High Voltage SID Collection: Update #65
Date: July 12, 2016

Resulting Version: 65
 Previous Version: 64

After this update, the collection should contain 48,516 SID files!

This update features (all approximates):
    1022 new SIDs
     811 fixed/better rips
      24 repeats/bad rips eliminated
     791 SID credit fixes
     143 SID model/clock infos
      59 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified
       1 tunes from /GAMES/ identified
      70 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers' directories
       4 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers' directories

It's been a long time, yet it seems only yesterday! HVSC was born exactly 20
years ago today, from the ashes of the NemeSIDs collection with the aim to
make an even better organized collection, and consisted of only 4175 files.
The project grew so much, with both the effort of rippers always searching
for old missing tunes and the countless musicians still showing love for the
unique feeling SID music gives: there are new tunes being made every day!
For this special update, we are not only proud to announce that another
milestone of 48,000+ tunes has been reached, but we felt also the need to
produce a music disk with EXCLUSIVE content to celebrate 20 HVSC birthdays.
Thanks to everyone involved and keep on SID-ding!

We are always looking for others to help make HVSC a better collection.
If you find any errors or have new rips to add, please email:

 iAN CooG  <hvsc (sid) c64.org>


Thanks to all the people who have helped to make HVSC the collection that it
is today, without your help it would be a much tougher task.


SID RELATED NEWS:


#####################################
# Back in Time Symphonic Collection #
#####################################

Chris Abbott and Kenneth "Slaygon" Mutka started a project to arrange and
produce a box set of Symphonic Commodore 64 studio arrangements that bring out
the classic Hollywood in the SIDs. Also full scores for orchestras will be
produced to play live.

You can still back the project.

More info: http://www.backintimesymphonic.com


#############################
# ACID 64 Player Pro V3.6.1 #
#############################

A new version of ACID64 has been released. ACID64 is a cycle based player for
Windows that can play SID tunes on sound devices with a real SID chip and via
network devices that emulate the SID chip, like JSidDevice that is part of
JSidplay2.

Changes in version 3.6.1:

- Fixed small issue for displaying specific user folders in Windows 10
- Small improvements

The new version can be found at: http://www.acid64.com


##############
# PSID64 1.2 #
##############

PSID64 version 1.2 has been released by Roland Hermans. PSID64 is a tool for
converting SID tunes into PRG files.

New features:

- Added PSID/RSID v4 support (Triple SID).
- Added support for player identification based on SID ID.
- More verbose error messages in console application.

Get it from: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=144607


#############################
# Interview with Julie Dunn #
#############################

Julie Dunn, a.k.a. David Dunn, has given an interview for C64.com. Julie wrote
music for games like: Flight Path 737, Elite, Nonterraqueous, Daley Thompson's
Decathlon, Ring Master, Theatre Europe, Thai Boxing, Advanced Pinball Simulator
and many more.

Read the whole interview from here: http://www.c64.com/?type=4&id=45


###################
# Hoxs64 v1.0.8.9 #
###################

Hoxs64 v1.0.8.9 has been released. Hoxs64 is a C64 emulator for Windows XP/7/8.

Changes:

- Fix VIC where a write to the raster compare register was causing a raster IRQ
  to occur one clock too soon.

Get the new version from: http://www.hoxs64.net/


#################
# Virtuoso 0.98 #
#################

Hein Holt released a new version of his C64 music editor. Virtuoso runs on the
C64. It has a nice interface and the player supports 8 commands per tick. The
editor comes with some examples tunes as well.

Changes:

- Fixed exporter bug
- Added other tiny things/optimizations

Check it out: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=145848


###################
# Sidplay64 V1.10 #
###################

Sidplay64 is a C64 program made by GRG / Shape to play back SID files. You can
browse SID files from disk and it also has support for random playback of SIDs.
Sidplay64 has support for 1541 Ultimate I & II, REU, netdrive, iec, cmd, ide64
and Sd2iec.

