linuxsampler, reaper, large number of instruments

[babag]

currently running ubuntu studio 20.04 with reaper 6.04 native for linux.

sforzando didn't work for me, which wass unfortunate as i have a decent template for it already. switched to linuxsampler but that means setting everything up again. i've gotten the basics working, with reaper and linuxsampler communicating well. confusion i'm running into is with routing. i can only get 15 instruments loaded at the moment and need MANY more, maybe over 100.

from left to right, in the fantasia front end i'm using, the input section for each instrument shows:

midi input channel # (channel ls is listening on: 0-15)
port # (just shows 0 now, no other options)
channel # (1-16)

this all seems fine until i want to add another instrument and have it discretely controlled. for that i need to add it to another port or double it up with another instrument. i want to avoid doubling it up.

reaper is set up with a ls vst plugin on each track currently. i'm aware of the idea of just using a single instance of ls and sending to it from other midi tracks that do not carry the plugin but i'm not quite ready to go there yet.

in my current setup, i can see no way to control how reaper and ls are connected or how to assign separate ports to the data being fed from reaper to ls. if i could assign the data fed from reaper to ls to specific ports and channels, i could have ls tell each instrument to listen there for its data.

how do i assign the ports and channels coming out of reaper from each track?
how do i get ls to assign ports other than 0?

i wanted to install patchage to try to see the patching between reaper and ls but couldn't find anything i didn't have to compile from scratch.

it would seem like this should just be a matter of knowing where the correct settings are and what are the differences in nomenclature between the two programs (is what ls calls a port also referred to as a port in reaper, or is it a bus or something else?). any guidance on this would be very helpful. my background is almost exclusively audio so all of the midi options, particularly routing, are very confusing to me.

thanks,
babag

[tavasti]

Maybe you should try sfizz or liquidsfz.

[babag]

i have an awful lot of time invested in linuxsampler. it's available for osx and windows too.

[Michael Willis]

I have done something like that in Ardour by creating an audio bus per instrument, and then routing the output from the LinuxSampler plugins to each corresponding audio bus.

Now days I use sfizz; the configuration and signal routing is much more simple compared to using LinuxSampler. Consider whether you are experiencing the Sunk Cost Fallacy.

[babag]

thanks everybody but i really just want to learn the routing. i have looked at alternatives and concluded that linuxsampler should do what i want. at this point my options are either to give up and go back to doing this on windows, where sforzando works just fine, or to scale down what i want to do so as to work within the confines of what i already can get ls to do. either option is frustrating as i'm sure it's just a question of terminology and learning the routing that i'm sure can be done between reaper and ls. it's just that there seems scarce little info on the intertubes to clarify this for me.

edit:
michael, i've seen some of your exchanges with peter schaffter and read much of his pdf paper on orchestration using musescore and linuxsampler so i know this can be done. i'm, in essence, trying to adapt a pared down version of his approach, substituting reaper for musescore.

[Michael Willis]

michael, i've seen some of your exchanges with peter schaffter and read much of his pdf paper on orchestration using musescore and linuxsampler so i know this can be done. i'm, in essence, trying to adapt a pared down version of his approach, substituting reaper for musescore.

Yes, you can do what you want with Linuxsampler. I have done projects that involve four instances of Linuxsampler each with up to sixteen midi tracks. Here's the idea (let's say your first track is a solo flute):

1. Create a bus with midi input and 32 audio outputs. Host LinuxSampler on this bus

2. Create midi track that uses midi channel 1, label it "solo flute midi".

3. Route the midi track to the LinuxSampler bus.

4. Use qsampler or Jsampler Fantasia to load the sfz file, mapped from midi input channel 1 to audio outputs 1 and 2.

5. Back in your DAW, create a stereo audio bus, label it "solo flute audio"

6. Route audio outputs 1 and 2 of the LinuxSampler bus to the "solo flute audio" bus.

7. Configure the "solo flute audio" bus with stereo width, pan, send to reverb bus, and anything else you want for stage presence and other audio processing.

Wash, rinse, repeat for all of your instruments. The next instrument will use midi channel 2, and Linuxsampler audio outputs 3 and 4. Every time you have configured 16 midi tracks, make a new bus with midi input, 32 audio outputs, a Linux Sampler instance, and start over with midi channel 1, audio outputs 1 and 2. All the while, keep track of which midi channel is used for each instrument, which Linux Sampler insurance to route it to, and which corresponding audio output channels to route to the instrument's audio bus.

----------------------------------------
Here's how to do the same with sfizz:

1. Create a midi channel labelled "flute solo". Host sfizz on the channel, and use it to load your flute sfz file.

2. After the sfizz plugin, your channel will have a stereo audio signal. Configure stereo width, pan, send to reverb bus, and whatever other audio processing you want.

3. There is no step three. No janky external app, no complicated signal routing, no extra audio bus per instrument to customize stage presence. All other instrument midi tracks can be configured using the same two-step dance.

[ubuntuuser]

I played around with it and Reaper and setup routing.

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