Coming Attractions: Style 216 upgrade

[Jim Henry]

Things have been quiet here for a very long time. But behind the scenes I have been doing more with the Miditzer than ever. And FluidSynth has also received some very significant enhancements that are going to upgrade your experience. I am now trying to button up a new Miditzer 216 alpha preview so that I can put these improvements in your hands and get feedback about how all these changes affect a broad range of hardware.

If you only visit this site every now and then, I encourage you to check in a bit more frequently.

FluidSynth now supports multiple reverb engines. Reverb makes a HUGE difference in how a virtual organ sounds. Just turn off the FluidSynth reverberation in the Miditzer settings if you want to see just how much of a difference reverb makes. The old FluidSynth reverb engine was good but it introduced some audible artifacts. FluidSynth now offers reverb engines that should not do that.

FluidSynth has also been enhanced with regard to its support of Windows WASAPI mode. This produces much less latency than dsound. The Miditzer will support the use of WASAPI exclusive mode using the highest quality sample formats supported by your audio hardware. The Miditzer will do some testing of your audio hardware and provide recommended settings that should deliver good audio results without the need for a lot of trial and error tuning.

The main processing thread of the Miditzer has been completely rewritten to take advantage of newer hardware features and reduce the time the Miditzer takes to react to a key stroke. The Miditzer should feel much "snappier" now. Ironically, that will probably make playing the Miditzer feel closer to playing an electronic organ than a real Wurlitzer pipe organ. But most users will probably prefer the lowered latency.

There have also been improvements in the handling of the display window. It can be moved and resized with freedom. F11 provides a full-screen mode.

While there is little visible difference between the current and forthcoming versions, I think almost everyone will find that the experience is better. I am excited to be at a point where I can offer another alpha version and get your feedback. Please stay tuned!

[Jim Henry]

The Miditzer 2026 Style 216 alpha 6 release is now available in the Miditzer 216 V1 Alpha testing area of the Miditzer Development Lab on this Forum.