This is an old revision of the document!
====== Using your MIDIboxSID V2 with hardsid.dll ====== [[http://www.ucapps.de/index.html?page=midibox_sid.html|MIDIbox SID V2]] is more than just a synthesizer. Well, it is now atleast, thanks to nILS! He wrote a special DLL-file that makes use of the ASID protocol.... but, what does this mean to us MBSIDV2 owners? It means that we can use our lovely MBSIDV2 as a dedicated hardware sound device when using C64-related software. Yes, it sounds like a really nice idea, and it's even very easy to do now! But first you might want to know a little about HardSID and ASID protocol \\ \\ \\ **HardSID**\\ [[http://www.hardsid.com/|HardSID]] is a well-known commercial piece of SID hardware. In fact it was so popular that several C64-related PC applications allows to use it to output real SID sound rather than using an internal SID emulation. Imagine using a C64 emulator and having a real SID generate the sound instead of relying on the builtin SID emulation software. This is realised by using the actual software along with a special DLL-file called hardsid.dll **ASID protocol**\\ [[http://www.elektron.se/products/sidstation|SIDstation]] is another well-known commercial piece of SID hardware. It can be used to play SID tunes using a special player named ASID64 (originally known as ASIDXP). The player will output MIDI data according to the ASID protocol, which the SIDstation will pick up. This feature has been adopted by MBSIDV2 thanks to TK, and therefore the ASID64 player can be used to play real SID tunes on MBSIDV2 hardware. \\ \\ \\ Technically, what happens is that nILS combined these two 'technologies'. His DLL-file is named 'hardsid.dll' for the C64 app to find and use it. The app will then output it's data to the DLL-file, where it is converted into ASID data and sent to any MIDI port that you select yourself. If you powered up your MBSIDV2 and connected it to the selected MIDI port, then you're in for a real treat :D \\ \\ ====== What do I need to make this work? ====== * Obviously you will need a MIDIbox SID V2 synthesizer (any model or build will work. One SID is enough) * A fast MIDI interface. [[http://www.ucapps.de/mbhp_usb_gm5.html|GM5]]-based interfaces has proven to be excellent for this use, but other interfaces can be used also * The hardsid.dll file * Some software that supports use of the hardsid.dll * Some C64 software, games or SID-files
