I don't get why documentation is so bad with Linux audio stuff. Where should you put stuff and where do the installers put stuff?
1) Sfizz: Only thing I got actually working. First of all, the DEB installer puts the SO files in "/usr/lib/lv2/sfizz.lv2/Contents/Binary", not ".lv2". I copy the SO files in ".lv2" I made (wasn't made by Reaper itself, btw). Reaper scans and finds nothing. Then copy the whole ""/usr/lib/lv2/sfizz.lv2/" folder into ".lv2" and it finally works.
2) Fluidsynth, install using "sudo apt-get install fluidsynth". Where did it actually install?. Googling some more, no info, still not clear if it installed any LV2, VST3, other plugin files or just the standalone Qt program.
3) LinuxSampler: last version is for distros from 2009?? https://download.linuxsampler.org/packages/ubuntu/
And again, no mention of plugin versions of the samplers, not standalone, on the site.
4) Carla: Installing from the distro's package manager installs the standalone version only. Downloading the tar.xz from the site: README file in the archive has no mention how to set up: if you only want to use the LV2 or VST files, do you just copy the SO files, or everything in the archive? Copying everything into .lv2 and .vst folders, and only the "Carla Rack" and "Carla Patchbay" are detected in the list in Reaper:
And when opening:
What am I even seeing? It looks nothing like the standalone Carla UI:
This frustrating. I've used Linux for 15 years for other types of professional work (2d art, 3d, video editing, programming) and used LMMS, FL Studio and Ableton Live on Windows previously. Setting up few of the top sampler plugins for your DAW does not have to be this needlessly complicated, cryptic and nonsensical. Even LMMS, with all of its limitations and missing features, gets it right and includes a SF2 soundfont player that works out-of-the-box.
Rant over.
Question:
Anyone know how to set up any of these samplers as plugins in Reaper: Fluidsynth, Carla, Linuxsampler? I can't get any of them to work as plugins rather than standalone: either can't find the plugin files, or they look broken (as with Carla).