SIDPLAYER NEWS #12 June 1987 ANSWERS TO SOME COMMON QUESTIONS This documentation file presents answers to some of the most commonly asked questions about Sidplayer. Q: What is Sidplayer? A: Sidplayer is a music system for the Commodore 64 and 128 computers. The system includes an Editor program that lets you create song files, a Player program that lets you play songs done by you or other people, and other utilities. Q: Do you need a player program to hear the songs? A: Yes, a player is needed. There is no SYS call that starts the playing. Q: What are some player programs and where can I get them? A: The first player is KPLAY, which features a piano keyboard display with keys highlighted in colors to show the notes playing. The next player is MPLAY (Multiplay) which can be set to automatically play several songs. The MAGIC SID MACHINE player can also autoplay several songs. Another player is SINGALONG, which plays a Sidplayer song that has an accompanying words file. It displays the lyrics and changes them in time with the music. The SIDPIC player can display a picture while it plays a song. The STEREO SID PLAYER can play two songs simultaneously if you install a second SID chip in your computer to get six voices. These players can be downloaded from the various commercial services and from BBS's. Over 2000 Sidplayer songs are also available from the services and BBS's. Q: What are the different kinds of Sidplayer files? A: The music file for a Sidplayer song is identified by a .MUS filename extension. A Singalong song has a music file and a corresponding words file. The filename for the words file is the same as for the music file except that the .MUS extension is replaced by a .WDS extension. A picture file for a song also has the same filename but with a .PIC filename extension. Sometimes these files are bundled into special self-dissolving library files. A .SAL file contains the music and words files for one song. Just LOAD the .SAL file and RUN it, and it will write the .MUS and .WDS files to your disk. A .PIL file dissolves into .MUS and .PIC files. A .WPL dissolves into .MUS, .WDS, and .PIC files for one song. Q: How do I make songs? A: You need to use the Sidplayer Editor. The original Editor is published in the book "All About the Commodore 64, Volume Two" by Craig Chamberlain, published by COMPUTE! Books. The book is $16.95 and also contains sections on Advanced BASIC, bitmapped graphics utilities, and sprite animation utilities. Sidplayer is also published in COMPUTE!'s "The Complete 64," a book and disk combination for $29.95 which also contains Speedscript and other popular COMPUTE! programs. Q: Where can I download the Editor? A: The Editor is a copyrighted commercial program and is not in the Public Domain. It should not be on any telecommunication services or BBS's. Only those who purchase the book are supposed to have and use the Editor. If you buy Volume Two and don't want to type in the programs or order the disk for the book, COMPUTE! does allow you to copy the programs from someone else. Q: Do you have to know music in order to create songs? A: If you have the sheet music for a song, the Editor is designed so that you can enter the song without having to understand all of the markings. There is also a chapter on beginning music theory in case you want to learn about it. Q: Where do you find sheet music? A: The most suitable kind of sheet music to use is piano sheet music. Piano sheet music for classical works and contemporary songs can be found at stores which sell just sheet music as well as at some stores which sell instruments and at some record stores. Also, many libraries have sheet music and there is even a magazine that consists of several sheet music selections each month. Q: What is the Enhanced Sidplayer? A: The Editor was completely rewritten to be faster and include new editing features and new sound commands. It is published with a new Player and other utilities in the book "COMPUTE!'s Music System for the Commodore 128 and 64: The Enhanced Sidplayer." It is a book and disk combination priced at $24.95. The disk contains Commodore 128 versions on one side and Commodore 64 versions on the other. See SIDNEWS #7 for a complete description of this product. Q: Are the songs compatible? A: The Enhanced Sidplayer can play songs created by the original Sidplayer Editor. The earlier Sidplayer, however, cannot play songs created by the Enhanced Editor that use any of the new command or note features. Enhanced songs can be played only on the Enhanced Player. Q: Okay then, where can I download the Enhanced Player? A: COMPUTE! has decided not to allow the Enhanced Player to be freely distributed. COMPUTE! owns the copyright and feels that a Public Domain player would be counterproductive to sales and would weaken the copyright. Anyone wishing to use the Enhanced Sidplayer machine language playing routines in a program to be