MixTape C64. Loads sids from tape one after another

Games, Productivity Tools etc
HughJass
Member
Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:38 pm
Contact:

MixTape C64. Loads sids from tape one after another

Post by HughJass »

Roland Hermans made an awesome tool called PSID64 which will generate .prg files out of any .sid file that you can load and play on your Commodore64. I only have the tape deck, so I wanted an option to load the next sid automatically after the current one is finished playing. I emailed Hermans about it, he liked the idea, but didn't respond in over 2 weeks, so I tried doing it myself. I'm not a C64 coder (although I am very much interested in the C64 coding and know most of the vic tricks at least in theory) so I was surprised myself when I managed to do it. It uses a cut down Turbo250 Loader by Mr.Z. It will load the next .prg file from tape when the current track is finished or when you press left on joystick in port 2. The link to the source code and small instruction is here : https://gitlab.com/pseregiet/psid64-mixtape and a video of it in action here : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZoFOoicF8Q

Read the original instruction for PSID64 on how to use it. It will work and generate the same program as the original 1.2 version unless you use additional parameter '-m'. With -m it will generate the .prg file with the tape loading mechanism. You need the High Voltage Sid Collection on your disk and point the path to it in the program, otherwise it won't know how long the song is and so it won't load the next track (pressing left on joystick will still work). If the sid has more than one track in itself (subtracks) the program will play all of them and then load the next file.

The program can take a path to a directory, not just a single file. If you give it the directory it will generate .prg out of all .sid files in that directory. Then you can use a program called prg2wav to convert these .prg files into a .wav file. Then record these .wav files onto a tape and you have your own C64 MixTape ! In the build/windows/ folder there's a compiled version for windows (both 32 and 64 bit version) linux users shouldn't have problems compiling it themselfs :)


HughJass
Member
Member
Posts: 2
Joined: Tue Aug 08, 2017 10:38 pm
Contact:

Re: MixTape C64. Loads sids from tape one after another

Post by HughJass »

Image
And here I made a tool that will make it even easier to make such a Mix Tape. This is for Windows users, linux users can use a script that is in the README.MD of this project... or do it themselfs, why not.

This package contains everything you need. This "Tape Maker" (+ source, trigger warrning, poo quality) + compiled moded PSID64 + prg2wav + sox. The only thing you have to download is the High Voltage Sid Collection (not only because it has all the sid tunes you might want, but because it also has a list of lenght for all the tracks and that's necessary.

This program can operate in 2 "modes"

First, you just copy the sids you want to record to one folder and you select that folder in the Tape Maker. The order of the tracks will be alphabetic.

The second mode is to create a list in a text file. The format of this list is made in such a way that you can just copy paste the track list from the csdb.dk entries. If you want to enter the paths yourself just add them between parenthesis. example :

(/MUSICIANS/M/Mitch_and_Dane/Dane/Dane_vs_Danko.sid)

download for this package is on my gitlab, but here's the direct link : https://gitlab.com/pseregiet/psid64-mix ... -maker.zip
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 6 guests