RE: [linux-audio-user] Big professional tiMIDIty patchset.. Any interrest ?

Roel, Just catching up from travels. I would very much like a high-quality GM device for Linux. I'd probably use TiMidity to get that. I'd also like some really great drum sets also. Bottom line - If the price is low, I'd buy them just to support you. If the price goes up, then I'd have to look at the quality carefully. I've only used sound fonts on the Windows platform and I've been pretty disappointed with the quality. In fact, bad sound fonts drove me to GigaStudio, which I now love, so you'll get compared to that platform. Any questions - drop me a note. Cheers, Mark -----Original Message----- From: linux-audio-user-admin(a)music.columbia.edu [mailto:linux-audio-user-admin@music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Roel de Wit Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 2:30 PM To: linux-audio-user(a)music.columbia.edu Subject: [linux-audio-user] Big professional tiMIDIty patchset.. Any interrest ? Hi, I am one of two persons in Utopia Sound Division, makers of profesionally sounding (and commercial) soundfonts since 1996.. I'm currently trying to find out if there would be any interrest in a commercial patchset which is natively developed for tiMIDIty. A few days ago Jaroslav Kysela (from the ALSA dev crew) suggested me to try on this mailinglist so that's what I'm trying right now. In the past we've made products for many soundcards (among which was a 100+ MB patchset for the GUS PnP which the Ultrasound Driver project got native support for) of which only a few where released under our name on our website. My name can be found somewhere in the ALSA documentation and I've convinced (incl. signing contracts etc.) Gravis in the past to release all Gravis UltraSound driver sources to the public to allow further driver development.. I'll telling this to avoid a flame after sending this email which might be considered as an advertisement of some and to show that not all of our interrests are purely commercially. This message is only meant to get an idea of the interrest in the project described in this email (which is currently vaporware). What we've planned is a patchset sounding very similar to our current Utopia Live! soundfonts currently available for the SB Live! and Audigy soundcards (for information and MP3s check our website to get an idea what I'm talking about.). Since I noticed that tiMIDIty is still widely used these days in the Linux community I thought it might be a good idea to build a GM/GS patchset for tiMIDIty from scrap. This would mean a full GM instrumental set with all GS percussion kits (except for the SFX kit which only takes up space and is seldom used these days). All samples will be 48 Khz 16 bit and the final patchset is likely to cross the 300 MB barrier. Since the Linux community likes getting things for free we are planning to release a lower quality version of the patchset to the public to download for free (should it the product ever pass the vaporware status), while the full quality set would cost around 15$ and will below 50 MB to download (using oggvorbis compression). All replies on this message and the questions below will only be used by me to determine whether or not there is a reason to start with this project. No one who replies will be added to a mailinglist or will be contacted in the future about this product unless he/she asks for it by sending an email to me (roel(a)utopiasd.com). My replies on this matter will only be directly to the mailinglist and will only go about this current topic as long as it could be considered 'active' (or until a moderator considers it closed). Basically my questions are: - If you are a MIDI enthusiast of any form are you interrested in such a product if it truly stands out. With interrested I mean, would you be willing to buy it it would be developed ? - If you are a MIDI enthusiast but are not willing to pay for a product like this, do you think others would be. - What do you dislike or like about current tiMIDIty patchsets ? - Is there some size which you consider the maximum size of a good sounding patchset ? - Any other suggestions where to ask for interrest in a project like this (e.g. regarding sequencers which use tiMIDIty etc..) ? - Would you be interrested in beta-testing this product if it ever is made (send a PM) ? ... and last but not least: - Can anybody tell me what is and what is not correctly supported currently in tiMIDIty regarding SF2 files (we are trying to decide between the .PAT and .SF2 format). I've done some tests which have not been too promising with the SF2 format but I'm still considering it since .PAT files only allow single layered (mono) instruments. I'd appreciate any comment on this email (either negative or positive).. I hope that I've not crossed any rules in this mailinglist (I've been very careful to avoid doing so) since I really need some feedback for MIDI enthusiasts in the Linux community to decide whether or not it has any use for use to develop such a product. --- Roel / Utopia Sound Division http://www.utopiasd.com