Solution to lack of sustain in Fabla drum sampler plugin (and possibly others)

I want to post a solution here, so that if anyone is searching for it in future it will save them some time and confusion.

This is for you if you are having a problem with Fabla, the drum sampler plugin, where the sound has no sustain and samples end when the MIDI controller input (key, button or pad) is released. When playing beats they are rough/glitchy sounding, with crackles or pops being produced when the key is released because the samples aren’t allowed to finish. This may or may not be the case with sampler plugins other than Fabla too.

I solved this in Ardour by installing the MIDI Sostenuto plugin and inserting it before Fabla in the track’s plugin chain.

MIDI Sostenuto was available from my Debian 12 repository, included within in the x42-plugins package. For those not on Debian-based systems I believe it is also available from Ardour’s github.

To solve the problem I had to:

• Install x42-plugins using apt
• Add the MIDI Sostenuto plugin to a Fabla MIDI track
• In the plugin’s control window, under 'Sostenuto [sec] put in a value in seconds which is longer than the duration of the sample/s to play
• Put the plugin before Fabla in the chain (image below).

MIDII_Sostenuto_Fabla

N.B After installing you may need to refresh your plugins before MIDI Sostenuto it becomes available in Ardour by going to Window > Plugin Manager > Display New/Updated.

I had seen ‘Sostenuto’ as a solution mentioned in a couple of other posts online but as a beginner it wasn’t immediately clear to me at the time where to get the MIDI Sostenuto plugin or that it needed to be positioned at the top of the effects/plugins chain for the track. I hope this post helps others in my position :slight_smile: