Organelle Pro: Fluidsynth~ Project

_ ___ what’s it?__

fluid~ is an external built around the free fluidsynth soundfont synthesizer
available on www.fluidsynth.org Soundfonts collect digitally sampled
instruments. fluid~ converts Pd or to a fullblown orchestra with just a
single external.

FluidSynth is a real-time software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specifications and has reached widespread distribution. FluidSynth itself does not have a graphical user interface, but due to its powerful API several applications utilize it and it has even found its way onto embedded systems and is used in some mobile apps.

The SoundFont format was originally created by Creative Labs and EMU Systems and used in the SoundBlaster AWE 32 and later cards.

Take a look at the types of synths that are available
https://www.digitalsoundfactory.com/soundfont_products

I thought about this external for a while and i used it for many years inside of max/msp and i want to share that these are NOT midi sounding, they sound like authentic synth drums and have to say i am excited about this prospect, It will give the Organelle, yet another avenue of expression from a format that sounds great and literally has 1000s of possible sounds. I found a folder of Oberhiem, PPG, Moog, Prophet and other types of synths that sound astounding.

We may have to do some trickery to install it for all users seeing as i know some folks do not have Linux experience but trust me -]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]]

i may have to make my first how to video :slight_smile:
Here is a current list of the Synth sounds that will be available for Fluidsynth~ 4 Organelle

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Those soundfont filenames sound very promising! I accidentally bought some soundfont files from a chap thinking they were samples a few months ago, couldn’t manage to find a program to actually open them in. This may fix that. I’m particularly intrigued by ‘Taurus’ :smiley: I think how to videos would help a lot with some of your patches, would be very useful to see how the designer of a patch uses it. Looking forward to this.

This sounds cool… how does SoundFont work? is it basically MIDI notes mapped to samples, or are there other parameters to control too?

I do not think it’s Midi I think it does operations directly upon the sound card because the sounds are just downright stunning. I can get a beta together if you think you can help me with placing the shared objects (libfluidsynth.so.1) into /usr/lib Oweno. There are also files with “Banks” of synth sounds that are obeying Midi numbering because one bank has 127 presets and they are killer. Do you think you could help me oweno?

no i find it’s kind of a hybrid midi file but these do not sound like the cliche MIdi

and further

“A SoundFont bank contains base samples in PCM format (similar to WAV files) that are mapped to sections on a musical keyboard. A SoundFont bank also contains other music synthesis parameters such as loops, vibrato effect, and velocity-sensitive volume changing”

Unfortunately this patch will not be for the linux novice
Unless i can figure out the or hopefully get help making an installation script Users will have to mount the drive and ad the files for this to work. But it’s totally worth it.
I can provide the properly compiled libfluidsynth.so.1 and related files but they need to go into the operating system in /usr/lib/, /usr/local/lib did not work because of the specialized nature of the Organelle O/s. Symlinks did not work as well.

I was wondering if we couldn’t install this AND FFTW3 so we could use some spectral externals

So Fluidsynth Project has been successfully installed on another organelle.
I am reaching out to the brave folks on here that have some linux skills and are interested in using [kind of now] a piece of computer music history. When you hear your organelle step through [literally 128] high quality synth sounds your organelle changes into a wonderful emulator for things like the ROland Sound Canvas

What i have done is gone through and found synth BANKS instead of that long painful list of .sf2 files.
http://www.synthfont.com/links_to_soundfonts.html
Since they are a sunsetted format many vendors will sell them cheaply or give them away now and they are mint sounding early DSP emulations wrapped with midi control.

I need some people who
1.) have some linux command line skills or who are unafraid to tinker
2.) want to explore the BETA usage of Fluidsynth~ on Organelle
3.) might be willing to purchase a soundfont for research [maybe]

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Sounds cool! are there any open banks or .sf2 files to test with, or are they all proprietary?

ROMpler capability would be pretty rad, and I imagine it’ll still be a while before we can run Kontakt patches in pd. I’d be ready to throw some eyes and time at it this week, and am well versed in *nix.

i have 100s of .sf2 files
i am arranging them into folders like: moog, oberheim, ARP, roland, etc…
the proprietary ones are usually still pay but there are so many free ones now it’s fun

i will include some in the folder for sure

okay great
you have to install fluidsynth as root in /usr/lib instead of /usr/local/lib and everything works

i want a few installs then we can tweak a cool patch that can load Synth Banks

they sound really nice and the one i am testing with has 128 Presets

oweno is FFTW3 installed on Organelle?

i hope he see this today. I would really like to get a spectral morpher working and i would feel we have a full set of electro-acoustic tools for organelle. The Fluidsynth will give use the ability to run GM stuff.

Would’nt it be cool that instead of the regular OLED you could have an array be shown. is that possible?

so far the response has been kind of lackluster to this idea. when you hear it you’ll want it.

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Don’t want you to think the response is lackluster! I’m just reluctant to help out because I’ve got very little knowledge of linux and PD but I’m excited to see where this goes!

Looks like fftw is version 3.4.4

ls /usr/lib/libfftw*

What I don’t know is if this version is compiled with support for NEON which might increase performance…

I can try out the fluidsynth stuff. Do you have a test patch ready? and the Fluidsynth library is the only thing to install in /usr/lib, or are other files required?

you have to do a full make install as root. I have already done the ./configure, make
if you can do a make install /usr/lib you may not have to move them from /usr/local/lib and that woudl make things easier.

i will provide you a link in your Private message of the current Fluidsynth~ which will make libfluidsynth.so.1 etc [all those get moved to [/usr/lib :slight_smile:

Patrick

Did you ever try the pacman package (sorry if we discussed this already)?

https://archlinuxarm.org/packages/armv7h/fluidsynth

Might be easier install process than compiling from source.

Just get the Organelle on internet and run

pacman -S fluidsynth

Actually if dependencies are already met you can just download this package and install it from USB drive:

pacman -U /usbdrive/fluidsynth-1.1.6-5-armv7h.pkg.tar.xz

i already have it built. Getting people online would be much harder i assume