[linux-audio-user] Timidity vs. Fluidsynth

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