Re: [Linuxsampler-devel] Roadmap (was: Latest CVS commit)

[David O. <da...@ol...>]

On Monday 12 January 2004 16.14, Mark Knecht wrote:
[...]
> > BTW, priorities is what I use to keep sound effects from killing
> > long notes in in-game music and stuff like that. Simple and
> > handy, and works well as a generic improvement of the voice
> > stealing system. You can't (ab)use it to make polyphonic patches
> > monophonic, though.
>
> I think priorities could address my request. If the first X number
> of voices for any gig were high priority, then the piano's 50th
> note couldn't steal the violin's 1st note no matter how soft it
> was.

That should work - and it has the advantage of not having to figure=20
out some "sensible" number of voices to reserve for each gig, MIDI=20
port, MIDI channel or whatever.


[...]
> > Before I do that, though, I should probably benchmark the code
> > and see what kind of CPU time ratio there is between the control
> > stuff and the voice mixers... :-)
>
> I made this point once before, but I don't think anyone responded
> to it. If I benchmark the number of voices used in GSt and LS to
> render that jazz piano ogg I've posted then the release samples are
> FAR more important from a CPU/disk usage point of view than the
> main key strike notes.

As expected... Those slow releases and stuff (whether they're just=20
looping + envelopes, or special samples) are the main reason why h/w=20
synths have 64-256 voices these days, I think.


> (Active state? Note on state? What term should I
> use?)

I would suggest a separation of EG/voice states and MIDI terminology.=20
NoteOn, NoteOff and various ControlChange events are just ways of=20
suggesting what the EG should do. Depending on the patch, it may=20
react instantly, react based on what state it's in or ignore events=20
entirely. Nothing says that NoteOff is special. Lots of instruments=20
don't have a corresponding function, or releasing a keyboard key to=20
stop a note just doesn't feel right; it may make more sense to use=20
NoteOn only and use low velocities for muting notes. Whatever.

Put in an abstraction layer between MIDI and the voice state machine,=20
and try to come up with terminology that doesn't seem to suggest that=20
some MIDI events directly affect the state of the EG. (I have some=20
cleaning up to do in that area in Audiality too, I think.)


> I think that doing very much benchmarking before release samples
> are included is only going to lead to doing it again. In the piano
> ogg above, what you hear from LS today is only 10-15% of what GSt
> is doing with the same MIDI file.

Those 85-90% doesn't add *that* much to the experience, though! ;-)


//David Olofson - Programmer, Composer, Open Source Advocate

=2E- Audiality -----------------------------------------------.
|  Free/Open Source audio engine for games and multimedia.  |
| MIDI, modular synthesis, real time effects, scripting,... |
`-----------------------------------> http://audiality.org -'
   --- http://olofson.net --- http://www.reologica.se ---