[suggestion] FluidSynth for MIDI backend

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

It's from my understanding that MIDI doesn't work at all yet in ReactOS.


In this topic, while discussing the feasibility of supporting soundfonts, it was brought up by Pharoh_Atem that we could compile FluidSynth as a DLL for use of the entire MIDI backend in conjunction with a small soundfont. In theory, this would make things much easier since you wouldn't have to re-implement the entire Windows MIDI backend, not to mention support for making MIDI audio not suck through the use of quality soundfonts.

Note that FluidSynth is also great for future-proofing since it supports up to 96KHz 32bit MIDI playback.

It may also be possible to include other higher-quality soundfonts in "Download!" or whatever package manager is being used by then.

EDIT: It needs to be pointed out that as of version 1.1.0 FluidSynth requires GLib, so 1.0.9 is the way to go.

LINKS
FluidSynth Homepage
FluidSynth 1.0.9 compiled for Windows (source tarball, and a tarball with the CLI player & libraries)
SoundFonts and MIDI in ReactOS discussion
Wiki page for MIDI in ReactOS
Example SoundFonts that could be used

[Pharaoh_Atem]

It's from my understanding that MIDI doesn't work at all yet in ReactOS.


In this topic, while discussing the feasibility of supporting soundfonts, it was brought up by Pharoh_Atem that we could compile FluidSynth as a DLL for use of the entire MIDI backend in conjunction with a small soundfont. In theory, this would make things much easier since you wouldn't have to re-implement the entire Windows MIDI backend, not to mention support for making MIDI audio not suck through the use of quality soundfonts.

Note that FluidSynth is also great for future-proofing since it supports up to 96KHz 32bit MIDI playback.


SoundFonts in ReactOS discussion: http://www.reactos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7570
FluidSynth: http://fluidsynth.resonance.org/trac
Small SoundFont: http://ocmnet.com/saxguru/Timidity.htm#sf2 (TimGM6mb.sf2)
Example of a great quality SoundFont: http://www.geocities.jp/shansoundfont/

I have uploaded fluidsynth 1.0.9 compiled for Windows on MinGW, including both library binaries and the original source tarball. The library binaries are in two flavors: DLL and static.

Also, if anyone wants to build fluidsynth 1.0.9 themselves with GCC, then they need MinGW and Code::Blocks, plus this archive, which is to be extracted in the root of the source tree. It contains the Code::Blocks project files I made to make it possible to compile using GCC.

[hto]

Perhaps there should be some wiki page to collect suggestions (with links to discussions). Otherwise, they will be buried here on the forum.

[Pharaoh_Atem]

Perhaps there should be some wiki page to collect suggestions (with links to discussions). Otherwise, they will be buried here on the forum.

Here is a wiki page!

[RideBMX]

Perhaps there should be some wiki page to collect suggestions (with links to discussions). Otherwise, they will be buried here on the forum.

There's a list of ideas in the Wiki. It would probably be better for suggestions to be made here and discussed first, then moved to the Wiki if they are feasible. Otherwise there would be a bunch of Wiki pages with suggestions that would probably never happen.

Would this currently work, or does the audio subsystem need more development?

[Pharaoh_Atem]

Perhaps there should be some wiki page to collect suggestions (with links to discussions). Otherwise, they will be buried here on the forum.

There's a list of ideas in the Wiki. It would probably be better for suggestions to be made here and discussed first, then moved to the Wiki if they are feasible. Otherwise there would be a bunch of Wiki pages with suggestions that would probably never happen.

Would this currently work, or does the audio subsystem need more development?

The problem is that I have no idea what is currently implemented in the audio subsystem. I track the commits, but just reading the commits doesn't tell much to me. With a better idea of what is currently implemented, the feasibility of adding MIDI support becomes much more clear.

[Haos]

You should then visit our irc channel #reactos on irc.freenode.net and talk with janderwald - our sound dev.

[Nintendo Maniac 64]

You should then visit our irc channel #reactos on irc.freenode.net and talk with janderwald - our sound dev.

I just talked to him a bit in IRC and he claims that he will not be doing any work on MIDI at all.