It is a very decent, fault tolerant Virtual MIDI router/merger and abstraction solution

CopperLan is technically a framework as per definition, but it comes with all the bells and whistles when you download the package and you can use as a standalone software via CopperLan Manager, that comes with the entire package. When you install the package, CopperLan Manager gets installed too and with that, you can configure and connect Virtual MIDI driver and define your own Virtual MIDI ports. Via the manager you can define routing between those virtual ports on a per channel basis and system messages too as a separate channel. It's a merger, splitter and router instantly out of the box.

My use case for CopperLan Virtual MIDI drivers and ports can be described as follows:

I want to use AKAI APC 40 controller to be connected to the following softwares at the same time:

• Reaper 6
• Native Instruments Traktor Pro 3

Unfortunately when softwares are configured to use an external hardware, they grab an exclusive connection wich has the following drawbacks:

• Only single software can use the controller, the other one is not
• No sysex message can be sent from the software (Traktor) to change the operation mode of the controller
• When controller get disconnected, it is almost impossible to reconnect with the software without restarting it, during the restart the application crash (Traktor)
• You can not control the messages sent back and forth between the controller and the software
• If the controller not an officially supported one, your possibilities are fairly limited

Overcoming on these limitations and annoyances I configured CopperLan via the manager to create 32 Virtual MIDI ports. My controller MIDI IN/OUT connected in the Manager to a pair of Virtual MIDI port, and in the softwares (Reaper 6, Traktor) I also configured to use different Virtual MIDI port pairs for input and output. In the CopperLan manager I can easily connect those Virtual MIDI IN/OUT ports and establish a full MIDI communication between these elements. This is already worth the effort to design your connections. The benefit I'm getting out of it, is that I can freely turn off my controller, unplug, re-plug and the softwares do not crash. Moreover when the controller reconnected, CopperLan automatically restores the connection defined in the CopperLan Manager and you can use it as nothing has happened. The interconnection between the softwares work the very same way. If I want use Traktor, APC 40 and Reaper at the same time I can. But when I close for instance Reaper, I do not need to restart anything Traktor and APC 40 still communicates with each other.

Of course I'll take an extra step as well and I migrate my custom (Pure Data)[https://equipboard.com/items/pure-data] programs and I connect CopperLan Virtual MIDI ports via Pure Data. This gives me limitless options to use the external controller way beyond the possibilities that those softwares offer. This was not easily possible in Windows until I started to use CopperLan. On Mac I used IAC, Pure Data to connect all my external gears, softwares. On Linux I used Mididings and Pure Data for the very same reason, but on Windows it was not possible (at least in an easy way). Something I'll use CopperLan too in the future, to connect via LAN my Mac based environment and control from my main PC via CopperLan manager remotely in a headless manner. My Mac based home studio in a separate room with all the synths, mixers, outboard effects and I have a second place in the house with my main PC workstation with the digital piano. I'd like to consolidate all my tactile groove boxes, controllers, keyboards to performs music while I'm controlling all my hardwares and softwares too, that are maybe physically not even there. I also want this setup to be fail safe and flexible enough to add remove elements as I want without the need to reconfigure everything. CopperLan and Pure Data just gives me this possibility to use my PC workstation in a very heterogenous environment.

Having said all that I would look on CopperLan as a complete ecosystem which you can use standalone, in a networked environment too and if you are adventurous, in embedded bespoke development projects as well, depending on your level of experties connecting various elements via MIDI.

The only negative point is the CopperLan Manager interface. It's not my cup of tea, but once you get used to it, it does the job effectively and you can manage the connection between the Virtual MIDI interfaces.