SID

[Tatsujin]

For those wo may not know, SID means Sound Interface Device and was the accoustic heart of an every Commodore c64 (plus successor/alteration).

More heer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOS_Technology_SID

So this thread is all about the said device, and I've thought I will start it with one of my beloved SID composer from old times Jeroen Tel, leader of the Maniac of Noise team.

Here some of my fav tunez by JT:

Cybernoid 1:

Cybernoid 2:

Turbo Outrun intro tune

Hot Rod intro tune

Savage 2nd level

Aspar GP intro tune

Rubicon (title)

Back in time, I have lissened to these tunes for almost any possible occasions (home works, cleaning up the room, reading game mags, sleeping etc...).
And I still do lissen to these tunes till today, for almost any possible occasions.


Also everyone is asked for any enrichments.  As for me, I will add more later.

For the hardcore interested, you also can DL almost any SID tune in existence under http://www.hvsc.de/ best played with http://www.brothersoft.com/deliplayer-62987.html (use simple skin, and don't forget one tune mostly contains more than one song. Deliplayer allows you to choose any songs within one tune).

N-Joy

[Frank_fjs]

Love the unique sound of the C64. Especially love the commonly used arpeggio effect. Funny how being limited to 3 channels sparked some creative thinking that led to such a wonderful and unique sound.

One of my all time favourite C64 tunes would have to be in International Karate Plus. The game was simply awesome, brilliant visuals and non-stop gameplay. I played the game until the wee hours of the morning as a kid, not knowing where the night went. The music really fit the mood of the game well.

<- Enjoy

[OldRover]

I have a small subfolder in my Music folder with my favorite sidtunes...

Aztec_Challenge.sid (Paul Norman)
Caverns_of_Khafka.sid (Paul Norman)
Commando.sid (Rob Hubbard)
Enlightenment_Druid_II.sid (David M. Hanlon)
Forbidden_Forest.sid (Paul Norman)
Stairway_to_Heaven.sid (Ben Daglish)
Synth_Sample.sid (Georg Fiel)
Tetris.sid (Wally Beben)

I usually play them with sidplay2w.exe. Ironic that three of my faves are by Paul Norman.

[Opethian]

greatest SID evar

[Frank_fjs]

Another classic:

<- Last Ninja 2, Central Park

Anyone got any good recommendations for a PC tracking tool that emulates the SID for music composition? I don't know if I have the time to go old school and do it via a C64 music program through an emulator, so a PC application would be great.

[Tatsujin]

Anyone got any good recommendations for a PC tracking tool that emulates the SID for music composition? I don't know if I have the time to go old school and do it via a C64 music program through an emulator, so a PC application would be great.

U like to track/compose em yourself or only lissen to it?

[Frank_fjs]

I track/compose myself. Started back in the FastTracker days in dos and mainly just use Reason and FL Studio now. If I had the cash I'd get into hardware but software sounds pretty good these days so it's good enough for me.

I've come across GoatTracker and it's pretty intuitive to me being so similar to FastTracker in layout. Will definitely be checking out some native C64 music apps via emulation though.

I do like that player you linked to in your opening post but I've found an annoying bug. The program reports all tracks to have a length of 4 minutes and the slider doesn't seek past the 4 minute mark. The song will continue to play but you can't seek once it hits 4 minutes. I tried Sidplay2 as well, I quite like it. Very simple and to the point which I like.

[Mathius]

I have heard some of these tunes on Sunteam's Wibble podcast. These tunes make for great driving music!!! I wish I had a C64.

[Tatsujin]

I track/compose myself. Started back in the FastTracker days in dos and mainly just use Reason and FL Studio now. If I had the cash I'd get into hardware but software sounds pretty good these days so it's good enough for me.

I've come across GoatTracker and it's pretty intuitive to me being so similar to FastTracker in layout. Will definitely be checking out some native C64 music apps via emulation though.

