LAMENOTER v.001 -- "'Leet or Just a Lamer? (Breadbox Season)"
by md1d 1541 (Obliterator918/Strate)
Web:   https://www.obliterator918.com/leet-or-just-a-lamer-breadbox-season/
Video: https://youtu.be/z6kt9_BSsX0
=============================================================================

A Commodore 64 lyric noter. The whole song (4:22) plays from a RAM
Expansion Unit (REU) while the lyrics print in time, word by word.
Credits, greetings and a little leet roll in at the end.

You need a 16 MB REU (or an emulated one). Every version needs it:
the song lives in the REU.


WHAT'S IN THE PACKAGE
---------------------

  lamenoter.prg        The noter. Plays the song on the SID as an 8-bit
                       digi. Detects your SID chip (6581 or 8580) and
                       NTSC/PAL by itself.
  lamenoter-u64.prg    For the Ultimate 64 and the Commodore 64 Ultimate:
                       plays the song as 16-bit PCM through the
                       Ultimate's own sampler ("Ultimate Audio").

  breadbox.reu         The song for real SID chips (all four versions:
                       NTSC and PAL, 6581 and 8580, inside one file).
  breadbox-vice.reu    The song tuned for VICE's SID emulation.
  breadbox-pcm.reu     The song as PCM, for lamenoter-u64.prg.

Each .reu file is 16 MB. Pick the pair for your setup below. The PRG
always needs the .reu named next to it.

The release comes whole, or as three smaller archives with one pair
each: C64 (lamenoter.prg + breadbox.reu), VICE (lamenoter.prg +
breadbox-vice.reu) and U64 (lamenoter-u64.prg + breadbox-pcm.reu).
Every archive has this readme.


A REAL C64 WITH A 1541 ULTIMATE-II, II+ OR II+L
------------------------------------------------

  Files: lamenoter.prg + breadbox.reu

  1. Press the Ultimate's menu button. Press F2 for the setup.
  2. In "C64 and Cartridge Settings": set "RAM Expansion Unit" to
     Enabled and "REU Size" to 16 MB. Leave the setup.
  3. In the file browser, select breadbox.reu, press RETURN and choose
     "Load into REU". (Or choose "Preload on Startup" to have the
     Ultimate load it at every power-on.)
  4. Run lamenoter.prg.

The sound comes out of the C64's own audio, through its SID.


ULTIMATE 64 / COMMODORE 64 ULTIMATE
-----------------------------------

  Files: lamenoter-u64.prg + breadbox-pcm.reu

  1. Press F2 for the setup.
  2. In "C64 and Cartridge Settings": set "RAM Expansion Unit" to
     Enabled, "REU Size" to 16 MB, and "Map Ultimate Audio $DF20-DFFF"
     to Enabled. Leave the setup.
  3. In the file browser, select breadbox-pcm.reu, press RETURN and
     choose "Load into REU".
  4. Run lamenoter-u64.prg.

This plays clean 16-bit sound (31.9 kHz) instead of the SID digi. The
emulated SID (UltiSID) can't reproduce the digi technique, so the
regular version sounds noisy there. With a real SID chip in the
Ultimate 64's socket (set as the SID at $D400), lamenoter.prg with
breadbox.reu should sound as it does on a real C64 (not tested yet).


VICE
----

  Files: lamenoter.prg + breadbox-vice.reu   (not breadbox.reu: VICE's
  SID emulation answers the digi differently, and the real-chip file
  sounds rough in VICE)

  In VICE (x64sc): Settings, Cartridges, RAM Expansion Module:
  tick the box that enables it, set the size to 16384 KB and the image
  file to breadbox-vice.reu. Then autostart lamenoter.prg.

  Don't skip the enable box: choosing the image file alone doesn't turn
  the REU on, and the noter stops with ?NO REU  ERROR.

  Or from the command line:

    x64sc -reu -reusize 16384 -reuimage breadbox-vice.reu lamenoter.prg

  If the sound crackles live (it can on Windows), give VICE a bigger
  sound buffer: Settings, Audio, buffer size about 150 ms, or start it
  with -soundbufsize 150. Recording VICE's output to a WAV is always
  clean. VICE also plays the sound a little behind the picture with a
  big buffer; on real hardware they're exactly together.


IF THE SOUND IS WRONG
---------------------

The bottom row shows what the noter picked, for example "NTSC 6581" or
"PAL  8580". A "?" after the chip ("NTSC 6581?") means the detection
wasn't sure.

If the chip shown isn't the one in your machine (a replacement SID or
an emulation can fool the detection), the song plays with the other
chip's levels and sounds rough. Please report it, with the replacement
you use.

On an Ultimate 64 / C64 Ultimate, use lamenoter-u64.prg (above).


IF IT STOPS WITH AN ERROR
-------------------------

  ?NO REU  ERROR              No REU: turn it on (16 MB).
  ?WRONG REU IMAGE  ERROR     The REU doesn't hold the song: load the
                              .reu file into it.
  ?NO SET FOR THIS MACHINE  ERROR
                              The .reu file doesn't match the PRG (for
                              example breadbox-pcm.reu with
                              lamenoter.prg).
  ?REU TOO SMALL  ERROR       Set the REU size to 16 MB.
  ?NO ULTIMATE AUDIO  ERROR   (lamenoter-u64.prg) Turn on "Map Ultimate
                              Audio $DF20-DFFF".

The screen shows the setup steps under the error. Fix the setting (on
an Ultimate you can load the .reu from its menu right then) and press
SPACE: the noter checks again and starts.


WHILE IT PLAYS
--------------

Nothing to press. When the song is over and READY. appears, press
SPACE to start it again.

The bottom row is the noter's info: the song time, the sample, the
line and word numbers (hex), and the machine it picked.


TESTED ON
---------

  - NTSC C64 (breadbin, 6581) with a 1541 Ultimate-II's REU:
    lamenoter.prg + breadbox.reu
  - NTSC C64C (8580) and PAL C64C (8580):
    lamenoter.prg + breadbox.reu
    (the SID detection picked the right chip on all three machines)
  - Commodore 64 Ultimate, NTSC and PAL:
    lamenoter-u64.prg + breadbox-pcm.reu
  - VICE 3.9 (x64sc), NTSC and PAL, 6581 and 8580:
    lamenoter.prg + breadbox-vice.reu

Not tested yet: the Ultimate 64 Elite (it runs the same firmware family
as the C64 Ultimate) and other 16 MB REU expansions. They should work;
reports welcome.

On a C64C you may see sparkles: single bright pixels flickering here
and there. That's the C64C's own "sparkle bug", a known quirk of those
boards, not a fault in the noter. It's harmless, and it stays. See
below.


CREDITS
-------

  Lyrics/Music     md1d 1541 (Obliterator918/Strate)
  STRATE logo      Shine
  8-bit digis      Pex "Mahoney" Tufvesson
  REU player       CL4UD3
  Raster stabilizer  after Galactic Rasterbar Power (Obliterator918)
  Keyboard monkey work  CL4UD3

PL3453 D0N'7 73LL 7H3 PUR1575

P.5. C64C 0WN3R5: 7H3 5P4RKL35 4R3 FR33. N0 3X7R4 CH4RG3.
     17'5 N07 4 BUG, 17'5 4 F347UR3. 3NJ0Y 7H3 5H0W.
