OK, here we go…
I can’t find much info on the VPC1, but from the diagram on Features - Kawai VPC - A virtual piano controller from a real piano company. it looks like MIDI IN is routed to USB MIDI OUT. So it looks like if you have the FC300 MIDI OUT connected to the KAWAI VPC1 MIDI IN then any MIDI data from the FC300 should get to Cantabile. I am also assuming that you have all the MIDI and Audio ports setup in Cantabile ready to go. (Check Brad’s guides if you need help in doing this).
It looks like the VPC1 has no concept of patches itself, so I am assuming that the FC300 will need to control Cantabile directly and the VPC1 is a route to getting the FC300 data there. I am also assuming that you want the FC300 to select Songs in a Cantabile setlist in any order, which is similar to how I work.
First, the FC300
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Select PATCH Mode
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Select the Patch you wish to edit
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Press Parameter Right (>)
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The FC300 will show PATCH: ON MIDI which is the set of MIDI commands sent when a patch is selected
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Press the WRITE button.
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The FC300 will show EDIT MIDI
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Press the WRITE button again.
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Press Parameter Right (>) followed by Value UP
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This will add a program change (PC) command. Use the Parameter to navigate to the CH# field to set the MIDI channel from 1 to 16 or TX to use the MIDI channel set in the global parameters, and navigate to PC# field to set the Patch Change number that you wish the FC300 to send.
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Press the EXIT button to get back to the top level menu
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Press and hold the Cursor Right button and repeatedly press the Cursor Left Button to navigate quickly to the Patch Name. Holding one cursor button whilst pressing the other allows you to quickly skip over the controllers to get to the controller that you wish to edit (otherwise you step through all the parameters for all controllers).
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Use the Parameter, Value and INC and DEC keys to set the patch name you wish the patch to be known by.
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Press the EXIT button once to get back to the top level of the Patch.
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Press the WRITE button once, here you have the chance to change the patch number you are saving to. Leave as is unless you really want to change it
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Press the WRITE button again. You will get an “Are you Sure” type prompt. So press WRITE again to confirm the write. You patch should now be stored.
Do the same for as many patches as you need for sending PC values to Cantabile. You can of course program the dual expression pedals and CTRL1 and CTR2 pedals to do anything you need.
What you need to do then is to link the patch changes sent by the FC300 to Cantabile songs
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In Cantabile, click the VIEW menu and select Background Rack (now renamed Global Rack in later versions?).
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Click the Bindings tab
- Click the Add Binding button at the bottom of the screen
- Click the (Learn) button
- Cantabile is now waiting for some MIDI data
- Now press the Patch button on the FC300 that you programmed. Cantabile will give you a number of options
- Select the second option, which specifically selects the Program Change 1 that I programmed on Channel 1. Unless you end up with more than 128 songs, you don’t need to worry about banked program changes. If you will have more than 128 then we will need to program Bank Select MSB and LSB CCs in the FC300.
- At this point you will have a binding on Program Change 1 from the FC300 that is not doing anything. So set up as shown below for the first song in you set list.
Repeat as required…
Hope that helps.
Phew!
So, yes, programming the FC300 is a little fiddly, but well worth it for the power that it has, and it is easy to bind Cantabile songs to FC300 program changes (or indeed any other data it generates.
. Thanks again!