Wondering about the possibility of an all-in-one setup:
Has anyone done this? I love Cantabile but keep flirting with the idea of a new hardware rig, to reduce rehearsal and gig faff.
I mounted a Dell 2-in-1 11" on top of an EMU Xboard 49 that had a Behringer UCA202 and 1/4 jacks attached with Gorilla 2 sided tape onto it for sitting in open mics playing mostly Hammond parts. Ran on batteries for over 2 hours - All I needed was a 1/4 cable from the keyboard amp to plugin in and go.
You will need to ventilate the keyboard chassis with a small fan if you put the NUC inside.
I think the Stream deck could be easily mounted on top of the keyboard, perhaps using the spring loaded tablet holder so you can remove it easily while transporting the keyboard.
This thinking is all in the donāt build your own keyboard āenclosureā box. Once you do that the project is way more complex. Christian from Germany designed a very nice custom keyboard.
Group-Buy / Collection of Ideas for CantabileKeyboard - Related - Cantabile Community
Here was the first iteration: NanoKontrol 2, UCA-202 and GSI VB3m running on a Pixel 4a
I drilled holes in the top of the Xboard 49 and glued threaded surfboard fin nuts underneath for the thumbscrews.
The on/off switches on the USB hub are to be able to reset. I needed that to switch between IKās android piano and VB3m
Here is the Dell 2-in-1 showing the UCA-202 and USB hub mounted on the back. I canāt find a photo of the 2-in-1 folded the opposite way and turned around and mounted so the screen faces the player.
The USB hub has one cable from the XBoard, one from the UCA-202, a logitech mouse/keyboard receiver and a faster USB WiFi dongle.
Nice socksā¦ 
BJās finest!
At least sandals were not involved as wellā¦
The keyboard Christian built for me referenced by @dsteinschneider in that thread is actually NOT an āall-in-oneā, rather a customized MIDI/USB controller for my Cantabile setup. But itās a real beauty, and itās soooo much fun to work with it!
But Christian also built an actual integrated Cantabile all-in-one keyboard - unfortunately, he quit the custom-keyboard business before it became a viable product for the market. But the prototype looked very tasty indeed:
Cheers,
Torsten
Hi Torsten,
I donāt remember seeing the keyboard Christian built for you. I love the arcade buttons. What did you decide on for the 9 controls above the sliders. The ones on the EMU XBoard would fit perfectly and I like their feel. Iāve seen them for sale on eBay and at Syntaur.
Christianās Cantabile keyboar is beautiful. Iām pretty sure he built several functional ones for himself
How do we reinvigorate Christianās project? The image looks fantastic, just what Iām after. Although I love the arcade machine buttons on Torstenāsā¦
Iām going to shelve this idea, although Iām still looking for cheap controllers with enough room inside themā¦ Will keep you posted.
Thanks for the comments all
Itās not exactly what you are asking for, but I built a Cantabile rack with 1) a Behringer digital mixer; 2) two āheadlessā Dell micro-PCs, each with a USB audio interface; and 3) rack-mounted voltage mains and I/O connections. I use it with a Studiologic SL73 and a Nord Stage as controllers. The Dell PCs are set up to run songs without any outside intervention other than the knobs, etc. on the two keyboards; however the rack I chose has a slant top for a laptop, which can control them by Windows RemotePC. The three PCs communicate with each other using RTPmidi and a dedicated 100baseT network. Iāve been using it for a couple of years now, and itās quite stable. The advantage that the rack method has is if I wish to change a PC or audio interface (I started with Gen7 PCs, and moved up to Gen12), I donāt have to worry as much about physical mounting issues, interconnects, etc. Itās also easier to keep thermal problems at bay.
Thanks all. Iām currently pursuing the idea of an installation within my Novation 61SL MK2. I like the action and it suits my needs.
There exists a recess 30cm wide x 12.5cm deep x 5cm high at the right of the board. It measures up favourably for a NUC and small audio interface e.g. Behringer UM2. I have identified suitable cutouts for cable access.
