I’ve been creating a simple MCU-compatible mixer Rack for Cantabile.
One of the things I would like to have implemented was level meter outputs to the control surface, but I hit a snag with implementing this.
The way the MCU protocol implements level meters is through MIDI channel pressure messages. But these are no ordinary messages…
What happens is that the data byte is broken down into the form [0 h h h l l l l] - where hhh represents the channel 0-7 to be addressed, and llll represents level.
I can’t see any way in Cantabile, as it stands, for me to implement the meters with this protocol.
Could a way to do it be considered for adding?
And if so…
…might it be worth opening up the whole gamut of MCU protocol within Cantabile? I can see so many possibilities if this were the case, including instrument names for each song populating scribble strips, for instance.
I’m resurrecting this thread to see if it can gain any interest a second time around.
TBH I’ve managed to create something for myself, using my own mixer rack, that works fine, but I do think that general MCU compatibility would be a good thing for Cantabile.
There are so many MCU-compatible control options around now, and it would be a great thing if Cantabile worked with them straight out of the box.
I use MCU-compatible control for Cakewalk using the RTP-Midi software. It’s very responsive on android phones and tablets. OTOH, Reaper has a built in remote control using OSC that works just as well. I use it for touchscreen control of recording that can be arm mounted to be accessible from the drums, a seated guitarist etc. It’s a game changer for those purposes.
I should add that subsequent to my original post here I did figure out how to get meter outputs from Cantabile into MCU-format. In fact, I created an entirely MCU-compatible 8-input mixer Rack with meter outputs.
When I load up a Cantabile Song it populates my X-Touch’s scribble strips and moves the faders to their current position in my mixer Rack. The Rack returns metering reflecting the post-fader signal levels on each of my mixer Rack’s 8 channels.
The basic transport controls all work as they should, except fast forward and rewind, which, IIRC, weren’t a targettable option in Cantabile when I created them.
With a bit more work I could maybe get the bar/beats display working? But it’s not something I intend to take on.
@dsteinschneider I use rtpMIDI to interface with my iPad. On the iPad I have a MIDI Designer Layout that controls Cantabile, including my mixer Rack above using MCU protocols - and also has channel level meters. The Layout has a whole lot more, including VST instrument control, looper control, hardware mixer control, a more sophisticated set of controls for my more sophisticated mixer Rack (includes A/B mix output busses and 4 aux sends, all with metering…)…
Putting out another cry for MCU control of Cantabile. It would be so good to be able to use an MCU controller out of the box and have Cantabile at the least understand its transport controls and send back bar/beat or time display information.
There are so many excellent MCU-compatible controller options out there now, it seems a shame that they don’t have an official doorway into Cantabile.
Personally I’d have MCU transport and MMC transport baked into Cantabile, with devices allocated to a permanent, dedicated MCU/MMC MIDI input port(s).
