xmms-sid - SIDPlay input plugin for X MultiMedia System (XMMS)
==============================================================

XMMS-SID is originally by Willem Monsuwe.
Additional fixes, features added were added by
Matti "ccr" Hamalainen of Tecnic Software productions (TNSP),
who also nowadays maintains this package.

!! NOTICE: Please do not contact Willem about this version,
since the bugs and quirks are probably made by me (ccr) now. !!

General Introduction
====================
XMMS-SID is a plugin for XMMS (X MultiMedia System) which provides
support for playing the so-called "SID tunes". For the actual playing,
XMMS-SID uses the excellent libsidplay SID-chip/6502 emulator engine.
(See "INSTALL" where to get libsidplay)

If you are not familiar with the term "SID tune" or "SID" concept at
all, a short (yes it is! ;-) explanation follows:

SID is 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) 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 at least 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 legendary composers. Some of them quit their
composing quickly after the 8-bit period, but some are still working
in the computer music business. (Like Maniacs of Noise, Chris
Huelsbeck, Richard Joseph and ex. MON member Charles Deenen who
worked with Fallout 1'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, probably the best
one: (lib)SIDPlay by Michael Schwendt.

...

Hopefully I didn't make you bored with my chit-chat :)

-ccr/TNSP


Where to get SID tunes?
=======================
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, information
about if the tune is a cover and historically interesting facts
about games, etc...


Usage
=====
Using the plugin is quite simple, if you are familiar with XMMS,
then you already know how to use XMMS-SID. The configuration of
the plugin should be quite self-explanatory and the default settings
are usually satisfactory. The only thing that you probably
need to touch in the config dialog is the "STIL-database path"-setting,
if you have the HVSC-collection and want to use STIL-database.

Simply point the STIL-db path to "STIL.txt"-file that resides
under "DOCUMENTS"-subdirectory of HVSC-rootdir. For example,
I use the following path: "/usr/src/C64Music/DOCUMENTS/STIL.txt".
(My HVSC resides under "/usr/src/C64Music")


Notes
=====
* If the plugin doesn't recognize your sidtunes, try checking the
  'Determine filetype by contents' option in the xmms-sid config window.
  This is horrendously slow if you're reading a 10000-tune playlist,
  though.

* For those who don't know it: Autopanning and stereo are not native to
  the original SID chip on C64&all, but are extra options implemented in
  libsidplay. So if you think that the tune does not sound as it sounds
  on the real C64 (or other SID using machine), use the Mono setting.

* xmms-sid's configuration panel has been enchanged (from v0.6)
  to have the libsidplay's SID filter configuration parameters. You
  can tune them if you know what you're doing and maybe want to make
  xmms-sid sound more like your own C64's SID (as some of you may
  remember, the original SID 6580 had the infamous filter bug that
  made every chip sound somewhat different!). If you don't know what
  to do with these settings, just press the Reset Values button to
  get the working defaults of libsidplay.

* The "kb/s rate" box is actually the play rate in Hz, so you can
  see if it's an NTSC or PAL song (if you haven't set the Force Speed
  option).

* Read file "README.songpos" for additional fun.


Contacting and where to get new versions
========================================
New releases of this plugin should be available at TNSP's WWW
homepages, see below for address. Bug reports, suggestions,
patches, etc. should be sent to ccr.

ccr's e-mail: mhamalai@ratol.fi

	OR  : ccr@iobox.com (if the one above does not work)

TNSP's WWW  : http://www.tnsp.org/

TNSP e-mail : tnsp@iobox.com