Commodore Free 4/Commodore_Free_Issue_04_2007_Commodore_Computer_Club.d64/t.hvsc faq 1

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HVSC Frequently Asked Questions (F.A.Q)

[1] What is the High Voltage SID
Collection (HVSC)?

HVSC is the ultimate SID tune
collection featuring over 30,000
popularand requested SIDs from the
Commodore 64.  The collection
includes SIDs (aka C64 music) from
games, demos, intros, etc. HVSC has
been in the making for six years & is
the result of many contributors.

[2] What software and hardware do I
need to play the tunes in HVSC?

Lucky for you, there are many devoted

SID fans throughout the world. Many
people have created or ported SID
emulators to various OSes. To name a
few: Win95, Win3.1, Linux, MSDOS,
MacOS, AmigaOS, Atari Falcon,
BeOS, OS/2, etc.  For a complete list

of which OSs are supported, see the
HVSC web,page. You can also listen
to the SIDs in HVSC on a real C64
with Real SID Play.  More information
is available on the HVSC web page.As
for additional hardware, you only need
a sound card. In addition to using your
home computer, there are hardware
devices out there that utilize the SID
chip itself in conjunction with your
sound card.  See

http://www.hardsid.com and
http://www.sidstation.com
for more information.

[3] Isn't Commodore C64 music just
silly beep-blop music?

Absolutely not!  Although the C64
went into production in 1983, do not
underestimate the C64's technology.
In fact, Byte Magazine named the
C64's Sound Interface Device (SID) as
one of the 20 most important chips in
computer history along side the
PowerPC, Intel 8086, and Pentium.

After all, there has to be a reason why
there are so many SID fans.  You
should note that there were two
distinctive regions for SID music,
America and Europe. American SID
music is on average lower in quality
compared to European SID music.
This is not to say that American SID
music is crap, but if you are judging

SID music based on the American SID
music you have heard, I can
understand partially why you might
think SID music is silly.  Why is
American SID music lacking compared to
European SID music?  Mainly this has
to do with much information sharing
related to the SID composing tools in
Europe (not to mention some theft as
well).  The best way for you to
determine if SID music is or isn't for
you is to listen to some of the best.

Take a listen to some Hubbard,
Galway, Daglish, Gray (Fred and Matt)
and Tel.  If you do not like  any of
those artists, then there is a strong
chance you will not like any  SID
music. You should also note that C64
music has been played not just on
specialist radio shows like the KDVS
6581 SID show (now sadly no longer
with us) but also on Swedish national
television.  So much for silly
beep-blop then :)

[4] Which tunes are added to HVSC,
and why?

HVSC adds music from games, and
C64 scene programs (whether they
befrom demos, stand alone music
packs, or disk magazines) which have
been released into the public domain.

However, we do not normally add any
Compute! Gazette tunes (see [5]).
Thus, if a tune has been released
publically including C64 FTP or
WWW sites, this means it also allows
for any other public collection such as
HVSC to place it in their collections
as well using the same unrestricted &
free ethics that public domain software
allows.  We do this so that HVSC serves
as an archive, not just for the SID
fans, but for the composers as well if
they ever need to refer to their work.

There are also some previously
unreleased tunes by composers which
HVSC also has (such as
/Gray_Fred/Sled.sid), where the HVSC
Crew strictly asks for

_composer permission_ before
releasing such.

[5] Why aren't there any Compute
Gazette SIDPlayer tunes in HVSC?

Mainly, because on average they do
not sound as good as non-SIDPlayer
tunes.SIDPlayer was a public domain
SID composer and player available in
the early '80s on the C64. The tool
was predominately used by Americans &
has a strong following among the
public domain audience.  SIDPlayer
tunes are usually follow by a ".mus"
and can be found on some C64 ftp sites.

