I’ll be setting up my new Stream Deck when it arrives next week. I wondered if anyone has already trodden this path and has icons created for Cantabile (e.g. main program icon, Song Up/Down, State Up/Down…) and would be prepared to share?
Interesting…First time I’ve seen it.
Only just found out about it myself, but looks ideal for stage use. I’ll come back with a report when I’ve tried it out.
It’s looking like I’m the first along this path, so I’ll also try to drum up some icons. Wonder if I can get the Cantabile icon from the exe file?
Very happy with the Stream Deck. I’ve taken the decision to use only block colours and centralised text for each button, which makes for an unambiguously clear display on stage.
I’ve found that not one of the functions I wanted to assign to Hot Keys was set by default in Cantabile, which was something of a surprise. Specifically I wanted ‘Prev/Next Song Instant’ and ‘Prev/Next State Instant’; I assigned these to the Up/Down/Left/Right keys respectively. Also Engine Restart (which I can bind to) isn’t an option for a Hot Key combo, which was a disappointing surprise! I set the Escape key to ‘Stop All Sounds’ instead as a ‘Panic!’ button.
This all done I created a Stream Deck Profile for Cantabile, added a ‘launch Cantabile’ button to the ‘Default’ Profile and… bingo. The Cantabile icon was automatically added to the Deck’s default page and looks great. As soon as Cantabile is loaded the Deck automatically changes to show the Cantabile-specific Profile.
All working! I really like this thing!
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Ooooh, this is tempting me very strongly…
All of Cantabile’s artwork is available here:
https://bitbucket.org/toptensoftware/cantabilethemes/src
There’s vector versions of everything in the Dark.sketch and Light.sketch files (but you’ll need Sketch on macOS to work with those files). Otherwise there’s .png for everything in the Dark.theme and Light.theme subfolders.
You can also get these files directly from the Cantabile installation folder. Just rename the .theme files to .zip and extract.
Brad
Great machine!
Dear God,
Please built it into my midi keyboard!
Thanks, Brad. I’ve copied and unzipped those files from the installation folder. I may use some of those icons.
I’ve moved the design on a few steps now to include buttons to toggle Live mode, switch to Show Notes and a few other niceties. I’ll likely post another pic or two at some point.
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Interesting device, How fast and durable are the pads?
If I do not use seamless switching I often have only a very short time to switch states.
The Cherry G84-4700 keypad is the ideal solution for me now:
-Individual keys with Gold Crosspoint contacts (ML technology)
-Designed for continuous usage - over 20 mill. confirmations per key
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Is the Stream Deck able to target a specific window with its key events, or does it just act like a normal PC keyboard, targeting the currently-focused window? The thing I’d worry about, if it’s the latter, is if Cantabile loses focus for some reason (VST GUI getting focus / swallowing keypresses, or some other window having focus, such as a Show Notes browser window accessing the web UI). That kind of thing really concerns me in gig situations!
I currently use an Akai LPD8, which sends MIDI events, so Cantabile will respond regardless of focus. But devices like the Stream Deck, with their greater number of buttons, that are customisable and illuminated, are really tempting, if they can be made gig-proof (i.e. not reliant on window focus).
Neil
It changes with focus. But that’s not such a disadvantage if you create a Profile for Cantabile. When Cantabile has focus the buttons for Cantabile appear - when not in focus different buttons appear. So you can’t really get it wrong.
The Stream Deck seems very solidly built to me. It is reassuringly heavy for its size. The buttons are hard, and have a positive feeling when you push them. Nothing to dislike so far.
But that doesn’t address my concern, which is that if Cantabile loses focus, you can no longer control it with Stream Deck. Stream Deck is targeting something else. So you’re left on stage unable to change song state or whatever.
I assume I would just press my Cantabile icon and all would be well again. Dunno TBH, and I can’t check it now for a few weeks - anyone else know?
I’m with @Neil_Durant here: I don’t trust normal windows keypresses too far in the heat of the battle - I prefer MIDI controllers that have a definitive and fixed connection to Cantabile. Now, if we could have something like Stream Deck that communicates via MIDI - yummy! 
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Same here. Looks like a nice gadget but I prefer the reliability of the knobs, buttons and pads on my Arturia keylab…
I can understand the fears. For myself it will not mean I abandon my midi controller as a backup, but I have no problem using this - if focus is lost I will know and I have alternatives. In rehearsal it worked perfectly for three days, so I’m convinced.
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I’ve heard of a number of people using bluetooth 10-key pads. It may have been from the Forte days, though. Still same problem with focus. Seems like somebody in the Forte group had several 10-key pads velcro’d to his rig.
