Mercurial > hg > xmms-sid
view README @ 171:78e06aecad7f
Updated documentation.
author | Matti Hamalainen <ccr@tnsp.org> |
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date | Fri, 13 Aug 2004 06:39:04 +0000 |
parents | d3425d53be3a |
children | 7515712b4af7 |
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XMMS-SID - SIDPlay input plugin for X MultiMedia System (XMMS) ============================================================== Programmed and designed by Matti 'ccr' Hamalainen (C) Copyright 1999-2004 Tecnic Software productions (TNSP) MD5 Algorithm code for song-length database handling by L. Peter Deutsch <ghost@aladdin.com> (C) Copyright 1999 Aladdin Enterprises. All rights reserved. Short Introduction ================== XMMS-SID is a plugin for XMMS (X MultiMedia System) which provides support for playing Commodore 64 "SID tunes", which are music from old Commodore computer programs like games, demos, etc. For the actual playing, XMMS-SID supports numerous emulator engines, including the excellent libSIDPlay v1 and v2. Installation requirements and recommendations ============================================= Refer to file "INSTALL" for information about what XMMS-SID requires, where to get those required packages and how to install. Some words on which emulation library you should select - it depends somewhat on your system and personal preferences. - libSIDPlay v1: This is the old SIDPlay v1 emulation library. Its emulation is "frame-based" and not very accurate. The waveforms produced are harsher and emulation if SID filter is far from accurate. libSIDPlay v1 requires very little CPU power, it is faster and may have fewer bugs due to being more mature software. Many distributions have pre-built packages of it, not something that can be said of libSIDPlay v2. Some people may even like the harsher sound produced by libSIDPlay v1. Drawbacks are: worse emulation, eventually weakening compability as new SID-tunes/files are ripped into "RSID"-format which libSIDPlay v1 does NOT support. - libSIDPlay v2: New, next generation modular SID-emulation framework. Along with reSID-library it produces probably most accurate emulated representation of SID-chip available. This, however, comes at high cost: libSIDPlay2 tends to eat CPU like popcorn, depending on the selected emulation options. It is also less spread, not as many distributions/operating systems come with pre-packaged libSIDPlay2, so you may have to roll your own. Also the API-stability of libSIDPlay2 is not yet 100%, there may be changes. Bugs are evident, though many of them will be fixed eventually. - libNanoSID: An obscure binary-only emulation library which only plays special ZSID-format files, which are not compatible with PSID-formats. Pros: Fast emulation, supposedly good filter-emulation. Cons: Does not support normal PSID-files directly, binary-only library which only works on x86-Linux architechture. Conclusion thus is as follows: If you are using an old system with not much spare CPU-power, choose libSIDPlay v1. On a new system (more powerful than Pentium III 650MHz at least) you may choose libSIDPlay v2. libNanoSID is for those who need support for ZSID-format, most people don't have any reason to concern themselves with it. Usage ===== Using the plugin is quite simple: if you are familiar with XMMS and SIDPlay, then you already know how to use XMMS-SID. Configuration should be self-explanatory for most part, here are few tips: * XSIDPLAY-compatible song-length database is a file that contains lengths for most songs in High Voltage SID Collection (HVSC). I highly recommend that you download the database and configure XMMS-SID to use it. The SLDB is available at http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Lakes/5147/sidplay/sldb.html * SIDPlay2-emulation is heavier, but more accurate. So you need to have more CPU-power for it. * Oversampling is available with SIDPlay2-emulation, it can further enchange the audio quality, but you need some really powerful hardware to run it smoothly. * Filter-settings can be usually left as they are, unless you know what you're doing. * If the plugin doesn't recognize your SID-tunes, 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. * 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). Also see FAQ for more tips, notes and such. License ======= XMMS-SID is distributed under GNU General Public License version 2, see COPYING for more information. If you like XMMS-SID, you can thank me by distributing message about it's existence and voting it on freshmeat.net. Contact, support and 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 at least for now, please see the homepage for latest information. IRC : The #xmms-sid on freenode has been TERMINATED. But I do idle on #xmms at irc.freenode.net (see http://www.freenode.net/) E-mail : ccr@tnsp.org Homepage : http://www.tnsp.org/xmms-sid.php