The best Compute! Gazette SID tune
collection HVSC knows of is
maintained by Peter Weighill and the
latest version can be found here:
http://www.c64music.co.uk/

(note: do not confuse SIDPlayer with
SIDPlay. SIDPlay is a SID emulator
where as SIDPlayer is a SID player for
the C64.  Confusion is easy when there
is SIDPlay, PLAYSID (Amiga),
SIDPlayer (C64), Real SIDPlay (C64),
etc.)

[6] What is the SID Tune Information
List (STIL)?

The STIL is basically a text file
which contains general information
about the SIDs in HVSC.

Such information includes the original
composer's name, defects in certain
tunes, interesting trivia, etc.
Consult the STIL FAQ for more info.

Hopefully your SID emulator has the
option to display the STIL information
for the current playing SID tune.

[7] What is PSIDv2NG?

PSIDv2NG (PSID format v2, Next
Generation) was invented by Simon
White and Dag Lem and is an
extension of the Playsid V2 file
format. It takes advantage of some free
bytes in the header and allows for the
following situations (the first one was
already in the existing PSID v2
format):

* the SID file has a standalone
player or is a Compute! Gazette
SIDplayer tune

* whether the SID file is C64
compatible or specific to the old
PlaySID formats

* whether the SID file is for NTSC
(eg: USA) or PAL (eg: Europe) TV
formats

* SID chip selection, 6581 (old) or
8580 (new) SID chip

* relocation fields, required to
support a real C64(emulator) where
additional code must be placed in C64
RAM to play the SID tune.

All the above means that it also
allows for better compatibility with a
real Commodore 64 so you can play the
tunes on the real thing (see  also
RSID below)

It also has the added advantage of
being backwards compatible with most
SID tunes, so that older SID emulators
can still play them, but to take
advantage of the features of PSID
v2NG, you are highly recommended to
use SID emulators based on the latest

libsidplay2 emulation engine (for
example,  Sidplay2 for Windows) to
play SIDs in HVSC.

RSID is an extension of the PSID
v2NG format, introduced in HVSC
5.1. RSID is for those rips that
require strict C64 compliance, and also
ensure that older SID emulators do
not lock up when attempting to play
these SIDs. It does this by having
"RSID" in the first four bytes of the
SID file header instead of "PSID",
which allows for safe rejection.
Examples of an RSID format SID include
sample tunes which require real-time
sample playback, busy delay loops in
real time and cycle-accurate timing.

The RSID format should only be used
if the rip will crash older SID
emulators. More detailed information
about the formats can be obtained on
the documents section of the
Sidplay2 homepage

[8] Why has HVSC decided to go with
PSIDv2NG?

The HVSC Team had thought for some
time about going with the file format,
as it would allow for better and more
accurate rips, being played with the
cycle-accurate Sidplay2 player.
However, such an issue was important
and so in March 2002 HVSC undertook its
first ever user survey, which asked how
the collection was used, what the users
found important in a SID file format to
them, and whether the collection should
move to PSIDv2NG format.  When you
consider that of those surveyed:

* 73% wished for SID files to be
played on a real C64 where possible

* 94% would like to hear SID tunes at
their intended PAL or NTSC speed

* 91% wished to know which SID chip
a SID tune was composed on and that a
majority also wished for us to have
SID files play more accurately, & for
the collection to go to PSIDv2NG,
then it was an easy decision to make.

Further, PSIDv2NG is the only new SID
file format thus far that facilitates
what was preferred.

[9] Some of the file names have _PSID
and _BASIC in their name. Why is this?

- If you use sidplay1, play the _PSID
files if they exist.

- If you use sidplay2, play the non-
_PSID files.

There were many SIDs ripped where
they were hacked for compatibility or
PlaySID extended digi registers, which
are specific to older SID emulators
like PlaySID and Sidplay only.
Although Sidplay2 will play those rips,
a real C64 will not and and in most
cases it will lock up with them.

As the collection develops, C64-
friendly versions of these rips will be
added which will run alongside the
existing PlaySID-specific rips. Most of
these will be in the RSID format
which will safely reject on the older
SID emulators. Further, by marking the
PlaySID specific tunes in this way,
that user then knows which rip is
suited best to their SID emulator.