The following has been fixed/changed:

- New: Non-REU versions can now handle and load all files from the directory.
- New: Songs with BASIC start support.
- New: BASIC SID's that stops on its own can be exited by pressing CBM.
- New: IEC/CMD/IDE64: ClrHome key/Joystick RIGHT loads more filenames while
  reading directory.
- New: REU: Remembers previous directory positions when you go back.
- New: REU: File sizes are displayed in kilobytes. (Not for 1541u2)
- Behavior: Restore key: resets variables and reloads dir.
- Behavior: RunStop+Restore keys: exit BASIC or SID's with $0000 as play call.
- Fixed: 1541U2: shortened directory read routine.

Get it here: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=147517


########################
# Music Studio 2.2.0.2 #
########################

Music Studio is an open-source Windows-based SID music creator software. It uses
RESID-FP for SID emulation, both old (6581) and new (8580) SID chips. Music
Studio is capable of creating 1x speed tunes and alternate many SID chip
parameters directly with various commands. Classic and new C64 sounds can be
created with envelope parameters that can be set up in a few simple steps.

Changes in this release:

- Added MIDI file importing.
- Various small bug fixes.

Check it out: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=145599


###############
# jsSID-0.9.1 #
###############

Last February Hermit (Mihály Horváth) released jsSID-0.9. jsSID is a JavaScript
based SID player which plays SID tunes in every web browser that supports the
Web Audio API.

Since the emulation of the SID is operating at 44.1kHz, the CPU usage is low
since there is no need to resample the audio data from 1MHz to 44.1kHz.

Both 6581/8580 models are support with different cutoff/resonance curves and
combined waveforms.

Version 0.9.1 was released 2 days later with the following changes:

- Default subtune number can be specified in the example player.html playlist
  for tunes by appending it to the playtime-information (separated by ':').
- Support for 2SID and 3SID tunes

jsSID v0.9.1 can be downloaded here: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=145523


###############
# FM-Sid V1.3 #
###############

4-Mat released two version of FM-Sid this year. FM-Sid is a music driver that
uses the sidchip and the SFX Sound Expander cartridge together which can play
12 channels in total (3 SID + 9 FM channels). When you have more than one SID
chip in your Commodore 64 you can even play more channels.

Check it out: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=147615


##############
# CGSC v1.32 #
##############

The Compute Sidplayer Collection has been updated and contains now 15130 MUS
files, 4211 STR files and 5303 WDS files.

Get the collection here: http://www.c64music.co.uk/


####################
# Swinsid Ultimate #
####################

CodeKiller (Máté Sebok) and Hermit (Mihály Horváth) worked on improving the
Nano Swinsid which was originally developed by Swinkels. The new version is
called Swinsid Ultimate.

The following has been improved:

- Paddle/mouse support
- Readable registers (OSC3/ENV3)
- External audio in
- Bitfade
- Proper ADSR-bug support
- Fast ADSR attack rate (thanks to the self-correcting rate-counter)
- 'Lazy Jones' and '180' -like gate and test-bit workaround (no missing note)
- Proper 23bit noise-waveform calculation
- Full 3V p-p output range w/o 1KOhm load (same as 8580)
- Improved filter quality (16bit) and resonance-table for both SID model
- Improved waveform calculation (full 16 bit)
- High resolution combined waveform-tables

It has enhancements over the original SID:
- Clean anti-aliased bandlimited sound at high pitches
- Undistorted mixed digi tunes and eliminated volume-change click thanks to
  AC/DC separation of master volume register
- Softconfig, configurable options like:
	- Change between 8580/6581 behavior (filter, ADSR, combined waveforms)
	- Change between PAL/NTSC pitch enable/disable external audio input (less
	  external noise)
	- Enable/disable startup "ding"(beep)
	- Upload 3 banks of 256 bytes for custom waveforms
	- "transparent" mute for channels which doesn't affect the sync,OSC3/ENV3
- LEDs which intensity represents the active channels volume
- LED displaying the active (classic) digi playback
- or in case of the new Mahoney-digi, the entire array acts like a VU-meter

