Preview
README for the Windows version of SIDPLAY
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February 10 version (1997)
This file isn't meant as a complete manual, simply as a brief
description of the features of SIDPLAY/Windows
What is SIDPLAY/Windows?
SIDPLAY is a music player and SID chip emulator written by
Michael Schwendt <3schwend@informatik.uni-hamburg.de>. For info
on SIDPLAY and SID files, go to the SIDPLAY home page at
http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/Sidplay
SIDPLAY/Windows is a port of SIDPLAY to the MS Windows environment. The Windows
port and user interface is written by Adam Lorentzon <d93-alo@nada.kth.se>.
INSTALLATION
Simply copy the SIDPLAYW.EXE file to a directory of your choice, add an
icon to it and you're done. If you wish to run the 32-bit version under
Windows 3.1, you will need Win32s. It can be obtained from Microsoft at
http://www.microsoft.com/ . The 32-bit version is almost twice as fast
as the 16-bit version.
If you want SIDPLAY/Windows to start playing a file when it is double-clicked,
you need to associate the file extension (usually .dat) with SIDPLAY/Windows:
Windows 3.1: In the File Manager, choose File|Associate, enter the extension,
press Browse, browse to where you put SIDPLAYW.EXE and press OK.
Windows 95: In the Explorer, hold the shift key and right-click on a file
with the extension you want to associate. Choose Open With, press Browse,
browse to where you put SIDPLAYW.EXE and press OK.
USAGE - DESCRIPTION OF THE MENU
The file menu has five entries: Open, Save as, Conversion,
Properties and Exit.
File|Open: (Shortcut - Alt + O or Ctrl + O)
Opens a standard Windows file open dialog, from which you can choose
a sid music file to open and start playing.
File|Save as: (Shortcut - Ctrl + S)
Asks for a filename and the type of file to be saved. If no extensions is
specified, the extension corresponding to the chosen file type will be
added to the filename before saving.
If the Windows PCM file format is chosen, a WAV file is saved using
the settings in the Settings|Wav dialog box. During the creation of the
WAV file, a progression dialog will show how much is done. It also has a
cancel button, which if pressed will abort the save process and delete
the partially saved WAV file. (Note that the old shortcut for saving WAV
files, Alt + W, still works although the explicit menu option is removed.)
File|Conversion: (Shortcut - Alt + C)
Dialog for converting sid files to a specified format.
For example, suppose you've got a dir full of sid files in DAT+SID format.
Use the filter to show all *.dat files, set destination directory to the
same as the source, convert all files with the overwrite option, making
the PSID files (.dat) overwrite the old .dat files, and the delete source
files option, removing the old .sid files and you've replaced all DAT+SID
files with a corresponding DAT file in PSID format. Be a little careful
with the overwriting and deleting though, make sure you have a backup if
something goes wrong.
File|Properties:
Shows information about the file currently loaded.
File|Exit: (Shortcut - Alt + X)
Terminates the program.
---
The view menu controls which windows apart from the main window that are
shown. It has four entries: Mixer, Filter, Directory-based UI and Playlist.
View|Mixer:
In the mixing dialog, you can control the volume level and the Left-Right
panning of the individual SID voices here. Panning is not available in
mono. If HQ mixing mode is selected you only have limited control over the
panning, a sort of blending of the left and right stereo channels.
Switching off the mixer uses a somewhat faster algorithm.
View|Filter:
This window controls the three parameters to the adjustable SID-filter
emulation. You can also switch off the filter to gain speed.
View|Directory-based UI: (Shortcut - Alt + D)
Toggles a file-selection window which looks like the main window in
SIDPLAY/DOS. Use the mouse or the arrow keys to select a drive, directory
or file and press enter or double-click to change to the selected drive/
directory or start playing the selected file. Backspace takes you up one
directory. Entering an alphanumeric key highlights the first entry that
begins with that character. Repeated use of the same key will highlight
the next entry beginning with that character. Pressing the Filter button
lets you choose which files that will be shown in the directory window.
If you press the delete-key when a file is selected, a confirmation box
will appear, and if you select Yes the file will be deleted.
View|Playlist:
This window shows the current playlist. Double-click an entry to play it.
Press the Edit button to open the Playlist Edit dialog.
---
The settings menu is for configuring the program and has five entries:
Play, Wav, Emulation, Extensions and Device.
Settings|Play:
Controls the quality of the sound: frequency, resolution and channels:
Frequency can be chosen between 4000 and 48000 Hz.
8-bit or 16-bit output.
Mono or stereo output.
The number and size of buffers can be increased if the music is stuttering,
and there are gaps in the music when you're running other programs. If you
want faster response time, lower the size of the buffers.
Higher frequency, stereo and 16-bit output all increase the CPU demand,
so you might have to do with a little lower sound quality if you have a
486 or a slow Pentium.
Settings|Wav:
Here you set the type of WAV file that will be written when you choose
File|Save as WAV. You also choose how long the WAV file will be in seconds.
Be careful not to record too long files - the required filesize is shown
at the bottom of the dialog.
Settings|Emulation:
Memory model: This option controls how the bank-switching works. Full bank-switching
is just like the real commodore. The other options are provided for compatibility.
