Re: midi sound quality help needed

[Guy Stalnaker]

Yes!! I used to have that all the time when using timidity from the CLI to play MIDI and then convert to WAV/FLAC.

Now to see if I can remember how to fix it.

AH! This ...

From: https://henkelmann.eu/2013/03/fixing-timidity-crackling-output-in-gnu-solfege/

add --output-24bit to the options for that entry (my complete options for timidity are --output-24bit -idqq %s)

That "--output-24bit" is what worked for me.

Regards.

On 9/14/21 6:45 PM, Hwaen Ch'uqi wrote:

Oh, that's all right! That overall placement of folder did look a bit
"interesting" to me.

But since we are on the subject of midi/timidity, I wonder if you or
someone else could address this: I have noticed that there is much
more crackling (not sure how else to describe it) going on in the
sound when playing the midi files. Any idea what might be causing
that?

Thanks!

Hwaen Ch'uqi


On 9/14/21, Guy Stalnaker <jimmyg521@gmail.com> wrote:

I did not intend to contradict what you wrote, simply to show that
kubuntu has a more complicated set of configuration files that all
interact with each other, rather than using a single timidity.cfg file
(which was all that there was many years ago).

I apologize if I gave the impression I was correcting you. I *agree*
with you completely.

Regards.

On 9/14/21 6:29 PM, Hwaen Ch'uqi wrote:

Greetings Guy,

Perhaps I am missing something, but the folder contents that you
display don't seem to contradict what I wrote.

Hwaen Ch'uqi


On 9/14/21, Guy Stalnaker <jimmyg521@gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Hwaen Ch'uqi! That's not at all how kubuntu does this:

√ /mnt/NAS326_Music/music/Radio Drama > ll /etc/timidity/
total 480K
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 230K Nov 11  2016 fluidr3_gm.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.7K Nov 11  2016 fluidr3_gs.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 4.6K Sep 22  2006 freepats.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 225K Aug  1  2019 timgm6mb.cfg
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 1.2K Jun 27  2018 timidity.cfg

Just people making things more complicated than they need to be.

Guy

On 9/14/21 5:49 PM, Hwaen Ch'uqi wrote:

Greetings Ken,

I do not use a mac; I use linux. However, I have a feeling that the
principle for this is  the same. Timidity reads its settings from a
file called /etc/timidity.cfg, and those settings can be changed.
Whatever soundfont you wish to use, you should be able to download it
and tell timidity.cfg where it is located. I use the freepats.cfg
soundfont. The relevant little paragraph in my timidity.cfg looks like
this:

# By default, try to use the instrument patches from freepats:
source /etc/timidity/freepats.cfg

Any other lines that begin with the word "source" I comment with the
pound sign so that timidity ignores it.

I hope this helps.

Hwaen Ch'uqi


On 9/14/21, Guy Stalnaker <jimmyg521@gmail.com> wrote:

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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end
of
human existence.”

― Aristotle

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“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end
of
human existence.”

― Aristotle

--
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“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of
human existence.”

― Aristotle

-- 
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“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”

― Aristotle