SID Player

xo · Post by xo » 27/08/2004 - 15:51

Its been a while since I last listened to SID tunes. I tried sp2/w but it doesn't seem to be able to handle all SID tunes* so I was wondering if anyone here has some good suggestions for another SID player.

* E.g. it doesn't play any subtunes of platoon, or at least not the platoon.sid file I have.

ice00 · Post by **ice00** » 27/08/2004 - 17:58

If you have the latest sp2/w then your sid file is probably bad ripped. Latest sp2/w is less tollerant to faulty rip that did not sound in real C64. Try vsid (of vice emulator) for another test.

bye
S.T.

xo · Post by xo » 27/08/2004 - 19:10

Thanks. It turns out than after I downloaded the newest HWSC the new platoon.sid played just fine.

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 06/09/2004 - 21:28

It's never the rips that are bad, it's always the player

Yeah we heard that before.. ? haha

It is so. A working rip runs on the C64, then it's moved to the PC.
Then Sidplay 1/2 plays it. Then Sidplay is updated, then rip don't work anymore, then sidtune is fixed because that is easier or faster than to fic the player. Then player is finally fixed, and now 'fixed' tune don't work anymore.

So I say: ALWAYS the player is at fault!

no hard feelings to anyone, they know that. It's not easy to code memory-use emulation, it's the one hard thing on a C64 emu! and all know that.

xo · Post by xo » 07/09/2004 - 17:35

I'm just your regular Joe, trying to play some SID.

It felt obvious that when a newer SID worked with the software it was the SID which was badly ripped or corrupted. How on earth would you know SIDs are adapted to specific players to work around bugs. The idea didn't occur to me.

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 07/09/2004 - 22:11

I know

The fact is, if you install HVSC 1.0 and use the Sidplay version 1.x from the same year, it all works.

If you then upgrade HVSC, and read the .HVS file in /DOCUMENTS/ for each update to find version nr of latest Sidplay, and use that, the rips all work.

And so forth..

Problems arised when going to PSIDv2NG, making it possible to use unmodified digiplayer code and infinite program loops.

Known as RSID (real sid)

Because of the memory handling, the whole thing was changed, so many rips had to be hacked again to work under that system.

But it's pretty stable now, and can even play BASIC tunes!

Also Sidplay now emulates a nr of things that you normally dont see (hear) in music, so a ripper dont have to destroy vital timing parts of the player to get the music to work on emu.

As of Sidplay 2 with RSID/v2NG it finally runs clean programs straight from the C64.

If you want to make a rip yourself, and have no idea what to do, just copy a demo to .sid format, and set init address to the sys that prg is using. (f.ex sys 2064), is $0810.

Set play to 0, and mark the file as Real C64, then save.

It will simply run the demo as is, and all you get is the sound!

But there is no space-bar support to skip demoparts ..

xo · Post by xo » 08/09/2004 - 21:30

I didn't know SIDs were programs. I had a hunch because of the memory options of the player. Its quite interesting that they are.

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 08/09/2004 - 22:02

A sidtune, is a piece of music player code, outputting values to the SID chip registers, and some data - like notes (frequencies actually), and sequences and tracks, and sounds.

The best players today are all based on Rob Hubbard's method.
His player (and coding skills) are the main reason he was able to do what he has done

Offcourse he was already a composer, but handling the chip like he did gave him a huge advantage compared to others.

Martin Galway is also an excellent coder, hehe.

ifadeo · Post by **ifadeo** » 09/09/2004 - 11:11

....and chris hÃƒÂ¼lsbeck....

cheers ifadeo

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 09/09/2004 - 21:33

They all are really! but the worst spaghetti is Richard Joseph

ifadeo · Post by **ifadeo** » 09/09/2004 - 22:27

rambones wrote:They all are really! but the worst spaghetti is Richard Joseph

nooo, barry leitch....

cheers ifadeo

Michael · Post by **Michael** » 21/09/2004 - 7:59

Actually, Richard Joseph's code is not bad at all. It just looks like it was created with a macro assembler or developed based on elaborate paper-work. Lots of absolute indexed addresses in addition to a multitude of zero-page registers and pointers. Makes it appear less modular than it is actually.

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 24/09/2004 - 23:17

Michael wrote:Actually, Richard Joseph's code is not bad at all. It just looks like it was created with a macro assembler or developed based on elaborate paper-work. Lots of absolute indexed addresses in addition to a multitude of zero-page registers and pointers. Makes it appear less modular than it is actually.

Is that you Mage ?

What do you do these days ?

Michael · Post by **Michael** » 26/09/2004 - 21:33

... another day with just 24 hours. Sorry that I don't find the time to reply to mails.

rambones · Post by **rambones** » 26/09/2004 - 21:36

Well, is it you or not !???

If so, please mail yer snail addy to me, I have a sending.