NPRN to modulators proposal

[spessasus]

https://github.com/spessasus/soundfont-proposals/blob/main/nprn_mod_sources.md

Can be merged into the first version as it doesn't violate the current file structure.

thoughts?

[sylvia-leaf]

I think that there's a slight misunderstanding w.r.t. the versioning system. While the legacy SF file structure isn't violated with this proposal, we've done a feature freeze for 4.00, so it would have to be included in 4.01.

This means that we've defined a set of features that will be in 4.00 (the "initial version"). This is not done because we don't want to immediately implement the feature, but rather because if we were to release features too quickly, then it could overwhelm SFe program developers. This may change when we add the ISFe chunk feature flag system.

In fact, SFe64 4.x and all SFe32 versions are planned to be completely compatible with the legacy file structure.

Therefore, this feature has been planned for 4.01.

[spessasus]

I see, but what are your thoughts on the actual proposal?

[sylvia-leaf]

So, I've taken a look at your NRPN proposal for SF and here's my thoughts:

• The purpose of the NRPN features are useful. Considering how many people claim "XG support" when it doesn't have it, adding features required to include support is always a good thing.
• While I can understand that PNMM stands for "parameter-number-modulator-map", maybe it would be more clear for prospective developers if the fourcc name contained "RPN" or "NRPN" in it.
• You say that the chunk has a length which is a multiple of four. I'll assume that this means "a multiple of four bytes". If added to SFe, it will make it more clear.
• The example shows a DMOD fourcc, but I'm not sure whether this was intended, or if you meant to say PNMM.
• Because the concept is closely linked to the modulator subsystem, this update would be for 4.01. If you want it to come out in a later specification, please suggest a version!

These concepts make you ponder about the missing MIDI 1.0 features in SF2.04. A future version of SFe64 is likely to be designed to run in MIDI 2.0, or at least allow bank developers to use MIDI 2.0, but this is likely not going to be a thing for a very long time.

[spessasus]

The example shows a DMOD fourcc, but I'm not sure whether this was intended, or if you meant to say PNMM.

Nice catch, fixed, thanks!