[fluid-dev] invalid instrument/drum selection problem

[jimmy]

Hi,

My problem is there are times that an instrument, or
drumset selection got changed and FludSynth just
voided that channel (no instrument loaded for the
channel).  I assume no instrument/drum recognized, or
a drumset/soundbank has no corresponing instrument in
the loaded soundfonts.

With Timidity, I know that I can see warning messages
about a tone bank that has no instrument loaded.  I
can then change Timidity's configuration file to load
that tone bank with any instrument from a patch, or
any instrument from a soundfont (instrument
substitution preloading).

With drums on channel 10, Timidity seems to play the
drum just fine for all these midi files that Qsynth
would not play drums with.  Timidity may ignore
invalid drumset selection and use what ever is already
loaed, I don't know for sure.  At least I can hear the
drums with Timidity.

With VanBasco Karaoke player on windows, I don't think
I run into this problem at at with any midi files.

I think it would be very unreasonable to the user to
change all the midi files out there.  Is there a
reasonable default, or other ways for me to play midi
files and hear even just some substituted instrument
with warnings about a specific tone bank or channel
select should I care to look into it, and better yet
allow me to speifiy tone bank substitution which makes
sense?

For example if an invalid drumset is selected, why not
keep what ever drumset is already there?  Print out a
warning would be nice.

Let's say channel 5 currently has some "Synth Strings"
(from a previous midi file played, or some preloaded
instrument in Qsynth), and the new invalid selection
chooses some tone bank 105 and instrument 76 (some
custom sampled instrument in some keyboard) that the
person who recorded the midi from their keyboard used.
 Why not just print a warning message and keep the
current instrument even if it doesn't sound "good", or
even "right".  At least, I can have Qsynth load the
"preset sounds" for all the channels and I will get
the at least the preloaded sound for such "erroneous
instrument change" situation.  If I can preload the
instruments with some FluidSynth config file, that's
nice, too.

How to reproduce the problem?  I am using Debian Sid,
with the following versions, but I think it could be
any recent version:

     Unison.sf2 (Sound font, in Qsynth/FluidSynth)
     FluidSynth 1.0.7a 
     Qsynth 0.3.1-1
     kmid 4:3.5.7-3
     jackd  0.103.0-6
     qjackctl 0.2.22-2

Here's one example that I run into.  Try playing this
midi file (there could me more in that directory):

  
www.geocities.com/TheTropics/Cabana/4967/caballo.mid

On loading the file, Qsynth "channels" listing will
show the drum channel and a couple of other channels
blanked out.

Let me know if it makes sense to suggest changing
FluidSynth to allow more sensible default behaviors
instead of duplicating/changing all the numerous Midi
files I run into.

Thanks,

Jimmy



      
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