[LAU] Period Elongation NOW !

[lanas]

Hello,

  Looking for a way to 'elongate' the period of MIDI events.

  Doctor, what should I do to please her ears ?

  Seriously, the problem is, Qsynth cannot play any MIDI note that is
played by a percussive MIDI pad, in this case the Alesis Control Pad
played with drum sticks. Here's the thing (cheap at some $250 brand
new):

http://www.alesis.com/product.php?id=103

  It's as plain and simple as that.  Can anyone
verify it ? Start up Qsynth, load the Chromium sound font, pick a piano
sound, connect a MIDI percussive instrument, and try to play 10
consecutive, clear notes.  No way.  Try then with a percussive
soundfont.  A drum set.

  Now, do the same with Hydrogen and the same MIDI pad.  Works nicely.
Velocity works also nicely. Now make it take into account MIDI note offs
(it's in the Preferences, the default being to ignore them).  You'll
see that although most notes play OK, some are clipped.

  Try also with WhySynth.  Some patches work OK, some don't.  When they
work, they even work with drum stick rebounds, as with Hydrogen.

  From Kmidimon, the Alesis Control Pad MIDI notes, when hit with drum
sticks, last typically 1 unit of time (whatever unit that is) eg.:

Time   Event     Data1    Data2
89985  Note on   63       0
89984  Note on   63       55

  Whereas the shortest note I can do on an Axiom 25 keyboard looks like:

Time   Event     Data1    Data2
41067  Note on   89       00
41051  Note on   89       94

  That's a whole 16 units of whatever time.  Same with the Axiom's
pads: they last a long time and thus, interact OK with Qsynth.

  My theory about Qsynth (Fluidsynth...) is that the MIDI notes sent by
the MIDI percussion instrument are too short for it to pick them up.
Could that be ?  It'd be nice to play all those available percussive
soundfonts using a MIDI percussion controller.  Wprks all right with
Hydrogen, but not with Qsynth.  Should Alesis make their Control Pad
send longer MIDI notes ?  Or have a programmable parameter for each
note ?  I don't know.  Hydrogen works, but not Qsynth.

  But then, can there be a default note length ?  I would be glad to
set some default note length.  I could even take the time to set notes
lengths according to soundfonts and load them with the instruments...
as long as there's a filter that could do that.  

  So, is there a MIDI filter out there that would enable something like
this ?  To make (all or specific) MIDI notes last longer ?

Thanks for reading, and do not hesitate to throw suggestions.

Jam, no spam,

Al