[Lmuse-developer] Re: [linux-audio-dev] RFC: Disposable Soft Synth Interface

[Chris Cannam]

On Thursday 29 Apr 2004 11:56 am, Robert Jonsson wrote:
> Anyway, I see ALSA and LADSPA mentioned above and felt I should
> comment. The softsynth interface in MusE (MusE Experimental
> Software Synthesizer - M.E.S.S) used to have this layout but Werner
> recently changed it to a native format.
> I think (with emphasis on think, since I don't have the whole
> picture) that the reason was among others that this solution does
> not allow for faster than realtime execution.

That's true if you are using the ALSA sequencer to deliver MIDI 
events.  DSSI only uses the ALSA sequencer event types, it does the 
delivery just by passing events to the plugin at run() time (much 
like VSTi, except it uses parsed events rather than raw MIDI).  It 
should be fine for non-reaitime use.

> I think (once again, think) MESS has QT dependencies so it would
> probably not work as a neutral format

We mentioned it in the RFC as one of the possible existing 
alternatives (under the name "libsynti"):

  It is probably the closest alternative to the present
  proposal, it addresses many of the same problems, it is
  working now, and it is an attractively small API.
  Unfortunately it is unlikely to be popular as a standard
  for Linux audio plugins, simply because it is in C++ and
  requires Qt for plugin GUIs.

Since I use C++ with Qt myself, that doesn't bother me, but it's not 
really for me to say how far that would put off other developers -- 
probably quite a bit, given some of the arguments we get.  Maybe 
someone close to the MusE API could write it up for comparison here.


Chris