Hi fluid-dev,
I have a question about the synth. I've noticed that my music keyboard's
built-in synth has a particularly nice property that if the key is
released while the sustain pedal is pressed, the note will begin to fade
out. In other words, pushing a key and holding it is /not/ the same as
pushing a key, pushing the sustain pedal, releasing the key, and holding
the sustain pedal. The former will emit the sound at a much higher
volume, while the latter will begin to fade the note out once the key is
released. But it fades out much slower than if the sustain pedal wasn't
pressed. This is particularly striking with instruments with long notes
such as string, brass and woodwind. I often take advantage of this
property when I play my keyboard.
When I use FluidSynth (with the Fluid R3 GM soundfont), this doesn't
happen: the sustain pedal sounds exactly the same as if I had just held
down the key. That's a pity, because I want to compose music for
recording with FluidSynth, and I like using the sustain pedal to make
nodes gradually fade out.
My question is: is this long fade-out characteristic a property of the
synthesiser (FluidSynth) or the soundfont (Fluid R3 GM). If it is a
property of the synthesiser, is it possible to add this feature to
FluidSynth? If it is a property of the soundfont, does anybody know any
soundfonts that exhibit this property? (Even single-instrument fonts
like a string ensemble would do.)