Re: True Midi & Soundsmith/MOD composer

[tribby@cup.hp.com (Dave Tribby)]

Ian Schmidt (irsman@iastate.edu) wrote:
> As long as I'm taunting people about in-development things, I'm working on
> something to make MIDIsynth irrelevant :)

> Planned feature list:

> - Plays Type 0 or Type 1 MIDI (.MID) files directly, no conversion needed.

MIDI Synth files are much larger compared to the original MIDI, so
this feature alone would save sevaral megabytes on my hard disk!

> - 10 voice polyphony if I support panning, 15 otherwise (MSynth is 7 :)
> - Responds to General MIDI or Roland MT-32 program changes, so 95% of MIDI
>   files from ftp, America Online's PC section, etc will work as-is.
> - Some kind of ability to remap instruments so you can emulate additional
>   synthesizers, sound modules, and drum machines.
> - Full General MIDI controller compliance (pitch&modulation wheels, etc).

There's a lot of information in MIDI files that MIDI Synth doesn't
use! Will you have file formats equivalent to MIDI Synth's instrument
and wavebank files? It sure would be nice to load individual
instruments rather than having to choose them in groups.

> - Uses only the GS Ensoniq chip!

What...it's not going to use the 65816? ;-)

> - Swaps samples so large high-sampling-rate instruments can be used.
> - Some kind of MIDI file editing too, and maybe even a notation-based
>   editor.  Probably not in the first version though :)

An impressive feature list, to be sure. Keep us updated on progress.

-- Dave Tribby (tribby@cup.hp.com)