SPARTA

REAPER compatibility

REAPER is a highly flexible DAW for multichannel audio plug-ins, and is the most recommended host for the SPARTA plug-ins. This is due to it supporting an arbitrary number of channels for each track (up to 128), which allows it to support all possible plug-in configurations.

REAPER also allows the plug-ins to be loaded as VST, LV2, VST3, or AU. However, there are some differences when using these different plug-in formats. Here is a summary of what to expect when hosting these plug-ins on tracks that have more than 64 channels (as tested in REAPER v7.09):

  • Note that only the SPARTA plug-ins (i.e., those with the sparta_ prefix) support up to 10th order/128 channels. The other plug-ins in the installer support up to 7th order/64 channels.
  • VST - these versions show up as supporting up to 64 channels (listed as e.g. VST: sparta_ambiBIN (AALTO) (64ch) in the FX window). However, they do actually work up to 128 channels. Note that the plug-ins will warn the user (in the top right of the plug-in window) if there is an insufficient number of input or output channels for the current plug-in configuration.
  • LV2 - these show up as supporting 128 channels (e.g., LV2: sparta_ambiBIN (AALTO) (128ch)), and they do actually work up to 128 channels. However, the plug-ins are not able to warn the user (in the top right corner of the plug-in window) if the track has an insufficient number of input/output channels for the current plug-in configuration. Therefore, care must be taken to ensure a sufficient number of channels.
  • AU - (only for MacOS), these versions work correctly up to 128 channels.
  • VST3 - these show up as supporting 128 channels (e.g., VST3: sparta_ambiBIN (AALTO) (128ch)). However, they are actually unpredictable. They usually cap out at either 24 or 64 channels. In general, VST3 is still not a suitable format for these kind of multi-channel plug-ins. We therefore recommend using the VST (or LV2/AU) versions, if possible. Note that Steinberg is aware of this issue:

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