A native Windows player and browser for the High Voltage SID Collection. Full-text search, composer pages, playlists, STIL notes and accurate Commodore 64 SID playback — all from a local HVSC folder, with no servers and no uploads.
Most SID players are built around a playlist. HVSC is not a playlist: it is 61,000 tunes with composer folders, STIL comments, Songlengths and BUGlist entries. SID Station indexes the collection into a local SQLite database and lets you move through it the way you actually listen: find a composer, read the notes, jump to a subtune, keep favourites, and let the tune play while you keep browsing.
- Local-first: your HVSC folder is read in place, nothing is uploaded.
- Native: Tauri 2 shell (~5 MB installer) with the real libsidplayfp engine compiled to WebAssembly.
- Portable: the database lives next to the executable (
data/sid-station.db) and can follow you on a USB stick.
- Fast indexing — a full HVSC #85 pass (61,157 SID) builds the database in a few seconds; reindexing is incremental-safe and keeps playlists and history.
- Full-text search — SQLite FTS5 (trigram) over title, artist and STIL text, with filters for collection, STIL-only, and relevance/title/artist/year/length ordering. Works with punctuation and hyphens.
- Composer discovery — browsable A–Z by collection, composer cards with real name, handle, country and tune counts, plus per-composer pages.
- Tune pages — header fields, load/init/play addresses, subtune list with per-subtune Songlengths, STIL notes, BUGlist warning, CSDb search link.
- Playback — PSID and RSID, subtune switching, seek bar, repeat/shuffle modes,
keyboard shortcuts, and a live oscilloscope fed by an
AnalyserNode. - Library management — favourites, named playlists, listening history.
- In-app HVSC updates — checks the official hvsc.c64.org API, downloads from the official mirror, backs up the collection (~375 MB), runs the official HVS update tool, verifies the result and rolls back on failure.
- C64 ROM support — RSID and BASIC-driven tunes work when you point the app at KERNAL/BASIC/CHARGEN images, with per-ROM diagnostics and bounded auto-detection of VICE / C64 Forever installs.
| Tune page | Search |
|---|---|
 |
 |
| Composer browser | Settings and C64 ROMs |
|---|---|
|
 |
| Format | Support | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| PSID v2 / v3 / v4 | ✅ | 57,233 files in HVSC #85 |
| RSID v2 | ✅ | 3,924 files; BASIC-driven tunes need C64 ROMs |
| Multiple subtunes | ✅ | 4,796 multi-subtune files in HVSC #85 |
| Songlengths.md5 | ✅ | per-subtune durations, used for the progress bar |
| STIL / BUGlist | ✅ | shown on the tune page |
Raw .sid without header |
❌ | not part of HVSC |
Playback runs inside the WebView through
libsidplayfp-wasm, a
WebAssembly build of libsidplayfp
3.1.1 and libresidfp 1.2.3.
Audio is rendered at 48 kHz stereo and handed to an AudioWorklet ring buffer,
so the UI stays responsive while the engine renders ahead.
- Engines: reSIDfp (accurate) or SIDLite (faster, lower CPU).
- Models: MOS 6581 / MOS 8580, or "from header".
- Clock: PAL / NTSC, or "from header".
- SID model and clock changes are applied immediately (the engine reloads the current tune from its start).
- Emulation is used for playback only; SID Station does not emulate the C64 beyond what the tunes need.
SID Station expects a normal HVSC checkout: point it at the folder that contains
DOCUMENTS/HVSC.txt. The collection is read in place; paths are stored
relative to the collection root, so moving the folder or changing drive letter
does not break playlists or history.
HVSC content is not bundled and is not downloaded automatically. Get the collection from hvsc.c64.org and respect its licence.
Download the latest installer from Releases:
SID Station_x.y.z_x64-setup.exe— NSIS installer (per-user, no admin rights)SID Station_x.y.z_x64_en-US.msi— MSI package
Windows 10/11 x64 with the WebView2 runtime (preinstalled on Windows 11 and on updated Windows 10). The installers are not code-signed, so SmartScreen may ask for confirmation the first time.
- Choose your HVSC folder when asked (or open Settings → Collection path).
- Wait for the index pass: 61k tunes take a few seconds.
- Browse, search, play. The database is created at
data/sid-station.dbnext to the executable, or under%LOCALAPPDATA%\SID Stationif that folder is not writable.
PSID tunes play without any system ROMs. RSID tunes that run as real C64
programs — including HVSC's *_BASIC.sid files — need the KERNAL, BASIC and
CHARGEN images, or they will run silently.
| ROM | Size | Typical file |
|---|---|---|
| KERNAL | 8,192 bytes | kernal-901227-03.bin |
| BASIC | 8,192 bytes | basic-901226-01.bin |
| CHARGEN | 4,096 bytes | chargen-901225-01.bin |
In Settings → System ROMs you can pick the folder manually or press Detect, which only looks in the usual VICE and C64 Forever locations (Program Files entries and uninstall records) instead of scanning the disk. The panel shows one row per ROM with file name, size, SHA-256 and recognised revision, plus duplicates and rejected files.
The ROMs are © Commodore/Cloanto: SID Station does not ship them and never
downloads them. Use images you are entitled to (for example from your own C64 or
from a VICE installation). The SHA-256 digests in src-tauri/src/roms.rs only
label known revisions; an unknown image of the right size is still accepted.