distributed must get written permission from COMPUTE!. Thus far COMPUTE! has not granted such permission to anyone. So, the Enhanced Player should not be on any services or BBS's, and to get it you have to buy the new book. Q: If I get the Enhanced Sidplayer, most other people won't be able to play the songs I make, so shouldn't I get the original Sidplayer instead? A: Songs created on the Enhanced Editor will be compatible with the earlier players as long as you do not use certain commands and note features. The new Editor was rewritten from scratch completely in machine language, and includes the most requested new editing features that make song entry much easier and less tedious. Some people find that they can enter songs in half the time that it took them on the original Editor. The Enhanced Editor is significantly easier and more fun to use, and is definitely easier for a beginner, so it would be the better choice. The 263 pages of text in the new book also describe the music system more thoroughly than the 100 pages of actual text on Sidplayer in Volume Two. Q: Which note features and commands in the Enhanced Sidplayer should I avoid using so that the songs I create will be playable on the earlier players? A: Do not use the following Enhanced note features: double sharps, double flats, dotted thirty second notes, sixty fourth notes, triplet durations, double dotted durations, and utility-voice durations. Also do not use phrases 16 through 23 and do not use any of the fourteen new commands: HLD, PVD, PVR, P&V, RTP, LFO, RUP, RDN, SRC, DST, SCA, MAX, UTV, and JIF (most of these are advanced commands and would not be used by a beginner anyways). If you take care not to use these note features and commands in a song, the song will play fine on any of the earlier players. Q: Is there a way to tell Enhanced songs from other Sidplayer songs? A: It has become a common practice to use the Lira symbol (British pound sign) at the end of the song filename, just before the .MUS extension, to identify a song as using Enhanced features. If a song without the Lira in the filename is played on an earlier player and seems to screw up, playing at the wrong tempo for example, it could be an indication that the song is actually an Enhanced song. Q: I can't find the Enhanced Sidplayer book in any stores at all, and I have looked. I keep waiting and it doesn't show up. I'm getting pretty upset about it. What's the deal? A: The bookstores do not seem to be automatically stocking the new book. You can try to special order the book, but there have been cases where people have been told that the bookstore can't get the book, even from B. Dalton's and Waldenbooks stores. Probably your best bet is to order direct from the publisher. People have reported receiving their order in two weeks so this way may also be the fastest. See the information at the end of this file for the phone number to call. If you special order the book, be sure to give the full title and the ISBN number. Note: As of this writing, the author still hasn't seen the book in a store himself. Q: How do you make a words file for a song? A: You need to use a word processor to create a text file and then run the text file through a special conversion utility. You also need to put special commands in the music file indicating where the words should change. It is explained in detail in Chapter 17 of the new book. Q: How do you make a picture file for a song? A: Just take a Doodle or Koala Pad picture and rename it to have the name of the music file but with the .PIC extension. Q: How large a file can the Enhanced Player handle? A: First of all, the largest size file that can be created is 150 blocks, on the Commodore 128 version of the Enhanced Editor. The Commodore 128 version of the Enhanced Player can play a music file up to 150 blocks long. The Commodore 64 version can also play one up to 150 blocks long provided there are few songs on the disk (the disk directory takes up some memory). A words file does not change the size limit on the Commodore 128 version but it does reduce the size limit on the Commodore 64 version. A picture file has no effect on maximum song size on either version. Q: I have a song that won't play on the Enhanced Player. It just stops. A: It is probably stopping with a Clobber error. Play it in the Enhanced Editor to check for sure. About 99% of all the earlier songs should play on the Enhanced Player. Those that stop with a Clobber error are using too many commands between the notes, and the computer is not able to keep up with the music. Cautions against this practice were given in Volume Two. The Enhanced Player is more sensitive to Clobber errors than the earlier players, and a song which came close to causing a Clobber error on the earlier players may actually cause one on the new player. Also, the Commodore 128 vers...
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