Re: [fluid-dev] questions while considering FluidSynth for a cross-platform mobile game

[Aere Greenway]

On 05/10/2015 02:08 PM, Ien Cheng wrote:
> And finally -- another non SF2-related question. What is the advantage 
> of difference between SF2 and DLS 2? I ask because it seems both 
> Android and iOS support DLS 2 natively.
Ien:

My experience comes from DLS and soundfonts on Mac OS X rather than on iOS.

In that environment, I much prefer the instrument sounds of the 
FluidR3_GM.sf2 soundfont to the DLS sounds that come with Mac OS X.

On Mac OS X, there is a component called AU Lab which will load 
soundfonts (sf2) of your choosing.

On 32-bit Mac OS X, there is a synthesizer called SimpleSynth, which is 
distributed under the MIT license, so you can use it as you see fit, and 
it will load soundfonts (sf2) of your choosing.  But it won't load 
soundfonts when run on 64-bit Mac OS X.  It only plays the DLS sounds 
available with Mac OS X with 64-bit Mac.

There is a soundfont player, the Bismark BS-16, which will run as a VST 
instrument on Windows, and similarly under GarageBand on Mac OS X.  It 
will load soundfonts of your choosing, and will change instruments 
(patches) via MIDI commands, and will play up to 16 MIDI channels 
simultaneously.

On Mac OS X using Java, there is the Java Sound synthesizer, which is 
low latency, but (unfortunately) has very restricted polyphony. You 
can't load soundfonts with it (though that worked in the distant past).  
The Java Sound Synthesizer is not available on Java on Android OS.  The 
Java environment (GUI as well) is very different on Android OS, as 
opposed to on Windows, Linux, or Mac OS X.  I don't know about iOS.

All of the Mac OS X stuff mentioned here are very low latency.

I have no information regarding whether any of them work on iOS.

--
Sincerely,
Aere