Ultimate SID Collection (As Background Music)

[lagerfeldt]

https://ultimatesid.dk

A crazy hobby project I've been working on for 7 years. It's going into The Royal Danish Library's permanent music collection later this year.

256 Commodore 64 SID chiptunes - recorded using dedicated C64s and SID chips for each tune.

Mastering grade quality and geekery behind it all. Years of testing, measuring, re-capping, researching, and recording.

Tons of info on the site. Enjoy!

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It's not a bad match on the MiSTer as background music for use with Wizzo's excellent BGM script. I have the 256 tunes playing as MP3s randomly on my MiSTer in the menu and while updating/using Linux.

[LamerDeluxe]

And in hi-res audio even, that will be fun to play on my portable audio player.

[pac]

I assume you're 'the' Lagerfeldt? https://www.remix64.com/act/lagerfeldt/?modalwin=1
Listened many times to some of your remixes. Good old times.

[lagerfeldt]

Thanks, the very same!

[Armakuni]

Very nice

I currently use some of Matt Gray's great remixes from his Reformation albums as BGM

I might have to some.of these too

[Missus]

wow! many thanks.

super cool that your efforts and compilation are making history. congrats!

[lagerfeldt]

Thanks, glad to hear it's making waves

[Bernouilli]

The collection is great. But it's too bad that the files provided doesn't contain sid files.

[FPGA64]

The collection is great. But it's too bad that the files provided doesn't contain sid files.

Thats kind of the point. It lets you listen to well recorded versions and so you dont need a Sid Player

[Bernouilli]

Yes I know, but why wouldn't put the orginal sid files, this wouldn't take much place. About 15MB at most.

[offset]

Thanks for putting this together, listened to this today while working. I like the mp3 format, I don't have to fire up my C64 on MiSTer. I guess if the sid files were part of it, I'd use it on a C64 also, but this was pretty convenient.

[lagerfeldt]

Glad you like it!

I can easily include the SID files, but they’re publicly available in the HVSC already. About a handful wouldn’t work as SID files, but require the original program to run/play 100% correctly.

But more importantly it would defy the whole purpose of the collection, as the SID files need a C64 (real or emu/player) and wouldn’t sound as good or vary in quality and filter setting. They would depend entirely on the hardware, emu or emu player + user setting, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid.

The point of this collection is to have the best possible sound and correct filter per song, as confirmed by the original composer or me, as well as a meaningful looping and potential fade. In other words: being able to listen to it as real music, as an album or compilation in MP3, WAV or FLAC without external factors.

[djsquare]

Hey I just want to say I appreciate this play list. There is no doubt that the C64 has best chip tune. Nothing beats that sid chip (I can't tell the difference between the breadbin and the C64c) but some do come come close.

Another Visitor Stay Awhile.....Stay FOEVER..

[lagerfeldt]

Cheers! I agree, nothing beats the C64 when it comes to chip tunes and the sound of the chip itself.

Theoretically a breadbin and a C64C can sound virtually identical, but it depends on which version of the C64C you have. The early longboard versions of the C-model used the 6581 SID chip, while later ones used the 8580 chip.

Those two chips will sound quite different with filtered sounds and with sample techniques that use the DC bias trick, though.

The revision number of the 6581 means less as long as the filter in the particular production batch had a similar curve and the caps were identical in the machine.

I have a whole section on this in the technical faq on the website, also dealing with mythbusting revision claims. So geeky only 11 people in the world will care

[limi]

Make that 12 people (I read it)

[lagerfeldt]

Lol, cheers!

[Monos]

Wow, what a massive, wonderful collection. I use it as BGM (also in other Emulators) and it's really awesome. So many Memories...
Big thanks for sharing this pure Art.

[lagerfeldt]

Thanks, that's great to hear.

[kalach.x]

Cool collection. The only thing it misses - and imho very important - is pseudo stereo.

I know songs have specific SID in mind on which they were composed and especially for MOS6581 it might not be clear right away which "version" of it as they all sound (not quite) slightly different so value of selecting right SID and recording songs in high quality cannot be overstate - and throwing two different SIDs at the problem is against idea of perfect "as author intended" playback but to me what author meant doesn't matter at all and pseudo stereo usually sounds much better - especially on speakers.

Anyways, I found pseudo stereo on MISTer and it re-ignited my passion for SID music. It was real revelation to me and I ended up spending hours listening to SID music. Since then I pondered on getting it on real hardware and using SID2SID but instead I got Ultimate 64 motherboard. Its UltiSID FPGA implementation is pretty good and it right away makes for pretty great background SID playback device. Its killer feature for me is however support for real SID - and the whole thing is probably the best way to experience SIDs today.

[lagerfeldt]

I'm glad you like it!

I strongly dislike fake stereo (as an audio engineer), but that's the thing about MiSTer or Ultimate 64 or even a modern implementation in hardware - you can get it just the way you like.

This collection is all about authenticity and nostalgia, though.