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Forums > C64 Composing > SID music software recommendations?
2009-08-02 12:20
Adam

Registered: Jul 2009
Posts: 323
SID music software recommendations?

Hi SID freax...

I am wondering what the general opinion is with what
the most popular or most recommended piece of software
is to use to write music for the SID in 2009?

>> Adam/Usagi <<
 
... 24 posts hidden. Click here to view all posts....
 
2009-08-02 15:30
Radiant

Registered: Sep 2004
Posts: 639
The three (seemingly) most popular: SDI, JCH, GoatTracker 2.

Personally I use GT2, among the native editors I've tried I think I like X-SID best, but I haven't really had enough motivation to learn using it properly yet.
2009-08-02 16:37
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386
and i recommend *everyone* who wants to dig into sid music to write one atleast rudimentary player himself and create atleast one tune with it. all the funny numbers will make a lot more sense after that experience :)
2009-08-02 18:58
Kristian

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 126
Shuddupyaface. That's a lame ass advice for non-coders like myself :)
2009-08-02 19:13
cadaver

Registered: Feb 2002
Posts: 1160
Quote: and i recommend *everyone* who wants to dig into sid music to write one atleast rudimentary player himself and create atleast one tune with it. all the funny numbers will make a lot more sense after that experience :)


Seconded, it can even be a BASIC program. And if that's too much, then testing out pokes to SID in BASIC's immediate mode is better than nothing :)
2009-08-03 04:09
SIDWAVE
Account closed

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238
Quote: and i recommend *everyone* who wants to dig into sid music to write one atleast rudimentary player himself and create atleast one tune with it. all the funny numbers will make a lot more sense after that experience :)


Nobody becomes a better graphician by coding their own Koala painter prog.

Your argument, is bollocks.

Musicians either have born talent for doing music, or they train hard and learn it, or they suck.

If you learn to use all features of a good editor, you really have no reason to code it yourself.

The best editors were coded by the musician himself, to fit his own needs. The ones made to please all (music maker, prophet64 etc.) are all utter crap! :-)
2009-08-03 04:14
SIDWAVE
Account closed

Registered: Apr 2002
Posts: 2238
Did i mention, Asterion SID Tracker is a really awesome editor. A bit nerdy, but powerfull as hell!

Nobody uses it, "it's too complicated".

Well, how about putting some effort into learning it ?
It's really only a single day, then things start to give meaning.

Why I always recommend SDI, is because it took me just like 2 hours to learn it, and produce my first tune in it, 11 years ago. (sunny morning blues)

However, to get under the hood, and exploit every possible power of it, took.... 11 years :)
2009-08-03 09:39
Stryyker

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 468
"Your argument, is bollocks." is bollocks itself. Somehow you know how everyone learns.

I found messing around with music players, coding them etc. helped me learn a lot.

"The best editors were coded by the musician himself, to fit his own needs." - you can read other information in to that. The musician knows how the magic numbers on screen work with the SID registers.

Then again I make rather low quality music so I know nothing about this.

Adam: What sort of editors are you comfortable? Many like the trackers as they give a more visual representation of timing. Some like duration based players like DMC and SYNC (my favourite.)
2009-08-03 10:59
Stainless Steel

Registered: Mar 2003
Posts: 966
Unfortunately, no one can give you a reasonable answer to this question.

It depends alot on your own experience and which editor makes the most sense to you. Try out a few and see which one fits you best.

I tried a couple (Music Assembler, JCH, Voicetracker, Futurecomposer, 20cc Editor, Goattracker) and finally ended up with SDI.
Simply because it had a lot of demotunes to examine and GRG helped me a lot getting started (And it came with lots of recomendations).

2009-08-03 21:16
Tim
Account closed

Registered: Mar 2002
Posts: 467
Agreed with what Stainless said,

Adding to that:
My advice for first time sidders.. go for a tracker based program! Mostly because it's similar to the logics of other trackers..

You could try DMC of course.. but.. if below does not seem appealing, don't even bother:

snd.01 (sound #1)
dur.04 (duration of note)
c-1 (actual note)
snd.02 (sound #2)
dur.02 (duration of note)
c-5 (actual note)
c-5 (actual note)
snd.01 (sound #1)
dur.04
c-1

etc.etc.etc.

I used if for years, and yet it drove me nuts synching the three channels (and i usually ended up visually drawing out all 3 channels of my tunes onto paper). Same goes for many other players with similar logics.

for the above example a tracker would look something like this:

c-0 01000
--- 00000
--- 00000
--- 00000
c-5 02000
--- 00000
c-5 02000
--- 00000
c-0 01000
--- 00000
--- 00000
--- 00000

the above in a page would contain 3 of these next to eachother, one for each channel, so far easier to visualise what you are working on and how one channel translates to the others 2 time wise.

I'd suggest Goat Tracker, but that's because I do not know SDI to be honnest.


2009-08-03 22:06
chatGPZ

Registered: Dec 2001
Posts: 11386
Quote:
Nobody becomes a better graphician by coding their own Koala painter prog.
Your argument, is bollocks.


nobody becomes a better musician by choosing the most sophisticated editor either. but as much as every decent painter spends a while on getting familiar with the properties of various types of paint and canvas, it will benefit even a not-yet-terribly-good musician to spend some time on getting familiar with his instrument.

Quote:
Musicians either have born talent for doing music, or they train hard and learn it, or they suck.


except this isnt so much about beeing a good musician. it is about learning every possible detail of your instrument to be able to fully use it.

Quote:
If you learn to use all features of a good editor, you really have no reason to code it yourself.

The best editors were coded by the musician himself, to fit his own needs.


and don't these two lines somehow contradict each other? :)

i still say, if you want to do good sid music, you gotta know the sid very well. and one very good way to learn about the sid is to write some little programs that make some sounds. (and i never said someone should make his own editor, thats kinda pointless indeed). like cadaver said, even playing around with the basic programs from the c64 manual is a good way to understand many important things.

and to come back to the original question, i always recommend goattracker... not because it has the most sophisticated player, but because it is very easy to use and generally seems to be a good starting point. and you can always switch to SDI (or my secret favourite: sonic's mod of the x-ample tracker) or whatever later once you start hitting the limits of gt, which will almost certainly take a while for a beginner.
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