Hello fellow fans of SID music!

HVSC Update #44 is now available for you to download
at www.hvsc.c64.org

After this update, the collection should contain 31,330 SID files!

This update features (all approximates):
     620 new SIDs
      87 fixed/better rips
       4 fixes of PlaySID/Sidplay1 specific SIDs
       4 repeats/bad rips eliminated
     360 SID credit fixes
     150 SID model/clock infos
       9 tunes from /DEMOS/UNKNOWN/ identified  :-)
      20 tunes moved out of /DEMOS/ to their composers' directories
      12 tunes moved out of /GAMES/ to their composers' directories


Main Composers featured in this update:
(Artists marked with NEW are either completely new to the HVSC
 or they get their own directory in this update)

#   Tomas Danko
#   DRAX
#   Jörg Rosenstiel
#   Akuma Pan (NEW)
#   A-Man
#   Richard Bayliss
#   Arman Behdad
#   Bluez
#   Booker
#   Drake
#   Hein Holt
#   Joan
#   Josstintimberlake (NEW)
#   Linus
#   MAC2
#   Madaco
#   Maktone
#   Mankeli
#   MRT (NEW)
#   Rayden
#   Shock (NEW)
#   Surgeon
#   The Blue Ninja


#######################
SID related scene news:
#######################

o Linus/ViruZ released Mini Melodies: If I Never Came Home Again CD
  =================================================================
  One C64 and one woman, can that go well together? It does, I can assure you!
  Top notch SID music enhanced by a woman's voice that is bound to cause you goosepimples.
  The X-EP CD contains 7 fine tracks from latin/brazil to fluffy pop, brilliant music that
  you don't need to listen to behind closed doors, but definitely also for open minded
  people without massive C64 background.
  The CD comes in a funky 5.25" disksleeve and can be ordered and partially pre-listened on

  -> www.mini-melodies.de.vu


o Java based SID player running in your browser
  =============================================
  You can now listen to SID music from any halfdecent PC with a Java enabled browser.
  The output in Mozilla Firefox is a bit jerky due to bugs in Sun's Java. But in
  Microsoft's virtual machine in the Internet Explorer it works flawlessly.
  The sound quality is by far not reaching modern resid based players, but at that
  early stage of development it's quite promising already.

  -> http://www.dreamfabric.com/c64/jsidplay/


o New SID plugin released for the Linux based XMMS player
  =======================================================
  XMMS-SID offers a wide range of advanced, configurable features.

    * Run-time selectable emulation library.
    * 2-8x oversampling support.
    * Supports multiple emulation libraries:
          o libSIDPlay v1
          o libSIDPlay v2 with reSID-builder
    * Several sub-tune selection/control methods as configurable options.
    * Automatic sub-tune changer; plays through all sub-tunes in file, starting from default.
    * Configurable filter-settings.
    * Supports HVSC song-length database and has a maximum playtime check.
    * Optionally configurable title-string like in MPG123 plugin (supports also XMMS 1.2.5+ generic titles)
    * Standard audio output quality settings.
    * STIL (SID Tune Information List) support.
    * File information dialog <CTRL+3>, shows normal SID-tune info and STIL info if enabled.

  -> http://tnsp.org/xmms-sid.php

o New .sid player for the real C64
  ================================
  Glenn Rune Gallefoss of SHAPE/Blues Muz'/Nostalgia is working on a native C64 based
  player application for playing back unmodified .sid files from HVSC. It's got a nice
  menu based navigation, works on a wide range of drives and is on its way to become THE
  player of choice for people wanting to listen to sidmusic on their real C64.

  -> http://home.eunet.no/~ggallefo/tools/SIDPLAY64-V04.D64.zip


Now go and enjoy the new update!

Thanks to all the people who have helped to make HVSC the collection that it
is today, without your help it would be a much tougher task.

Steppe, on behalf of the whole HVSC Crew
