Re: RFS: fluid-soundfont -- Fluid (R3) General MIDI SoundFont
On Wed, 20 Feb 2008, tim hall wrote:
>> I have been burned by soundfonts before, does Frank Wen have a site or
>> somesuch, describing how he made the soundfount, where he got the
>> instruments, etc?
>
> I understand your concern, Henrique. However, the question still makes
> me want to punch something. Do we really have to nit-pick a hundred or
> more sets of samples to check whether each one is DFSG-free? Can we not
> accept the upstream author's license so long as it remains unchallenged?
> Would you subject a text font to such scrutiny?
Yes I would (and I do), but then, text fonts are MUCH easier. Usually,
nobody goes around copying glyphs from here and there to make a frankenstein
:-)
I have tried to find more information on the FluidR3 soundfonts, and indeed
they are around since 2001.
I am *not* against its addition to Debian, but IMHO we should make at least
a token effort and ask the author if *he* has any reservations about it, and
also if he ever had any trouble over the issue. If he doesn't, I suppose we
could add it.
> Please don't take my remarks personally, these are real questions. We've
> been campaigning / waiting for a suitable soundfont candidate for
> something like 5 years (CMIIW). FluidR3 is the obvious candidate, it is
> pretty ancient and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Frank Wen has not
> kept records of all sample sources.
So have I. I was the timidity maintainer for a *LONG* time, and to date, I
have to use the completely undistributable EAW patchset (at least it is
*good*), because I couldn't find anything better and I was lucky enough to
be around while EAW was still easy to find on the net.
Frankly, the current freepats is useless, and the fact that the current
timidity maintainer decided to Depend on it (and I know for a fact that
timidity *doesn't* depend on it, and that apt will now install recommends by
default) aggravates me a LOT. I would want nothing more than a real, good
patchset to make it to Debian ASAP.
> enough years, surely? OK, I know, assume nothing. So realistically, how
> should we approach this? What real chance is there of getting it into
> lenny / Hardy?
It has a good chance, if the author answers to emails. Otherwise, I
wouldn't know, you'd have to ask a ftp-master.
> There are a couple of side issues here relating to recognition of
> mimetypes. Nautilus thinks that SF2 files are video/x-msvideo, causing
That we can fix, and we don't even have to wait for anything for it. Start
filing bugs...
> Please, please, please let's walk the extra mile for this package. How
> can I help? I'm not a DD either. Are we ever going to be able to
> distribute soundfonts? If not now, when?
You can help emailing the author about the patchset, and cc'ing the ML :)
--
"One disk to rule them all, One disk to find them. One disk to bring
them all and in the darkness grind them. In the Land of Redmond
where the shadows lie." -- The Silicon Valley Tarot
Henrique Holschuh
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