Requirements:
- Windows 10/11 x64
- Node.js 20 or newer
- Rust stable (MSVC toolchain)
- Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools with "Desktop development with C++"
- WebView2 runtime
git clone https://github.com/BalTac/sid-station.git
cd sid-station
npm install # also copies the WASM engines into public/wasm
npm run tauri dev # development window with hot reload
npm run tauri build # NSIS + MSI installers in src-tauri/target/release/bundleThe 7-Zip binaries used by the updater are checked in under
src-tauri/resources/7z/ (LGPL, see THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md).
The SID engine .wasm files are copied from node_modules by
scripts/copy-wasm.mjs, so a fresh clone never depends on committed binaries.
npm run typecheck # TypeScript
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml # Rust (HVSC tests skip)
$env:HVSC_ROOT = "D:\C64Music" # optional: run the HVSC tests
cargo test --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml -- --nocaptureThe Rust suite covers SID/STIL/Songlengths/Musicians parsing, ROM scanning and
selection, and a full ingest of a real collection (HVSC_ROOT). Without
HVSC_ROOT, collection-dependent tests are skipped so CI stays green.
A quick engine check outside the app:
node scripts/engine-check.mjs "D:\C64Music\MUSICIANS\H\Hubbard_Rob\Commando.sid" 3src/ React 19 + Tailwind UI (pages, components, state)
src/lib/audio.ts libsidplayfp-wasm + AudioWorklet playback controller
src-tauri/src/ Rust backend: ingest, SQLite/FTS5, updater, ROM scan
src-tauri/tests/ parser, ingest, detection and ROM tests
public/ worklet and copied WASM engines (generated)
docs/screenshots/ screenshots used in this README
SID Station is free software under the GNU General Public License v2.0 or later (LICENSE); the "or later" is required because some dependencies are Apache-2.0.
Third-party components, their licences and the bundled 7-Zip licence are listed in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
Content is separate from the software. SID tunes, HVSC documents (STIL, Songlengths, Musicians.txt) and Commodore ROM images remain the property of their authors and are not covered by this repository's licence. None of them are distributed here.
HVSC itself is not included: SID Station reads a collection you already have.
The HVSC name is used descriptively (what the app browses); the project is not
affiliated with or endorsed by the HVSC team. The collection's own
DOCUMENTS/Disclaimer.txt governs the tunes: they are copyrighted, private
enjoyment is the intended use, other uses need permission, and the HVSC crew
cannot grant licences. See THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md for
the quoted terms.
- HVSC — the High Voltage SID Collection team (Ian Coog, 448, Wilfred Bos, Professor Chaos, Chris Abbott and the other members and contributors) and every composer who contributed tunes, STIL notes and Songlengths. HVSC is the reason this application exists; it is not affiliated with it.
- libsidplayfp / libresidfp — the emulation core, by the libsidplayfp maintainers and the reSID/reSIDfp authors.
- libsidplayfp-wasm — Chris Gleissner's WebAssembly build that makes in-WebView playback possible.
- Tauri, React, Zustand, SQLite — the application stack.
- 7-Zip — bundled extractor for HVSC update packages.
- VICE — its published ROM images are the reference for the SHA-256 labels used by the ROM diagnostics.
- CSDb — linked from tune pages for release and composer information.
SID Station is an independent project, not affiliated with Commodore, Cloanto, the HVSC team or the libsidplayfp maintainers.
SID Station was started in 2026 by BalTac (GitHub) and written with the help of DeepSeek V4.1 Flash (1017) — the affordable model, not the fancy one. That is part of the point: this is a tool built on a small budget, for the pleasure of listening to SID music, not a product.
It began as a personal annoyance: every time I wanted to hear a tune I had to open a browser, reach a web player and search all over again. Excellent players and web services already exist — DeepSID in particular does a great job — but none of them keeps my whole HVSC on my own disk, opens in a second, and lets me shape it however I like. So this is not an attempt to reinvent the wheel: it is one specific wheel, built for one specific car.
No accounts, no telemetry, no startup behind it.
SID Station is free software, distributed in the hope that it will be useful but without any warranty, as stated in the GNU GPL v2 — see sections 15 and 16 of the licence for the legal wording.
The author is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Commodore, Cloanto, the HVSC team, the libsidplayfp maintainers or any composer. Nothing in this repository is legal advice.
SID tunes, HVSC documents and Commodore ROM images are not part of this
project and remain the property of their respective rights holders. The HVSC
collection in particular is governed by its own DOCUMENTS/Disclaimer.txt; the
relevant points are quoted in THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md.
If you use SID Station, you are responsible for holding a legitimate copy of the
collection and of any ROM images.
The software is provided as-is: the updater can modify your HVSC folder (it makes a full backup first), and audio output depends on your system, your WebView2 runtime and your audio device.
- Repository: https://github.com/BalTac/sid-station
- Licence: LICENSE — GPL-2.0-or-later
- Third-party notices and content terms: THIRD-PARTY-NOTICES.md
- Changelog: CHANGELOG.md
- Known limitations and roadmap: TODO_LIST.md
- Release procedure: RELEASING.md
Thanks to everyone who tries the player, reports a bug or drops an idea in the issues — that is how this thing gets better, and it is the only QA department it has. Special thanks to the early testers who spent an evening listening to silent BASIC tunes so that the rest of us would not have to.
If you find a tune that misbehaves, a composer page that looks wrong or a HVSC update that fails, open an issue with the tune path: it is the most useful gift you can give this project.
Bug reports and pull requests are welcome — see CONTRIBUTING.md and the Code of Conduct. Security issues: see SECURITY.md.