Using cantabile live

[Bomi]

hi there,

i'm playing in a indie rockband using a Kurzweil stagepiane and a Nord electro. In parallel i've been doing some trance-music using cubase which led to the fact that i'm starting to miss the possibility to use some nice vst plugins also in my live band.

I would like to use some of my vst instruments live on stage (got some nice pad sounds on nexus and maybe i will use steinbergs the grand).

Can someone explain with one or two sentences if and how i may reach the following:

- I would like to use the kurzweil as master to choose which song i play
- I would like to use the kurzweil also to play the vst plugin sounds
- Maybe I'll add a midi keyboard and use this to play the vst sounds
- if i choose a song (on the kurzweil) where i want to use a vst plugin i dont want to touch cantabile
- the right (one or multiple) vst plugins and presets on it /them should be ready to play immediatly (1 - 3 seconds)

Thx

Beat

[humphrey]

Hi Bomi,

I think using a Setlist with different sessions in it should already do the trick (Subsessions could be an even faster option but probably very complicated conrning MIDI-routing - so I leave it out).

Then it is very simple: build up a session with the plugs and sounds you need for every song. Later on build up a set list with the sessions inside and make an assignment for program changes.

Besides it is a wise strategy to have all of the plugins (not sounds!) you need for a setlist at least once in every session (even though it probably isn`t used in some of them). In this case cantabile "remembers" them and only loads different sample contents or parameters. Concerning your list:

hi there,
- I would like to use the kurzweil as master to choose which song i play => no problem, conect ist by usb or via a separate MIDI-Interface => program changes will do the trick

- I would like to use the kurzweil also to play the vst plugin sounds => simply use the MIDI-channel the kurzweil is sending for the plugin and you`re done

- Maybe I'll add a midi keyboard and use this to play the vst sounds (same as kurzweil)

- if i choose a song (on the kurzweil) where i want to use a vst plugin i dont want to touch cantabile => not necessary, setlist can react on program change instructions from a MIDI-Input

- the right (one or multiple) vst plugins and presets on it /them should be ready to play immediatly (1 - 3 seconds) => this strongly depends on the amount of sample content you load into the plugin. An SSD for the content could be a good idea: first off it leads to fast loading of content, at second glance it is possible to decrease preload samples dramatically inside romplers: tweaked this way 1-3 seconds are absolutely possible.


Thx

Beat

Not one or two sentences but hopefully of some use.

regards, humphrey

[Bomi]

hi humphrey

thank you so much for your detailed feedback

I think this gaves me a much clearer picture how to work with cantabile live.

As a next step i guess I'll lend a notebook for some first test.

If this goes fine, I'll look out for a fitting notebook, intel i7 16GB Ram & SSD or something like that.

I will let you know how it goes...

thx again for your great help.

Kind regards

Beat

[humphrey]

Good idea. Please keep in mind: if you want to play live, you need a fast driver for the soundcard (using the standard MME or Direct X drivers leads to latencies of some ten or even hundred miliseconds which is not really fun at all). For some testing it could be a good idea to use ASIO4ALL driver (http://www.asio4all.com/) which is free and works fine with 95% of the embedded soundcards.

If you need any more help don`t hasitate to contact me (probably via PM if it goes deep into details).

regards, humphrey