# Reaper automuting MIDI playback?



## JEngelking (Jan 5, 2013)

So I'm using Sonatina Symphony samples for the first time in a song I'm recording, and I have multiple tracks of different orchestra instruments, but when I try to play two or more simultaneously, they get auto-muted because they spaz out and apparently jump to +75 db or more. 

Anyone have any solutions? Mega thanks in advance for any help.


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## MrNibbles (Jan 5, 2013)

I used to know how to fix this. I haven't used Reaper in awhile so I don't exactly remember. I know in the preferences there is a way to disable the automatic mute from a track that goes over the limit it has set. Every time I need to know how to disable that automatic mute thing, I forget. 

Edit: Wouldn't you know it, right after I write this reply I remembered out how to do it! If you go to the tab that says Audio with the arrow pointing down in the preferences, there should be a drop down menu that has the Automatic Muting stuff in it. I hope this helps!


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## JEngelking (Jan 5, 2013)

I actually tried that first, and when I do play two MIDI tracks simultaneously it actually does make very loud glitchy noises, so it's not just the DAW behaving odd. 

I suppose I should clarify that my issue doesn't seem to be unnecessary auto-muting, but rather that two MIDI tracks behave together in such a way as to create horrid glitchy sounds.


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## Zer01 (Jan 5, 2013)

If I remember right, Sonatina can only play one track at a time. You could try rendering each track individually and then insert them into the song, so you wouldn't have to use the plugin.


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## SirGawain (Jan 6, 2013)

JEngelking said:


> ...two MIDI tracks behave together in such a way as to create horrid glitchy sounds.



You are not alone. I've been suffering this problem for a while, and searching sporadically for a solution.

I'm using SFZ as the VSTi, and some SoundFonts from way back. They play perfectly one at a time, but the moment a second MIDI instrument is asked to play along, nasty glitching ensues (only detectable by switching off auto-mute). What's most confusing, is that it doesn't happen EVERY time, but pretty damn close!

I've edited the event list to force each track to use a different MIDI channel - no change. Although, while on that subject, it seems impossible to get SFZ to use a different channel than #1. You can select anything from 1-16, but when you re-open it, it's back on channel 1.

I'll let you know if I find an amazing solution.


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## JEngelking (Jan 6, 2013)

Zer01 said:


> If I remember right, Sonatina can only play one track at a time. You could try rendering each track individually and then insert them into the song, so you wouldn't have to use the plugin.



Oh man, I hope that's not the case. Might have to see if trying it in a different DAW would help. 



SirGawain said:


> You are not alone. I've been suffering this problem for a while, and searching sporadically for a solution.
> 
> I'm using SFZ as the VSTi, and some SoundFonts from way back. They play perfectly one at a time, but the moment a second MIDI instrument is asked to play along, nasty glitching ensues (only detectable by switching off auto-mute). What's most confusing, is that it doesn't happen EVERY time, but pretty damn close!
> 
> ...



Good to know I'm not the only one. Definitely keep up to date if you find a solution.


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## SirGawain (Jan 6, 2013)

JEngelking said:


> Definitely keep up to date...



Solved Possible Solution

I'm not sure what hardware you're using, but here's my situation and how I fixed it:

I wasn't suffering the problem at all on my Core-i7 with bucket-loads of RAM etc. The glitches and resulting muted Reaper channels only showed up when I tried to make everything work on an older laptop for portability. I'm using a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 USB sound card with ASIO4All driver v2.11b1 on both machines. On the laptop, I need to increase the ASIO buffer size from the default 512 samples to 1536 samples to make the glitches go away. Using the onboard Realtek sound card (just as a test), this needs to be pushed all the way up to 2048 samples for reliable playback. Of course, such a large buffer messes with latency, but I'll worry about that when I connect my MIDI keyboard. For now, I'm manually programming simple drum tracks.

In case it helps, here are my ASIO4All settings for each configuration...

*Core-i7 machine with Scarlett 2i2*
ASIO buffer size: 512 samples
Latency Compensation: 0 samples (in & out)
Buffer offset: 4ms
Always resample 44.1kHz to 48kHz: Off

*Pentium dual-core laptop with Scarlett 2i2*
ASIO buffer size: 1536 samples
Latency Compensation: 512 samples (in & out)
Buffer offset: 10ms
Always resample 44.1kHz to 48kHz: Off

*Pentium dual-core laptop with Realtek onboard*
ASIO buffer size: 2048 samples
Latency Compensation: 1024 samples (in & out)
Buffer offset: 10ms
Always resample 44.1kHz to 48kHz: Off

BTW, using the Focusrite USB 2.0 ASIO Driver supplied with the sound card, I can't get multiple MIDI tracks to play reliably on the laptop AT ALL. So, if you're not already using ASIO4All, you might want to start there.


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## JEngelking (Jan 6, 2013)

Thanks for the tips man! That's a good idea, I'll mess with the buffering and sampling size. Well I have ASIO running now with all the buffering and sampling sizes cranked and with all the settings you listed and it ran both MIDI tracks at the same time fine for about five seconds and then went back to automuting one of them >.>

I guess I'll keep working on it.


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## SirGawain (Jan 7, 2013)

Solved! (No, really. This time it is.)

Ok, so I spoke too soon. Although I played the offending tracks at least fifteen times before making claims of finding a solution, this morning, the same machine playing the same tracks got stuck every second or third time. I pushed the buffers up full and made sure no other CPU-significant software was stealing power, but I couldn't get multiple MIDI tracks to play reliably.

Then, I got a brainwave: By using two different soft synths, I am able to bring the buffers all the way down to negligible latency, and I cannot get playback of even the most complex SoundFonts to fail.

On one track, I'm using SFZ as the VSTi, and on another, I'm using the new and improved SFZ+ (downloaded for free from CakeWalk). Of course, that only allows reliable playback of two instruments at a time, but it's a clear indication that this is not a fault of Reaper or the ASIO driver, but the laptop/SFZ's inability to process two MIDI commands at the same time. The next test will be to use multiple copies of the SFZ (or SFZ+) DLL in different plugin folders and see if that works...

Update: That didn't work. Placing a copy of sfz.dll in two folders within my plugins folder certainly allowed them to be selected within Reaper (sfz & sfz2), but the result was no better than one.


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## JEngelking (Jan 8, 2013)

Ah alright, thanks for your input on all of this. Good ideas you had there, but I guess the search continues.


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## JEngelking (Jan 10, 2013)

Guess I'll bump this up to see if anyone else has any advice.


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## JEngelking (Jan 13, 2013)

Final bump on this one.


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## spilla (Jan 13, 2013)

Found a similar thread on the reaper forum
SFZ Sonatina Symphonic Sample Library, and lots of Auto-Muting - Cockos Confederated Forums

DL link:
http://www.box.com/shared/msdlsersr8



> The SFZ plug that cakewalk offers has problems with multi-core CPU's and will generate massive bursts of noise when instanced (which makes REAPER auto-mute the offending tracks). Most likely your lappy is a single-core while your stationary machine is multi-core.
> 
> Solution? Use this SFZ version instead. It's a multi-core compatible version released by rgc:audio before they were bought up by cakewalk.
> 
> Why cw is still offering this massively broken version of the plug is anybody's guess.


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## JEngelking (Jan 13, 2013)

It seems that that worked. Thanks so much dude.


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## GuitaristOfHell (Jan 13, 2013)

Reaper does this to me all the time. Just unmute the track. Works for me .


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## spilla (Jan 13, 2013)

No troubles man, glad its now working!


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