XMMS-SID - Frequently Asked (and other) Questions
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- So what IS the SID and/or 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,
- Can I make my own SIDs??? How??
- XMMS-SID plays some tune badly!
- Do I really need to use the song-position patch?
- How do I use the song-position patch?


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Q: So what IS the SID and/or what are SID-tunes?

A: SID is abbreviation for the sound chip that was used in many
   of the old 8-bit home computers manufactured by Commodore 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), designed by Bob Yannes, was
   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 to be legendary,
   such as songs by Martin Galway (for games Arkanoid, Green Beret,
   Yie Ar Kung Fu 1 & 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 ex. MON member
   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 would have never believed.

   For example: SID has only three sound channels, but there are tunes
   that use special techniques to "multiplex" them to sound like four
   or even six channels. Also these three channels are "limited" to
   synthesized sounds, kind like the FM sounds produced by old Sound
   Blaster cards on PC. But again, using a certain 'bug' in SID chip,
   composers were able to push the limits farther ... Martin Galway's
   very famous piece on Arkanoid game was the "first" (later it has
   been proven that Chris Huelsbeck's Bad Cat was the first but was
   released later) to feature DIGITIZED SAMPLES like speech, etc.

   ...

   So this is the story in short. The "SID tunes" are usually understood
   to be the files that contain the C64 machine code and data that plays
   the music. SID players (or emulators) 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-files (aka
   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 for one of those emulators, libSIDPlay by
   Michael Schwendt.


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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 15,000 tunes in the
   HVSC version 4.0 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 playing
   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...

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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.

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Q: When using XMMS-SID with the OpenGL Spectrum Analyzer,
   the sound becomes distorted!

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.

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Q: Can I make my own SIDs??? 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
   - Cybertracker (http://noname.c64.org/)
   - GoatTracker (http://www.covertbitops.cjb.net/)

   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.

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Q: XMMS-SID plays some tune badly!

A: Please read file "README.bugreport". In general this
   might be a bug in SIDPlay-library or some other component.
   Or it might be in XMMS-SID. Report and I'll see what
   can be done.

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Q: Do I really need to use the song-position patch?
   I would like to have my XMMS as it is.

A: No, you don't need to use it or patch XMMS. There is
   now an alternative available, although it only covers
   XMMS-SID (no other plugins, like the patch).

   This new sub-song control window is imitated from SIDAmp.

   The new sub-song-selector is used automagically if
   you have NOT patched the XMMS. If you have patched it,
   then the patch will be used instead.

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Q: How do I use the song-position patch?

A: Apply the patch to XMMS, configure and (re)compile,
   install. Configure and compile XMMS-SID, install.

XMMS-SID automagically detects a patched XMMS and uses the
extended features. (See also the previous questions)

Patching
========
Short instructions of patching XMMS for the uninitiated ;-)
(Substitute the XMMS version 1.2.5 with the appropriate version)

1) Unpack the XMMS source distribution:

	tar -xzvf xmms-1.2.5.tar.gz

2) cd xmms-1.2.5

3) Patch the XMMS (with the selected patch file)

   patch -p1 < /some/where/xmms-songpos.patch

4) If the patch succeeded (no failures, no .rej files), you
   can now compile and install the XMMS. (Read through XMMS
   documentation how to do it if you don't know)

   If some part of the patch does not succeed, you may need
   to fix it by hand. Or you could just not use the patch :)


If you patched and recompiled XMMS _after_ you had already used
XMMS-SID, you need to re-compile XMMS-SID too to make it use the
patch features!

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