I donāt need frequent access to the GUI for my purposes, but would connect a screen and controls when engineering my virtual rack. I have no such need during gigs and only rarely at ensemble rehearsals, so the idea would be an auto-boot of my main Cantible song on plugging in the PSU (this is what I do currently with a Surface Pro 3 and works very well, albeit slow to boot).
Any caveats? Am thinking I would take the lid off the NUC. Do I need an additional fan, or will vents cut in the KB casing suffice?
Over the years weāve removed either the front āgrillā or lid from tower PCās that were overheating. A NUC might have a very engineered cooling process that could be affected by removing the enclosure.
I have a couple NUC 12ās in a rack, so thereās much more room for air to circulate than your situation. I havenāt had any problems, even gigging outdoors in the Florida heat at 90+.
However, just to be safe when I built the rack I added a couple USB fans on either side of the NUC case, one pushing air into the NUC and another pulling it out on the other side.
Apparently there is a mod for a water cooling system for them, if you want to go that route. And if you search there are many other ways to improve the cooling on a NUC, such as replacing the thermal paste, etc. Overall Iāve been quite happy with the NUCs, plenty of CPU and RAM, TB ports which I needed for my interface, relatively low cost (but a DIY build would of course be a few hundred less), small footprint and low weight.
Tom
May I ask where you bought the NUCs?
Most everything Iāve seen has been about the same price as laptops
Have been acquiring gear for this build. I have a NUC i7 but am struggling with power cycling. When AC mains is switched on, it does a short boot sequence twice, before a full boot.
Behaves normally if booting using the power switch when already plugged in.
Changing the relevant setting in BIOS doesnāt seem to change this behaviour (i.e. switching to āstay offā makes no difference).
Can anyone offer any help? I had thought I would want it to auto-boot when mains connected (as power button will be inaccessible) but if I can get it to stay OFF when mains connected then I can solder a momentary switch to the mobo to enable manual switching (might be better for the components?)
Further updateā¦ Cannot solder a switch to this mobo as there is no header.
Iām stuck with this odd 3-part boot sequence when I first supply mains power. Not ideal but not a disaster if thereās nothing to be done.
Two new questions, if anyone has time:
How do I use command lines (e.g. /headless - how/where do I enter this in Cantabile?)
Is it possible to shut down Windows using a midi command from Cantabile?! Iām wondering whether a clean shutdown is possible using a headless setup, i.e. without needing to touch the [inaccessible] computer
TIA
This is untested brainstorming:
In notepad create a new file
Put this line in - āShutdown -r -t 01ā (leave quotes out - reboots computer after 1 second)
Save as Restart.cmd
In Cantabile Tools ā Options - External Tools add the above file to the menu.
Question for experts - can the above be bound to a controller like the big red button?
Hey Corky, the best price was from Amazon. Got them about a year ago, NUC 13s were already out so they were around $850, and that was with 1TB SSD, i7-1260P, 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM. I was a bit worried it might glitch, since I was replacing a rock solid rack PC (i7-9700K, cooling, etc.) that weighed 15 lbs by itself. But no issues, running at 44.1K/64 samples, many songs with several sample players and CPU hungry plugs, running at typical Time load of around 25%, some up to 45%. I did have to tweak a couple songs to lighten the load but not a big deal. However I just loaded Arturia Analog Lab a few days ago and got some occasional glitching, switched to 128 and itās solid now. The NUCs do get a bit warm so an extra external fan or two canāt hurt. But not any warmer than my previous laptop rig. Amazon.com: Tech Wizards at The Lake NUC Mini pc Wall Street Canyon NUC12WSHi7 i7-1260P,12 cores,16 Threads, Running with Windows 11 Pro, 32GB RAM + 1TB NVMe, 4.7GHz Iris Xe Graphics, 4K displays or one 8K : Electronics
Tom
I never had that problem since my power button is accessible. And I use a GE Chic touchscreen monitor. Stupid questionā¦ can you rig a physical extension to push the power button? If so that might be easiest.
Tom
