I know quite a few of you folks use Reaper. Here's my question: can you use VSTi3's with Reaper?

I have two VSTi3's: SampleTank 3 and Yamaha Motif XS. Neither will work correctly in Reaper.

Yet, if I switch to SampleTank's VSTi2, it does work. Unfortunately, no option for that with the Yamaha plug.

Anybody had any success with VSTi3's in Reaper?

Jeff

Hi Jeff,

I use Reaper 64 and VST3 instruments and effects work with no problem. When I have a VST2 that I want to use, Reaper has its own built-in version of jbridge that interfaces between the VST2 and the 64-bit architecture.

I'm not sure if Reaper 32-bit bridges VST3 plugins.

Why not download Reaper and try it out. It's possible to use it for free indefinitely. After a while, a reminder appears to tell that you are past the free-use grace period but the program still functions fully (unless this has changed in recent times).

Here's a URL to some really good Reaper tutorials. There may be something about VSTs there, too.

http://www.kennymania.com/reaper-videos/

Regards,
Noel

Thanks Noel, appreciate your valued help to me and many others. As you can see from my tagline, I'm deep into MIDI.

Thinking that I might want to move to more capabilities than RB offers, my goal for the last 4 weeks or so have been evaluating Reaper 5.9 and BdLb Sonar. For purely MIDI work, it seems that Sonar integrates multiple .INI files, VSTi2 and VSTi3 and some routings a bit better and with fewer steps than Reaper. Perhaps this may be because Sonar started out originally in the MIDI camp before crossing over to audio?

One concern that I do have with Sonar is the move from Roland to Gibson to BandLab. I really hate to spend the time learning a new DAW only to find that development and support is starting to wane. This is one area where Reaper really shines with seemingly constant updates.

Your 32 bit / 64 bit comment may be right on target. I'm running a 64 bit Win10 machine and I do have J-Bridge for those instances where I need 32 bit support. Still, Reaper seems to be having problems with VSti3's specifically with SampleTank 3 and a Yamaha VSTi3 for my Motif XS.

Oddly enough, I do see a VSTi2 for SampleTank 3 in my dropdowns in Reaper. When I select that one versus the VSTi3, it runs fine where as the VSTi3, while it does pull up, remains non-functional.

Both the Yamaha and SampleTank VSTi3's seems to run fine in Sonar even though the Yamaha was designed for use with their Steinberg subsidiary's DAW.

In any case, the Reaper / Sonar evals continue and I must admit that going back and forth between the two DAW's is a challenging mind game!

Appreciate your help Noel.

Jeff

Thanks for the information, Jeff.

It's certainly true that Reaper and Sonar have approached MIDI in different ways. As you mentioned, Sonar/Cakewalk started with it. Reaper began with audio and limited MIDI. Reaper's MIDI functionality these days, though, is pretty advanced.

Unfortunately, I don't have Sampletank 3 to try out so I cannot test it for you. I know that my Sampletank 2 works fine in the 64-bit Reaper.

I just found the below Youtube clip on Reaper and Sampletank 3. Maybe this will help with some insight (if you haven't already seen it).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udzS08rslfQ

Good luck with your testing!

Regards,
Noel

REAPER is a good alternative to import your Biab productions to, you can use REATRAK to integrate the Biab chords into REAPER https://forum.cockos.com/showthread.php?t=212645 you can also save the chord sheet to video and import the mp4 to REAPER.

you can try Bluecat PatchWork in a track and then load a VST3 into it.
http://www.bluecataudio.com/Products/Product_PatchWork/

there's some VST3 fixes in the lates Reaper you can try it:
+ VST3: fix color byte ordering for plug-ins that use IContextInfoHandler [t=211988]
+ VST3: revert to 5.95 behavior relating to latent VST3 parameter changes and state saving

Thanks Pipeline, this is interesting and will incorporate into my testing of Reaper versus Sonar.