People usually get tripped up by the hex bytes, but in all honesty it is the best way of doing it. Most c64 editors are designed to have a small footprint as their output is used in other products (unlike, say, LSDJ) so being able to store more information in the same byte is pretty handy. Same with the SID iteself where the registers share information. Once you get your head around hex it becomes second nature to decode them, it also makes calculation a lot easier in general. (for example with the oscillator selection : $10 = triangle , $04 = ring modulation . If you want a triangle wave with ring modulation just write $14 
129 Jan 30, 2016 3:02 pm
Re: Questions about Starting in C64... (14 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
130 Jan 24, 2016 7:12 pm
Re: Read VTX or AFX or other Raw AY-3-8910? (3 replies, posted in Other Vintage Computers & Consoles)
While this would work if you're supporting Vortex Tracker files only, .AY can store any sound driver. (it's the raw sound driver & data like a .SID file) What you're looking for is probably a register streaming format like .YM or .VGM, both of which can handle AY registers. Otherwise you'd have to extract the pattern data from hundreds of different players and replicate the players going forward in your program. If you're just looking to store Vortex Tracker files isn't the format on the homepage?
131 Jan 20, 2016 1:52 pm
Re: NTSC vs. PAL game music (8 replies, posted in General Discussion)
If there was an NTSC version on the cards and you were using a vblank player in PAL, you might slow the tempo by one frame tick to try and compensate. I remember doing that once or twice. It's difficult though unless you're using an IRQ timer or something (which isn't always possible) you don't have the granularity to do it properly. (and even then it's not going to be exactly the same) See LFT's elements of chip music seminar where he talks about this a bit. I don't think people were thinking about composition within PAL/NTSC, you just wrote tracks and tried to fix the playback problem later. (or not)
132 Jan 18, 2016 1:31 am
Re: Tell me some good SID tunes, not from video games (17 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
some of Jellica's tracks use 3SIDs. You can stil play them in eg: Vsid that comes with Vice.
133 Jan 17, 2016 5:08 am
Re: Tell me some good SID tunes, not from video games (17 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
Kjell Nordbo
LMan
Jammer
Linus
Hein Holt
Deadman
Ed
Michael Winterberg
Prosonix
Johannes Bjerregard
ATOO
Kribust
134 Jan 15, 2016 7:01 pm
Re: Lain2097 "Arrive à sa fin" gloomy, distorted LP (5 replies, posted in Releases)
really enjoying this
135 Jan 5, 2016 7:55 pm
Re: Share your samples! (6 replies, posted in General Discussion)
I don't think anyones using BRK.wav unironically at this point are they? It's the airhorn of chipmusic.
136 Jan 4, 2016 9:47 pm
Re: So, has anyone figured out how to set a custom boot logo? (8 replies, posted in Nintendo Handhelds)
nanode it's a security measure in the h/w.
137 Jan 4, 2016 12:18 am
Re: C64 SID shootout - 6581 vs 8580 (15 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
Most modern demoscene musicians stick with 8580, though personally I have a soft spot for the rumbly R4 filter. (the best sid is the one you grew up with I guess) The 8580 also has slightly different waveform reponses here and there iirc.
138 Jan 2, 2016 3:27 pm
Re: VIC-MIDI (19 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
What's the software support going to be like for this? It sounds like just pure tones in the video, sticking frame-based instruments and Viznut's waveforms in there shouldn't be much work and it'd sound a lot more contemporary.
140 Dec 22, 2015 1:33 am
Re: Looking for joyful songs (19 replies, posted in General Discussion)
"Dog Birthday" and "Elephant Writing a Letter" by aanaaanaaanaaana
141 Dec 19, 2015 11:17 pm
Re: 4mat's WIP c64 projects (AY/TED/ATARI/REMIX/FM+SID MUSIC) (40 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
Very WIP. Atari POKEY wrapper for sid playing some old Rob Hubbard tracks. (no file conversion/streaming as it's all 6502) WIll only support the (sid-style) config with a 16-bit bass on channels 1+2, bass-side is still being worked on hence it's out of tune here.
edit: later video
142 Dec 11, 2015 8:28 pm
Re: How convert .prg to .sid? (32 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
It's automatic, I think it's the one that has code for displaying a picture when it starts too.
143 Dec 11, 2015 7:30 pm
Re: How convert .prg to .sid? (32 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
Ah, if it's actual cart images, dunno myself.
If it's single prg/bin files you're trying to do I used enthusi's 64k code wrapper from here to make a cart image that copies the binary into memory when you load it in. With that one you can put any old c64 prg image onto a cart. (well, within reason)
144 Dec 11, 2015 5:55 pm
Re: How convert .prg to .sid? (32 replies, posted in Commodore Computers)
The real c64 uses it too afaik. When loading files you can tell the tape/drive to either use that header address or load it to a specific area. Carts are a bit more of a hassle because there's a ton of different formats. If you're wanting to use the program outside of the cartridge environment you might also need to patch it to get the standard ram config to work with it or work around the bank switching if there's any. The .crt format has a big doc online somewhere, and I think the tool I used to build cart images comes with Vice. (it might unpack them as well, can't remember)
I've only used c64 carts to decompress a file back to a normal memory config myself, so I don't really need to adhere much to cart limits as long as the packed file is small enough.