Electronic Wind Controller MIDI CC2

[bbitwo]

Fluidsynth is designed for keyboards with a MIDI CC11 for volume control.
An Electronic Wind Controller (EWI) does not use CC11 but CC2 which is not evaluated by Fluidsynth.
One ha to do some modification for evaluating the first or the other. I have some problems as I use both alternatively.

I recommend to evaluate both simultaneously. Keyboards do not use CC2 and EWI's do not use CC11. I do not see any problem.

[mawe42]

You can use the MIDI router functionality to solve your problem. Create a config file with the following contents:
config.txt

router_clear

router_begin cc
router_par1 2 2 0 11
router_end

router_begin note
router_end

router_begin cc
router_end

router_begin prog
router_end

router_begin pbend
router_end

router_begin cpress
router_end

router_begin kpress
router_end

This clears the default routes, sets up a special cc route that turns all CC2 messages into CC11 messages. Then sets up default routes that pass all other events unchanged.

Feed that config file to fluidsynth with the -fcommand-line switch and you should be able to use either CC2 or CC11 for volume control.

[derselbst]

An Electronic Wind Controller (EWI) does not use CC11 but CC2 which is not evaluated by Fluidsynth.
I recommend to evaluate both simultaneously.

I recommend to read the documentation before opening tickets.

The wiki clearly mentions that CC2 is usable in breath mode. And it links a PDF containing comprehensive documentation about breath-, legato- and monotonic-playmodes. Page 23 will introduce breathmode, where a custom default modulator for CC2 serves as replacement for the standard note-on velocity modulator.

CC10 and CC11 always affect attenuation. If you want to change that, go with the solution Markus described.

[mawe42]

Good point... I forgot we have comprehensive EWI support.

[bbitwo]

on Apr 20, 2022 I reported my problems of a linux dummy user.
3 and a half years later I am still unable to use fluidsynth with my wind controller. The RTF-suggestion was wether helpful nor freindly.
The mentioned link following up to my original mail to https://github.com/FluidSynth/fluidsynth/wiki/FluidFeatures#midi-control-change-implementation-chart was not really helpful as it only just points to
"(002) Breath Controller ⚠️ Usable in breathmode, see PolyMono documentation", was not really helpful.

In the meantime I used some other soft- and hardware synths and actually tried to revist fluidsynth but still cannot find any fluidsynth setup usable from scratch for windcontrollers for me a simple minded user.

But I do not give up my hope but will be back again in some years in the future.

Kind regards

[derselbst]

You have shared very little information about your use-case and literally nothing about what you've already tried (and failed) when setting up fluidsynth for your use-case. It seems like you expect someone to look into a magic crystal ball and provide you with a tailor-made solution. As you see, this is not going to happen.

[bbitwo]

If I connect my midi usb keyboard I get get sound. If I connect my wind controllers with usb midi (that is my user case) I get some piano sounds but no usable sound with cc2. I could not activate CC2 an easy straight way. I was just curious how fluidsount has progressed in this 3 and a half years. However, value this only just as an assessment. I did not expect a magic taylor made solution but just expected *an easy foolproove option, a way to switch/activate CC2* for using fluidsynth with my windcontroller on Linux without RTFM. I could not find such easily in the RTFM and gave up.  This obviously is not possible? Looking for "fluidsynth wind controller" on youtube did not get a hit 2022 and does not give any today. May be you should think about? Am 27.09.25 um 14:31 schrieb Tom M.:

…

You have shared very little information about your use-case and literally nothing about what you've already tried (and failed) when setting up fluidsynth for your use-case. It seems like you expect someone to look into a magic crystal ball and provide you with a tailor-made solution. As you see, this is not going to happen. — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1086 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AY2EPNKSS7VX2M56FTIZKED3UZ7TFAVCNFSM6AAAAACHVCS4POVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTINJSHEYDAMA>. You are receiving this because you authored the thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[derselbst]

Ok, I don't have the impression that you're serious about... whatever you're trying to do. I'm not an EWI player. I know that a special breathmode was implemented by a contributor (Guitar & Piano player himself, not EWI either) to make fluidsynth EWI compatible. But I never used it myself. It can always be that the documentation we have is insufficient, inaccurate or outdated. But without a common understanding of the problem it's impossible to improve on this situation.

If you want to learn about how fluidsynth has progressed over the past 3.5 years, check our Changelog.

For the record: Our documentation is not hosted on Youtube, so this doesn't make me think.

[bbitwo]

Am 27.09.25 um 16:28 schrieb Tom M.:

For the record: Our documentation is not hosted on Youtube, so this doesn't make me think.

I have to become a little clearer for your understanding: You do not find any wind control player on youtube playing with fluidsynth just because it is not working. A wind controller has an attack and a sustain as long as your breath will allow, different from string instruments. On internet you find a praise of fluidsynth by keybordplayers beside with notices like "My only significant problem with the program is that I haven't been able, so far, to get it to behave properly with my EWI USB wind controller. No matter how the controller is configured, the response to breath pressure is unpredictable and uncontrollable -- makes the EWI unplayable with FS.". But, as you stated above: "this doesn't make me think". Exactly that's the problem I and all other wind control player have with fluidsynth and its developers. Let that be my closing word. Have a good time and in a few years I check fluidsynth again. Best wishes!

[derselbst]

A wind controller has an attack and a sustain as long as your breath will allow, different from string instruments.

Fluidsynth is a SoundFont2 synthesizer. SF2 is a synth model built upon keyboards. Little surprise that this has best support. Anything beyond that must be carefully crafted into the SF2 universe.

Exactly that's the problem I and all other wind control player have with fluidsynth and its developers.

Fluidsynth is a community effort, driven by a single main-developer (=me) voluntarily spending his spare time here. If our entire community only consisted of complaining and finger-pointing users like you, this project would be dead. Fortunately, this is not the case.

Your mentality however is not helpful for this project, so no need to return in a few years. Fare well.