Yahoo Tuning Groups Ultimate Backup makemicromusic soundfont players with MTS

Hi all.
I would like to know if anyone knows of any soundfont player
for the PC winXP home, that is compatible with the Midi tuning
Standard (MTS). It must respond accurately to bank and program
changes. LiveSynthPro DXi is excellent, but does not have MTS.
AudioCompositor has MTS, but I have gotten poor performance with it.
I have read about Bitheadz "Unity Player", but it does not specify
if it accepts soundfonts, and if it is XP compatible?
I read at the Cakewalk site that there is now a "Unity DS-1 DXi".
Is anyone familiar with it?
Does the new PowerFX Dyad DXi have MTS?
I would appreciate any suggestions.

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "vquestor" <vquestor@y...>
wrote:
> Hi all.
> I would like to know if anyone knows of any soundfont player
> for the PC winXP home, that is compatible with the Midi tuning
> Standard (MTS).

Once the bugs get worked out, Timidity. It's sort of in the alpha
stage.

It must respond accurately to bank and program
> changes. LiveSynthPro DXi is excellent, but does not have MTS.
> AudioCompositor has MTS, but I have gotten poor performance with it.

AC has only a limited capacity to deal with MTC.

🔗vquestor <vquestor@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith"
<gwsmith@s...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "vquestor" <vquestor@y...>
> wrote:
> > Hi all.
> > I would like to know if anyone knows of any soundfont player
> > for the PC winXP home, that is compatible with the Midi tuning
> > Standard (MTS).
>
> Once the bugs get worked out, Timidity. It's sort of in the alpha
> stage.
>
> It must respond accurately to bank and program
> > changes. LiveSynthPro DXi is excellent, but does not have MTS.
> > AudioCompositor has MTS, but I have gotten poor performance with
it.
>
> AC has only a limited capacity to deal with MTC.

Thanks Gene. Too bad Timidity is not ready yet.
Actually AC may be limited, but it's MTS is adequate for my needs.
Unfortunately, it applies the scale globally to all channels,
including drums; and has other performance problems(like horrendous
fidelity and low volume output).
Have you heard of MPEG 4-SA?

🔗vquestor <vquestor@...>

Thanks Gene. Too bad Timidity is not ready yet.
Actually AC may be limited in MTS, but is adequate for my needs.
Unfortunately, it applies the scale globally to all midi channels,
including drums, and has other performance issues like poor fidelity
and low volume output.
Have you heard of MPEG-4 SA?

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

>AC // has other performance problems (like horrendous
>fidelity and low volume output).

I've written to Scott about the output volume issue,
and he hasn't said anything.

>Have you heard of MPEG 4-SA?

Edward Borasky, who used to be active on this list, is
involved with the project.

-Carl

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:
> >AC has only a limited capacity to deal with MTC.
>
> In what way is Timidity's MTS implementation better
> than AC's?

AC, so far, is not even trying to get beyond single note retuning,
and if you try for more than a tuning of twelve notes to the octave
it seems to suffer meltdown. At the moment they both suck, but I have
hope Timidity will be fixed soon; over at AC they aren't even
answering Manuel's email.

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:
> >AC // has other performance problems (like horrendous
> >fidelity and low volume output).
>
> I've written to Scott about the output volume issue,
> and he hasn't said anything.
>
> >Have you heard of MPEG 4-SA?
>
> Edward Borasky, who used to be active on this list, is
> involved with the project.

I've heard of it, but am under the impression nothing exists yet
which can actually be used. Am I wrong?

🔗Manuel Op de Coul <manuel.op.de.coul@...>

Gene wrote:
>AC, so far, is not even trying to get beyond single note retuning,
>and if you try for more than a tuning of twelve notes to the octave
>it seems to suffer meltdown. At the moment they both suck, but I have
>hope Timidity will be fixed soon; over at AC they aren't even
>answering Manuel's email.

Timidity seems to be fixed now, I get good results.

