SIDLab

SIDLab is a live DJ / remixing tool for the Commodore 64.  It allows you to remix SID music in realtime.

v0.55 - QoL update.  MUCH better support for IEC devices, no disk images required!   See Whats New file in download for more info or read the dev update on the page.

Quick FAQ:

• If you're using an NTSC machine, I suggest the PAL timing option from the setup menu as a lot of popular SID music uses that timing model.   This plays back PAL music at the correct speed on NTSC machines.

• Direct syncing (via midi) is currently disabled, but you can use the Hold + Nudge keys (SHIFT+B/N) to easily shift tracks into sync with each other.  All songs in the demo video were done this way.

• This uses the slow Kernal load routines for the most compatibility.  If you are using an emulator there is normally a 'fast loading/true drive' option you can change for instant loading.

• SID files contain code and data, they are not like tracker/vgm files.  For this reason only songs that load into a specific memory area will work.  ($0f00-$6fff)  This should cover the majority of modern music.   If you need to shift a song into this memory space lft has written a tool called Sidreloc that can help with this. 

• The keyboard layout is designed to match a real C64.  Some emulators swap the CTRL + CBM key positions, you can alter this from the setup menu to make it more comfortable.

Feature status:

• FX set - Additional FX will be added in each build.
• Pitch shift - Pitch detection and playback working, additional work ongoing on slide/offset correction.
• Panning - Basic soft panning algorithm in, additional work on extra algorithms and other panning features ongoing.
• Syncing - Direct sync via midi being worked on but not enabled in builds.
• Fractional Tempo - In progress, this allows two different tempo songs to play in sync.

Links:

The best place to get SID files is DeepSID  You can download files by right-clicking on their names.  Please read the docs included with SIDLab to see which types of SID files can be used.

If you want to use an emulator I suggest Vice as this software was written using it.  If using an emulator I'd suggest running in PAL mode as this has been tested more thoroughly than NTSC.

As of 0.55 you can use an IEC device/virtual folder and just put the program and some SID files into the same folder instead of using disk images.   But if you want to use disk images there are tools such as DirMaster to help with this.