLES like speech, etc.
56
57 ...
58
59 So this is the story in short. The "SID tunes" are usually understood
60 to be the files that contain the C64 machine code and data that plays
61 the music. SID players (or emulators) are programs that emulate the
62 SID chip capabilities and other parts of C64 hardware to produce
63 almost authentic re-creation of the original music. SID-files (aka
64 SID tunes) can be created by ripping the music routines and data from
65 some game or just composing the music with some editor.
66
67 XMMS-SID is interface for one of those emulators, libSIDPlay by
68 Michael Schwendt.
69
70
71 >---
72
73 Q: Where to get SID tunes?
74
75 A: There are many collections of SID tunes on the Internet, but
76 probably the best one and best known one is the High Voltage
77 SID Collection aka HVSC.
78
79 It is available at: http://hvsc.c64.org/
80
81 HVSC contains the tunes ripped from all legendary C64 games,
82 loaders, etc. And more. There are over 15,000 tunes in the
83 HVSC version 4.0 and more are coming. HVSC also contains the
84 STIL database (SID Tune Information List) that contains lots
85 of information about many of the tunes included in HVSC.
86 XMMS-SID supports the STIL database and info about the playing
87 tune can be viewed with the "XMMS fileinfo" window (CTRL+3).
88 STIL information can contain comments from composers, notice
89 if the tune is a cover and historically interesting facts
90 about games, etc...
91
92 >---
93
94 Q: Why isn't the sub-song control window skinnable?
95
96 A: Because the XMMS's code for skins is not exported to
97 plugins. And besides, you would need new skin(s) anyway.
98
99 Things would be overly complicated if I added a skin support
100 and I'm not interested, at least for now.
101
102 >---
103
104 Q: When using XMMS-SID with the OpenGL Spectrum Analyzer,
105 the sound becomes distorted!
106
107 A: This is a known problem and occurs usually with NVidia
108 cards and drivers. It is not directly related to XMMS-SID.
109
110 With certain combinations of hardware, this problem presents
111 itself with all input-plugins (mp3, mod, ogg..) of XMMS.
112
113 Workaround: Upgrade or downgrade your NVidia drivers.
114 Try lowering your systemload. Close some unnecessary
115 CPU-consuming applications. Buy faster hardware.
116
117 >---
118
119 Q: Can I make my own SIDs??? How??
120
121 A: Yes you can. You need a real C64 or emulator like VICE and
122 a composing program. There are many available, I know only
123 few of them:
124
125 - JCH's editor
126 - Cybertracker (http://noname.c64.org/)
127 - GoatTracker (http://www.covertbitops.cjb.net/)
128
129 Some of the mentioned tools can be found from Lemon's
130 collection which is an excellent place to look for info
131 on games and other Commodore-related software.
132 The URL is: http://www.lemon64.com/
133 You should also check http://www.c64.com/
134
135 Besides the above, you'll need some skill in using the
136 programs and hardware, understanding of music in some
137 level and good ideas for tunes. :)
138
139 Rest of that is out of the scope of this document,
140 please don't ask me about this.
141
142 >---
143
144 Q: XMMS-SID plays some tune badly!
145
146 A: Please read file "README.bugreport". In general this
147 might be a bug in SIDPlay-library or some other component.
148 Or it might be in XMMS-SID. Report and I'll see what
149 can be done.
150
151 >---
152
153 Q: Do I really need to use the song-position patch?
154 I would like to have my XMMS as it is.
155
156 A: No, you don't need to use it or patch XMMS. There is
157 now an alternative available, although it only covers
158 XMMS-SID (no other plugins, like the patch).
159
160 This new sub-song control window is imitated from SIDAmp.
161
162 The new sub-song-selector is used automagically if
163 you have NOT patched the XMMS. If you have patched it,
164 then the patch will be used instead.
165
166 >---
167
168 Q: How do I use the song-position patch?
169
170 A: Apply the patch to XMMS, configure and (re)compile,
171 install. Configure and compile XMMS-SID, install.
172
173 XMMS-SID automagically detects a patched XMMS and uses the
174 extended features. (See also the previous questions)
175
176 Patching
177 ========
178 Short instructions of patching XMMS for the uninitiated ;-)
179 (Substitute the XMMS version 1.2.5 with the appropriate version)
180
181 1) Unpack the XMMS source distribution:
182
183 tar -xzvf xmms-1.2.5.tar.gz
184
185 2) cd xmms-1.2.5
186
187 3) Patch the XMMS (with the selected patch file)
188
189 patch -p1 < /some/where/xmms-songpos.patch
190
191 4) If the patch succeeded (no failures, no .rej files), you
192 can now compile and install the XMMS. (Read through XMMS
193 documentation how to do it if you don't know)
194
195 If some part of the patch does not succeed, you may need
196 to fix it by hand. Or you could just not use the patch :)
197
198
199 If you patched and recompiled XMMS _after_ you had already used
200 XMMS-SID, you need to re-compile XMMS-SID too to make it use the
201 patch features!
202
203 >---