 fluid~ - soundfont external for Pd and Max/MSP
 orchestra in a box  by fbar@footils.org 

I'm pleased to announce a cross platform external called "fluid~" that provides
soundfont synthesis using the advanced fluidsynth library.

This is a source-code only release for most systems except Pd on Linux, because
I only have access to a Linux system with developer tools, no Mac, no Windows.

_ ___ what's it?__

fluid~ is an external build around the free fluidsynth soundfont synthesizer
available on www.fluidsynth.org Soundfonts collect digitally sampled
instruments. fluid~ converts Pd or (x)Max to a fullblown orchestra with just a
single external.

To build binaries of fluid, the cross platform external wrapper flext is needed
as well. flext is freely (GPL) available at
www.parasitaere-kapazitaeten.net/Pd/ext or in the pure-data.cvs

Currently fluid~ is in an early test stage, but in its prior incarnation under
the name "iiwu~" it has proven to be stable for several months.

As I only have and use Pd on Linux, I'd be really thankful, if some smart
Max-developer would give me a hand (a big hand, actually) in providing (x)Max
versions of fluid~, and the same goes for a Windows version of fluid~ for Pd.

_ ___getting it __

Source of this external is available at the Pure Data CVS, currently residing
at pure-data.sf.net

Instructions for checking out the source are available on this site, as well.
In short checking out fluid goes like this:

$ cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/pure-data login 
[no password]

$ cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/pure-data co externals/footils/fluid

_ ___building it __

fluid~ should be compiled using the flext-build system. See the flext
documentation for details. Basically you need to run the flext build script
with your architecture as arguments. So if for example you built flext for Pd
on Linux using the gcc compile, you need to call: 

$ sh FLEXTPATH/build.sh pd gcc

from inside the fluid-directors (this one here).

_ __troubleshooting __

If you encounter Pd crashes when using fluid~ then the reason might be a bug in
libfluidsynth's LADSPA code. Try to get or build a version of libfluidsynth
that does not have LADSPA enabled (--enable-ladspa=no). This does not seem to
be a bug in fluid~ but one in libfluidsynth.

_ __the thankyous __

Credits, thanks and props go out to Peter Hanappe, the primary author of fluid,
and to Larry Troxler, author of the older iiwu~ external, on which much of this
is based, and of course to the "flext-ernal master" Thomas Grill. 
