Option to not save modified sessions not working?

[muzicole]

Hi there,

I'm using Cantabile to play sounds in a live show, using a succession of sessions, each containing many sub-sessions.

In each case, the output of all the instrument racks are routed to a 'Volume Pedal' rack in which the main gain slider is mapped to my keyboard's expression pedal.

I step between sub-sessions (several times per song) using a patch change pedal and have assigned a button on my keyboard to load the next session, an event which occurs every few songs through the show.

The problem is that if the session has been modified, then Cantabile will ask if you want to save changes before it will load the next one in the set-list. An example of a modification seems to be moving the volume pedal (which changes the gain of the 'Volume Pedal' rack, which of course happens all the time constantly). I'm not sure if changing the active sub-session also counts?

Anyway, I found an option in Cantabile preferences to modify the behaviour regarding the saving of modified sessions. The options are 1. Yes, 2. No, 3. Prompt, the default being Prompt. Changing this to No seems to have no effect. I do not want to set it to Yes because I do not want to save a session during a performance. I had a situation a couple of weeks ago in the studio when Cantabile crashed on saving a session, and corrupted my entire session file containing over 40 sub-sessions and dozens of MIDI routings, so no, I don't want to do that during a show

I'm really excited about all the possibilities this terrific program offers. Mostly it works like a charm and seems designed exactly along the lines I would have drawn up if I'd chosen them myself. That this was written by one person and not a whole team of software developers is incredible. Hopefully any information here will help the software become even greater.

[TiUser]

Anyway, I found an option in Cantabile preferences to modify the behaviour regarding the saving of modified sessions. The options are 1. Yes, 2. No, 3. Prompt, the default being Prompt. Changing this to No seems to have no effect. I do not want to set it to Yes because I do not want to save a session during a performance.

This is the usual workaround. If it does not it's a case for Brad and development...

With discussion about Cantabile 2.1 I suggested a revival of "performance mode" that should do what we want when playing - no editing changes, not prompts,... I hope this idea comes back. It dissapeard during Cantabile 2.x beta development because there were too many complicated additions to that mode that have partly made it in other ways - like the status panel.

[muzicole]

With discussion about Cantabile 2.1 I suggested a revival of "performance mode"

Sounds like a great idea. In time, it should be incorporated with a performance front end, like (can I say the M word?) ...mmmMainstage on the ...mmmMac.

Sorry, sorry but to see a nice layout on screen with keyboard, pedals, proper volume pedal indicator and a nice big scrolly list of patches but on a PC and not a mmm.. mmmm... well, y'know, one o' them would be a godsend.

[bradr]

Changing this to No seems to have no effect. I do not want to set it to Yes because I do not want to save a session during a performance.

There's actually two options that control prompting - one for general usage (on the Options -> General Page) and one for use with Set Lists (Options -> Set List). The idea is that you can have one behavior when editing sessions - typically you'd want to prompt to save changes in this case, and a second behaviour during performance.

So, if the next session is being loaded through the set list, it uses the Set List setting, otherwise it uses the General Setting.

Make sense?

[TiUser]

With discussion about Cantabile 2.1 I suggested a revival of "performance mode"

Sounds like a great idea. In time, it should be incorporated with a performance front end, like (can I say the M word?) ...mmmMainstage on the ...mmmMac.

Sorry, sorry but to see a nice layout on screen with keyboard, pedals, proper volume pedal indicator and a nice big scrolly list of patches but on a PC and not a mmm.. mmmm... well, y'know, one o' them would be a godsend.

You can control some aspects of Cantabile by using the "telnet" server protocol in Cantabile. TopTen provides documentation on how to basically use this. However it's developer level of information. As telnet is a network based protocol you can run the frontend on another PC as you run Cantabile itself.

I've tried to write a C# based frontend application to select set lists, sessions, subsessions and link performance documents on a second touchscreen monitor - working title "TouchControl". Actually this procect is suspended for several reasons. I felt it needs heavy redesign and I didn't find the time and motivation to do so. Telnet is fast enough but basically no real time protocol and there are several aspects you can not access - like realtime audio meter information and similar things. It's more suitable for selecting setups you've already created in Cantabile.

Furthermore a "nice GUI" can be a hell of work, not to mention to design it the way you may know from modern platforms. On windows the buzzword is "WPF" (windows presentation foundation) but WPF design needs MS payware development tools as coding that in (free) XAML code will drive you nuts... Another factor is that all the new cool gui animation effects and bells and whistles need processing time I guess we all would prefer to spend on audio, do we?

Probably you can use an iPad application for remote control (midi) of Cantabile in future too - just to through in another option.

It's tough so if you have any more specific ideas on what this "frontend" could look like I may consider rethinking about the telnet project...

[TiUser]

...
So, if the next session is being loaded through the set list, it uses the Set List setting, otherwise it uses the General Setting.

Make sense?

Definitely yes, also that's again one of the advanced things one does not mention in the first place...

[muzicole]

Hi there,

I would think the best option would be a modular front end where you have a number of objects representing various keyboards, pedals, sliders, meters, CPU usage indicator, sub-session list, set list, tempo, currently playing media file etc. and you can drag them around and then save a virtual scene which is a graphical representation of your real set up. It wouldn't need to be very processor intensive, but the elements should be graphically scalable and colour schemes should be selectable (a bit like the Windows desktop appearance settings).

I had wondered whether a VST plugin would be be the best way to do this as it could gain easy access to all data it needed to display using the master bus for audio and MIDI or even use little helper VSTs to get meter information from other plugins or racks etc. It would also enable you to choose things like how you wanted your master volume slider to appear (eg. dB, MIDI CC, or a scale from 0-20 etc.)

During performance the plugin view could be expanded to full screen, so that your screen only shows what you need to see.

If there's a way to do it using the telnet thingy that'd work too. Unfortunately I lack any knowledge whatsoever of how to accomplish this by either method, so...

[muzicole]

There's actually two options that control prompting - one for general usage (on the Options -> General Page) and one for use with Set Lists (Options -> Set List). The idea is that you can have one behavior when editing sessions - typically you'd want to prompt to save changes in this case, and a second behaviour during performance.

So, if the next session is being loaded through the set list, it uses the Set List setting, otherwise it uses the General Setting.

Make sense?

Ahh thanks for that. I tried that last night at the show. Much better