I’m BRAND new to Cantabile. Just bought the Performer version 36 hours ago. Frankly, I’m amazed. For 4 years, I’ve been beating myself over the head because I couldn’t get the crackles out of Ableton Live Suite (latest version). Confess: I do improvise a bit in live playing in the worship experiences where I play – so I like ALWAYS to have one instance of Keyscape’s Yamaha C7 grand piano along side another Keyscape instance of their Rhodes Lush, side by side with 5 instances of Omnisphere (for my 5 favorite Omnisphere pads), and an instance of Komplete with a Symphobia sampling of a big-sounding brass ensemble (with, of course, lots of French horns… GOTTA have those French horns). Even just these alone were enough to make Ableton bow to crackles and pops, even though I used instrument racks to “turn off” the clips that weren’t actively layered. STILL Abelton couldn’t cope – again and again, the sound guy would guietly whisper to me between rehearsals, “You know, we keep you in the mix because you are really adding a lot, but someday, we have to try to get rid of that digital distortion in your sends. It sounds really bad.” (I was ashamed.) But this past week was the straw that broke Ableton’s back. I added an instance of EZ Drummer and another instance of EZ Bass. Ableton was simple UNABLE to isolate those VSTs in their own clip. No matter WHAT I would do, when I deactiveated EZ Drummer, it would still fire whenever I fired another voice in a completely different slot. Weary. I was weary of the whole thing.
That’s when I started searching. I looked at a dozen different competitors to Ableton. Then the moment came. It was in a forum – just like this – in which someone said, “If Ableton hasn’t worked for you, you should try Catabile.” I downloaded the trial version, loaded up the two Keyscape voices – and my eyes almost had tears. (almost) The beauty of that unadulterated Rhodes growl. The pristine sound of that Yamaha C7 grand without a single crackle or pop. It took me literally 15 minutes to make the decision to buy Cantabile Performer. Whoever BRAD is, you’re a genius. How can one man create something that Ableton Live Suite only DREAMED of creating. EZ-Drummer stays in his corner. And every instance… EVERY INSTANCE of everything mentioned above is immediately available AND ready to layer. I haven’t found the limits yet. (Surely there are some?) But I can definitely layer 4 of these instruments (any of them) while the others wait, preloaded. My Akai APC Mini is firing clips galore and my Native Instruments S88 sounds like a 9-foot piano with a full drum set built in. My Yamaha MG10XU no longer looks suspect for distortion. And all along, it was ABLETON that was the weak link in the system. And TONIGHT I give the whole thing its first public try. Sigh. Shew.
Now if I can just learn to SPELL Cantabile.
Thank you @brad . Thank you for all the midnight coding sessions. Wow. I can’t say thanks enough.
