Hi, im new to both Cantabile lite & the Nektar Pacer midi controller. Im having issues setting up the midi controller, initially i just want it to swap between the three racks/ audio plug-ins that i have set up, ideally assigned to a footswitch.
I’ve tried studiocode via chrome however I can’t get the preset to move shift between the racks/ plugins
Any help with this would be great.
Thanks
Hi. I do not have a Pacer but I have been using a Roland FC300 MIDI foot controller since forever with Cantabile and it works a dream.
What edition of Cantabile are you using (lite, solo or pro)?
Just looking at the Pacer manual (which was really hard to find!), I do not see why you could not start with preset A1 which will send program changes which Cantabile could detect.
The first thing I would do, is get your Pacer set up as a MIDI input port into Cantabile and then put a MIDI monitor on that channel to see that you are getting program changes from the Pacer when you press the switches.
Once there, we can look at what you want selecting, but it would help if you gave a bit more detail on what you have set up (include screen shots) and what you want to switch?
Thanks Derek, im currently using the lite version. I worked out why i wasnt getting any inputs, and this was because i was still connected to the studiocode web page which was blocking Cantabile. Good news is that it is creating readings from the Nejtar PGBNK
Currently i’d like it to switch between the two racks shown, ideally via a footswitch allocation rather then ascend/ descend so it’s easier to switch when i have more racks
Thanks
Paul
Hi,
It’s a good start to get the MIDI messages coming in.
However, I am not sure you can do this on lite, as I would solve this using bindings, for which you need solo as a minimum.
Other gurus may know of a way of doing this on lite, but I don’t.
@Derek im happy to pay for Solo as long as it will work. I’m trialing it out alongside gig performer which will work but is much more expensive so if i can get it to work on cantabile then im happy because the price is good
Thanks
hi @Monkeychunki,
Cantabile has a trial period just for testing if it can work for you. Activate a trial license (e.g. for Solo), then read about bindings, on the forum or here:
https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/guides/bindings
Bindings link messages/events to various destinations. For instance, an incoming MIDI message can be linked to the selected preset of a plugin, so that the preset changes according to the value of the received message.
If you want to change presets, you also have to understand preset models
https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/guides/presetModels
since Cantabile can handle plugin presets in different ways. I most often use the “Entire snapshot” model (Cantabile saves the entire plugin setup in a “snapshot”, which can be used just as a Preset). You could link the incoming program messages to the “Plugin snapshot” selected.
To switch between two racks, I would set up audio routes for both racks. Then I would give a name to the different routes, so that they can be use in bindings, and I would use bindings to activate/deactivate the routes according to the incoming MIDI messages. You could also use the bindings to activate/deactivate the racks themselves, keeping the routes always active.
Gabriel
It’s late in the UK, and I am shutting down for the night, but before I go. Gabriel is right in that you should be able to dem Solo, and experiment with bindings.
The following guide of mine shows how I setup a Line6 Helix and Cantabile. Specifically, I had Cantabile responding to program changes when I selected Helix presets. Take a read of the guide, and maybe we’ll get into some specifics over the next few days when I am back online
@cdv_gabriel & @Derek, thanks for your help with this, it’s much appreciated.
I’ve set up two bindings and they are working, i can select either the hi-gain (ft sw1) or clean (ft sw2) via two allocated footswitches which is great however what i’m not able to do is automatically turn off the previous plug-in when the new one is selected, do you know if there’s a way to do this?
Hi @Monkeychunki,
the binding in your picture would toggle the plugin state from on to off or viceversa. Therefore, the actual state of the plugin would depend on the initial state. To get a consistent behaviour, I’d use “Turn Off” and “Turn on” than rather “Toggle” in the Mapping field.
I would set up 4 bindings. Two of them would be activated by, say, Program 1. The first binding would turn on the hi-gain plugin. The second binding would turn off the clean plugin. Depending on the “Routing Mode” setting, Cantabile will either pass the event to the following binding or suppress it. Therefore, the first binding in the list would be set to “Continue” and the last one using the event would be set to “Suppress”.
The other two bindings would use Program 2. The first binding would turn off the hi-gain plugin and the second would turn on the clean plugin. Again, the first of these two bindings would be set to “Continue” and the second to “Supress”.
Be aware that sometimes I tend to overcomplicate things and I am sure that other members of the forum could come up with something better…anyway, that’s what I would do.
Gabriel
@cdv_gabriel amazing, thank you! it works.
Just need to spend some time creating multiple on & off’s for when i add rackspaces but that’s not too painful
Cheers
Paul
Brilliant solution, Gabriel. I was going to solve it with states, but then I found out that they are not available in the solo version.
I am merely a Cantabile user, not a paid endorser, and I also use GigPerformer on Mac. Trust me, Cantabile is definitely much better.
With the Performer version I’m able to get everything I need out of it, whether it’s plugins or external hardware synths.
yeah, this is cool. I’ve now got 4 plug-in rack spaces and a toggle on/off reverb that i can add on top of them.
I am glad you are getting there.
States would probably simplify it further, as already mentioned above, but you would need Performer for that.
