Re: [Swami-devel] Re: [fluid-dev] FluidSynth 1.0.6 "Music to my ears"

[Josh Green]

On Tue, 2005-06-14 at 08:32 +0100, Gerald Pye wrote:
> Josh Green wrote:
> 
>  > Well I suppose it wouldn't take too much to get me to release another
>  > version, since I know its probably necessary.
>  > (....)
> > So if another version was released, what other features would be useful?
> > I've got:
> > - Sample exporting
> > - Loop point import/export with samples
> > - Remove useless message about not distributing saved SoundFont files
> 
>       Would it be at all possible that Swami could use an already-running 
> Fluidsynth 
> to generate the sounds, rather than using its own Fluidsynth? I may be asking 
> the impossible (or even complete nonsense) here but my reason for asking is 
> this: in my current project, I have a script that runs Fluidsynth (loading my 
> soundfont), waits 5 seconds, runs aconnect to patch the MIDI through 
> correctly 
> and then starts a big bloaty java thing to process the incoming MIDI from the 
> keyboards and feed then to Fluidsynth's MIDI channels. When I decide that my 
> soundfont needs editing, I have to reverse all of the above procedure and 
> then 
> start Swami, edit, close Swami and start up the Fluid/aconnect/java system 
> again. I was wondering whether I could have one Fluidsynth running all the 
> time 
> and then just start the java gizmo or Swami as appropriate. However, I'd 
> consider this in the 'luxury' class so, if it means tons of upheaval, I'm 
> happy 
> to forget about it - I'd much rather have the loop-point import with samples 
> working!
> 

Not really possible in the current implementation since FluidSynth is
loaded as a shared library and Swami manages all the instrument
processing itself.  In the future though, I plan to have Swami be a more
robust soft synth frontend to FluidSynth, so there shouldn't need to be
a reason to not just use Swami all the time.  It would be necessary to
use it anyways to get support for other instrument formats.

>       There are two other problems I have when using Swami - I'm not sure 
> whether 
> they're due to a lack of a specific feature or ignorance on my part when 
> editing 
> soundfonts:
> 
>       Firstly, often I find that I want to tune a preset or instrument so 
> that, 
> obviously, all presets play in tune when the soundfont gets used in the final 
> project. Because it's only possibble to play one preset at a time, I can't 
> play 
> the preset to be tuned simultaneously with a reference preset and then tune 
> the 
> one to minimise the beat with the other. In the past, I have resorted to 
> getting 
> an audio-frequency generator, setting it to, say, 440Hz and mixing its output 
> along with the output of the PC to the amplifier's input. Is there a saner 
> way 
> in which one can tune presets? Does Swami perhaps need a feature that 
> generates 
> a reference tone against which a preset can be tuned?
> 

For this I have written an auto-tuning plugin using FFTW, although its
not quite finished yet, still needs a GUI, and is only in the
development version.  You could always tune it at the instrument level
and combine it with reference tuning instrument at the preset level, but
thats a pain too.

>       Secondly, I always seem to have a problem in getting Swami to work with 
> a MIDI 
> keyboard. I have managed it on occasions but somehow it seems that whether 
> it's 
> going to work or not is not predictable. When it has worked, I've needed to 
> use 
> ALSA Patch Bay to patch the MPU401 output through to the Fluidsynth input 
> once 
> Swami is up and running. Is there a possibility that there's an intermittent 
> problem in Swami that's causing this not to work always? More likely it's 
> something that I'm being dumb about, but I just wondered.
> 

It usually works fine for me, I connect my external USB keyboard all the
time to the FluidSynth instance running in Swami.  Not sure what could
be causing a problem for you off hand, not that there isn't something
wrong though.

>       Food for thought?
> 
>       Cheers,
> 
>               Gerald.

Cheers!
        Josh Green

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