Hi there, I am a new user of Cantabile Solo and very happy with it. I’m using it to switch between user presets in Superior Drummer 3 for e-drums and have all of my drum kit presets saved as “entire snapshot” programs in one Cantabile song. This works well, but is there a way to change between these programs with a hotkey? I see hotkeys for changing between songs and presets, but not programs.
Also, the terms “preset” and “program” are blurry for me. At the top of the dropdown list of programs it says “Choose Preset”, but in the context menu to the right of that they are referred to as programs, and there is a Choose Program menu option to open that dropdown list. The context menu also has Previous and Next Program, but these aren’t in the hotkeys command list like Previous and Next Preset, which do not work on the program list. Unless I am doing something totally wrong here!
Also, once the program/preset dropdown list is open I notice the keyboard arrow keys mostly don’t work to navigate that list, though occasionally they have after clicking around elsewhere in the program.
Thanks for listening! Maybe I need to use bindings? And this is all in Catabile 4196 on Windows 11.
For starts the reason that the arrow and some other hot keys might not work is because the Cantabile program needs to be in focus for it to work. If not working click on the app with the mouse and the focus will be on it.
Regarding programs and presets, AFAIK they are the same and are related to the lists of snapshot settings you made in the GUI window for the drummer VSTi you are using. The hot keys to change forward on that list is Alt + Right and for back you use Alt + Left.
I’m using Cantabile Performer. I use Song States with a binding to a pedal input on my eDRUMin 10 to cycle through Superior Drummer kits all loaded in a single song. There are two momentary switches plugged into a splitter going into the second pedal input on the eDRUMin. One cycles up - the other cycles down
Thank you Dave. I should have mentioned that I have Superior Drummer docked in Cantabile so that there is just one window. Alt + Left and Alt + Right do not work, the default hotkeys look to be U and Shift + U, and this works when the window is not docked, but not when docked, and only if the plugin is highlighted in the routing table or routing diagram. I notice the same is true when using the quick control commands, so typing in “11U” loads preset 11 when undocked, but not when docked. I think I will undock now.
And thanks Doug, I have thought of using a pedal for this, and should try it, but I have my laptop right next to me so I figured I would use arrow keys near my hand.
Update: I figured out how to do this just using bindings. So I have a keyboard binding for previous preset and one for next preset and they are triggered system wide regardles off what is selected or has focus, and I have the Superior Drummer window docked again. Works well.
We should compare notes sometime. Superior Drummer is a “little different” from many other VST’s as it can have internal user presets for Kits, Midi setups and the Hi-Hat. I’ve sort of settled on setting my edrum module (edrum10R1) to Roland key assignments and then working from there in Superior Drummer for the CC assignments for the Hi-Hat pedal and the snare position sensing and rim and pad note assignments. My laptop has 16GB so I can load up a few complete kits from different SDX’s in Cantabile and switch through them quickly. I’ve also played around with using a pedal on the edrumin10 to switch pad note assignments. Finally, I’ve also done switching through the different kits in one SDX.
I have a DWe kit and just mapped eveything to the way it sends midi notes by default. But yes, the way SD3 stores midi mappings is confusing, but I think have it now: Anytime I have a kit that has a non-standard mapping, say an SDX with only one mounted tom to my three, I have a separate midi mapping file. The good news is this all seems to work well and I have a Cantabile song with 100 drum programs in it from five SDXs, and they all switch and load correctly with a keystroke, and might map it to midi. I do wish managing the programs list was easier though, there is no direct way to reorder the list for example, you have to export and load each one.
I ended up creating separate midi mapping files for each SDX/Kit also. Even if it’s not different from other kits it seems simpler to do it that way to avoid confusion.
Are you on vdrums.com? There’s a big thread about the DWe kit.
I hadn’t read through the DWe thread on vdrums - just have seen some of the posts that make the what’s new page. I got started on Superior Drummer 2 and still use some of those kits. I found Drums From Hell works well for playing live. For recording I use Legends of Rock. I have modificed most of the kits - usually to tweak the cymbals to be louder for live playing and reducing the room mics.
Yes, it’s a long thread. And yep, I am hoping to play SD3 out live soon, still have some work to do. I currently play SoundWorks out live but it has a “dynamic range” 85% setting by default which I think is a kind of global compressor setting, and I need to figure out if I need that for SD3 or just play full dynamic range.
How many drum patches do you have in SD3/Cantabile?