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Revision 1.2 by cebix, 2000-09-18T22:02:54Z vs.
Revision 1.9 by cebix, 2000-12-19T19:46:37Z

# Line 1 | Line 1
1  
2 <        SIDPlayer, Version 4.0
2 >  SIDPlayer, Version 4.1
3 >  A SID tune replayer
4  
5 <        A SID tune replayer for BeOS
5 <
6 <        Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer
7 <        Freely distributable
5 >  Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Christian Bauer
6  
7  
8   License
9   -------
10  
11   SIDPlayer is available under the terms of the GNU General Public License.
12 < See the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for details.
12 > Please see the file "COPYING" that is included in the distribution for
13 > details.
14  
15  
16   What is SIDPlayer?
17   ------------------
18  
19 < SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID
20 < on the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped-
21 < down C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the
22 < C64. SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it
23 < cannot run any C64 programs.
19 > SIDPlayer is a replayer program for C64 music ("SID tunes"), like PlaySID on
20 > the Amiga or SIDPLAY for Unix. You can think of it as being a stripped-down
21 > C64 emulator that only emulates the CPU and the sound chip of the C64.
22 > SIDPlayer can replay SID tunes in the "PSID" file format, but it cannot run
23 > any C64 programs.
24  
25  
26   Why would I want to listen to C64 music?
# Line 34 | Line 33 | sound chip (called "SID" - "Sound Interf
33   computers (as the Atari ST or the first Macs) had worse sound.
34  
35   The SID chip features three oscillators with selectable waveform, ADSR
36 < envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects
37 < like ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit
38 < sampled sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including
39 < the filters.
36 > envelope generators, programmable resonance filters and special effects like
37 > ring modulation. With the aid of the CPU, it can also replay 4-bit sampled
38 > sounds. SIDPlayer emulates all features of the SID chip, including the
39 > filters.
40  
41   There were (and are still) many composers programming excellent music for
42   the C64 and thousands of tunes have been converted for use with SID tune
# Line 46 | Line 45 | SID tunes is that they take very little
45   in size.
46  
47  
48 + System Requirements
49 + -------------------
50 +
51 + SIDPlayer runs on all Unix systems supported by SDL (which includes Linux,
52 + FreeBSD, Solaris and Irix) and on BeOS R4.5 or later versions.
53 +
54 + Successfully tested systems include:
55 + - Linux/i386
56 + - BeOS/x86 R5
57 + - BeOS/ppc R4.5
58 +
59 +
60   Supported file formats
61   ----------------------
62  
# Line 54 | Line 65 | files (these have the signature "PSID" i
65   available on the Internet is in this format.
66  
67  
68 < Using SIDPlayer
69 < ---------------
68 > Installing SIDPlayer
69 > --------------------
70  
71 < SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give
61 < the name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file
62 < onto the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played.
63 <
64 < The SIDPlayer window some information about the currently loaded PSID file
65 < and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting and
66 < stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song contained
67 < in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the total
68 < number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of the
69 < tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be used
70 < to adjust the replay speed.
71 > See the file "INSTALL".
72  
73 < Clicking and holding the right mouse button in the SIDPlayer window will show
74 < a pop-up menu with three items:
73 >
74 > Using SIDPlayer under BeOS
75 > --------------------------
76 >
77 > SIDPlayer can be started from the Tracker or from the Shell. If you give the
78 > name of a PSID file as an argument from the Shell or drag a PSID file onto
79 > the SIDPlayer icon from the Tracker, that file is loaded and played.
80 >
81 > The SIDPlayer window displays some information about the currently loaded
82 > PSID file and has the usual tapedeck-like controls for pausing, restarting
83 > and stopping the replay and for selecting the next or previous song
84 > contained in the PSID file. The number of the song currently playing and the
85 > total number of songs in the loaded PSID file are displayed to the right of
86 > the tapedeck buttons. The slider in the bottom right of the window can be
87 > used to adjust the replay speed.
88 >
89 > The SIDPlayer menu has three items:
90  
91   - "About SIDPlayer" shows some information about SIDPlayer
92 < - "Sound Control" opens the sound control window
92 > - "Sound Control" opens the sound control window (see below)
93   - "Quit" quits SIDPlayer
94  
95   To load another PSID file, drag it into the SIDPlayer window. To quit
# Line 88 | Line 104 | Some functions of SIDPlayer can also be
104    Right arrow: Next song
105    Q          : Quit
106  
91 SIDPlayer can also be used as an input plugin for CL-Amp by Claes Löfqvist.
92 Simply copy the program to your CL-Amp "Plugins" directory (you have to copy
93 it, placing a link won't work) and rename it to "in_SIDPlayer".
107  
108 + Using SIDPlayer under Unix
109 + --------------------------
110 +
111 + SIDPlayer currently only works as a command-line application. It is invoked
112 + as follows:
113  
114 < The Sound Control window
115 < ------------------------
114 >  sidplayer FILE [song_number]
115 >
116 > "FILE" is the name of the PSID file to be loaded. The optional "song_number"
117 > specifies the number of the song to be player (instead of the default song).
118 > SIDPlayer cannot detect when a song has finished, so you have to use Ctrl-C
119 > to quit it.
120 >
121 >
122 > The Sound Control window (BeOS only)
123 > ------------------------------------
124 >
125 > Sound post-processing is controlled with the "Effect" pop-up menu and the
126 > "Delay" and "Feedback" sliders. The available effects are "None" (no post-
127 > processing), "Reverb" (simple reverb) and "Spatial" (reverb with phase
128 > shift, intended for headphone users).
129  
130   The checkbox labeled "Filters" is used to turn the emulation of the SID
131   filters on or off.
132  
133 < The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the
134 < stereo panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized
135 < voices, 1 sampled voice).
133 > The "New SID Chip" checkbox selects the type of SID chip to be emulated.
134 > Currently this only affects some combined waveforms.
135 >
136 > The eight slider gadgets in the right part of the window control the stereo
137 > panning and volume of each of the four voices (3 synthesized voices, 1
138 > sampled voice).
139  
140  
141   Where do I get PSID files
142   -------------------------
143  
144   The two largest collections of SID tunes are the "High Voltage" SID
145 < Collection (http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music) and the "NemeSIDs"
146 < archive (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used
147 < for testing during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work.
145 > Collection (http://hvsc.c64.org) and the "NemeSIDs" archive
146 > (ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic). These have been used for testing
147 > during the development of SIDPlayer and they should all work.
148 >
149 > Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the "PSID
150 > Demo" directory.
151 >
152 >
153 > Support
154 > -------
155 >
156 > Updates of SIDPlayer are available on the official SIDPlayer home page:
157  
158 < Twenty demonstration SID tunes are included with SIDPlayer in the
116 < "PSID Demo" directory.
158 >  http://www.uni-mainz.de/~bauec002/SPMain.html
159  
160  
161   History
# Line 137 | Line 179 | V4.0 - Now based on Frodo V5 CPU/SID cod
179         faster/slower buttons by slider, added popup menu and sound control
180         window, ported to BeOS R5 with new Media Kit, implemented CIA timer
181         speed control, and SIDPlayer can now also be used as a CL-Amp plugin
182 + V4.1 - Runs as a command-line application under Unix (requiring SDL)
183  
184  
185   Christian Bauer

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