I'd been looking for a long time for a VST host (hopefully PC centric) that wouldintegrate several different vst's for quick program change in live use.
'Ala selecting a "Combi" on a Korg Triton or a Multi on a Yamaha Motif-
as I like to think of it.
I looked at a Receptor, very nice, but starting at $2000+
I looked at Open labs Miko/Niko-but even bigger $$$$'s
I looked at Apple Logic Mainstage-Mac only-big investment-whole new
paradigm.

I demoed Forte:
Good idea, but couldn't get around the
rather odd interface-CPU usage was kind-of high too! I tried to like it-but
just couldn't wrap my head around it. (some people like it tho'!)

Then I tried Cantabile ...

Did you ever encounter an instrument or program that you just totally
"Connected" with?
One that you said to yourself " Wow-This is exactly what I was thinking of-This thing does exactly what I want/need it to do"?
And also one that you say to yourself-I'd buy this again in a heartbeat!

Well, that is pretty much what I said after I had demoed Cantabile for a short time.

You start by putting your VST plugins in racks, like a lot of other programs, but this arrangement is VERY smart, flexible and intuitive.
It is also simple to look at and follow, (although it could use a little more color coding IMO) .

There are very sophisticated Midi routing, and triggering tables for those really crazy midi routing
schemes you might cook up (both internal AND external)!

There are very nice recording and playback (Media) options built in with, again, midi control of most everything!

You can map pretty much anything, to anything else, WITH midi cc control.

Then...when you have everything in your wild setup as you like it...you save it as a "Sub-Session"
(Sub-sessions are sort-of the equivalent of "scenes in Forte, or "songs" in Mainstage).

After you have your Sub-Sessions saved, you have a variety of ways to step through them in
your live performances. Very cool...very well thought-out!
Pretty Stable too IMO! (Important onstage!)

I could go on about this program I guess, but just go and download the (very generous-full version) demo
of Cantabile Performer and see for yourself!


Finally, One of the best reasons to invest in Cantabile, is the support from developer Brad Robinson.
He really follows up on your emails, and seems genuinely very interested in your ideas.(he's actually
implemented a few of mine!). good guy!

Check out Cantabile
Highly recommended!

Cantabile (con TAH beelay) is an Italian musical notation which means "smooth and flowing," which is a perfectly apt description of this product.

Cantabile is designed with the performing musician in mind, combining an extremely stable, low-latency, CPU-efficient VST host, extensive MIDI control and routing, and ad-hoc recording (think "musical scratch pad"), all within a well-designed host that is as powerful as it is intuitive.

In my personal search for a host which will allow me to combine outboard synthesizers and VST instruments, I find most come up short with respect to sharing the sandbox for the fact they don't concentrate on the fundamental protocol underlying function: MIDI. Cantabile has the most flexible MIDI routing and filtering of any host I've ever experienced, allowing a performer to assign MIDI events to control the function of the host, including turning on and off instruments to save CPU usage when not in use.

I have found that once Cantabile is set up for a performance, use of a monitor and keyboard/mouse is unnecessary, further reducing the complexity of a stage setup. Another great feature is Cantabile's "auto-load" function, which allows Cantabile to start up with a predetermined performance at Windows' startup process, loading your VST instruments and effects into an immediately usable musical instrument.

Recently, I have had the experience to contact the developer with some questions regarding the operation of Cantabile, and Brad has been prompt, courteous, and most of all informative even though the answers to my questions were covered in the manual.

If you are a performing musician looking to expand your rig with the use of VST instruments, but have found doing so requires far more work on your part than you thought then I strongly urge you to consider Cantabile as a performance host. You will be pleasantly surprised.

A few weeks ago, I was finding a solution to organize my live setup for the upcoming demonstration series.

Mainly, I didn’t like the way I needed to manage my backing audio tracks. For a couple years I used a different VST host but I never liked that the way to manage audio tracks: load a dedicated VSTi (sample player), assign controls and then without the chance to play the audio file from a specific point or loop a section inside it. Not absolutely smart and quick and, I cannot hide you, I was really bothered about it. So, one day, I thought to definitely solve this issue. I found, finally, the VST host of my dreams!

I downloaded Cantabile Lite (free), a quick look, immediately I guessed that I was on the right place… Cantabile Lite (again, free!) offers features that other VST hosts ask to pay for. After a few minutes, I downloaded the professional version, Cantabile Performer… absolutely impressive and awesome! I jumped from the chair, from that moment I knew that I didn’t need to find nothing else. Cantabile Performer is definitely the solution for any of my live performances (demonstrations, concerts, clinics) and studio recordings as well! Yes, because once you start to use Cantabile, you are totally addicted to it and you cannot survive without it.

