Re: [fluid-dev] Fluidsynth changes

[Ken Restivo]

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On Sat, Apr 21, 2007 at 04:45:48PM +0200, Josh Green wrote:
> On Sat, 2007-04-21 at 12:29 +0300, Mihail Zenkov wrote:
> > Why we hear it only in 16 bits?
> > 
> 
> FluidSynth currently only has support for 16 bit samples.  Swami uses
> the SoundFont loader API, which just currently doesn't have support for
> other formats other than 16 bit.  It would take some changes to
> FluidSynth.
> 
> > > As for the question of platform.  We have:
> > > 
> > > A. Continue using C without any support libraries
> > > B. Use a portability/utility library such a glib but remain C
> > > C. Use GObject which is also part of glib to be a little more OO but
> > > also remain C (would get Python bindings rather easy too, in that case)
> > > D. Move to C++ and look into writing a C binding
> > 
> > IMHO B or C should be good.
> > 
> 
> At this point I tend to agree.  I'm curious if the route of GObject was
> taken, what that would look like.  There are some object building tools
> which assist with the process, and you end up with something that is
> rather language binding friendly in a semi automated fashion (Python and
> C++).
>       Josh
> 
> 

I like the wiki page, but that'll probably get to be a very long list.

For me, as a pretty heavy user of fluidsynth (it's my main instrument), the top 
things I'd request are:

1) Streaming to use less memory.

2) Enhance realtime performance with JACK. It's already pretty tight AFAICT. 
But I'd hope you were able to stay focussed on realtime and JACK. Particularly 
with heavily-multilayered soundfonts.

3) Support 24-bit soundfonts.

4) Multi-core CPU support! Soon almost every machine shipped will be dual core 
or quad core. jackmp has some excellent capabilities for efficiently using 
those multiple cores, but the applications have to take advantage of it. There 
wassome recent discussion on the jack list regarding this.

5) Some way to do the MIDI routing through a conf file instead of having to 
telnet into the thing (if you use glib, you get its built-in API for conf file 
reading/parsing, IIRC).

6) Please keep it lightweight and command-line/daemon oriented, and resist the 
GUI temptation.

So just my humble requests. Fluidsynth is a great synth and again, it's my main 
instrument.

- -ken
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