The problem with AC is that sample from the soundfont is chosen on
the basis of midi key number, and not the frequency. So if your
tuning table deviates far from 12-tET, you're stuck.
I just heard from the author and he says that the standard is ambiguous
in this regard and he'll consider making the correct way "an option" in
the future.
So it may help if those who have AC will also make a plea.

Manuel

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Manuel Op de Coul"
<manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:

> Timidity seems to be fixed now, I get good results.

I do too; thanks for your work on this.

> So it may help if those who have AC will also make a plea.

If that is what it takes. Why does he say the standard is ambiguous?

🔗vquestor <vquestor@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith"
<gwsmith@s...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Manuel Op de Coul"
> <manuel.op.de.coul@e...> wrote:
>
> > Timidity seems to be fixed now, I get good results.
>
> I do too; thanks for your work on this.
>
> > So it may help if those who have AC will also make a plea.
>
> If that is what it takes. Why does he say the standard is ambiguous?

Thanks for the info. I'll try to check Timidity out.
Has anyone tried the newest versions of Orion Pro or Orion Platinum?
They are Scala compatible. I am trying out the demos using it's
Sampler.

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

>Thanks for the info. I'll try to check Timidity out.
>Has anyone tried the newest versions of Orion Pro or
>Orion Platinum?

Oh MAN...

http://www.synapse-audio.com/orionpro.php

This looks really nice. Includes physical modeling strings,
a nifty-looking sequencer, Scala support, all for $99. Too
bad it's limited to 12-tone scales.

I've been following this stuff since 1996. The microtonal
revolution is happening right before our eyes.

-Carl

🔗vquestor <vquestor@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Carl Lumma" <ekin@l...> wrote:
> >Thanks for the info. I'll try to check Timidity out.
> >Has anyone tried the newest versions of Orion Pro or
> >Orion Platinum?
>
> Oh MAN...
>
> http://www.synapse-audio.com/orionpro.php
>
> This looks really nice. Includes physical modeling strings,
> a nifty-looking sequencer, Scala support, all for $99. Too
> bad it's limited to 12-tone scales.
>
> I've been following this stuff since 1996. The microtonal
> revolution is happening right before our eyes.
>
> -Carl

If LiveSynthPro would have Scala support, I would be one very happy
camper.
I have winXP home, and can't make heads or tails out of how to
install Timidity. Is there any site with the program download links,
that can explain it step by step, to simpletons like myself?
I would appreciate any help.

🔗Manuel Op de Coul <manuel.op.de.coul@...>

🔗Rick McGowan <rick@...>

🔗Carl Lumma <ekin@...>

🔗Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...>

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "vquestor" <vquestor@y...>
wrote:

> I have winXP home, and can't make heads or tails out of how to
> install Timidity.

It's not easy--important features are sometimes not documented.

First step--get the latest Windows version. This will be the one with
MTS support--don't mess around with anything else, but get the recent
beta. Finding the correct download page is not easy; Google and you
will probably find a crap page with an old version. Here's the place
to go:

http://www.linet.gr.jp/~tamuki/timidity/

You want Windows stuff; I wouldn't bother try compiling it for
Windows. Instead, get a binary here:

http://www.linet.gr.jp/~tamuki/timidity/tm/

*Don't* pick the first download which hits your eye. Go to the bottom
of the page and download the most recent zip.

Timidity must have a timidity.cfg file. It does, in fact, work with
sf2 files, but how to make it do so is not documented! I found
someone who had gotten around this by checking the source code. Here
is my current timidity.cfg on Windows (Linux works similarly but we
don't need to worry about that, I presume.)

dir c:\music\timidity
soundfont "gene.sf2"

I have timidity.exe in \music\timidity, and the timidity.cfg file may
as well go there also. I rename a copy of whatever soundfont I feel
like using "gene.sf2" and place it in \music\timidity also.

Finally, why mess around with Dos command lines? Here's a bat file (I
call mine "tim.bat", but you can call yours whatever you like) I have
in \music\timidity; you can drag and drop your midi file onto it and
you're in business:

c:\music\timidity\timidity.exe -int -EFchorus=2, -EFreverb=1,63 -A60 -
s44100 -Ow %1

As you can see, it's all very easy once you get the secret decoder
ring.