Tons of features that it is impossible to list… for sure, my favorites are: amazing graphic interface and awesome layout, media file player (midi/audio), total and fantastic organization of midi controllers, midi filter, midi routing and midi mapping that allow me to absolutely control the most intricate setup, the rack system, the sub-session and set list managers to have a clear view and arrangement of my live performance. I could enumerate thousand more unbelievable features but the better thing is to download and try Cantabile Performer… 30-days full trial! You can work for 30-days and appreciate Cantabile Performer without restrictions, this is another priceless and unbelievable add-on!

At the moment, my whole live setup has moved on Cantabile Performer and I did it in a few hours because working on Cantabile is really easy and the results come immediately! Moreover, I definitely found the solutions for many old problems stayed unsolved long…

By the way, I want also say that I tried other VST hosts, maybe all of them, nothing can be compared to Cantabile Performer… it’s the all-in-one total superb solution for my live and studio performances!

Thanks to Brad at Topten Software for his colossal and extraordinary job!

Cantabile 2 is a stunning VST host with unparalleled, unique concept for live performance.

I was looking for a VST host that could not only host VST instruments and effects but works efficient, allows convenient, fast changes of your session setups and could integrate external gear I already had.

My search had an end when I discovered Cantabile. During beta phase of Cantabile 2 I realized Topten Softwares great support and open ear for user demands. It turned out quickly that Cantabile 2 would be the product I've been waiting for for a long time!

So what makes it so special and unique?

The audio engine is very efficient - it allowed me to get the lowest latencies from all products I've tried before. I could use Cantabile for side chaining VirusTI sounds through PC effects and back to it's audio interface the first time with latencies that I found playable!

The basic operation is easy to learn. The user interface offers a rack structure most musicians are familiar with. The point is, things do not end here. Under the hood of the elgant new user interface you find plenty of options - hardly lacking a solution for any fancy configuration idea you might have. Cantabile 2 offers the most stunning VST patch organizing system I've ever seen.

There are more midi manipulations filters than you might ever need, over a dozend... like 'button bank' or 'pitch based velocity ramp', just to name two more special ones...

Another outstanding feature is it's integrated recording. It's so simple that no musical idea you might have gets ever lost again... Cantabile 2 starts recording when you start to play and it finishes a clip when you stop playing for a while. You automatically get a list of audio clips just by doing nothing else than playing...

There is also a media player you can use for playback. Because you can have as many players as you want at the same time you can do a lot of things with this... like triggering and replaying sound snippets. Believe it or not, you can also record such a performance including your VST instruments playing at the same time!

Of course recording and media players work with midi too.


On top with the extended 'Performer' edition of Cantabile 2 you get even more.

One outstanding feature here is 'Sub-Sessions' - a kind of scene snapshots of your current session setup. Switching this is as fast as it can be, nearly instant. When you configure clever, you can even retain long sustain phases while you're stepping to the next sound. When you want to save processing time you can suspend plugins you don't need in a certain Subsession. Again there's much more under the hood - hard to quote all in such a user review...

The 'midi routing table' in 'Performer' edition allows you to seamlessly integrating midi gear you already have. It's like a built in midi matrix for your session.


To finish with:

Cantabile 2 is a tool to grow into... it's great for the beginner who wants to get started playing VST instruments - it hardly lacks anything a professional performer will need to play VST(i) as instruments. It works pretty stable and never lets you down!

My peronal conclusion: I love it - highly recommended - check it out!

KVR TiUser

This is probably the coolest little host since MiniHost. It's very simple to use, and the manner in which it can record and playback using automatic filename generation is a great feature that turns cantabile into a cool little sketchpad. Because it works with both DirectSound and ASIO it can be used on a greater number of machines -- including notebooks that have proprietary drivers and wont work with ASIO4ALL etc.

I find myself constantly using cantabile to try out new banks, new instruments, and so on more and more. It records much nicer than MiniHost in that it senses when your input has stopped and after a predefined timespan will automatically stop recording.

I initially had problems with this on my notebook, and helped Brad to test the DirectSound fixes he implemented. The fixes now allow my notebook to work very well with cantabile and I have had no issues.

Plugin scanning is pretty good, better than other small hosts that I've used including MiniHost which is much less stable in my experience when scanning plugins.

The favorites and presets manager is pretty good too, but not as comprehensive yet as MiniHost for example where you can move presets from bank to bank and so on. Perhaps a future update? :)

What else to say? It works, it does all that it is supposed to do and it does it in obvious and reliable ways. If you are looking for a great scratchpad for ideas and want to perhaps record both the midi and audio data for later review, cantabile is the one to use. No other host can automatically record what you are doing AND name the files in such an intelligent and helpful manner.

It's free with no nag screens, so what are you waiting for, try it out and see for yourself!