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.

"Kummatti City", theme of XMMS-SID 0.8
  by Ari 'Agemixer' Yliaho
  (C) Copyright 1998 Scallo

NOTICE! "Kummatti City" song is freely distributable as part
of XMMS-SID, but it is not distributed under GNU General Public
License like the rest of XMMS-SID package is, but "copyrighted
freeware". Contact mr. Ari Yliaho if you wish to use this
song in any other way.


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 software including games, demos, etc.


Configuration
=============

Audio-tab
---------
- Resolution: 8 or 16-bit. Usually you should select 16-bit, unless
  your audio hardware/drivers do not support it for some reason.
  Speed benefit from using 8-bit audio is minimal, audio quality
  is much worse than 16-bit.

- Channels: Mono is the way to go. Original SID (single chip) output
  is mono, the "stereo" and "autopanning" settings are just
  artificial additions.

- Samplerate: High samplerate means better quality sound. Usually
  you'll set this to 44.1kHz (44100 Hz), but latest audio hardware
  may support rates up to 48kHz (48000 Hz) and sometimes 96kHz.

  Bigger samplerate means also more work for the emulator and
  thus requires more CPU power.

- Oversampling: Some emulator backends (currently only SIDPlay 2)
  support technique called "oversampling", which further enhances
  audio quality. Oversampling is done by computing audio data to
  higher rate (factor * samplerate) and then downsampling with
  rate-conversion filter.

  This results in smoother waveforms, BUT consumes very much CPU!

Emu#1-tab
---------
- Emulator library selection: Here you can choose a emulator
  backend from those which for support has been compiled in
  XMMS-SID. Refer to file "INSTALL" for discussion about
  emulator libraries and their aspects.

- Memory mode: libSIDPlay supports several different memory modes
  for SID emulation, most of those are for compatibility, though.
  For SIDPlay 2 emulation, select "Real C64" unless you know better.
  For SIDPlay 1 emulation, select "Bank switching".

Emu#2-tab
---------
- Clock Speed: Sets default clockspeed and can also "force" the
  emulator backend to use it. Usually the tune's clockspeed is
  automatically detected, so do not set "Force speed" unless you
  know what you're doing.

- SID Type: Sets default SID-chip type. Most fileformats contain
  information about the preferred SID-chip type to emulate, but
  here you can select a default for those situations when it is
  not known.

- SIDPlay 2 options:
  - Optimization mode: If enabled and SIDPlay 2 emulator library
    has been selected, the emulator is run in "optimization" mode
    which is partial frame-emulation. Results in faster, but
    inaccurate emulation.

  - reSID-emulation / HardSID: Select SIDPlay 2 backend. reSID
    is a software SID-chip simulation and currently the only
    option available. HardSID is backend for HardSID card,
    but it is not supported yet by XMMS-SID.

Filters-tab
-----------
- Emulate filters: Enable filter emulation. Usually you will want
  to enable this option, unless you are running on very slow CPU.
  SID filters affect outcome of most tunes very much.

- Filter settings: Unless you are advanced user (and thus know what
  these are), the defaults will work very well and there is no need
  to touch filter settings.

Songlength-tab
--------------
Most of song length settings should be self-explanatory. The
respective "Only when song-length is unknown" options make
maximum/minimum playtime limits work only when song length

* 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



Miscellaneous tips
==================
* 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 EXTREMELY 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, but are extra options implemented in
  libSIDPlay. So if you think that the tune does not sound as it
  sounds on real C64, 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, gotchas 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, so
           don't bother going there. After 2 years of idling
           alone on that channel, I got bored.

           But I do hang on #xmms at irc.freenode.net by
           unsurprising nickname "ccr".
           (see http://www.freenode.net/ for more information)

E-mail   : ccr@tnsp.org

Homepage : http://www.tnsp.org/xmms-sid.php