Embedded VST view

Cantabile
1

Gang,

I would like to discuss the possibility to have a VST View “embedded” into Cantabile (rather than being in its own floating window).
For example, we could have the following views in the main panel: Show Notes / Routing / Bindings / VST.

I will be honest with you, my idea here is to design my own VST with Cabbage Audio https://cabbageaudio.com/ (or something similal) to have a very customized layout.
Ideally, I would put a unique instance of my “Cantabile assistant” plugin in a linked rack, which would be in charge of widgets display (and eventually interaction as I have a touch screen), scripting with CSound, more capabilities than the current Show Notes display, and some audio/effects (obviously as a VST).

I realize the veterans here use a Web UI but I believe I could achieve more with this approach.

I also realize there should be some rules to determine which VST is dsplayed.

  • There could be a mode where if you open a VST, it is displayed in its own window (current behavior) Maybe we could right click on the VST “Open in embedded view”.
  • There could be a mode where if you open a VST, it is displayed in the embedded VST, switching automatically to the embedded VST view. Maybe you could detach it later, or right click “Open its own window”.
  • There could be a possibility to assign a specific VST to the embedded VST view, maybe as a Song/Rack setting with precedence.
  • Maybe there could be another mode to have this view on an extended display (veterans here seem to use tablets as a remote screen)

Does it sound like a can of worms? I know I could do something bad, performance wise, with my VSTs, but any VST can do something bad already and the hosting is already here (doh!) and a rather good sandboxed environment.
All of this is not really new of course, as other hosts mainly relay on embedded views.

Wishing the best to all during those times!

1 Like
2

Hi Le Heros,

So, an option to embed VST GUI like in Cantabile 2 … Sounds good to me for some applications like this one where the GUI is custom sized by the developer to fit in this scheme in advance.

Dave

3

Oh! I didn’t know this was part of Cantabile’s history :slight_smile:

4

Yea, a blast from the past coming up

SnapShot%2014815
SnapShot%2014815755×594 134 KB

from the Cantabile 2 manual …

Dave

1 Like
5

The reason Cantabile doesn’t currently do this (besides the fact I haven’t implemented it) is related to hidpi support. With Windows 10, hidpi is enabled on a per-top-level window basis and can’t easily be changed - so it introduces all sorts of complexities when trying to embed different resolution windows within each other.

Well that’s how it used to be. I believe later versions of Win 10 allow having resolution scaling on nested windows but I’ve not investigated it to see how well it works.

Brad

6

Hi Brad

Thank you for chiming in!
If this can help, here is the behavior in VIP:

  • The plugin is displayed with the same apparent size whether in high-DPI or not (I don’t think there is any configuration about high-DPI settings anywhere), be it embedded or floating.
  • The embedded view allows two-fingers scrolling, although this sometimes does not work (especially horizontally)
  • There is no attempt from the host to offer zoom capabilities, which is fine to me. Some plugins (Arturia) have zoom settings on their own.

I can perform better tests/screenshots and report if needed.
Maybe on other hosts if they have trial versions as well.

Cheers