flipSID by Alumni [web]
flipSID 0.3.0
======================================================================
flipSID by Alumni: a small, fast player for Commodore 64 SID music. It
plays through emulation (reSIDfp, classic reSID and the original
resid-fp) and through real SID chips: Ultimate devices over the network
and HardSID USB devices (the 4U, tested; the UPlay and the Uno,
untested).
Download: https://flipsid.thealumni.fi/
Version: 0.3.0 (3fe60736d4, built 2026-11-03)
Platform: windows-x64
By: Alumni (https://thealumni.fi/)
Code: https://gitlab.com/dahliazone/c64/flipsid
Copyright: Copyright (C) 2026 Max A. Vilkki a.k.a. codise
License: GPL-2.0-or-later (see COPYING.txt)
Source: flipSID-0.3.0-source.zip, beside this package
Features
--------
Playback
- Three emulation engines, switchable per tune: reSIDfp (the
default), classic reSID 1.0, and Antti Lankila's original resid-fp
with the community's measured filter curve presets.
- Real SID chips: Ultimate devices (1541 Ultimate-II+, Ultimate 64)
over the network, and HardSID USB devices (the 4U; the UPlay and
the Uno untested), with a socket per SID for 2SID tunes and mixed
chip models, and several units at once.
- Named SIDs: give each chip a name and notes, choose the SIDs a
tune, subtune or playlist entry plays on, and keep spare chips in
the SID Chips window.
- Song ends from the song lengths, with silence detection and a play
forever mode; seeking, subtunes, and a subtune from the file name
(Commando.3.sid).
- Fade-outs: tunes fade out over their last few seconds. Changing the
tune or pressing Stop fades out quickly too.
- Software-controlled mixer (Behringer X Air, tried on an XR18): its
channel's fader fades with the tunes, so real SIDs fade out too.
The row shows the fader in dB, with a mute and manual control.
- Graphs of the filter curves, to compare chips and presets.
Library
- Browses and searches the High Voltage SID Collection: title,
author, released, path, STIL and the BUGlist, with filters and
sortable columns, and subtunes with their STIL names, covers and
artists.
- Downloads HVSC for you on the first start, and updates it to a new
release in place, keeping your own folders beside it.
- Song lengths from Songlengths.md5, with your own lengths on top.
- Works without HVSC too, or with only Songlengths.md5 and STIL.txt:
open or drop any .sid file.
Profiles and playlists
- SID profiles: one complete sound each (engine, chip model, filter
and more). A tune gets its profile from its chip, and you can
override the chip or the profile per tune or per playlist entry.
- Several playlists in tabs, with drag and drop, play modes (repeat,
shuffle), a filter, colour markers, Liked Songs, and M3U and JSON
import and export. Each playlist remembers where listening stopped.
- Stock playlists to start with: nine of HVSC tunes, from the Epic
C64 SID Collection to ZOO 2026's 2SID picks.
- Tunes are identified by their HVSC MD5, so playlists survive a
moved or updated collection.
Interface
- A dense, dockable workspace: Browser, Search, Playlist, Tune Info,
Engine and Output.
- Themes with an editor, and your own banner image.
- Fast, smooth GPU rendering of the UI using OpenGL.
- Renders only when something changes, with no busy loops, to keep
power use low.
Getting started
---------------
flipSID isn't signed by Apple or Microsoft yet, so the system warns
about it the first time:
macOS If it says Apple could not verify flipSID is free of
malware, click Done, open System Settings > Privacy &
Security, click "Open Anyway" beside the note about flipSID
and confirm. If it says flipSID "is damaged and can't be
opened" instead, open Terminal, type xattr -cr and a space,
drag flipSID.app onto the window (that types its path),
press Return, and open the app again.
Windows If SmartScreen says "Windows protected your PC", click
"More info", then "Run anyway".
Start flipsid.exe. The first time, flipSID asks where your SID files are:
- Use a folder you have: HVSC's C64Music folder, or any folder of
.sid files.
- Download HVSC: the High Voltage SID Collection, over 60,000 tunes
with their song lengths and notes. About 85 MB comes down and
unpacks to about 380 MB. Tunes can be played while it downloads.
- Skip: flipSID works without a collection too. Open a tune with
Ctrl+O, or drop .sid files and folders on the window.
File > HVSC... shows the collection's release, checks for a new one,
and updates it in place: HVSC's own folders are replaced, anything else
of yours at the top of the collection is kept. With "Check for new HVSC
releases" ticked, flipSID asks the HVSC server about once a week and
says in the status bar when a new release is out. Nothing is downloaded
without a click.
Keys
----
Space play / pause
Escape stop
Left / Right previous / next subtune
Shift+Left/Right seek 10 seconds back / forward
L like or unlike the subtune that plays (Liked Songs)
F play forever (no song ends)
Tab the next panel
Ctrl+O open a tune
Ctrl+F search the library
Ctrl+W close the playlist tab in front
Ctrl+, settings
Ctrl+Q quit
On macOS, Cmd takes the place of Ctrl.
What is in this package
-----------------------
flipsid.exe the app
themes\ the built-in themes, with their fonts and licenses
licenses\ the licenses of the libraries and fonts flipSID uses
CHANGELOG.txt what changed in each release
COPYING.txt the GNU General Public License, version 2
README.txt this file
The C64 ROMs (KERNAL, BASIC and CHARGEN) are copyrighted and not
included. Most tunes play without them; BASIC tunes and a few others
don't. To play those, set a folder with the ROMs in Settings > C64 ROMs,
for example the ROM folder of an installed VICE.
