Re: Better sound file then MIDI

[Abraham Lee]

On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 10:39 AM, dirk van damme <address@hidden> wrote:

Hi, Is there a possibility/approach to produce with Lilypond a music file that comes much closer to the natural sound of the music instruments used in the score - then through MIDI output as documented in the manuals. Or do I need to process the Lilypond MIDI file through another program - if so what programm do you recommend? thanks upfront Dirk Van Damme _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list address@hidden https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user

Dirk,

The short answer is yes, but it's going to take some effort from you. There are some other very nice midi sound fonts out there, but even then that only helps so much. It sounds like you are interested in the "action" of the instruments. LilyPond does pretty well with the volume and timing, but that's about it. The "articulate.ly" file adds some more realism by expanding trills, arpeggios, etc. This is explained here:

http://lilypond.org/doc/v2.18/Documentation/notation/the-articulate-script

Beyond that, you'll need to play around with the output midi file yourself. After all, LilyPond was designed for engraving, not score playback. I have found the Linux Multimedia Studio or (LMMS) to be handy for this. I believe you can find versions for Windows as well. Not sure about Mac OS. If you would like any recommendations for some good free sound fonts, I can point you to a few.

Good luck!

-Abraham