[LAU] Help with fluidsynth and midi from drum pads

[Clemens Ladisch]

Bengt Gördén wrote:
> I just got a toy (at least it's been called that before) Millenium MD70 for my
> kid. Anyway its just about right for my 5 year old kid. It had midi out so I
> thought that I try it together with Hydrogen and Fluidsynth. One thing I
> first noticed was that Fluidsynth just responded about half of the hits made
> at the pads. Hydrogen responds ok but the velocity is low compared to what I
> get when I just play the sound in Hydrogen. I was puzzled to why Fluidsynth
> couldn't respond more than every second hit so I took amidi and dumped the
> output. It turns out that the MD70 sends a "Program Change" every time I hit
> a pad. In hex it is C9 00. Do anyone out there know why this happens? Or is
> it normal to send a program change at every hit?

Probably just to make sure that the right program is selected.

> I can't get Fluidsynth to ignore the program change.

A program change shouldn't hurt.

> Here is an example of amidi -d when I hit one pad
> C9 00
> 99 23 7F
> 99 23 00

You could use aseqdump to have the computer interpret it.

> As i interpret it (GM that is), it's:
> Program change to 0
> Note on for Acoustic Bass Drum with velocity 127

That's maximum velocity.

> Note on for Acoustic Bass Drum with velocity 0

Velocity 0 actually means note off.

It's possible that fluidsynth cuts off the sound as soon as the note off
is received.  Many GM synths ignore note off messages on the drum
channel.  Probably you're using a sound font where the decay and release
times for drum sounds are different; try different ones.


Regards,
Clemens