[LAU] raspi as midi synth

[Ben Bell]

On Sun, Feb 23, 2014 at 07:09:06PM +0100, Milan Lazecky wrote:
> i have a yamaha wx5 (midi saxophone). i was thinking to use my midi2usb
> cable to plug into raspberry pi which would use some fluidsynth soundfonts
> to synthesize music realtime.

There are some examples of people trying to do this and I think the general
impression is that the latency is touch and go depending on what you're
playing. I have one here running fluidsynth, alsa midi using an Evolution
USB keyboard, and a set of mellotron soundfonts. It's OK for chords and
single note runs, but if I try anything rapid, it feels laggy. Of course,
compared with a real mellotron that's not so bad, but playing a WX5 may be
sore.

As others have pointed out the audio out isn't audiophile quality, but I'd
have thought if you were in a studio you'd use proper hardware and this
would be for live use? In which case, factory in an amp, an audience talking
and so on, and I don't think it's as big an issue as people make out.