New Batch Editor for Cantabile

Cantabile
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Hi All,

Like many of you, when COVID hit, I knew it was going to mean, among other things, more free time. So, I decided to start a “COVID project” to develop something that I have long wished for - a batch editor for Cantabile files. I thought it would take a month or two. Six months later, it’s finally done!

I am not sure how many people will find this useful, but I am making it available for free for anyone that wants to check it out.

Conceptually, it is pretty simple – it allows you to perform a variety of operations on multiple Cantabile files (set lists, songs, and racks) at once. For example, you can color all instances of Kontakt green, or show all midi routes on the virtual keyboard with the same color as their destination. Both of these operations can easily be done within Cantabile, but it is tedious to do for multiple objects, and even more so for multiple objects in multiple files. The Batch editor can make thousands of changes in a second or two.

Here is a screenshot:

I won’t take up too much space here explaining it. Much of it is self-explanatory, but below is a link to a readme file with more detailed information. I also created two videos to help explain everything. Links to those are at the bottom of the LoudCry Software home page.

Cantabile Batch Editor Info and Download

Cantabile Batch Editor ReadMe

I welcome any honest feedback. I am willing to consider adding more batch commands if there is sufficient interest, and they are not too complex.

On another note, I will also be releasing an application in the near future called C3SD, which allows you to control and monitor Cantabile from a StreamDeck. If you have a StreamDeck, let me know if you would be interested in beta testing C3SD.

Happy music-making,
Tom Boughner
LoudCry Software

19 Likes
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Thanks soooo… much Tom! This is great stuff, I really appreciate the gift :smile:

Dave

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Thanks, Dave. Let me know if you find any issues.

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That’s is a great idea. Look forward to trying it out sometime.

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Thanks a lot! It’s an amazing tool, anything that spees up repetitive operations is welcome :wink:
Thanks again and I’ll sure share about it…

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Thanks a lot, Tom!

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This could be a huge time-saver for me. Thank you!

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Interested to see you’re also working on Stream Deck. I already control Cantabile from my Stream Deck, so I will be interested to see what you come up with!

Here’s my Stream Deck panel for Cantabile, complete with clock and stopwatch!
(The top two bleached-out buttons are ‘Live View’ and ‘Show Notes’)

IMG_2705
IMG_27054032×3024 2.18 MB

3 Likes
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@The_Elf: I started out doing something similar with my StreamDeck. The problem with using the standard StreamDeck software is that it is essentially one-way: you can send commands to Cantabile, but you can’t get information back from Cantabile. Having those pretty little LCD displays on each button is what makes the StreamDeck unique. C3SD makes use of Cantabile’s network API to form a 2-way link between Cantabile and the StreamDeck. So, for example, you can have the buttons show all states for the current song, with the actual names and colors of those states represented on the buttons. Press a button - switch to that state. Same for songs in a setlist, or racks in a song. Care to beta test it? It’s basically complete, but it is complex enough that I think I should have a few other people test it before I release it to the masses.

2 Likes
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I’d be interested to give it a spin, yes.

When I first mentioned using Stream Deck here a lot of folks were worried about it losing focus to Cantabile, but I’ve never found this a problem. The later option to use MIDI commands pretty much wiped this concern away, though I’m happy with it the way it is.

But feedback to the Stream Deck from Cantabile really would be the icing on a very good cake.

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Great. I should be able to get you a version to test in the next few days.

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interesting
!!

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Great stuff Tom!
Especially the coloring of racks and renaming of racks across multiple files are things I do regularly and where I see the usefulness of your application.!
Had a look at the video and will try it out next!

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Yes, the batch colorizing was my main motivation for creating this.

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Hi @tomboughner

Some feedback on your tool: I like it!!, and until now it works without a problem. I colored all my racks and songs with it in one go, and updated to color file to my wishes.

Two requests:

  • until specified differently, the tool colors all plugins and racks by itself; for me, it would be nice if you would leave that decision/option to the user; so that a user either only colors the racks/plugins with the keywords (drums, bass, master etc) and leaves the rest un-colored, or auto-colors everything.

  • at the start, the user has to specify the directory; for me, I likely always use the full Cantabile directory including its subdirectories; would be handy if your tool recognizes the most recent directory specified, with an option to use that or not, to prevent me from doing the same all the time…

Nice work!

Ad

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Hi Ad,

Thanks for the feedback. Regarding your first request, I want to make sure I understand what you are suggesting. Are you saying that there should be an option to not colorize any objects that don’t have a “keyword” in the associated colors file?

For example, if RackObjectColors.txt only has two entries under [Assignment]:
strings Green
bass Red

And you colorize a song with the following racks:
Strings
Bass
Guitar

You are saying that Strings should get colored green, bass should get colored red, and the app should not color Guitar. Is that right? If so, are you suggesting that it should be a global option, or asked for every object? The latter could produce a lot of dialogs.

Regarding #2 - when you choose a folder (or files in a folder) that is different from the current default folder, the words, “Set Default Directory” will appear above the Directory field. Click on that to make this directory the default from now on.

Tom

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Hi Tom

Indeed I overlooked that you already have an option to save a default folder. Found that one. You still however need to do 2-3 steps to proceed, including saying again if you like the subdirectories included. For me, it would be good to have a user option to 1) go immediately to the default directory without further steps, or 2) give the user an option to change it

As for the colors: what I mean is that in your settings file, where you can assign colors, you say that all racks and plugins that do not have a color assigned, get an automatic color assigned by your tool. I’d be in favor to leave that to the user, for instance with an option “autocolor ON/OFF”, as I prefer to keep the unassigned racks and plugins (so if nothing is mentioned in the settings file) just black

Thanks for your work; as said before: nice and useful tool. I ran it now a dozen times or so, without any issues

Ad

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Thanks for confirming, Ad. Glad to hear it has been working well for you.

Regarding the file/folder selection, I understand your point about 2-3 steps, but that is actually intentional. I want to make sure that the user is thinking about what files he is selecting to make sure no files are changed by mistake. Part of my thinking on this is that the batch converter probably won’t get used all that often. Once you use it a few times to get all of your files in a consistent state, you probably shouldn’t need to use it much.

I will go ahead and add a setting in the color settings files for “AutoColor”. That is a good idea. I’m not sure how soon I will get to that, but probably the next few days.

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Sounds good Tom.
I understand the intentional steps for the folder selection, so sure
Happy if the autocolor option gets there.
Don’t rush, I’ll survive a few days more without it…:wink:
We got bigger problems at the moment in this covid mess…

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True, although without the Covid mess, this app probably would have never been created!