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SONIVOXRENDER(1) Sonivox MIDI File Renderer SONIVOXRENDER(1)

NAME

sonivoxrender — Render MIDI song files into raw PCM audio

SYNOPSIS

sonivoxrender [-h|--help] [-v|--version] [-d|--dls soundfont] [-r|--reverb 0..4] [-w|--wet 0..32767] [-n|--dry 0..32767] [-c|--chorus 0..4] [-l|--level 0..32767] [-g|--gain 0..196] [-V|--Verbosity 0..5] [-R|--reverb-post-mix] [-C|--chorus-post-mix] [-s|--sndlib 1..3] song_file

DESCRIPTION

This program is a MIDI file renderer based on the sonivox synthesizer library. It reads .MID (Standard MIDI Files), .RMI (RIFF-RMID), and .XMF (Extensible Music Files) file formats, and writes an audio stream to the standard output as raw 16 bit stereo PCM samples.

Options

Prints brief usage information.
Prints the version numbers.
Optional DLS or SF2 soundfont file name. If not provided, it uses an internal embedded soundfont.
Reverb preset between 0 and 4: 0=no, 1=large hall, 2=hall, 3=chamber, 4=room.
Reverb wet level between 0 and 32767.
Reverb dry level between 0 and 32767.
Chorus preset between 0 and 4: 0=no, 1..4=presets.
Chorus level between 0 and 32767.
Master gain between 0 and 196, default is 100 (+0dB). The number is relative to 100, in 1dB increments, e.g. 120 = +20dB, 80 = -20dB.
Verbosity level between 0 and 5, where 0=no, 1..5=severity levels.
Ignore CC91 reverb send level. The reverb effect will apply to mixed output audio, which is the old behavior.
Ignore CC93 chorus send level. See also --reverb-post-mix.
EAS sound library to use:
•
1: wt_200k_G (default) - WT-only bank, used in Android devices. Also named “Common”. Support 22050 Hz and 44100 Hz sample rates, 8-bit and 16-bit samples.
•
2: GMdblib-3 - FM-only bank. Support all sample rates. Sample bit depth does not matter here.
•
3: hybrid_22khz_mcu - Hybrid bank. Use WT synth for drums and FM for melodic instruments. This bank is a combination of GMdblib-3 and Sonic_20Khz_Drums. Support 22050 Hz sample rate and 8-bit samples only.

Note: This option does not affect DLS/SF2. They will always use the DLS synth engine. If the selected sound library is not compatible with the build configuration, the program will fail with an error message.

Arguments

Input [MID|RMI|XMF] file name.

EXAMPLES

The following examples assume the default option USE_44KHZ=ON, which means an output sample rate = 44100 Hz.

Example 1: Render a MIDI file and save the rendered audio as a raw audio file:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid > ants.pcm

Example 2: pipe the rendered audio thru the Linux ALSA aplay utility:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | aplay -c 2 -f S16_LE -r 44100

is equivalent to:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | aplay -f cd

Example 3: pipe the rendered audio thru the lame utility creating a MP3 file:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | lame -r -s 44100 - ants.mp3

Example 4: pipe the rendered audio thru the sox utility creating a WAV file:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | sox -t s16 -c 2 -r 44100 - ants.wav

Example 5: pipe the rendered audio thru the PulseAudio’s pacat utility:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | pacat

Example 6: pipe the rendered audio thru the PipeWire’s pw-play utility:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | pw-play --rate 44100 -

Example 7: pipe the rendered audio thru the FFmpeg’s ffplay utility:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | ffplay -i - -f s16le -ar 44.1k -ac 2 -nodisp -autoexit -loglevel quiet

Example 8: pipe the rendered audio thru the mpv media player:

$ sonivoxrender ants.mid | mpv --demuxer=rawaudio -demuxer-rawaudio-format=s16le --demuxer-rawaudio-rate=44100 --demuxer-rawaudio-channels=2 --no-video -

BUGS

See Tickets at GitHub <https://github.com/EmbeddedSynth/sonivox/issues/>

LICENSE AND COPYRIGHT

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0

Copyright (c) 2022-2026 Pedro López-Cabanillas and contributors

AUTHORS

Pedro López-Cabanillas <plcl@users.sf.net>.

February 14, 2026 sonivox 4.0.1.0