Re: Soundfonts and MIDI output (beginner questions)

[Shane Brandes]

Heather,

If you want also you can use zynadsubfx or Qsynth to alter your midi
sounds. The first is a really interesting synthesizer that you make
lots of endless tweaks to. The second enables the use of soundfonts
and allows for some processing as the sound as generated such as
reverb etc. Both work with an app called Jack. I use this when I get
tired of timidity. Jack can be a little weird to setup at first, but
is worth it if you can figure that out. I also use Ubuntu 11.04 so
these are all synaptic available packages.

regards,

Shane

On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 8:12 PM, Peter Chubb
<address@hidden> wrote:
>>>>>> "Heather" == Heather W Reichgott <address@hidden> writes:
>
> Heather> [1 <multipart/alternative (7bit)>] [1.1 <text/plain;
> Heather> ISO-8859-1 (7bit)>]
>
> Heather> I have been using Lilypond for some time, and have used MIDI
> Heather> sequencing software before, too. Back in the early 90s I
> Heather> taught myself Cakewalk Apprentice with MIDI output for my
> Heather> early composition projects. :) But I am a beginner regarding
> Heather> the inner workings of MIDI. I have some beginner questions
> Heather> about soundfonts.
>
> Heather> 1. Is the choice of soundfont a property of the MIDI file
> Heather> itself, or a property of the playback software? (Or both?) I
>
> It's a property of the playback software.  MIDI encodes `banks'  and
> `programs' within `banks' only.  Bank 0 progams have a conventional
> mapping to instruments (the so-called GM instrument set), and this is
> coded at present into Lilypond's MIDI performer, in midi.scm,
> instrument-names-alist.  So Lilypond's output is always bank 0, with
> program number dependent on the Staff.midiInstrument setting for each staff.
>
> This provides maximum portability, so if you give a MIDI file to
> someone else he or she will hear the same instruments you do (although
> the actual sounds may be different, depending on what synthesizer is
> used).
>
> If you want to use different configurations for different performances
> with timidity the simplest way is to use multiple configuration files.
> you could create, for example, a file called pc51.cfg containing only:
>  soundfont /usr/share/midi/PC51.sf2
> then do
>  timidity -c pc51.cfg file.midi
> to use it.
>
> Heather> 2. Is there an easy way to see a list of all the instruments
> Heather> in a soundfont and hear samples of the sounds?
>
> You could try something like swami (which I've never used!)
> http://www.swamiproject.org/
>
> Peter C
>
> --
> Dr Peter Chubb  http://www.gelato.unsw.edu.au  peterc AT gelato.unsw.edu.au
> http://www.ertos.nicta.com.au           ERTOS within National ICT Australia
>
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