On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 04:59:45PM -0700, 4625 wrote:
quoted text
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 10:08:55PM +0000, Jacob Meuser wrote:
> > > > > > > > I think your problem can be traced to the different default
> > > > > > > > voices.
> > > > > > > I've test timidity with a different sound fonts and with the
> > > > > > > same config, like I have one in FreeBSD, on the same PC.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I wonder if FreeBSD's patch-playmidi would make any difference.
> > > > > It is not port or patch problem, but perfomance (on my opinion).
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > maybe you don't.  but for me, multichannel audio is more important
> > > > > > for a desktop than some busted old software midi player.
> > > 
> > > It would be nice to hope that there is exist good substitute for timidity,
> > > which able to produce sound with the same quality.
> > 
> > did you try that timidity patch from freebsd I refered you to?
> Sure.
> 
> > > > > > > But I'm sure, I should boot
> > > > > > > FreeBSD-4.11 to listen midi files.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > or you could use a less ancient midi player.
> > > > > Could you advice me one?
> > > > 
> > > > I like fluidsynth.
> > > Well, I got it. Could you explain me how do you ran it?
> > 
> > the way the manual says to.
> What make you think that I did not saw the manual?
> 

IMHO this discussion is taking the wrong direction.

I use MIDI a lot, exclusively on OpenBSD; both for playback,
recording, editting and basic real-time "filtering".

Feel free to ask for hints and to explain what you try to do
with MIDI and -- most importantly -- with what MIDI hardware.
Either privately or on the list, if you feel there's
something others should know.

To quickly summarize where OpenBSD is:

 - harware synths, keyboards, control surfaces etc...  just
   work, and are fully usable for real-time stuff since few years.
   After all MIDI is a dumb serial port.

 - opl(4), pcppi(4) are almost useless and seem
   unmaintained, I have plans to work on them (or anything
   based on src/sys/dev/midisyn.h).

 - ports/audio/fluidsynth is almost usable as a real-time synth.
   There's a recent patch on ports@, making it look as hardware to
   MIDI players. It works, but is not as good as hardware synths,
   especially for real-time performance. I use hardware most
   of the time.

 - ports/audio/timidity: it's good for MIDI rendering. I'd love your
   issues to get solved, but I have much more urgent/fun things to
   work on. I use it sometimes to render .wav files.

 - midiplay(1) is in base. It works only with hardware, because it
   uses the (obsolete) sequencer(4) interface; this is being worked
   on, though.

 - ports/audio/midish works in all cases and does much more
   than midiplay(4), that's the tool i'm working on the most.

HTH

-- Alexandre