Changing Song States without "interupting" sounds being played

Cantabile
1

This MAY be related to my previous post about moving to Entire Plug In Snapshots (though I decided to use the “Use Plugin Programs” instead based on other issues I had with organizing the snapshots).

Note: Nearly everything I’ve done previously with Cantabile has been flawless (or easy to fix), but this round of programming is using a bunch of features I haven’t used before.

Use Case
Have a song with multiple Song States and Linked Racks with Rack States for the sounds. Do not change the sounds within the song, only change the “Song” settings (e.g., split points, etc.).

Here’s my Process:
1. Create a “new” Song
2. Load a Linked Rack for each sound - I don’t want to switch sounds in a plugin in the middle of a song.
3. Select or create a Rack State for each sound I create. This allows me to reuse certain sounds, but also organize “unique” sounds for specific songs. These are set with the
4. Lay the sounds out across the keyboard, creating splits.
5. If I have to change this configuration, I’ll create Song States to manage these (e.g., Gloria which has about 8 different song states)

The Problem
I can’t figure out how to consistently make certain that when changing song states that:

  1. The first Song State applies the Rack State and the program changes.
  2. When the song state changes, I don’t want to change the underlying VST program. However, it appears that each time I change the song state, the rack state “resets” the program (patch) and I get the interuption in sound.
  3. This seems to be universal to all plugins
  4. I understand some of the song settings require a “Reset” of the synth (e.g., changing a MIDI channel or split point), but I’ve found a workaround for this.

To stop the interuption, I can change the Rack State properties to disable “Selected Program” and “Entire Bank”, but then when the Song loads, the underlying plugin uses whatever was loaded previously.

Can what I want to do be done with the “Use Plugin Program” model? Do I need to use the “Export” or “Snapshot” mode to make this work?

I can provide Cantabile files, pictures or a video if that helps.

2

Hi Pat,

put the song and rack files in a zip file and post them to look at.

Dave

3

I MAY have figured this out, but need to do some more digging.

I’ll update later with more digging…

I believe that the right process is what I have, but IF I only use one rack state per song, it seems to work fine now. I believe that

  • If I keep the same preset, CAntabile won’t resend a “change preset” command (or the VST is smart enough not to do anything with it).
  • Some of the song states keep the same rack state and underlying preset and the “Change” caused the interuption.

Also, as I was changing things around (e.g., rack properties from snapshot to preset) the underlying rack states got confused and messed up (e.g., didn’t know how to transcribe the snapshots into the presets).

4

Not sure if you’re looking for Sustained Song Transition capability but if so, Cantabile is still lacking this feature. See this discussion for some workarounds. One of the best workarounds is OK, but still clumsy at times: Does Cantabile support sustained sound transitions (aka SST/SSS)? - Cantabile - Cantabile Community

5

Not looking at that specifically. Part of the reason I’m using one patch per VST per song is to avoid having to deal with those issues.