Re: [fluid-dev] Question - selecting font/bank/sound

[David McNab]

Ken Ellinwood wrote:
> I don't think its possible to select programs from more than one soundfont in
> the current implementation of fluidsynth using MIDI commands.  It appears that
> fluidsynth keeps track of the banks in each soundfont separately, rather than
> internally managing a single set of banks into which all sounfont
> banks+programs get loaded.

I feel that's a shame, because it imposes a serious limitation on an 
otherwise excellent softsynth.

> When loading soundfonts onto an SB Live card, you
> can give a bank offset, so that two soundfonts that internally use the same
> bank(s) can both be used without conflicts by specifying different bank offsets
> during each load.

Only problem is that, when using the '-b' command, asfxload complains 
with 'invalid option' (which is in conflict with the manpage).

Also, when I connect my midi keyboard to the sblive wavetable (via 
aconnect), 'program change' commands work, but 'bank select' commands 
get ignored.

> At one point it was suggested that fluidsynth also manage
> soundfonts/banks/programs this way, but it never got implemented.

I really hope someone can take a little time to implement this, because 
it would be a totally sensible and useful feature.

IMHO, mapping 'bankselect-msb/bankselect-lsb/preset' to 
'soundfont/bank/preset' makes absolute and total sense.

The only way out of my present predicament is to build custom soundfont 
files, taking presets out of other soundfont files and arranging them 
into banks within my own file.

While this gives me a soundfont file that totally meets my needs, 
letting me arrange music using a full range of sounds from different 
sources at once, I have the problem that many soundfont file authors tag 
their files with 'do not redistribute' messages, which means that if I 
want to redistribute my midi files, I have to enclose a script which 
builds this custom soundfont on users' machines, and tell them where to 
download the source soundfonts.

So, is there any way any of you fluidsynth devs might be persuaded to 
implement such a 'bankmsb/banklsb/preset'->'font/bank/preset' midi mapping?

--
Cheers
David