Lemon64: SID-Wizard instrument recommendations? (2021)
A thin thread. The opening question — do you use, tweak or make sid-wizard's example instruments, and what are your tips? — got no answer at all; the only instrument in it, a bass drum, was posted as an image that the raw text does not contain. The remaining six posts are SID-Maker export troubleshooting.
Key claims#
- MeneerJansen learns SID-Wizard rather than goattracker because he does "not like to 'do things C64' on a PC"; "Very complicated but brilliantly designed program! A lot of excellent example instruments are included in the Zip file."
- His tweaked bass drum "sounds a bit like an Rolald TR-808 BD with a long decay (i.e. the infamous Hip Hop 'boooooooom')" and lives in the WFARP section — the values were posted as an image and are not available in the saved text.
- Export troubleshooting (ziopeppe, 2021-12-04): saving a tune with
F8, then running SID-Maker from the disk's applications folder under VICE 3.1 with C64/PRG, Normal, PAL, $1000 ended in "SAVING ERROR" every time. lalan00b:SID-Maker-2sid"is for 2SID / stereo tunes. You need to take 'SID-Maker'" — but plain SID-Maker 1.8 failed the same way. MeneerJansen: check the free space on the virtual floppy, and "Vice 3.1 is not recommended. If possible, try to use Vice 3.5" (compiled from source on Linux). With VICE 3.5 on Windows 10 the conversion worked; the binary/sequential option gave "a binary file with sequential extension" that CBM prg Studio could not use. MeneerJansen points to chapter 13 of Creating Chiptunes with SID-Wizard for the export formats ("which I still don't understand") and recalls a PRG export being recognised as a.SIDtune by SID players; what CBM prg Studio needs "can only be explained by its author".
Practical takeaways#
Use the SID-Maker that matches the tune (single-SID vs 2SID), a recent VICE (3.5 rather than 3.1 in 2021), and a disk image with free space; for "which file does program X need", read chapter 13 of the book (sid-format).
Notable quotes#
MeneerJansen: "Very complicated but brilliantly designed program!"
Relevance#
Minor: two facts for sid-wizard (example instruments ship in the distribution; SID-Maker vs SID-Maker-2sid) and one for vice (3.1 vs 3.5 export failures). Nothing usable for instrument-design — the one recipe is an image.
Pages touched#
sid-wizard · vice · sid-format · goattracker