Qsynth

There’s little you can’t do nowadays with the help of a computer and a bunch of specialized applications. This is mostly because hardware performance is increasing, while program interfaces become more and more user-friendly. Music, for instance, can heavily be enhanced with the proper programs, one of them being Qsynth.

The name of this application points out to the fact that it’s a synthesizer. What it doesn’t mention is that it’s not a stand-alone product, but rather a visual representation of everything FluidSynth can do. As such, you need to have FluidSynth installed on your computer for Qsynth to properly work.

Another thing you need to take into consideration is that you don’t get to manage sounds on your computer, but those coming from a MIDI device connected to your PC. Without one, you’re still able to go through the set of features, but nothing works, and you’re also notified that there’s either no MIDI device plugged in or other error involved.

If you didn’t quite get to experience FluidSynth because of the difficult management method, than this applications sheds some light on what can be done. Opening up alongside the main window is a message prompt that literally shows every minor adjustment made. Your workspace is represented by a classic window fitted with several knobs and buttons to manage reverb and chorus.

As mentioned above, you need to set up a MIDI device for all to go well. You can select the driver from a drop-down menu, the device, as well as the number of channels. Moreover, you can have the application dump MIDI router events or verbose MIDI event messages.

Once connections are made, you’re free to try out the effects. These aren’t abundant, and you only get to work with room, damp, width, and level adjustment knobs for reverb, as well as normal, level, speed and depth for chorus. On the other hand, you can manage more MIDI devices at a time, each with its own set of configurations stored in different tabs.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that Qsynth is a lightweight MIDI synthesizer that can be used with more devices at the same time to apply general sound enhancements. There’s not a lot of variety in terms of effects, but this application is not to blame, since it’s merely a visual interpretation of a different tool.