FluidFeatures

This is a list of MIDI events that fluidsynth handles by default. That "handling" is either given by

• the SoundFont spec, or
• the General MIDI standard.

While the explanations in the SoundFont spec are very precise in terms of the intended audio-synthetic articulation, the descriptions in the MIDI standard are very vague when it comes to sound articulation. Thus you cannot expect that fluidsynth behaves in a certain way (which you may know from other synths) just because you send some MIDI CCs.

In order to control those "underspecifed" aspects of the sound synthesis (like ADSR, low pass filter cutoff & resonance, tremolo & vibrato depth, etc.) custom SoundFont modulators must be used! The SoundFont spec wants the SoundFont designer to define those modulators in the SoundFont file itself. Doing so will give you great portability between any SF2 compliant synth, i.e. you would get the same sound articulation when sending your custom CCs to any SF2 compliant synth to trigger your custom effects. Unfortunately, defining those modulators must be done for every single instrument or preset in the SoundFont, which can be tiresome and error-prone. Alternatively, you can use fluidsynth's API for manipulating default modulators (see fluid_synth_add_default_mod() and fluid_synth_remove_default_mod() resp.). This will allow you to insert or remove your own custom modulators, which will then affect all loaded SoundFonts equally. However, this technique is not portable and limited to fluidsynth.

Legend

Implemented according to MIDI or SoundFont spec and usable by default

Partially or customly implemented and usable by default

Requires special setup of fluidsynth to be usable by default

Not handled by default, but usable via custom SoundFont modulators

MIDI Message Implementation Chart

MIDI Message	Implementation Status
NOTE_OFF
NOTE_ON
CONTROL_CHANGE	See related table below.
MIDI_SET_TEMPO
PROGRAM_CHANGE
CHANNEL_PRESSURE	SF2 default modulator
KEY_PRESSURE
PITCH_BEND	SF2 default modulator
MIDI_SYSTEM_RESET

MIDI Control Change Implementation Chart

Note that unless otherwise documented, CCs are interpreted individually, i.e. as 7-bit values.

MIDI CC	Implementation Status
(000) Bank Select	Interpretation of MSB and LSB depends on synth.midi-bank-select
(001) Modulation Wheel	SF2 default modulator
(002) Breath Controller	Usable in breathmode, see PolyMono documentation
(004) Foot Controller
(005) Portamento Time	MSB and LSB (i.e. 14-bit value!), see PolyMono documentation
(006) Data Entry	MSB and LSB (i.e. 14-bit value!).
(007) Channel Volume	SF2 default modulator
(008) Balance	non-standard default SF2 modulator
(010) Pan	SF2 default modulator
(011) Expression	SF2 default modulator
(064) Sustain Pedal	See Sostenuto documentation
(065) Portamento Switch	See PolyMono documentation
(066) Sostenuto Pedal	See Sostenuto documentation
(068) Legato Switch	See PolyMono documentation
(072) Sound Controller 3 (default: Release Time)
(073) Sound Controller 4 (default: Attack Time)
(074) Sound Controller 5 (default: Brightness)
(084) Portamento Control (PTC)	See PolyMono documentation
(091) Effects 1 Depth (Reverb Send Level)	SF2 default modulator
(092) Effects 2 Depth (Tremolo Depth)
(093) Effects 3 Depth (Chorus Send Level)	SF2 default modulator
(094) Effects 4 Depth (Celeste (Detune) Depth)
(095) Effects 5 Depth (Phaser Depth)
(098) NRPN LSB	See related table below
(099) NRPN MSB	See related table below
(100) RPN LSB	See related table below
(101) RPN MSB	See related table below
(120) All Sound Off
(121) Reset All Controllers
(121) Local Control	Ignored, because not applicable
(123) All Notes Off
(124) Omni Mode Off	See PolyMono documentation
(125) Omni Mode On	See PolyMono documentation
(126) Mono Mode	See PolyMono documentation
(127) Poly Mode	See PolyMono documentation

RPN Control Change Implementation Chart

RPN CC	Implementation Status
(000) RPN_PITCH_BEND_RANGE	SF2 default modulator
(001) RPN_CHANNEL_FINE_TUNE
(002) RPN_CHANNEL_COARSE_TUNE
(003) Tuning Program Select
(004) Tuning Bank Select
(005) Modulation Depth Range	Not yet implemented
(006) MPE Configuration Message	Not yet implemented

NRPN Control Change Implementation Chart

All SF2 generators can be altered with NRPN Control Change messages. See section 8.1.2 in the spec.

SysEx Messages

Note: fluidsynth only processes those SysEx messages, if the "device-id" in the SysEx message matches the synth.device-id setting the synth has been initialized with! Broadcast SysEx messages are always processed.

SysEx	Implementation Status
MIDI Tuning Standard	See enum midi_sysex_tuning_msg_id for supported messages
GS DT1	Only rhythm / melodic part selection messages are supported (since fluidsynth 2.2.0, see the "Patch Part parameters section in SC-88Pro/8850 owner's manual")
GM/GM2 mode on
GS reset
XG reset