Clock speed: PAL and NTSC commodores plays some sids at different speeds.
Without the force clock speed option checked, this setting doesn't matter
(actually, for sids that use the CIA timer, the speed will differ with a factor
of 1.038). SIDPLAY will play the sids as the composer intended them to sound.
If you want to hear the music at the same speed it played on your commodore,
choose clock speed and check the force play speed option.
For more information about the emulation settings, please visit the SIDPLAY home page.
Settings|Extensions:
This dialog lets you specify which extensions SIDPLAY/Windows will use
for the different file formats. These extensions will be used in the
File|Open, File|Save As and File|Conversion dialogs.
(AWB stands for Amiga Workbench icon + ASCII info strings)
Settings|Device:
If you have several audio devices installed on your system, you may want
to select the one with the best audio capabilities. Here you can choose
between the installed devices.
---
The help menu has only one entry: About.
Help|About:
Shows information about the program, such as authors, whether it is
the win16, thw win32s win32t version, and what date it was created.
USAGE - OTHER
A filename can be given on the command line, so associating SIDPLAY/Windows
with the .dat extension might be a good idea. If you have SIDPLAY/Windows
open you can drag a sidfile from the File Manager (Explorer in Windows 95)
and drop it on the main window and it will start playing.
PLAYLIST EDITOR:
To the left is the directory window. Use this to navigate to the sidtunes you
want to add to the playlist. To the right is the playlist.
Adding sidtunes to the playlist:
To add sids to the list, mark them in the directory window and press the [Add]
button. Double-clicking a single sid will also add it. Press the [Add all] button
if you want to add all the sids in the directory to the list. If the "Add subsongs"
checkbox is marked, adding a sid with subtunes will add an entry to the list for
each subtune. If there is a number in the "Default playtime" edit box, the added
entries will have the same playtime as in the box.
Removing sidtunes from the playlist:
Doubleclick an entry, or highlight it and press [Remove] to remove it from the list.
[Remove all] will empty the list.
Ordering the tunes in the list:
Highlight a tune and press the [Up] or [Down] button to move it towards the beginning
or the end of the list.
List properties:
If the "Repeat" check box is marked, the list will start playing from the beginning
of the list when it has reached the end. Otherwise it stops.
Normal play order means that the entries are played in the same order as they are in
the list. Random order means that each time there is time to choose a new entry, it
is randomly chosen from the list.
List entry properties:
Highlight a list entry to see its properties: the filename of the sid file, the name,
author and copyright of the sid, the subsong that will be played and the time it will
be played. The subsong and playtime can be edited.
Loading and saving playlists:
Straightforward - press the [Load] button to load a new playlist or the [Save] button
to save the current list. NOTE: when a new list is loaded, or the program is terminated,
the changes made to the playlist will be lost unless they're saved first. No warning
will be issued!
TABLE OF SHORTCUT KEYS:
Alt+P = Play/Pause
Alt+S = Start/Stop playing
Ctrl+O = Open file
Alt+O = Open file
Ctrl+S = Save as
Alt+W = Save as Wav
Alt+C = The conversion dialog
Alt+D = Show/Hide the directory window
Alt+X = Terminates the program
Alt+Left = Previous entry in playlist
Alt+Right = Next entry in playlist
Alt+Up = Next subsong
Alt+Down = Previous subsong
GLOBAL HOTKEYS: (works even when SIDPLAY is in the background)
Ctrl+Alt+P = Play/Pause
Ctrl+Alt+S = Start/Stop playing
Ctrl+Alt+Left = Previous entry in playlist
Ctrl+Alt+Right = Next entry in playlist
Ctrl+Alt+Up = Next subsong
Ctrl+Alt+Down = Previous subsong
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DISTRIBUTION SITES
For the latest version of SIDPLAY/Windows, look at these places. The WWW
page will have the new version first, as well as the past and future of
SIDPLAY/Windows. It also contains PSID files for use with SIDPLAY, and
links to other SID resources on the net.
WWW: http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/spw
FTP: ftp://frodo.hiof.no/pub/c64/sidmusic
BBS: Point of No Return Node 1 (28k8) +49-6039-95934
Node 2 (ISDN) +49-6039-95935
For extensive SIDPLAY and sid music information, like the file formats
supported by SIDPLAY, information about how to rip SID music from games
or demos and much more, don't miss the original
-= SIDPLAY WWW Home Page =- at
http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/Sidplay
For the greatest collection of SID tunes on this planet, get
The High Voltage SID Collection at http://www.dhp.com/~shark/c64music/
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THANKS TO
Michael Schwendt for everything
All betatesters for finding bugs, making suggestions and general motivation
Jonathan Hunt for drawing the nice icon
All C64 composers for the groovy tunes
Sid rippers and sid collection organizers for making them available
(esp. Agust Arni Jonsson and The Shark of INC)
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CONTACTING THE AUTHOR
If you have questions, comments, suggestions or bug reports, don't hesitate
to mail me at d93-alo@nada.kth.se .
The C64 WWW Games page at http://www.student.nada.kth.se/~d93-alo/c64/
has links to most C64 resources on the net. Try it!
Be well!
/ Adam Lorentzon <d93-alo@nada.kth.se>