Similarly, those SIDs that are marked
BASIC were originally taken from C64
games which were wholly programmed in
the BASIC language.

To convert these BASIC programs into
timer-exact machine code SID tunes
would take not only a lot of effort,
but inevitably you would also lose the
accuracy of playback of these tunes.

Emulation support is now provided by
the latest versions of Sidplay2 to be
able to effectively emulate BASIC
(and thus the tunes created within
BASIC) correctly. HVSC 5.7 saw the
first BASIC SIDs in the collection, &
as the collection progresses, more of
these tunes will appear.

[10] My operating system doesn't yet
(or can't) support Sidplay2. Will I
still be able to play the SIDs in HVSC?

Yes. Part of the PSIDv2NG
specification is to allow for
backwards compatibility, wherever
possible.

The only SIDs you won't be able to play
are those which are real C64 specific,
and for the majority of those, they
will have a PlaySID equivalent marked
as mentioned above.

[11] When will the next update be
released?

There is no fixed time schedule as to
when each update is released.  Each
update is dependent on two factors:
available time and available SIDs.
Once enough SIDs have been sent in to
equal around 1.44 MBs (compressed)
and the HVSC crew has time enough
to properly sort the SIDs, the next
update will be released.  At present,
it takes on average three months to put
together a new update.  However, you
should note that with the amount of
SIDs already present in HVSC, it does
become harder to compile updates full
of new SIDs and three months should
be seen as an absolute minimum.

Also, if you wish to be added to the
HVSC Update Announcement list,
which means you get an email the
moment the HVSC website is updated
announcing the  new HVSC Update
release, then please email HVSC
Update Subscribe.  Note too that you
will be able to download the update
from two sites on the main HVSC page
which should ease Net traffic on the
day of the update release.

[12] Do I have to download all of
HVSC after each update?

No. The update comes with a tool that
automatically updates HVSC to the
next version.  Instructions are
provided in each update and within the
tool. In particular, do NOT run the
update tool more than once.

[13] Why isn't the update tool
available for my system?

The update tool was made in mind to
be portable, and at the moment is
available for Win95/98/NT, AmigaOS,
OS/2, MacOS, BeOS, Linux, FreeBSD,
SolarisOS 2.6 on SPARC processor
systems and Atari ST with external OS
that handles long file names. If you
would like to port the Update tool to
your OS, the source code to the tool
and information about the format of
the HVS data file can be obtained by
emailing

Stephan Schmid & Peter Sandn

[14] Why do the updates sometimes
add SIDs that HVSC already had?

We often replace SIDs in HVSC with
better versions. Reason for replacing

SIDs could be (1) more sub-tunes (2)
100% rip (3) significantly smaller (4)
merger of several SIDs. A "100% rip"
includes SID tunes that are fully C64
compliant and where applicable have
all subtunes. Thus, there is a chance
that a new version of a tune could
sound identical to the current version
in HVSC.  The new rip, however, has
some internal changes that does in fact
make it superior. Note that
occasionally we do mistakenly add
repeated tunes (and please tell us if
you spot them.)

[15] After I ran the Update, I can no
longer find some SIDs.  Where did
they go?

To find out more details as to where
SIDs were moved, why they were
deleted, why they were replaced, etc.,
view the /DOCUMENTS/UpdateXX.hvs file
for the current update. The "XX" in the
path mentioned in the previous
sentence represents the current
update number.  So if after running
Update #7 you can no longer find a
favorite SID, check
/DOCUMENTS/Update07.hvs and search the
file for the location where that SID
was manipulated.  The UpdateXX.hvs file
serves as a data file for the UPDATE
tool but is also readable by humanoids
and does contain some comments. The
best way to find the section of the
file that contains the information you
seek is to do a string search on the
old SID or the path where the SID
resided.

[16] How can I tell what version of
HVSC I have?

Look at /DOCUMENTS/hv_sids.txt. The
first few lines will tell you what
version you have.

      Continued in Part 1