Where flipSID keeps its files
-----------------------------
Settings, SID profiles, playlists and the log (logs/flipsid.log):
Windows %APPDATA%\flipSID
macOS ~/Library/Application Support/flipSID
Linux ~/.local/share/flipSID (or $XDG_DATA_HOME/flipSID)
The library's index cache, rebuilt whenever it is missing:
Windows %LOCALAPPDATA%\flipSID
macOS ~/Library/Caches/flipSID
Linux ~/.cache/flipSID (or $XDG_CACHE_HOME/flipSID)
HVSC downloaded by flipSID goes, unless you choose another folder, to
%LOCALAPPDATA%\flipSID\C64Music on Windows and to C64Music in the
settings folder elsewhere. Removing flipSID: delete this folder (or the
app) and the folders above.
Requirements
------------
Windows Windows 10 or later, 64-bit (x64). No runtime to install.
macOS macOS 11 or later, Apple silicon or Intel.
Linux a distribution from about 2020 on, 64-bit.
A graphics driver with OpenGL 3.3 is needed on every platform.
Real SID chips
--------------
Ultimate devices (Ultimate 64, 1541 Ultimate-II+): add the device in
the Output panel by its network address. Playback goes over the
network; the device can't pause.
HardSID USB: the 4U is supported and tested on Windows, macOS and
Linux. The UPlay and the Uno are supported but untested: nobody has
played one with flipSID yet, so reports are welcome.
Add the unit in the Output panel. When the system refuses to open it,
its row says so, and its "Fix..." button shows the steps below (also
Help > HardSID USB Help...).
If the computer's audio keeps dropping out and the HardSID slows
down (the status bar says so): the 4U reserves part of its USB bus,
and another USB device that streams on the same USB controller (a
second HardSID, a sound card, headset, microphone or webcam) may not
get enough; on Windows the second of the two to start is refused
instead. Plug one of them into a port on another controller (back
ports instead of front ones), or that device into a USB 2.0 hub.
Two HardSIDs: each on its own controller, or each behind its own
USB 2.0 hub.
Or, to listen to the HardSID only, turn off "Play through this
computer" in the Output panel: then no sound card is used at all.
macOS Nothing to set up.
Linux A udev rule gives the logged-in user the unit. Run these in
a terminal, one at a time (or copy 70-hardsid.rules from
this package to /etc/udev/rules.d/), then press Test on the
HardSID's row; still refused: replug the unit.
echo 'SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="6581", ATTR{idProduct}=="858[0-2]", TAG+="uaccess"' | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/70-hardsid.rules
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules
sudo udevadm trigger --subsystem-match=usb --attr-match=idVendor=6581
The same on Arch, Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora and openSUSE. Without
systemd-logind (Alpine, Void), write MODE="0666" in place of
TAG+="uaccess": every user may then open the unit.
Windows The unit needs the WinUSB driver: uninstall the vendor
driver in Device Manager ("Delete the driver software"
ticked) and restart, then bind WinUSB to the HardSID with
Zadig (https://zadig.akeo.ie), once for each model. Not
tested with flipSID yet.
A mixer that fades real SIDs: real chips don't hear flipSID's
fade-outs, so a Behringer X Air (XR12, XR16, XR18, MR18; tried on an
XR18) can fade the input channel they play into. Add it in the Output
panel (Add device... > Mixer) by its network address and channel.
Manual control on its row leaves the fader to you.
Command line
------------
flipsid [--subtune N] [file.sid]
flipsid --version | --help | --self-test
A file name like Commando.3.sid plays subtune 3.
Bugs, ideas and source code
---------------------------
Report bugs and suggest features at
https://gitlab.com/dahliazone/c64/flipsid/-/issues (Help > Report a Bug
or Idea... in the app), with the log file (see above) for a bug if you
can.
If flipSID crashes, please say what you were doing and send:
- the log: logs/flipsid.log in the settings folder above, and
flipsid.log.1 too if flipSID was started again since (Help > About
flipSID... has a button that opens the folder);
- on macOS, the crash report as well: the newest flipSID-<date>.ips in
~/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports (in Finder: Go > Go to Folder...).
It's also behind "Report..." in the dialog macOS shows.
The source code of this build comes beside this package, as
flipSID-0.3.0-source.zip
flipSID's own, with every library it is built from in lib/, at the
commits it was built from, so it builds as it is (README.md in it says
how). The libraries' licenses are in licenses/.
Support
-------
flipSID's development was kindly supported by Finer Things Software
(http://finerthings.software/). To support flipSID, try out their
products.
Thanks
------
Thanks to Tero "Terwiz" Tervala for inspiring this project in the first
place. The Alumni logo in the Alumni theme is Copyright Tero "Terwiz"
Tervala and is used with permission.
flipSID stands on more than thirty years of SID emulation work: Dag Lem
(reSID), Antti Lankila (resid-fp), Leandro Nini (reSIDfp, libsidplayfp),
Simon White and Michael Schwendt (libsidplay2), the VICE team, the HVSC
crew, Stone Oakvalley (SOASC), the people who measured their chips'
filter curves, and the authors of SDL, Dear ImGui, ImPlot, miniaudio,
yyjson, libebur128, libusb, libarchive and XZ Utils. Thanks to Grue and
Zamdee for testing it and for their feedback and suggestions. The full
list is in README.md in the source.
[ back to the prod ]