Mercurial > hg > xmms-sid
view FAQ @ 88:0cf08d137248
Some fixes for RPM-stuff
author | Matti Hamalainen <ccr@tnsp.org> |
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date | Sun, 05 Oct 2003 12:38:02 +0000 |
parents | 7047a6390b08 |
children | c8f97c889f55 |
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XMMS-SID - Frequently Asked (and other) Questions ================================================= - So what IS the "SID"? - What are "SID-tunes"? - Where to get SID-tunes? - Why isn't the sub-song control window skinnable? - When using XMMS-SID with the OpenGL Spectrum Analyzer, the sound becomes distorted! - Can I make my own SID-tunes??? How?? - XMMS-SID plays some tune badly! >--- Q: So what IS the "SID"? A: "SID" is abbreviation for the sound chip that was used in many of the old 8-bit home computers manufactured by Commodore Business Machines Inc. in 1980's. Best known of those was the Commodore 64 home computer (aka C64 or CBM64, also known as VIC-64 in some countries). The Sound Interface Device (SID) was designed by Bob Yannes and is considered one of the most advanced sound chips at the time. It's capabilities surpassed all of the other chips on the 8-bit home computer market and even most of the ones used in arcade game systems. Thousands of games were produced for C=64 in 1980's and beginning of 1990's, many of them having excellent musical score. Best of those tunes are still regarded as legendary - such as songs by Martin Galway (for games Arkanoid, Green Beret, Yie Ar Kung Fu 1 and 2, Parallax...), Rob Hubbard (Commando, Auf Wiedersehen Monty, Monty on the Run, Warhawk, Sanxion, Delta...), Ben Daglish (Jack the Nipper 1&2, Way of the Tiger, Cobra, Avenger) and numerous other famous composers. Some of them quit their composing quickly after the 8-bit period, but some are still working in the computer music business. (Including Maniacs of Noise, Chris Huelsbeck, Richard Joseph and Charles Deenen who worked with Fallout 1 & 2's musical score) Today, years after the decline of 8-bit computers, many composers mainly from C64 demoscene, continue to compose tunes for SID and get most amazing things out of it -- things that the designers of the SID didn't even imagine. The SID-chip is based on waveform modulation and synthesis and has only three separate sound channels, but there are tunes that use special techniques to "multiplex" them to sound like four or even six channels. Even with limited number of channels and barely four different basic waveforms (saw, triangle, pulse and noise), SID is able to create most wonderful sounds. Modulation of channels via another, special analog filter (low-, high- and band-pass) add to the capabilities of SID. What is even more amazing, using a certain 'bug' in SID chip's volume control, composers were able to push the limits farther ... Martin Galway's very famous piece on Arkanoid game was one of the first to feature DIGITIZED SAMPLES like real instruments and speech. >--- Q: What are "SID-tunes"? A: The "SID-tunes" are files that contain C64 machine code and data that plays the music. SID-tune players are programs that emulate the SID chip capabilities and other parts of C64 hardware to produce almost authentic re-creation of the original music. SID-tunes can be created by ripping the music routines and data from some game or just composing the music with some editor. XMMS-SID is interface, a piece of "software glue", that puts together several emulator libraries and XMMS allowing play of SID-tunes via XMMS's interface. >--- Q: Where to get SID-tunes? A: There are many collections of SID-tunes on the Internet, but probably the best one and best known one is the High Voltage SID Collection aka HVSC. It is available at: http://hvsc.c64.org/ HVSC contains the tunes ripped from all legendary C64 games, loaders, etc. And more. There are over 20,660 tunes in the HVSC version 5.3 and more are coming. HVSC also contains the STIL database (SID Tune Information List) that contains lots of information about many of the tunes included in HVSC. XMMS-SID supports the STIL database and info about the selected tune can be viewed with the "XMMS fileinfo" window (CTRL+3). STIL information can contain comments from composers, notice if the tune is a cover and historically interesting facts about games, etc... >--- Q: Why isn't the sub-song control window skinnable? A: Because the XMMS's code for skins is not exported to plugins. And besides, you would need new skin(s) anyway. Things would be overly complicated if I added a skin support and I'm not interested, at least for now. >--- Q: When using XMMS-SID with the OpenGL Spectrum Analyzer, A: This is a known problem and occurs usually with NVidia cards and drivers. It is not directly related to XMMS-SID. With certain combinations of hardware, this problem presents itself with all input-plugins (mp3, mod, ogg..) of XMMS. Workaround: Upgrade or downgrade your NVidia drivers. Try lowering your systemload. Close some unnecessary CPU-consuming applications. Buy faster hardware. >--- Q: Can I make my own SID-tunes??? How?? A: Yes you can. You need a real C64 or emulator like VICE and a composing program. There are many available, I know only few of them: - JCH's editor (search with google) - Cybertracker (http://noname.c64.org/) - GoatTracker (http://covertbitops.c64.org/) Some of the mentioned tools can be found from Lemon's collection which is an excellent place to look for info on games and other Commodore-related software. The URL is: http://www.lemon64.com/ You should also check http://www.c64.com/ Besides the above, you'll need some skill in using the programs and hardware, understanding of music in some level and good ideas for tunes. :) Rest of that is out of the scope of this document, please don't ask me about this. >--- Q: XMMS-SID plays some tune badly! A: Please read file "README.bugreport". In general this might be a bug in emulation-library or some other component. Or it might be in XMMS-SID. Report and I'll see what can be done. >---