Alternative soundtrack using SID music

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Alternative soundtrack using SID music

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Hmmhmm
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Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« on: September 22, 2009, 09:16:47 pm »

Hi fellow SC2 fans,
I'm a big fan of music made with Commodore 64 computers (commonly called SID tunes). While I think the SC2 remixes are cool, I enjoy strong melodies and harmony as opposed to the "wall of sound" approach modern electronic music has taken. So one day I thought that if SC2 was to have a soundtrack made of SID music, which tunes would I choose from the thousands of SIDs available? This is what I came up with. The list is still incomplete. Missing are: Pkunk, Slylandro probe, Ur-Quan, Intro & Ending.

I tried to pick tunes from lesser-known composers, but in the end I did snuck in a couple of oldschool classics


« Last Edit: September 22, 2009, 09:29:05 pm by Hmmhmm »	Logged

Angelfish
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #1 on: September 22, 2009, 09:33:50 pm »

Hey HmmHmm!
My first computer was a C64, so as such I'm an avid fan of such music Wink

.
I've just checked a couple of them out, and it appears that you've done a good job selecting these files because they really fit the atmosphere that was present in the original songs

.
I know you're not trying to add in well known composers, but for the pkunk you might want to consider adding one of Jeroen Tel's songs, as I believe he made some happy upbeat songs back in the days Wink

.

Oh, and if UQM somehow could be enabled to play SID's, that'd save us a tremendous amount of diskspace Wink


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Hmmhmm
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #2 on: September 22, 2009, 09:54:52 pm »

Great to find another SID fanatic here. Thanks for the feedback. Adding a SID support to UQM would involve linking another library in the project in addition to the heavy work of bolting it in, so probably it wouldn't happen.

I love Jeroen Tel's style but in my opinion it's too 'poppy' for UQM. That's just my opinion of course

Cheers,
Hmmhmm.


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Tiberian
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #3 on: September 22, 2009, 11:51:19 pm »

How can I play .sid files?


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Angelfish
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #4 on: September 23, 2009, 12:03:39 am »

Quote from: Tiberian on September 22, 2009, 11:51:19 pm

How can I play .sid files?

When using windows:
Download a SID player: http://www.gsldata.se/c64/spw/
Or, if you're using winamp use a plugin: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/144643


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Angelfish
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #5 on: September 23, 2009, 12:10:21 am »

Hehe, I just discovered that the Ilwrath SID theme uses the same tones as the VUX theme in SC2, a bit into the song Cheesy


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Megagun
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #6 on: September 23, 2009, 02:21:41 pm »

Quote from: Angelfish on September 23, 2009, 12:03:39 am

Quote from: Tiberian on September 22, 2009, 11:51:19 pm

How can I play .sid files?

When using windows:
Download a SID player: http://www.gsldata.se/c64/spw/
Or, if you're using winamp use a plugin: http://www.winamp.com/plugins/details/144643

There's a new version out of sidplay2d which is even more accurate (and way more CPU intensive Wink

): http://noname.c64.org/csdb/release/?id=76056
However, myself I prefer the plugin for XMplay: http://dhost.info/pieknyman/html/plugins.html, which supports SLDB, STIL, HVSC and is based on libsidplay2 and ReSID. Myself, I like to keep it at 96000Hz and using the "resampling with interpolation" samping method; this might not be the purists' way, but IMHO it sounds a lot better. Unfortunately, the XMplay plugin has some trouble with multiple tracks in one file (which might be fixed by using SLDB; I'll have to look into that)..


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Hmmhmm
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #7 on: September 23, 2009, 04:57:38 pm »

hey people,
I managed to put together a preview remix pack. It's unfinished in that it lacks the races mentioned in the first post, and with some tunes, the loop points are poorly adjusted. It slightly differs from the list in my first post; Utwig theme is now used by Kohr-Ah instead (and Utwig uses the old mod). Also it has a combat tune that is not suitable for the game, you may consider removing it from the package (/lbm/battle.ogg).

I discovered a small bug in UQM where the communications screen crashes if you try to give it a mono OGGs for playback. I worked around it by converting all comm tunes to stereo, but it almost doubles the size of the files.

I'm not exactly sure how UQM works with addon packages, but I could get this to work by proceeding as it it explained in the docs of the official packages (basically, copy or link the zip into the UQM uqm/content/packages/addons/uqmsid directory and launch the program with "--addons uqmsid" parameter)

Here is the link:
http://rapidshare.com/files/283953664/uqm-sid.zip.html

It seems rapidshare has a 10 download limit, I might have to find another host for it. I'll make a post about it later if I find a suitable one.
EDIT: I think the problem's fixed now, no need for another host.

Let me know what you think.

Cheers,
Hmmhmm.


« Last Edit: September 23, 2009, 05:39:15 pm by Hmmhmm »	Logged

Resh Aleph
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #8 on: September 23, 2009, 05:45:33 pm »

Quote from: Hmmhmm on September 23, 2009, 04:57:38 pm

I worked around it by converting all comm tunes to stereo, but it almost doubles the size of the files.

It sounds like you're encoding two independent channels. What you need is joint stereo. See if you can encode in Ogg's "mixed stereo" mode, which uses joint stereo methods.


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Novus
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Re: Alternative soundtrack using SID music
« Reply #9 on: September 25, 2009, 12:36:52 pm »

Quote from: Hmmhmm on September 23, 2009, 04:57:38 pm

I discovered a small bug in UQM where the communications screen crashes if you try to give it a mono OGGs for playback. I worked around it by converting all comm tunes to stereo, but it almost doubles the size of the files.

This seems to be a limitation of the oscilloscope on the comm screen. If you're running UQM without speech, the music is shown on the scope. The problem is that the visualisation code expects music to be in stereo and speech to be in mono and utterly refuses to let the game continue if this isn't true.

Another workaround is to turn on speech. Then, the scope visualises the speech instead.

Edit: reported as bug #1064.

Edit edit: Seems to be fixed in SVN now, thanks to Alex. I haven't tested all the functionality yet, but mono music doesn't seem to crash the game any more.


« Last Edit: October 01, 2009, 08:59:10 am by Novus »	Logged

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