SIDPLAYER NEWS #9  March 1987 

SIDPLAYER FILE TYPES AND SELF-DISSOLVING LIBRARY FILES 

This documentation file explains the various types of song files, identified by 
the .MUS, .WDS, and .PIC filename extensions, as well as the self-dissolving 
library files identified by the .SAL, .PIL, and .WPL filename extensions.  It 
also gives instructions on how to use the WPLMAKER utility to create 
self-dissolving library files. 

SIDPLAYER SONGS 
A Sidplayer music file is identified by a .MUS filename extension.  To play a 
Sidplayer music file you need a song player program.  The .MUS file contains 
only data and no code, so you cannot just LOAD and RUN or use SYS to hear the 
music.  Existing players include KPLAY (with a piano keyboard display), MPLAY 
("Multiplay" with autoplaying feature), Magic Sid Machine, SIDPIC, and the 
Enhanced Player. 

Sidplayer songs are created by the Sid Editor program published in the books 
"All About the Commodore 64, Volume Two" and "The Complete 64" (a book and disk 
combination) by COMPUTE! Books.  The new Enhanced Editor, and the Enhanced 
Player, are published in "COMPUTE!'s Music System for the Commodore 128 and 64: 
The Enhanced Sidplayer."  The Sid Editor programs and the Enhanced Player are 
copyrighted and are not in the Public Domain.  See SIDNEWS #7 for more 
information about the Enhanced Sidplayer book. 

SINGALONG SONGS 
Singalong songs are songs which have an accompanying words file.  The filename 
for the words file is the same as the filename for the music file, except that 
the .MUS filename extension is replaced with a .WDS extension.  To play a 
Singalong song you need the Singalong player, the SIDPIC player, or the 
Enhanced Player program, and both the .MUS and .WDS files must be on the disk.  
The player will load the two files and play the music while displaying the 
words.  You may also listen to just the music file of a Singalong song by using 
any of the regular song player programs. 

The words file for a Singalong song must be created by a special utility 
program to insure the correct file format.  The utility program and 
instructions for creating Singalong songs can be found in the Enhanced 
Sidplayer book. 

SONGS WITH PICTURES 
Some songs have an accompanying picture file, identified by a .PIC filename 
extension.  This is a full screen bitmap picture in Doodle or Koala format that 
is displayed while the music plays.  The SIDPIC and Enhanced Player programs 
can accommodate picture files. 

As explained in the Enhanced Sidplayer book, a .PIC file can be created by 
simply renaming a Doodle or Koala format picture to the name of the music file 
but with the .PIC extension. 

SELF-DISSOLVING LIBRARY FILES 
Since a music file may also have a words or picture file or both, two or three 
separate files could have to be downloaded to get a complete song.  For your 
downloading convenience, songs with words or a picture are available in a 
bundled format called a "library" file.  You can download one library file for 
a song and then "dissolve" it into the separate files on your computer. 

A self-dissolving library file is one which does not require that you run a 
library utility program to dissolve the library file.  You just LOAD the 
self-dissolving library file and then RUN it, and it writes the separate files 
to your disk.  After the individual files have been written, you can scratch 
the library file.  Because the self-dissolving library file is actually a 
program loaded into memory, you do not need to have the library file on the 
same disk that the separate files are written to. 

MUSIC AND WORDS (.SAL) LIBRARY FILES 
A file with the .SAL filename extension is a self-dissolving library file that 
consists of the music and words files for one Sidplayer song.  Download the 
.SAL file and then LOAD and RUN it, and it will write the .MUS and .WDS files 
to your disk and then give you the option of scratching the .SAL file.  Be sure 
to have as many free blocks on the disk as there are in the .SAL file before 
you dissolve the file. 

MUSIC AND PICTURE (.PIL) LIBRARY FILES 
A file with a .PIL extension consists of the music and picture files for one 
song.  A simple data compression technique is used in the .PIL file to reduce 
the size of the picture data.  The picture data is uncompressed to normal size 
when the .PIL file is dissolved.  Because of the data compression, the two 
separate files may together take up more disk blocks than the .PIL file. 

MUSIC, WORDS, AND PICTURE (.WPL) LIBRARY FILES 
A file with a .WPL extension consists of the music, words, and picture files 
for one song.  Again, data compression is used for the picture data. 

THE WPLMAKER UTILITY 
Use the WPLMAKER utility program to create a .SAL, .PIL, or .WPL file for a 
Sidplayer song.  Just LOAD the program and RUN it, insert the disk with the 
song to be libraried, and enter the name of that song at the filename prompt.  
The program will first read the .MUS file for that song, then read the .WDS 
file if it exists, and finally read the .PIC file if it exists.  The program 
will next prompt you to insert the destination disk and press any key, and then 
write the .SAL, .PIL, or .WPL file as appropriate. 

A words or picture file must exist in order to create a library file.  If only 
a music file for the specified song is on the disk, the WPLMAKER program will 
print an error message and stop. 

If you are going to create several self-dissolving library files and you have a 
second disk drive as device number 9, change the statement DW=8 at the 
beginning of the WPLMAKER program to DW=9 and the library files will be written 
to the second drive. 

The WPLMAKER utility replaces the earlier SALMAKER and PILMAKER programs and 
should be used instead.  The library files written by WPLMAKER contain the 
revised disk I/O routines with the improved error detection. 