Does anyone know if cantabile has some sort of API that would allow me to get certain data from the application?

For example the name of the current session, the value of a parameter when it's changed via midi.

I'm using cantabile on stage and it's working pretty well for me. I can control it very well from my m-audio keystation pro (plenty of buttons, sliders, knobs) and the only thing that bothers me is to have a big screen on stage so I can see that I'm switching to the right session, and maybe some other parameters when I use a slider or so to change a parameter.

It would be great if it would be possible to get this information via api and maybe send it to something like a small LCD display (e.g. http://www.mini-box.com/picoLCD-20x2-OEM) or so that can easily be kept on the keyboard.

I have only limited .Net experience, but this doesn't look too difficult to do. I'd be even fine with just the session names. Like they are displayed on screen with the 2 second delay. I just want to be able to output that to a different screen.

Any ideas?

I would be happy to help in this development if an API is available

I don't know of an API but there is a Telnet Sever in Cantabile Solo/Performer. You will find a documentation at Topten Software web site.

You have to write a telnet client to use it. That's not as easy as using an API. I've experimented using this with C# this and it works for remote control - probably not in all aspects you've mentioned but many... If you want to discuss telnet more in detail please sent a PM.

Cool ... I will see what I could do from that !

I would love having a remote GUI for Cantabile (like a native iPad app ...)

Interesting. I have not much experience with telnet, but I'll look into it. Didn't even think about just using an iPad, phone or so as remote.

Already built a small API to map all the telnet commands to something more structured in C#.

I will now build first a small windows app using it and then port it to iPad and Android using monoTouch ... So I should come soon with something usable

I just took a closer look. This should do everything I was thinking of. It looks pretty easy to send a command and parse the response. I did a basic test with a windows app and it seems to work well.

I like the idea about the iPad/Android interface, since it has the added advantage of having the touchscreen as well.


pchanez, do you want to pool resources on this one? If you already have experience with those platforms it'll you're probably quicker than me . My domain is more software testing anyways (I work as a test engineer for a software company).

Glad to help introducing telnet and bringing this into focus.

Brad created this after I've pushed him to do anything like that during beta development of Cantabile 2 and I was really surprised what he came up with.

When you develop your own interfaces keep in mind that the more advanced things are dynamic and change from session to session - like rack or vst related parameters... It took me a while to handle this conveniently. But the basics are indeed not too difficult to use

Cantabile telnet is a text based networking protocoll - and the idea to do something for other devices like iPad would be nice. I have none and I do not intend to do this anytime.

If someone decides to do anythingthing for iPad - let me please know.

Keep also in mind that you can control multiple instances of cantabile simultanously using different port numbers... There are open doors - just we have to go through them...

I personally struggled a bit with automating all needed to use telnet... In other words writing routines that implant the telnet activation into cantabiles settings file, to connect to cantabile (and monitoing lost connection) and to find running telnet servers by a background process automatically...

I wouldn't have even thought about telnet. But it's neat J. So, thank you TIuserJ

Personally I wouldn't have many requirements for a simple phone app to be used as a remote control. I have most of features I need to control cantabile are mapped to buttons/knobs/sliders on my keyboard.

I'd be totally happy with:

Main interface:

- Name of set list

- Previous / Current / Next Song (Display)

- Load Previous / Next Song

- Select Song (opening a menu to scroll through all songs in the current set list)

- Connection Status

- Audio Engine Status / Toggle button

Options:

-Load Setlist

Other features could be:

- Maybe some optional buttons that can be customized (Panic, Play, Record, Stop, Save Session, Midi Params)

- A Mixer on a 2 nd screen? (Map sliders to racks… But this can be cause issues if the racks change from session to session. These can be automated via midi anyways.)

- Metronome? (for visual feedback)

Personally, I think it would be cool to have a feature to map some text to a song name. That could be used to display Leadsheets, Lyrics or other notes once the session loaded. Maybe a little 'Teleprompt' feature J

...probably I'm as usal too picky, LOL

Maybe J. will do an iPad / Adnroid client?


Some of your needs can probably done in other ways than using telnet. Cantabile can start external applications. That way you can start an image or text viewer with a session. Needs some experimentation...