VLC 1.1.0 &1.2.0 bad playback of MIDI files

Tested on Linux Debian sid 32 bits and Windows XP Pro 32 bits.

The playback of MIDI files is wrong with a bad balance / mix of instruments and many instruments being out of tune.

The SoundFont bank of sounds and some MIDI files used for my samples can be downloaded from here:

http://streams.videolan.org/upload/uploads/MIDI-SBL-8MBGMSFX.rar

This SoundFont is one of the default ones for all SoundBlaster sound cards for about ten years. So we can assume this bank of sounds is being used by millions of people all over the world.

We just have to set the path for this SF2 bank in the FluidSynth options of VLC preferences:

Tools -> Preferences -> Audio codecs -> FluidSynth

There are four MIDI files in the archive and I have used the following ones for my demonstration because they are well known pieces of music and it's obvious that something is going wrong even if you're not a musician:

Henry_Mancini_-_Pink_Panther.mid

Weather_Report_-_Birdland.mid

As a reference I have used the MIDI plugin for Foobar2000 because it's doing it right and it's also using FluidSynth like VLC does and, of course, with the same SoundFont bank.

Pink Panther reference:

http://streams.videolan.org/upload/uploads/MIDI-Pink_Panther-Foobar.mp4

Pink Panther played by VLC v1.1.0:

http://streams.videolan.org/upload/uploads/MIDI-PinkPanther-VLC110.mp4

Not only the mix is wrong (for instance the saxophone is not loud enough) but we can clearly hear that many instruments are randomly out of tune.

Birdland reference:

http://streams.videolan.org/upload/uploads/MIDI-Birdland-Foobar.mp4

Birdland played by VLC v1.1.0:

http://streams.videolan.org/upload/uploads/MIDI-Birdland-VLC110.mp4

I think this is the worst one I've ever heard. The mix is wrong, all of the drums are MISSING and can't be heard at all, and overall it is atrociously out of tune.