Subject: bug#49753: MuseScore's default SoundFont is broken (Was: Re: musescore does not play sounds (Not a valid SNDFILE* pointer))

From: Giovanni Biscuolo <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 28 Jul 2021 18:33:57 +0200

Hello Leo,

Leo Prikler <[email-masked]> writes:

> Don't forget to keep the ML in the address line.

Sorry I forgot it.

[...]

>> So it seems that also fluidsynth is not able to load that SoundFont
>> [1]

> Ah, yes, I recall not being able to load that font with FluidSynth as
> well.  Back then I thought it was an error in FluidSynth, but it does
> appear to be an issue with the SoundFont then if not even MuseScore
> loads it.

Please are you reproducing the same error?

I tried installing musescore3 (v. 3.2.3) from Debian stable and AFAIU
that SoundFont is loaded (with a lot of warnings):

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---

Loading soundfont: /usr/share/mscore3-3.2/sound/sf3/MuseScore_General.sf3
Loading soundfont: /home/giovanni/MuseScore3/SoundFonts/GeneralUser GS v1.471.sf2
SoundFont(/home/giovanni/MuseScore3/SoundFonts/GeneralUser GS v1.471.sf2) Sample(Grand Piano-D1) start(0) startloop(35640) endloop(70786) end(70787) smaller than SoundFont 2.04 spec chapter 7.10 recommendation
[...]
Loading soundfont: /usr/share/mscore3-3.2/sound/sf3/MuseScore_General.sf3
SoundFont(/usr/share/mscore3-3.2/sound/sf3/MuseScore_General.sf3) Sample(Flute F#5) start(0) startloop(19435) endloop(29952) end(29955) smaller than SoundFont 2.04 spec chapter 7.10 recommendation
[...]

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

musescore installed from Debian plays sounds using MuseScore_General.sf3

[...]

>> Could it be a bug in some library?

> If so, then it's two different libraries,

AFAIU the error

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---

Sample::decompressOggVorbis: open failed: Not a valid SNDFILE* pointer.

--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

/seems/ to come from libsndfile [1], an input for both fluidsynth and
musescore

> as MuseScore doesn't use FluidSynth for MIDI synthesis – it's more
> likely that the font is simply broken.

AFAIU this is not the case

> It would be nice to investigate when that font first broke or if it
> ever worked.

I'll try to do it in the coming days

[...]

Happy hacking! Gio'

[1] https://github.com/michaelwu/libsndfile/blob/master/src/sndfile.c
SFE_BAD_SNDFILE_PTR

-- 
Giovanni Biscuolo

Xelera IT Infrastructures