[linux-audio-user] Timidity vs. Fluidsynth

[Dave Phillips]

Greetings:

  Last night I decided to test TiMidity against Fluidsynth. The results 
were interesting.

  Here's the test scenario :

        run Sequencer Plus Gold in dosemu
        route MIDI output to ALSA virmidi module
        start TiMidity with 'timidity -iA -B2,8 -Os -c timidity-sf2.cfg 
-EFreverb=0 -EFchorus=0'
        start JACK (qjackctl) then start qsynth
        connect virmidi to either TiMidity or Fluidsynth (qsynth) via 
kaconnect

  Both synths used the same soundfont (FluidR3). The output from qsynth 
was subjectively more to my liking, but I had a persistent problem with 
noise, as though periodically the synth output would "fall off the 
rails", resulting in severe aliasing. It eventually corrects itself but 
until I resolve this problem I would not use qsynth for a production 
run. OTOH TiMidity just works fine. The only problem I have with it is 
that I'm now rather spoiled by what I take to be the better filters of 
Fluidsynth. TiMidity's output was comparatively harsh, but of course I 
can modify it with outboard gear (or a LADSPA plugin ?) if necessary.
 
  I tested the synths separately and in unison. No radical timing errors 
occurred and intonation was fine. I'll test Fluidsynth without the GUI 
today to determine whether the qsynth GUI contributes to the audio 
breakup. Meanwhile I welcome any comments or suggestions regarding this 
test.

  Oh yeh: I'm running a PlanetCCRMA kernel 2.4.22 patched for 
low-latency, ALSA 0.9.6, TiMidity 2.11.3, and qsynth 0.0.2 (fluidsynth 
1.0.3). JACK version is 0.91.1 and qjackctl is version 0.1.3.

Best regards,

== dp