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What is SIDPlayer? |
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SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID |
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on the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped- |
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down C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the |
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C64. SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it |
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cannot run any C64 programs. |
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SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID on |
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the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped-down |
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C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the C64. |
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SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it cannot run |
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any C64 programs. |
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Why would I want to listen to C64 music? |
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computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound. |
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The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR |
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envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects |
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like ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit |
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sampled sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including |
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the filters. |
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envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects like |
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ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit sampled |
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sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including the |
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filters. |
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There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for |
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the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune |
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Using SIDPlayer |
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SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give |
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the name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file |
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onto the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played. |
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The SIDPlayer window some information about the currently loaded PSID file |
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and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting and |
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stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song contained |
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in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the total |
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number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of the |
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tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be used |
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to adjust the replay speed. |
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SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give the |
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name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file onto |
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the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played. |
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The SIDPlayer window displays some information about the currently loaded |
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PSID file and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting |
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and stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song |
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contained in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the |
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total number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of |
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the tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be |
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used to adjust the replay speed. |
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Clicking and holding the right mouse button in the SIDPlayer window will show |
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a pop-up menu with three items: |
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The SIDPlayer menu has three items: |
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- "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer |
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- "Sound Control" opens the sound control window |
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The Sound Control window |
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Sound post-processing is controlled with the "Effect" pop-up menu and the |
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"Delay" and "Feedback" sliders. The available effects are "None" (no post- |
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processing), "Reverb" (simple reverb) and "Spatial" (reverb with phase |
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shift, intended for headphone users). |
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The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID |
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filters on or off. |
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The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the |
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stereo panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 sythesized |
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voices, 1 sampled voice). |
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The "New SID Chip" checkbox selects the type of SID chip to be emulated. |
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Currently this only affects some combined waveforms. |
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The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the stereo |
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panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized voices, 1 |
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sampled voice). |
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Where do I get PSID files |
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The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID |
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Collection (http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music) and the "NemeSIDs" |
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archive (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used |
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for testing during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work. |
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Collection (http://hvsc.c64.org) and the "NemeSIDs" archive |
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(ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used for testing |
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during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work. |
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Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the "PSID |
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Demo" directory. |
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Support |
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------- |
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Updates of SIDPlayer are available on the official SIDPlayer home page: |
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Twelve demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the |
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"PSID Demo" directory. |
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http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SPMain.html |
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History |
