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!
- What about SIDPlay1 & 2 support?

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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), based on waveform modulation
   and synthesis, 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.

   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.

   ...

   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 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...

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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 (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.

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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: What about SIDPlay1 & 2 support? I saw some screenshots from 0.8beta
   that had selectable support for v1 and v2 in the configuration!

A: The runtime selection in betas 0-4 was based on patched libsidplay2
   that changed the namespace to not to clash with libsidplay1. I don't
   think it is worth of the trouble because a) it would break other apps
   using libsidplay2 unless the patched version was statically linked to
   XMMS-SID and b) I would have to manually create the patches for every
   libsidplay2 update. Too much work, so it's not going to happen.

   Only "feasible" (but also not worth of the trouble) way to achieve
   runtime-selectable support would be to create a dynamic plugin-
   architechture into XMMS-SID to on-demand load support for emulation
   engine(s). I might do this if you are willing to pay 2000 EUR for it :-P

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