[fluid-dev] repeating a note with the sustain pedal active cuts off the previous note

[S. Christian Collins]

Hi folks,

I have noticed in recent FluidSynth versions that when I am playing any type of piano or keyboard sound, notes will sometimes drop out unexpectedly. After a bit of experimentation, I discovered what the problem is: when playing the same note more than once with the sustain pedal active, the previous note gets cut off. This is especially noticeable if you play the note loudly and then softly; the loud note just abruptly disappears. This did not happen in the past when I was using an older FluidSynth version for live performance with my band.

I was able to find the culprit by running a git bisect: commit #048c51

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Add sostenuto pedal functionality (ticket #47, #136)

Apart from adding sostenuto pedal functionality, this also changes
the behaviour of dampening currently sounding notes on the same key
to ignore pedals.

Signed-off-by: David Henningsson <diwic@...>
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Though the change to dampen currently sounding notes on the same key with sustain/sostenuto was deliberate, I disagree with this choice for the following reasons:

1. Real keyboard instruments do not behave in this manner. With the sustain pedal depressed on a real piano, if you play a note loudly and then very quietly, you still hear the continued vibrations from the initial, loud keystroke.
2. All other MIDI GM-style devices I have encountered allow previous notes on the same pitch to remain, including those by Roland, Creative Labs/E-MU, and every other SF2 and SFZ sample player of any worth. AFAIK, FluidSynth stands alone in the decision to mute older notes on the same pitch by default.
   

Here are some audio examples so you can hear what I am talking about. I have played the same patterns using:

1. A real piano (pedal notes-real piano.mp3)
2. FluidSynth prior to commit #048c51 (pedal notes-FluidSynth-old.mp3)
3. FluidSynth after commit #048c51 (pedal notes-FluidSynth-new.mp3)

Each recording features the following patterns played with the sustain pedal active, in order:

1. FF note followed by PP note.
2. FF note followed by MP note.
3. FF note followed by four notes increasing in velocity from PP, and then repeating a few times.
   

Comparing the recordings, you can hear that the old FluidSynth behavior matches that of the real piano, whereas the new FluidSynth behavior is nothing alike. The MIDI file for these patterns is attached to this e-mail for troubleshooting.

I am hopeful that this change can be reverted, as I find it a significant obstacle to rendering a proper live performance. It has implications with non-keyboard sounds as well, but I didn't want to flood this e-mail with audio examples, so I will only provide more examples if requested.

Thank you for your time :)

-~Chris

pedal notes test.mid
Description: MIDI audio