If I run fluidsynth from the terminal
fluidsynth soundfont.sf2 midifile.midi
I am then able to write control change commands in realtime to alter the playback. For example,
cc 1 7 0
sends a CC#7 message (channel volume) to channel 1 with a value of 0, meaning that the volume on channel 1 is set to 0.
Now, I would like to specify a bunch of these cc commands when calling fluidsynth, meaning that the channel volumes are set before playback starts (in turn meaning that I can output my desired mix to an audio file, which is my end goal here).
When reading the fluidsynth manual, I find the following option:
-f, --load-config
Load command configuration file (shell commands)
I'm guessing this is what I want to use, since control change events, further down in the fluidsynth manual, is listed under MIDI MESSAGES, which in turn is listed under SHELL COMMANDS. However, the manual doesn't give me much to go on here (the quoted passage is the only thing that's being said about this option; no examples, no nothing). I've tried reading up on configuration files in UNIX without being able to resolve anything.
I've tried making a file called config, filled it with a bunch of cc commands, like so:
cc 0 7 0
cc 1 7 0
cc 2 7 0
and then trying to load it by using
fluidsynth -f config soundfont.sf2 midifile.midi
but this approach doesn't do anything (fluidsynth doesn't report any error either).