Re: midi sound quality help needed

[Guy Stalnaker]

Ken,

You are SOOOO close :-)

The issue is neither Lilipond nor its midi output. MIDI is simply a specification for musical "events" describing pitch, duration, etc. It's up to a program that understands MIDI to make actual sound. That is typically done via a synthesizer (dedicated synth module, keyboard, or other MIDI-capable equipment) or via an application that knows how to use a soundfont.

You're getting nice sound with Alda not because Alda is making "better" MIDI, but because of the FluidR3 soundfont (which has surprisingly decent sounds for many, though not all, of its General Midi sounds).

When I was using a MacBook and LP/Frescobaldi, I used fluidsynth/QSynth configured to use the  FluidR3 sound font (but this was some time ago, at least 7-8 years). On Windows I use CoolSoftVirtualMidiSynth. On Linux (my current desktop) I use the fluidsynth/QSynth apps. Both of them are configured to use the FluidR3 soundfont.

I *know* that you can configure timidity to use a different soundfont than its default (which does indeed suck). In fact, timidity on my Kubuntu 20.04 desktop is so configured. But this is by default and involves ways that timidity is installed on kubuntu, so it's not easy for me to tell you how to do it using this setup. But, I'm fairly certain Google will provide you options for getting timidity to use the FluidR3 sound font.

See this Google search:

https://www.google.com/search?q=tell+timidity+to+use+alternate+soundfont&newwindow=1&sxsrf=AOaemvKkuOn8r1q2lCX0swD3GgF5Q5AHGg%3A1631650995863&ei=swRBYY6RNJqztQaBhLRw&oq=t&gs_lcp=Cgdnd3Mtd2l6EAMYADIECCMQJzIECCMQJzIECCMQJzIFCAAQkQIyBQgAEJECMgQIABBDMg4ILhCABBCxAxDHARCjAjIECAAQQzIFCAAQgAQyEQguEIAEELEDEIMBEMcBENEDOgcIABBHELADOgcIABCwAxBDOg0ILhCxAxDHARCvARBDOgoIABCxAxCDARBDOgcIABCxAxBDSgQIQRgAUN74EFj_gBFg7pMRaAJwAngAgAGkAYgBwgKSAQMwLjKYAQCgAQHIAQrAAQE&sclient=gws-wiz

I know nothing about GarageBand, however Google can likely help you learn if you can configure it to use alternate soundfonts.

Hope this helps.

Guy

P.S. A nice thing about using an app and soundfont YOU specify is that you can change the soundfont used. If you've the money you can purchase incredibly good soundfonts (if you like) though there are dozens available for free. One of my favorite is an English Organ sound font with quite good sounds.

On 9/14/21 3:13 PM, Kenneth Wolcott wrote:

HI All;

  This is really not a Lilypond question, but I'm sure you have some
helpful information, as you always do :-)

  midi sound quality help needed

  I'm on a Mac.

  I'm using Lilypond 2.22.0 via MacPorts.

  I'm using Garageband as my midi player, with Timidity (from home
brew) as an alternative.

  I don't do rock music, synthesizers, sound effects, etc.  I do
traditional classical music.  I do some pop, and folks music, but in a
classical manner...

  I'm not asking for a professional live performance output quality
from midi, but most often the midi output sounds really bad.

  Now here's an interesting twist to the story.

  I installed Alda from home brew which is a more rudimentary
text-based musical scoring system.  I also installed the suggested
alternative soundfont (FluidR3).

  The Alda coding is much more rudimentary than what Lilypond offers,
so I'm not in any way going to abandon Lilypond!!!

  But the sound quality of what comes out of playing the Alda scripts
is phenomenal (!) compared to what I get out of GarageBand and/or
Timidity.  I've even tried MidiAndMusicXmlPlayer as an alternative
midi player.

  How do I improve my midi output quality?

Thanks in advance for your advice,
Ken Wolcott

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