I do like that player you linked to in your opening post but I've found an annoying bug. The program reports all tracks to have a length of 4 minutes and the slider doesn't seek past the 4 minute mark. The song will continue to play but you can't seek once it hits 4 minutes. I tried Sidplay2 as well, I quite like it. Very simple and to the point which I like.

Yeah, I have tried out goattracker myself. looks nice, but quite difficult to me.

about the bug, this is strange but I've got reported this quite few times from other users as well. I have still installed an older version of deliplayer v2.5, and i do not have this problem. my tunes will run for infinite of time

:edit:

just have recognized that the beta in my link above is v2.5 as well. strange strange
can you check some sof your ettings which could be related or causing to this problem??

[Frank_fjs]

The songs sometimes play in their entirety as long as I don't touch the seek bar, most times they just get cut off at 4 minutes. The seek bar will not scroll past 4 minutes. Additionally, under the 'detailed information' window every song is reported as having a play time of 4 minutes.

The real deal breaker for me though, is that when you output a song to a wav file it will not output past 4 minutes.

There aren't really many config settings to play around with, it's mostly just GUI settings.

I went back to version 2.3 and same deal.

This is a bug, and has really spoiled an otherwise excellent program.

[Tatsujin]

Strange that I do not face the same problem, with no version I ever had. and I'm using deliplayer now since over 10 years, since it also plays almost any other formats known to mankind.

[Tatsujin]

Here the picture of truth:

/delib.jpg

The bar stops at 4:00, but the tune is tuning for ever and ever.

[Frank_fjs]

Try exporting the tune to a wav file, bet you it gets cut off at 4 minutes.

[Tatsujin]

Sure never tried that, since I just lissen to them in real time

[Arkhan Asylum]

The SID is great for music and stuff, but was proven to be really shit for games because the sfx overtake the music since the whole thing has 1 volume setting


that being said, theres still a ton of great songs on it

I like the Temple of Apshai trilogy on C64. and Parallax

a ton of good stuff.  Myth!

http://www.lemon64.com/music/   you can go there and listen to the HVSC in a browser and find all kinds of sweet shit.  Some of it is just independent songs that weren't in games.   Its nice to find 80s pop covers for the SID, lol

[Tatsujin]

The browser SID player is nice, but the emulation sucks. So I still recommend to DL the whole shit and lissen it in a bit more wealthy player

[Arkhan Asylum]

all the emulators suck half the time.  but then again, real hardware is inconsistent sound wise too because its 25 year old hardware with shit capacitors. lol

[Tatsujin]

Then buy a hardsid

But I'm really confi with the deliplayer, and its extra filters allows you to quite polish the sound of the 80s (just in case you like to do so).

[Arkhan Asylum]

Then buy a hardsid

But I'm really confi with the deliplayer, and its extra filters allows you to quite polish the sound of the 80s (just in case you like to do so).

the new USB hardsids are a ripoff.   The PCI ones were great though.  I still have one.

I basically just use SIDAmp and say screw it.   

[OldRover]

all the emulators suck half the time.  but then again, real hardware is inconsistent sound wise too because its 25 year old hardware with shit capacitors. lol

Meh... I wouldn't exactly say that. C64s weren't a victim of capacitor plague but some of them might have deteriorated since then. But the real reason that the sound is inconsistent is that it outputs analog audio rather than digital. It also depends on if you're using a 6581 or a 8580... the sound output differences from these two chips is significant.

[Arkhan Asylum]

all the emulators suck half the time.  but then again, real hardware is inconsistent sound wise too because its 25 year old hardware with shit capacitors. lol

Meh... I wouldn't exactly say that. C64s weren't a victim of capacitor plague but some of them might have deteriorated since then. But the real reason that the sound is inconsistent is that it outputs analog audio rather than digital. It also depends on if you're using a 6581 or a 8580... the sound output differences from these two chips is significant.

yeah, and even then, theres 4 revisions of the 6581, and depending how the capacitors are holding up, you'll get all kinds of different sounds.   Its pretty funny if you've got 3 6581 C64s that all sound different.