Best Host for Patch Changes

[btkloppenburg]

Hello KVR,

One of my gigs is as a contemporary church keyboardist. I was using a Muse Receptor in Live Mode to instantly switch patches -- crashes occasionally, but it worked. I moved and sold my Receptor to the church since I had made hundreds of custom patches. I thought, 'It will be fine. I'll buy a new one.' Then Muse 'exited the hardware business.' Now I have no Vsti machine...

I am rebuilding my VSTi library, ST3 and K10u are my work horses, but I need a host to switch between the sometimes 8 channels I use per song. For example, a typical song could use Ivory, LLep3, Massive, FM8, Absynth5, Cheesemachine, VB3, and a stereo input from my stage keyboard. A typical set might have 5-8 tunes and use another 4-5 plugins and some master effects. I controlled the levels and midi with a Korg Nano Kontrol and the live mode would allow the plugins to be turned off/on per song to keep CPU and RAM load toa minimum.

So.... what host (cantabile/forte?) can handle that kind of load and patch switching the best on my PC? I've seen video of Forte switching instantly. Can cantabile do the same? Ableton is a little too above my price range (software is $$) and I already have Reaper and Cubase LE and some other DAWs anyway.

Thank you!