How to transfer MIDI controller assignements to another PC

[boriu]

Hello everyone,

I need to transfer Cantabile Performer between two different PC's (one is used in studio, the other in live). The sub-list structure is in the x.cantabile file, so it is not a problem at all.

But, where does Cantabile store the MIDI controller assignements? I have a lot of them, and I cannot re-program all the things when I modify one of the PC's.

Thanks,

Roby

[TiUser]

I believe what you are looking for is stored in a file called "settings.ini"

You might find that in your user directory in:
...AppData\Roaming\TopTen Software\Cantabile 2.0

To get there you might need to make hidden files and folders visible in Windows Explorer first.

I guess only global assignments are stored there, the others should be in the session files itself.


[EDIT:] There is another simpler way to get access to the "settings.ini" file.

1. Open Cantabile Options dialog and go to Resources page

2. Click Diagnostics and then Find Log File. This opens a Windows explorer window on the right location. "settings.ini" is in the same folder as the log files. BTW you will find some other things here too...

[bburtin]

I've always thought that music programs should abstract out audio and MIDI ports, to minimize the pain of moving a setup from one machine to another. I had big problems with this issue when I was using forte, because forte saves the actual name of the port into its config file. I ended up working around it by installing the Maple virtual MIDI port driver on both machines, and using MIDI-OX to map the physical MIDI port to the virtual one. Your host app only uses the virtual port, so it's unaware of configuration changes.

I now use a single laptop, so I'm not sure how elegantly Cantabile deals with this issue.

[boriu]

First of all,
thanks to TiUser: as almost always happens, his suggestions are very useful!

I've always thought that music programs should abstract out audio and MIDI ports, to minimize the pain of moving a setup from one machine to another. I had big problems with this issue when I was using forte, because forte saves the actual name of the port into its config file. I ended up working around it by installing the Maple virtual MIDI port driver on both machines, and using MIDI-OX to map the physical MIDI port to the virtual one. Your host app only uses the virtual port, so it's unaware of configuration changes.

I agree, I also would prefer to have machine-independence...

I now use a single laptop, so I'm not sure how elegantly Cantabile deals with this issue.

... however, with very low pain, following the suggestion of TiUser, you can transport all settings (including midi assignements) from a laptop to another.
The only things to change in the settings.ini are the disk name (C:, D: etc.), and the user name (if different on the two PC's).

In my experience (after a couple of windows crashes) the best thing to do is to copy from the Windows section of settings.ini the relevant parts (MIDI assignements, for example).

Roby

[TiUser]

...the doc is in, 10ct... LOL

I'm glad that my suggestion helped out a bit...

I am not sure how dangerous it is just to copy the "settings.ini" file as it contains other global settings too... however, you can modify this at your own risk - as it's a text file... or you may try to paste the section with the controller settings into a virgin settings.ini file on the new machine - as Cantabile always creates a new one if needed. Looks like you got your head around this somehow already...

You may wonder where I know about this hidden file... well, I had to manipulate it to activate Cantabile's Telnet Server feature and the related documentation reveals some info...


Midi port virtualization is one of the things I've suggested to Brad for the next version. I also think there should be an abstract layer between the physical midi ports and the devices used in a session setup.

Having said that - there is already a kind of virtualization... as far as I know Cantabile does not store the port numbers - which may change like I've experienced in other simpler programs - but the names of keyboards/controllers. However, you can't change this when you want to use another keyboard/controller... except maybe parsing settings.ini and all related session files and change the related text...

I sometimes thought such a "parsing tool" for session files to make complex changes difficult to do in Cantabile itself would be useful...


I've even suggested to add controller virtualization, so you can also have abstract controller knobs and pots and if you use another controller you would have a global location to adjust this.

However I have no comment from Brad yet what he thinks - but I am sure he thinks about that. I also remember he had said he isn't perfectly happy with the midi port handling, so maybe there's something coming...

Audio port virtualization is a good idea as well...