Non-iteratively getting the list of instruments in a soundfont using FluidSynth

Question

Is there a function that can return the list of all the instruments (preset names) in a soundfont file in FluidSynth or at least the number of presets in each soundbank?

Answer 1

This is not exactly "non-iterative", but it's the only way I could find to get a list of all the presets in a soundfont file.

fluid_preset_t* preset = new fluid_preset_t();

// Reset the iteration
sf->iteration_start(sf);

// Go through all the presets within the soundfont
int more = 1;
while (more) {
    more = sf->iteration_next(sf, preset); // Will return 0 if no more soundfonts left
    if (more) {
        // Get preset name
        char* presetname = preset->get_name(preset);
        int banknum = preset->get_banknum(preset);
        int num = preset->get_num(preset);

        // Do something with the presetname, bank number and program number
        // Such as add it to some list so that you can refer to it later
    }
}

... where sf is a soundfont object.

Found this while going through the API documentation at http://fluidsynth.sourceforge.net/api/index.html. Note the menu at the top with links to the data structures, files, etc.

Answer 2

I tried this:

static void inspectsoundfont()
{
    fluid_sfont_t* sfont = fluid_synth_get_sfont_by_id(synth, font_id);

    for (int bank = 0; bank < 16384; bank++)
    {
        for (int num = 0; num < 128; num++)
        {
             fluid_preset_t* preset = fluid_sfont_get_preset(sfont, bank, num);
             if (preset == nullptr)
                  continue;
             const char* name = fluid_preset_get_name(preset);
             std::cout << "bank: " << bank << " index: " << num << " " << name << std::endl;
        }
    }
}

synth is the synthesiser object, and font_id is from fluid_synth_sfload. Gave me a list of banks and preset names.

Answer 3

I was able to get instrument names and banks using fluidsynth. The command you want to send is "inst 1" (obtain all instruments for the soundfont loaded in position 1).

$ echo "inst 1" | fluidsynth /path/to/FluidR3_GM.sf2
FluidSynth version 1.1.6
Copyright (C) 2000-2012 Peter Hanappe and others.
Distributed under the LGPL license.
SoundFont(R) is a registered trademark of E-mu Systems, Inc.

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