A new PCB design is recently made which has the following improvements:

- No more wires or stacked components
- Lined up LEDs with option to disable (solder bridge)
- Better solder-bridges (bigger, better shape)
- LED header to connect your own LED drivers/LEDs
- Capable to use thinner legs without sorting something in the board
- (optional) clk and r/w signal shaping capacitors
- Better (two stage) output filtering (reducing the carrier-signal)
- Cleaner path to ext_in and audio_out traces (coaxial-like ground)
- No more obsolete CPLD - But this means, the digital output will be TTL (3V3)
  compatible (you should not use HC anyway)
- Decoupling capacitors are more close to the actual components
- Bigger clearance in the ground-fill
- Optional input pin for the Atmega (maybe plus/4 SID-cart clock switch input in the future---)
- Modified 6581 filter fable based on "zrx r4ar 2286" including filter-distortion
- A bit of tweak in an ADSR table to better handle the Ultravox.sid

The new Swinsid Ultimate with the new PCB design can now be preordered here:

https://www.facebook.com/swinsidultimate


#################
# Project SIDFX #
#################

Project SIDFX is a hardware solution that makes it possible to install 1 or 2
SIDs in one SID socket and combine any two SID models without any jumpers and
without any soldering. It has 3 configuration profiles which can be selected
using a switch.

It is not possible to pre-order the product anymore but there is a waiting list
to subscribe to if you're interested.

For more info go to:

http://www.sidfx.dk/


################
# SID Shootout #
################

kompjutOr created a blog called "SID Shootout" which compares multiple SID
recordings from different SID revisions and even compares a real 6581 with the
SwinSID Ultimate.

Check it out:

http://kompjut0r.blogspot.nl/2015/12/c64-sid-shootout.html
http://kompjut0r.blogspot.nl/2015/12/c64-sid-shootout-part-2.html
http://kompjut0r.blogspot.nl/2015/12/c64-sid-shootout-part-3.html
http://kompjut0r.blogspot.nl/2016/04/c64-sid-shootout-part-4-sid-8580-vs.html
http://kompjut0r.blogspot.nl/2016/05/c64-sid-shootout-part-5-sid-6581-vs.html


#########################
# Interviews by GeoAnas #
#########################

GeoAnas interviewed several SID composers like Jason Page, Kamil Wolnikowski
(Jammer), Sascha Zeidler (Linus) and Markus Jentsch (c0zmo).

Read the interviews here:

http://www.iamretro.gr/a-sid-adventure-introducing-jason-page/

http://www.iamretro.gr/a-sid-adventure-introducing-jammer-artstate-exclusive-on-multistyle-labs-priorart-samar-productions/

http://www.iamretro.gr/a-sid-adventure-introducing-linus-artstate-camelot-multistyle-labs-oxyron-resource-viruz/

http://www.iamretro.gr/a-sid-adventure-introducing-c0zmo-bliss/


###################
# SID Known v1.12 #
###################

Wilfred Bos has released SID Known v1.12. This version supports now HVSC #65.
SID Known is a command line tool which you can use to identify SID tunes from
SID and PRG files.

This tool can be used if e.g. you want to know which SID tune is used in a
specific C64 demo or C64 game, or you have a SID tune found or ripped and you
want to know if it is already in your SID collection.

SID Known can be used to identify music but it also helps to find out which
tunes are not in the High Voltage SID Collection. If you find music not found
by SID Known, it would be appreciated if you report this to the HVSC crew
(http://hvsc.de) or post it in one of the CSDb forums (http://csdb.dk) like
"SIDs that aren't in HVSC yet".

Get the tool here: http://csdb.dk/release/?id=149341
