Re: [fluid-dev] Support for SF4 (FLAC) format?

[Reinhold Hoffmann]

My 2 cents to SF3 vs. SF4

We use the SF3 format in our app, too. Due to its size the SF3 format
provides the possibility to include a decently good quality soundfont file
into the base installation package of the software. For us the SF4 format
would not be an alternative due to its size. 

People of our user community load their individual SF2 soundfont files when
they need a better sound during regular operation.

Independent of the sound quality, our investigation has shown that the size
of a SF3 file is reduced down to ~10-15% compared to the size of the SF2
file, whereas the compression of the SF4 format is "only" ~50%. This means
that SF4 compression is not an alternative to a SF3 compression for this use
case (installation package) for us.

I tried a brief test converting various publicly available SF2 soundfont
files to SF3 and SF4 format. The outcome was somehow disillusioning.
Cracking and noises were created, but may be my fault that I did not use the
tool correctly or may be the used SF2 source files were not adequate enough
to be compressed. 

My conclusion for us: SF3 needs to stay and SF4 could be an option but only
in case if there are good quality SF4 soundfont files available in the
future.

Reinhold 
  

-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
Von: fluid-dev [mailto:fluid-dev-bounces+reinhold=address@hidden]
Im Auftrag von Marcus Weseloh
Gesendet: Sonntag, 19. Januar 2020 10:49
An: FluidSynth mailing list
Betreff: Re: [fluid-dev] Support for SF4 (FLAC) format?

Am So., 19. Jan. 2020 um 10:27 Uhr schrieb Tom M. via fluid-dev
<address@hidden>:

> I do sympathize with the idea of FLAC compression. But I do not see a
> reason to bump the soundfonts major version again.
[...]
> Everything needed to support FLAC, as far as I see, is to add a new
> compression flag to SfSampleLink enum that indicates that a sample is
> FLAC compressed.

Yes, I was thinking the same thing. And as I have a possible use-case
for it, I'll try to draft a pull-request in the next few days.

Then we would need to coordinate with sfconvert and try to get them to
abandon the SF4 idea in favour of an extended SF3 format. And maybe
also ask Polyphone to implement flac compression for SF3.

Cheers
Marcus

_______________________________________________
fluid-dev mailing list
address@hidden
https://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fluid-dev