Re: [fluid-dev] Linking MIDI files with sf2 files

[Josh Green]

On Tue, 2006-04-18 at 21:28 +0530, Premkiran Mannava wrote:
> 
> hi,
>  
> I  have some downloaded code of parsing the MIDI files as well as
> soundfont files.  Now how do I select the preset and bank initially
> basing on the MIDI events.  I basically donot know which instrument it
> is playing initially right!  Suppose my MIDI file events are playing
> a xylophone... then how do I recognize from soundfont that its a
> xylophone?  How do I identify the instrument of the sample? 
> Regards,
> Prem
> 

I'm not exactly certain what you are asking, but I'll try to answer your
questions ;)  Each preset in a SoundFont has a MIDI bank and preset
number associated with it.  When playing a MIDI file through a SoundFont
synthesizer, it should be enough to send MIDI bank and program change
events for the instrument you desire to play.  Are you using FluidSynth
as a shared library in a program, from the command line or within
another application?  Changing the bank:preset of FluidSynth depends on
how you are using it.  SoundFont presets are also identified by a name,
which will give you a better idea of what the sound is.  This name can
be whatever the designer of the SoundFont chooses so a Xylophone won't
necessarily be exactly named that.  There are some standards for mapping
specific program numbers to certain instruments, General MIDI is one of
those standards.  This is a standard mapping of certain sounds to
numbers.  Hope something in there covers what you were asking.
        Josh Green