SID Filters


Jack Gassett

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Ok, here we go!

 

Here is a release of RetroCade 1.1 with SID analog filters and a SID player for smallFS and SD Cards.

 

I'm announcing it here first so the more experienced users can give it a whirl first. I haven't had a chance to test on a fresh computer yet so there might be some bugs I didn't find, but I wanted to give people a chance to check it out.

 

Most SID files play back and sound correct, but I did notice some are still off. Please post any that sound off and we can start figuring out what tweaks still need to be done.

 

Thanks!

Jack.

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Thanks Jack! I don't have time until next week to test it out, but looking forward to it! The note-off issue is also fixed in this release, I assume?

 

Yes indeed, the note-off issue is included in this release.

 

Is the animations turned off now?, I think there was mentioned some side effects when the animations was runnning, and one tried to use it from midikeyboard, at least, I don't need the running thing :)

 

The animation is still going on the very first menu, but it can be easily disabled by navigating to the right with the joystick. It also automatically stops animating when something that is processor intensive, like playing a mod file, is happening.

 

Jack.

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That's totally awesome! I pulled mine out and had a go with it this morning, the SID playback sounds really good.

 

I did find a number of SID files that lock up the Papilio on the first note and require a power cycle to recover. I didn't have a chance to do much troubleshooting but I can post some of the files somewhere if someone would like to look into it.

 

Also something that I have not been able to figure out, when scrolling through a pile of files on an SD card, is it possible to scroll back? I've often clicked past the file I wanted and had to go all the way though until it loops to get back to the beginning of the list.

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That's totally awesome! I pulled mine out and had a go with it this morning, the SID playback sounds really good.

 

I did find a number of SID files that lock up the Papilio on the first note and require a power cycle to recover. I didn't have a chance to do much troubleshooting but I can post some of the files somewhere if someone would like to look into it.

 

Also something that I have not been able to figure out, when scrolling through a pile of files on an SD card, is it possible to scroll back? I've often clicked past the file I wanted and had to go all the way though until it loops to get back to the beginning of the list.

 

I just made a post about the RetroCade 1.1 release, so lets post any problem SID files in that thread.

 

As far as scrolling backwards, I think that was just a poor design decision on my part. I'll look into implementing a backwards scroll, I think there were two reasons why I did it that way:

 

1) I needed a way to stop the track, pressing up, which should logically scroll back, currently stops the track.

2) The SD library only lets you go forward through the directory tree, not back. So I need to read the full directory tree into an array and implement scrolling either way. But will still have to figure out how to stop a track...

 

Jack.

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Cool, I'll try to upload a few of the problem SID files when I get home. I downloaded a huge collection of SIDs a while back and every one I tried in at least one whole folder have the same problem. The vast majority of others played just fine and sound great.

 

UI design is non-trivial and the biggest failing of quite a few products. My suggestion would be to have playback start/stop toggled by the same button. If you want to be able to pause playback, maybe press briefly to pause/resume and hold down for a second to stop it. It gets rather unweildy to not be able to navigate back, especially when hierarchical folders are not supported. A very large number of SID/MOD files will fit on a small SD card.

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Oh, I just realized, the reason those SID files might not play back is if they are RSID files. The tinySID library does not support RSID, just PSID. (I think I have that right... It was several months ago when I was last studying SID file formats.)

 

You can open up the file in a hex editor and see if it says RSID or PSID in the header.

 

http://hvsc.c64.org/faq.htm#question8

 

Jack.

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Mmmh, I downloaded the new update, but can't get my Retrocade recognized by the software. The Dashboard works (keyboard as MIDI input makes sounds, so I assume the COM/USB converter works), but I could not get the update to install. Will try reinstalling the whole thing soon, maybe it works then. Can't wait to try some SIDs :)

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