Our ‘all new’ rig took to the stage for the first time last night. Two Cantabile keyboard rigs, one running the show (and recording) and the other taking Song changes, State changes and visual cues over CME WIDI Buds.
It worked flawlessly.
As per normal we had Cantabile controlling the stage mic for talk between songs, then closing down when backing was running. It also lifted an audience mic in and out of our in-ears so we could hear reactions.
My ‘master’ Cantabile provided Timeline-based visual cues to Stream Decks connected to both laptops (thank you so much, Brad, for adding this Stream Deck feature). It also drove my self-made Arduino-based cue light box provided to our non-Cantabile player. Although each performer could have their own cues it was decided early in rehearsals to keep it simple and send all cues to all. I can’t over-emphasise the sense of confidence this cueing system has added, making performance much more enjoyable.
The only problems we hit were during set-up, and were the all too predictable ones related to having gear plugged into a different USB socket from rehearsals. I can’t understand why Windows has so much trouble with this. I also realised that I was at my limit of USB ports, so a new hub is going to be a necessity for the future.
Once we kicked off the whole rig ran like clockwork. It’s been well worth the effort setting this new system up.
