[fluid-dev] Sustain long fadeout a property of the synth or the font?

[Matt Giuca]

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.)

Thanks

Matt