2019 AZ (www.azslow.com)
Lightweight SoundFont 2 (SF2) based multi-instrument synth, capable to play general MIDI files within a DAW.
For long time I was looking for a simple GM VST, which is able to play "normal" multi-instruments MIDI files, can be used for sketching with a MIDI keyboard, works natively under Windows and Linux, does not has tricky authentication procedure or other use restrictions and preferably open source.
It can be I have reinvented the wheel, but after I have not found any such plug-in, I have decided to compose one.
The soruce code for the wrapper is destributed under the terms of GNU General Public License (GPL) v3.
FluidSynth and glib are dustrubuted under GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL)
Steinberg VST3 SDK is used within this plug-in under GPL v3.
All credits should go to FluidSynth developers: https://github.com/FluidSynth/fluidsynth
- Build or download FluidSynthVST.vst3 for your platform. Archives for Linux/Ubuntu 18.04 64bit and Windows 64bit can be found in the bin subdirectory
- download some SF2 with sounds you need (see FluidSynth documentation for some or just search the Internet for GM SoundFont 2. Put it as "default.sf2" into the same directory. You can add additional SF files into that directory
- point your DAW to use the directory for VST3
- used SoundFont can be switched using host's preset system, undef "build-in presets".
- FluidSynth plays samples from disk, without preloading.
- there is no GUI
- current instrument settings are not saved (MIDI source normally have them)
- stereo output only
- (VSTGUI common) in case REAPER crash on Linux, run it under gdb. If crash happens in "cairo_scaled_font_status", "Arial" font/style could not be found. Check with "fc_match Arial".