I would like to propose that the FluidSynth velocity-to-attenuation 
curve be made more sensitive.  I have done a comparison between the 
Sound Blaster Audigy's hardware SoundFont synth and FluidSynth and found 
that at low velocities, FluidSynth is considerably louder than the 
Audigy.  I have created a package including actual numbers and a chart 
for those interested.  The package also includes a SoundFont and MIDI 
file for performing your own tests.  You can download it here:
http://www.schristiancollins.com/temp/velo_curve_test.tar.gz

The velocity-to-attenuation modulator is set by default to 96 dB.  It 
can range anywhere from 0 (no velocity curve) to 144 (maximum velocity 
curve).  On the Audigy, the default 96 dB setting creates quite a 
dynamic range between loud and soft, but on FluidSynth there isn't much 
variance at all.  If I set an instrument to 144 dB velocity curve, it is 
better, but FluidSynth's 144 dB setting is still not even as sensitive 
as the Audigy's 96 dB!  As a result, FluidSynth instruments lack 
expressiveness and dynamic range.

In my customized FluidSynth package, I have set the default 
velocity-to-attenuation to 144 dB, although this still does not help 
instruments that override the default setting.  Changing the default to 
144 dB isn't a proper fix, but for anyone who wants to know, I changed 
line 188 in fluid_synth.c from:

fluid_mod_set_amount(&default_vel2att_mod, 960.0);
     to
fluid_mod_set_amount(&default_vel2att_mod, 1440.0);

This is something that should be fixed at a deeper level, though, which 
I don't have the know-how to fix.

-~Chris



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