So, I am the most basic user of Cantabile Solo. I use 2 Arturia controllers with drum pads. I have no idea how to assign anything to the pads on either of my keyboards with Cantabile, and I’m ready. I want to trigger some samples and handclaps and such using pads instead of the keyboard keys. And I have zero idea how to proceed. I wish there was a video tutorial for this. Seems like it would be a common question. Any advice on how to begin would be greatly appreciated! Cheers…Keith
Hi Keith
Have a look at this tutorial by Brad. It will get you started. There are many more video tutorials on the website.
Regards
Corky
Ok, I’ll try again…
1 Like
I assume you’re already familiar with how to play instruments in Cantabile with your Arturia keyboards, right?
The secret is in two steps
- Make sure your Controller sends drumpad notes on a different MIDI channel than its keys (e.g. keyboard on channel 1, drum pads on 2), so that you can route them differently (route MIDI channel 1 to your keyboard sounds, channel 2 to your drum instrument.
- use note mapping plugins like NoteMapper (http://www.codefn42.com) to map the notes of your drumpad to your plugins. This way, you can have different assignments per song or even per song state.
Cheers,
Torsten
1 Like
Thanks. I watched the bindings video again and it didn’t really help me…
I have multiple VSTs spread across various parts of two keyboards, so yes, I have figured that out. Very easy to assign sounds to different keys on the keyboard (but not to pads). And I have a basic binding on my Keylab 88 you helped me figure out last year to go forward and backward in my set list using the DAW controls. Thank you! I am ready for this next level.
So, if I understand you correctly, I need to adjust a setting in my keyboard controller itself to put the drum pads on different MIDI channels? I have no idea how to do that, so I’ll have to research with the Arturia manual I guess. But I have 16 pads. I might want a long Kontakt sample on 1 pad, a bass drum and a snare from Dimension Pro on 2 pads, and a clap and a hi hat from the V collection DX7 on two others–and nothing on the rest. I still do that by somehow moving all 16 pads to MIDI channel 2? Seems like each pad, or group of pads if they are attached to same VST, needs their own MIDI channels…
Well, @Torsten suggested using MIDI channel 2 for the pads and you can set the Keylab up that way but the factory default for your rig for the Pads is set to transmit on Channel 10. So if you want to use the default then set up 2 input routes in C3, one set to channel 1 and routed to a synth or other vst instrument for your keys (I used blooo64)
and one set to channel 10 for your drum pads and routed to drum machine on a channel you choose, I used 10.(I used sforzando)
You can then use the transpose to get the pad you want to make the handclap sound on your drum or percussion vst.
The other folks here might have other better suggestions but this is how I would first attempt sorting this out if it was me.
Dave
1 Like
OK, you want to jump in on the deep end of the pool, do ya? 
You won’t need to assign your individual pads to different channels, you can use key ranges to filter your routes. I’ll assume for now that you have assigned your pads to consecutive note numbers, starting at 60 (C4 or C3, depending how you count), all sending on MIDI channel 2 (you can use 10 of course - my master keyboards are just all set up with their drum pads on ch2…).
Now you set up separate routes from your Arturia keyboard
- First route has note range C4 to C4,uses only channel 2, maps to channel 1 (at least all my instruments are set to receive on channel 1) and connects to Kontakt
- Next route has range C#4 to D4 and connects to Dimension Pro
- Next route has range D#4 to E4 and connects to DX7
Looks like this:
(I’ve used different instruments, but the principle should be clear)
This will take care of the routing. You can now use transpose settings and/or route the MIDI stream through NoteMapper to transform the notes to the ones you want to hit on your target, and you’re done!
The advantage of this approach is that you don’t need to split your drum pad statically into different zones on your controller - you can have different such mappings between songs, so that for Song 1 all pads go to Kontakt, the next has multiple targets like you describe, and a third just has different instruments for the upper and lower half. Or maybe you want to layer - works as well.
Cheers,
Torsten
1 Like
Hey @dave_dore, I just came back across this post and found a little mix-up in your screenshots: using the mapping you describe would send all notes from the Arturia controller (independent of where they are generated, keyboard or drumpad) both to the bloo synth (mapped to channel 1) as well as to sforzando (mapped to channel 10). Don’t think this would be what the OP expected 
If the Arturia keyboard is sending pads on channel 10, then the MIDI route settings would need to set the SOURCE channels to 1 and 10 respectively, instead of Omni, and the TARGET channel to whatever the tone generating plugin expects.
Cheers,
Torsten
1 Like