Re: midi sound quality help needed

[Guy Stalnaker]

Thanks Hwaen Ch'uqi! That's not at all how kubuntu does this:

√ /mnt/NAS326_Music/music/Radio Drama > ll /etc/timidity/
total 480K
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 230K Nov 11  2016 fluidr3_gm.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.7K Nov 11  2016 fluidr3_gs.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.6K Sep 22  2006 freepats.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 225K Aug  1  2019 timgm6mb.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.2K Jun 27  2018 timidity.cfg

Just people making things more complicated than they need to be.

Guy

On 9/14/21 5:49 PM, Hwaen Ch'uqi wrote:

Greetings Ken,

I do not use a mac; I use linux. However, I have a feeling that the
principle for this is  the same. Timidity reads its settings from a
file called /etc/timidity.cfg, and those settings can be changed.
Whatever soundfont you wish to use, you should be able to download it
and tell timidity.cfg where it is located. I use the freepats.cfg
soundfont. The relevant little paragraph in my timidity.cfg looks like
this:

# By default, try to use the instrument patches from freepats:
source /etc/timidity/freepats.cfg

Any other lines that begin with the word "source" I comment with the
pound sign so that timidity ignores it.

I hope this helps.

Hwaen Ch'uqi


On 9/14/21, Guy Stalnaker <jimmyg521@gmail.com> wrote:

Ken,

You are SOOOO close :-)

The issue is neither Lilipond nor its midi output. MIDI is simply a
specification for musical "events" describing pitch, duration, etc. It's
up to a program that understands MIDI to make actual sound. That is
typically done via a synthesizer (dedicated synth module, keyboard, or
other MIDI-capable equipment) or via an application that knows how to
use a soundfont.

You're getting nice sound with Alda not because Alda is making "better"
MIDI, but because of the FluidR3 soundfont (which has surprisingly
decent sounds for many, though not all, of its General Midi sounds).

When I was using a MacBook and LP/Frescobaldi, I used fluidsynth/QSynth
configured to use the FluidR3 sound font (but this was some time ago, at
least 7-8 years). On Windows I use CoolSoftVirtualMidiSynth. On Linux
(my current desktop) I use the fluidsynth/QSynth apps. Both of them are
configured to use the FluidR3 soundfont.

I *know* that you can configure timidity to use a different soundfont
than its default (which does indeed suck). In fact, timidity on my
Kubuntu 20.04 desktop is so configured. But this is by default and
involves ways that timidity is installed on kubuntu, so it's not easy
for me to tell you how to do it using this setup. But, I'm fairly
certain Google will provide you options for getting timidity to use the
FluidR3 sound font.

See this Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=tell+timidity+to+use+alternate+soundfont&newwindow=1&sxsrf=AOaemvKkuOn8r1q2lCX0swD3GgF5Q5AHGg%3A1631650995863&ei=swRBYY6RNJqztQaBhLRw&oq=t&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMYADIECCMQJzIECCMQJzIECCMQJzIFCAAQkQIyBQgAEJECMgQIABBDMg4ILhCABBCxAxDHARCjAjIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyEQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhCxAxDHARCvARBDOgoIABCxAxCDARBDOgcIABCxAxBDSgQIQRgAUN74EFj_gBFg7pMRaAJwAngAgAGkAYgBwgKSAQMwLjKYAQCgAQHIAQrAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz

I know nothing about GarageBand, however Google can likely help you
learn if you can configure it to use alternate soundfonts.

Hope this helps.

Guy

P.S. A nice thing about using an app and soundfont YOU specify is that
you can change the soundfont used. If you've the money you can purchase
incredibly good soundfonts (if you like) though there are dozens
available for free. One of my favorite is an English Organ sound font
with quite good sounds.

On 9/14/21 3:13 PM, Kenneth Wolcott wrote:

HI All;

   This is really not a Lilypond question, but I'm sure you have some
helpful information, as you always do :-)

   midi sound quality help needed

   I'm on a Mac.

   I'm using Lilypond 2.22.0 via MacPorts.

   I'm using Garageband as my midi player, with Timidity (from home
brew) as an alternative.

   I don't do rock music, synthesizers, sound effects, etc.  I do
traditional classical music.  I do some pop, and folks music, but in a
classical manner...

   I'm not asking for a professional live performance output quality
from midi, but most often the midi output sounds really bad.

   Now here's an interesting twist to the story.

   I installed Alda from home brew which is a more rudimentary
text-based musical scoring system.  I also installed the suggested
alternative soundfont (FluidR3).

   The Alda coding is much more rudimentary than what Lilypond offers,
so I'm not in any way going to abandon Lilypond!!!

   But the sound quality of what comes out of playing the Alda scripts
is phenomenal (!) compared to what I get out of GarageBand and/or
Timidity.  I've even tried MidiAndMusicXmlPlayer as an alternative
midi player.

   How do I improve my midi output quality?

Thanks in advance for your advice,
Ken Wolcott

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“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

― Aristotle