[iiwusynth-devel] update and todo list

[Peter Hanappe]

Hi all,

I just tagged the current CVS version with V0_2 and uploaded
iiwusynth-0.2.tar.gz to the savannah web site.

I have been a little out of circulation lately and I need to
catch up. With all the improvements Markus has been
making, I wondered how far of we are from the SoundFont 2
specifications and what the major obstacles are to finish the
DSP part and the MIDI control part.

It seems to me that the DSP is getting quite complete. We might
have to do more testing of the filter and the chorus. We also
may need to work on performance optimizations.

I haven't digged into the MIDI control part very deeply. Markus
has improved the modulator part a lot, so most of the controller
events can be handled in the current implementation.

We also handle 'bank select' and 'sustain' messages. We still have
to handle the 'soft', 'sustenuto', 'all sound off', 'reset controller',
and 'all notes off' messages. Most importantly, we have to implement
the NRPN mechanism (SF2 specs, p. 75), which could be a lot of fun.


Josh, you should tell us what you need most for Swami. I was very
impressed with Swami today. I'd really like to see the two project
intergrate more. However, it's very important to have a modular design
so both can still work independently. This is important as a general
design concept but also because people are using iiwusynth as a
standalone library on linux but also on windows and macintosh.
I wondered if it might be possible to use swami as the GUI for
iiwusynth. Imagine that the user can type the
command "swami" or "gui" in the console and Swami start up with the
currently loaded soundfonts in the editor.

Another point that already came up earlier: do you think it would be
possible to extend the controller interface. Currently there's the
control panel in which you can select volume, pitch bend, reverb,
a channel and then set the value with a slider. Maybe this window
could expand into a full size window with more controllers on it?


I have made a first version of a plugin for Macromedia's Director.
Director is a major tool used by the multimedia industry for
CD-Roms and web sites. I have several friends working in Director,
in particular Antoine Schmitt (who might have joined the mailing
list? Antoine?). He'll use iiwusynth for one of his projects.
In that context, we will probably add sequencer support to iiwusynth
to be able to schedule events. I will send more news on that later.


Also, I will try to find the time to update the web site. It's time
to get the word spread!

Let me know what you think. Cheers!

Peter