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

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Subject: RE: [linux-audio-user] Big professional tiMIDIty patchset.. Any interrest ?
From: Mark Knecht (markknecht_AT_attbi.com)
Date: Tue Dec 03 2002 - 14:41:41 EET


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_AT_music.columbia.edu
[mailto:linux-audio-user-admin_AT_music.columbia.edu]On Behalf Of Roel de
Wit
Sent: Thursday, November 28, 2002 2:30 PM
To: linux-audio-user_AT_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_AT_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


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