Help: Garritan CFX no sound on Reaper

David Lai

Hi everyone!

Recently I've taken some time out of my busy schedule to learn Reaper basics. I think since I can get Ravel Grand Piano to work there, I might as well get Garritan CFX also. However, after installing the VST plugins (both X86 and X64 in case one doesn't work), I loaded it up. The VST plugin does fire up, and Reaper says "Track 1: Garritan CFX...", but it's silent when I press on any key on my digital piano. the standalone software can work with no problems.

I want to ask those who manage their piano plugins on VST, how do you get this to work? I don't think I did anything wrong, just installed the VST plugin on my current installation.

I use a Windows 11 PC with the Babyface Pro FS as my external audio device. All midi is output through there.

Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!!!

David

dore_m

@David Lai when I run into that problem it's usually because my audio drivers are not set properly. I'd first try just adding a raw audio clip to a track and see if you can play/hear it. If you can, then download a free vst instrument, preferably a synth like dexed and try it.

Then if the piano vst is the only thing not working, verify that midi is being received by the vst. Either by playing the midi controller or by drawing midi notes into the editor/using a midi file. You may have to enable the midi input in reaper if it's not active.

David Lai

dore_m Thank you, dore! I've checked with Ravel Grand Piano from Universal Audio, that works. But the CFX Concert Grand is silent when I load the VST plugin. All audio drivers and midi settings are set accordingly, as I can play the Ravel Grand Piano well. I wonder what's happening…

dore_m

@David Lai I'm guessing it's a midi trigger problem then. Have you tried a midi file or drawing midi notes into the timeline to see if it triggers sound? That would narrow it down to a midi control issue.

dore_m

@David Lai Another thing to be sure of - and it maybe seem obvious - make sure you choose a preset in Garritan so the samples load. Also doublecheck the "advanced" panel with the midi input channel matches the midi input channel that you're using on the Reaper track.

vagfilm

What @dore_m said. Once I had the same problem with VSL until I reaized that no preset was chosen.
I don't know how easy is reaper with a screenreader, but click again the VST button on the track (labeled FX if I am not mistaken). That opens again the garritan plugin. There choose a preset, close the window, and save the Reaper project.

David Lai

vagfilm OK, I'll give this a shot today. Thank you! 🙂

David Lai

vagfilm What I'm now finding confusing is -- I thought I had saved a preset as default on the standalone app. This won't migrate to the VST?

dore_m

What notice in reaper is that the vst settings are separate from standalone apps. I think this is because reaper has the ability to remember all of the vst settings as well, and control automation if you program it that way.

I, for example sometimes run 5 different pianos on different tracks so I can compare quickly by soloing. I can also load the same piano vst on different tracks and apply different mic mixes to compare as well. Saving the file in reaper remembers all of those settings within the vsts.

David Lai

Unfortunately, I couldn't navigate to the supposedly opened window to load a preset. It's really sad that I can't use this VST with Reaper thanks to the supposedly opened window being unable for me to navigate to it and do something about it. What a pity!

CyberGene

David Lai I'm not sure exactly how these things are programmed to work, but to your previous question, I have a default preset I created in the standalone app that opens automatically in Logic Pro too. Not sure if this is applicable to Reaper too though.

vagfilm

Hi David.

I don't have anymore Garritan installed in my computer (VSL takes a lot of SDD real estate), but quickly installed CFX Lite and you are correct: default presets set on the standalone do not automatically open on Reaper. It gets even worse: when you upload a preset to Reaper, it is not dynamic... If you change that preset in the standalone app, the settings are not updated on Reaper unless you load again the preset. Maybe someone more expert on Reaper can solve this...

Using the screenreader, in Reaper, when you add a new VST in a track (by clicking on the FX button and open a pop-up windows titled "Track1:FX") do you have a dropdown menu saying "no preset" and a button with a "plus" sign next to it? Can you access those? If you can, then it may be possible to someone else to select a preset, export that selection as a Reaper preset library, send it to you, and then you import that into your Reaper using those buttons. If that works, you can use that preset, but it will be a snapshot: any parameter changes done on the standalone, will not dynamically migrate to that Reaper snapshot so it will be rather useless.

Maybe it is possible to export all CFX presets (.ariax files) to a .fxp library using the Aria Player. Then you could import that fxp library into Reaper and select the presets using that dropdown menu, but I don't think it would be dynamic...

vagfilm

BTW, and this may be old news to you, but there is a Reaper extension that supposedly improves the screen reader efficiency:

https://reaperaccessibility.com/wiki/Getting_Started

David Lai

Hi friends!

With a stroke of luck, I finally managed to load my custom presets I built on the standalone app and saved to my SSD into Reaper! For anyone who wants to give that a shot:

1. Make sure the VST plugin is run bridged. Right click on the CFX concert grand (mine is the X64 plugin) and select "run as..." submenu, expand it and find "separate process", then press Enter. Reaper will remember which plugins you run bridged.

2. Now, go and insert the VST plugin into Reaper, and you'll find 2 opened windows. One is the Reaper track window, and the other window is called "CFX Concert Grand." Make sure your focuse is set to the newly opened "CFX Concert Grand" window by pressing Alt + Tab.

3. This interface is very visual and screen reader unfriendly. Luckily, I can use OCR features on my screen reader of choice and browse to a thing called "Empty." I can left click the mouse button by pressing the / key on the number pad when the numlock is on. All I need to do is to set a marker on this element, so next time I can browse to that element and left click. Now, in the pop-up menu, I choose "load," and the familiar browse dialogue on Windows appears. I browse to one of my created presets, press enter on it, wait for a few seconds and... Bob's your uncle, you're ready to play, record, and do whatever you want to do!!!

vagfilm

"run bridged"... Never thought of that. So, it basically runs on the standalone and streams to the DAW, is that it?

Frédéric L

vagfilm

No a bridged VST is still a VST.

Normal VST are loaded as a library of functions in the same process than the host. The functions at the interface are defined by the VST specifications.

A bridged VST is loaded in a subprocess. Then there is the main Reaper process which exchange data with a Reaper subprocess. The subprocess load your VST as a VST (with the VST interface).

This can be handy if the VST is encline to crash. Then the main Reaper process still continues to function. It is also mandatory if you want to use a 32bits VST in a 64bits host.

There are also alternative bridges : jBridge for example. Here, the bridge is loaded as a VST plugin, start a subprocess which load a VST. But Reaper is quite handy since it makes bridged VST more or less loaded like a normal VST from a user perspective (with some windowing differences)

I don’t know any scheme which load a standalone virtual instrument in a DAW. This would mean creating a dummy MIDI interface (like loopMIDI), and a dummy ASIO interface (like Banana Voicemeeter). Not impossible, but it would require some manual settings in the virtual instrument.

David Lai

@vagfilm ilm"#p20221 No, the separate window that opens is different from the standalone program window by 2 things:

One is that the standalone program has a menu bar that I can activate with the Alt key. The VST doesn't. And I can only activate my purchased copy of the software by using the standalone program;

The second is, I've set one of my favorite presets to run by default when the standalone program starts. When adding the CFX to Reaper, I have to load something up every time by myself through reaching that menu item.

So no, it doesn't stream from the standalone, but it does use the Aria Player interface, as it does take the presets.

Hope this helps!

dore_m

Glad you got it to work....

David Lai

dore_m Yes, one of my major projects is to get everything working on Reaper. Now I'm on my way! 🙂

vagfilm

Frédéric L
Thanks for the thorough explanation (I must say that your text explained it much better than the few things I read online...).