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fluid-synth

brew install fluid-synth v2.5.5 LGPL-2.1-or-later

Real-time software synthesizer and MIDI player that renders SoundFont 2 files to audio, with both command-line and library interfaces.

Why you might care

Use FluidSynth to play MIDI files or route MIDI input through a software synthesizer without a hardware synth. It's the standard open-source synthesis engine for Linux/macOS music production and embedded audio, available as both a CLI tool and a C library (libfluidsynth) that many DAWs and music apps depend on. Single-binary simplicity and broad SoundFont compatibility make it ideal for headless servers and automation.

Categories

audio-tool library

Alternatives

timidity soundfont-player jack alsa
3.6k
30-day installs · #735
9.5k
90-day · #833
35.1k
365-day · #820

Runtime dependencies

glib libsndfile readline gettext portaudio

Build dependencies

cmake pkgconf

Links

Blurb generated by claude-haiku-4-5 on today.

Raw metadata 
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  "aliases": [
    "fluidsynth"
  ],
  "alternatives": [
    "timidity",
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    "jack",
    "alsa"
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  "categories": [
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  ],
  "caveats": null,
  "conflicts_with": [],
  "dependencies": [
    "glib",
    "libsndfile",
    "readline",
    "gettext",
    "portaudio"
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  "deprecated": 0,
  "deprecation_reason": null,
  "desc": "Real-time software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specs",
  "disable_reason": null,
  "disabled": 0,
  "enrichment_fetched_at": "2026-06-20T23:37:44+00:00",
  "first_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
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  "homepage": "https://www.fluidsynth.org",
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  "homepage_title": "FluidSynth | Software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specifications",
  "installs_30d": 3643,
  "installs_365d": 35070,
  "installs_90d": 9464,
  "keg_only": 0,
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  "last_seen": "2026-06-20T23:34:18+00:00",
  "license": "LGPL-2.1-or-later",
  "llm_generated_at": "2026-06-20T23:46:43+00:00",
  "llm_model": "claude-haiku-4-5",
  "name": "fluid-synth",
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  "one_liner": "Real-time software synthesizer and MIDI player that renders SoundFont 2 files to audio, with both command-line and library interfaces.",
  "optional_dependencies": [],
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  "rank_365d": 820,
  "rank_90d": 833,
  "raw_hash": "d2283c4598f72604",
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  "revision": 0,
  "ruby_source_path": "Formula/f/fluid-synth.rb",
  "tap": "homebrew/core",
  "test_dependencies": [
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  "uses_from_macos": [],
  "version_head": "HEAD",
  "version_stable": "2.5.5",
  "versioned_formulae": [],
  "why_use_this": "Use FluidSynth to play MIDI files or route MIDI input through a software synthesizer without a hardware synth. It\u0027s the standard open-source synthesis engine for Linux/macOS music production and embedded audio, available as both a CLI tool and a C library (libfluidsynth) that many DAWs and music apps depend on. Single-binary simplicity and broad SoundFont compatibility make it ideal for headless servers and automation."
}