I think we all use Cantabile 3 Songs (or Cantabile 2 Sessions/Sub-sessions) for songs…but I’ve noticed a few people on this forum, myself included, also use Songs for other stuff, so I thought I’d write a post to see what interesting and novel things people are using Songs for.
I have two favourites I’ll share, both of which I use live. The first is for a full system and level check song. Different notes on my controller are mapped to different hardware synths/modules, as well as to plugins that send out on different audio channels (I send 4 stereo pairs to front-of-house, for pianos, leads etc, to give our engineer some flexibility in mixing at gigs). Cantabile triggers send MIDI program changes to external gear to select test tone patches. The keyboard notes in a certain range all play a fixed test tone at a fixed velocity, at a fixed MIDI volume level, such that everything should appear on my keyboard rig’s sub-mixing desk at a nominal 0dB. This allows me to check all my input trims/faders, but also identify when one of my jack leads is faulty, or something isn’t connected up right. It’s great for those situations where you have limited sound-check time, and also when you’ve got a problem and need to identify the cause.
My other favourite is a line-check song. I have the lowest 4 notes on my controller keyboard send equal volumes out on my four stereo pairs going to front-of house. One of our stage techs does a line check before we go on stage, and it means he can simply play the bottom four notes, and our sound engineer will be confident he’s getting left and right channels for all four stereo pairs, and all at good levels, DI boxes are still ok and correctly padded, and that nothing has been accidentally kicked out by the support band. So after our soundcheck I dial in the line check song and leave it, and it’s ready for him.
Got any other interesting non-song uses for songs?
Hi Neil, I don’t have any current other uses I have created but your post inspired me to make a song for doing my monitor spl setup. I use the K-System principles to set up my monitor systems using a looped -18db RMS Pink Noise Tone. I have an SPL meter and adjust for around 72db. I Have been using a song in Studio One to do this and thought after your post, why not create a similar thing in Cantabile. I could see having a room ringing program with RTA and a dedicated Room EQ although I have never made such a thing. This kind of function was all in a hardware rackmount until just the past decade or so. Anyway I will edit after I try my idea out. I probably better turn off the limiter in Cantabile while I do it. Cheers and thanks for your applications you shared!
On a related idea I thought it would be nice to have a tone generator built in to Cantabile for testing complex routings. It could appear as an Input in the Input list.
Edit: It worked like a champ! I have ,-20db,-18db,-14db and -12db loops in separate media players for the K metering choices ( I added -18db). Now I can quick check my monitor calibration very quickly and easily! I also started to get a feel for the C3 meters and where they register for the different noise loops. Would a couple of graduations on the meter be useful like maybe -20db, -12db, -6db and -3db or some of these choices? They wouldn’t even need labels, just some notches on the meter. Just a thought.
I found this free to try program Math Audio Room EQ. It requires a proper mic (about $60.00 for Behringer ECM8000). I tried it with my vocal mic to see if it worked and it ran fine in cantabile. If I get a measurement microphone I’ll try it out in some rooms I know around here. Cheers
