[MacPorts] #52992: fluid-soundfont: add new sound fonts

MacPorts noreply at macports.org
Fri Dec 2 14:08:42 CET 2016


#52992: fluid-soundfont: add new sound fonts
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
  Reporter:  mojca                               |      Owner:  RJVB
      Type:  submission                          |     Status:  new
  Priority:  Normal                              |  Milestone:
 Component:  ports                               |    Version:
Resolution:                                      |   Keywords:  maintainer
      Port:  fluid-soundfont-gm_gs fluid-        |  haspatch
  soundfont-gu_gs                                |
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------

Comment (by RJVB):

 Replying to [comment:2 mojca]:
 > * I don't see any reason to keep the two sound fonts as subports of
 fluidsynth. They have different descriptions, different master sites,
 different everything. You could just as well make three ports.

 Initially I went for a fluidsynth subport because of the functional link
 to fluidsynth made by Debian/Ubuntu. It was only while looking at the 2
 fluid-soundfont packages that I realised that 1) we would be putting the
 GM and GS soundfonts in a single port, and 2) that there's a (much) newer
 version of the GS sound font that is much more elaborate. And has a
 different license.

 I'd still put both soundfonts in a single port myself, though.

 > * The names are confusing enough already. I would (slightly?) prefer
 `fluid-soundfont-gm` and `fluid-soundfont-gs`. If you take all the patches
 from Debian, we could keep the naming somewhat consistent. I don't want to
 insist on that though.

 Naming is open for discussion, but the point remains there are 2 GS sound
 fonts. We could of course put the 2 older soundfonts under the -gm label,
 and the GeneralUser GS font as -gs.

 > * Where did you get the
 [https://github.com/RJVB/macstrop/blob/9d365dc3cd26c3c1242fbfe651319bf9b7b20d9e/multimedia/fluidsynth/files
 /fluid-soundfont_3.1-5.1.diff patch] from? From
 [http://debian.inode.at/debian/pool/main/f/fluid-soundfont/fluid-
 soundfont_3.1-5.1.diff.gz Debian]? I super hate the form it has at the
 moment and would be much happier if we would split it. Else let's just
 fetch the patch from Debian directly rather than including it as a whole
 in our MP repo.

 Yes, I think so. It's a typical Debian patch that adds the whole debian
 subdir. We could strip out all the unused bits. Fetching from upstream is
 fine with me too, but (how) does that work with a gzipped patchfile?

 >   * In particular I would prefer to provide `fluidr3_gm.cfg` and
 `fluidr3_gs.cfg` as a separate standalone file rather than a patch, but
 all other files are annoying as well and people would get temptation to
 modify them. Less annoying if we take them directly though.

 The only way to get those from upstream would be to download a binary
 package; they don't exist as such in the source package.

 > * [https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/Fedora/15/html/Musicians_Guide
 /sect-Musicians_Guide-FluidSynth-Req_and_Inst.html Fedora] recommends
 using `${prefix}/share/soundfonts`. You picked
 `${prefix}/share/sounds/sf2`. I'm not sure what other conventions are used
 elsewhere and I don't know if MacPorts already provides any sound fonts at
 all.

 Hmmm, I picked sounds/sf2 because that's what Debian and Ubuntu use, and I
 think that by extension that's where many software will look for
 soundfonts. There are none in MacPorts, so we have all liberty. But it
 does seem reasonable to install these under the existing standard sounds
 directory rather than in a parallel location.

 > * What's the relation between fluitsynth and General User GL? Is
 `${destroot}${prefix}/share/docs/fluidsynth/GeneralUser-GS/${version}`
 justified? I would kind of expect fluidsynth's documentation there and if
 the two projects are unrelated this might not be the most appropriate
 path. Same is true for other paths. But I'm not sure and I don't have any
 better idea.

 Good points...

 > * I guess that we should be able to come up with a livecheck for
 http://www.schristiancollins.com/generaluser.php

 Maybe let's first try to assess how often this evolves?

 > * The original link ([http://www.musescore.org/download/fluid-
 soundfont.tar.gz here]) contains `FluidR3 GM2-2.SF2` from 2013 rather than
 `FluidR3_GM.sf2` and `FluidR3_GS.sf2` from 2008, but I would ignore that
 fact and simply take things from Debian.

 Have you checked if there's an actual difference? I have assumed that the
 Debian package maintainers would have picked that up (5 years is long,
 even for Debian).

 > * Now that we have an example of packaging an SF2 font, the added bonus
 (once this work gets finished) would be to take a look at
 [http://freepats.zenvoid.org/SoundSets/general-midi.html#FreePatsGM
 FreePats2] again. That's also an `.sf2` file.

 Yep. I looked at it and I don't see any advantage it could have over the
 original FreePats or the GeneralUser soundfont. Quality is maybe
 marginally better than the former but certainly not than the latter, and
 the number of voices is considerably more limited.

 It doesn't seem to be possible to load and merge multiple soundfonts, and
 if that's confirmed there doesn't seem to be much interest in providing
 options that aren't very appropriate as a generic choice. Users with
 special needs are likely to know where to find "specialty" soundfonts,
 don't you think?

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.macports.org/ticket/52992#comment:3>
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