Recording MIDI CC's possible?

Cantabile
1

Hello,
I am quite new to Cantabile, although I’ve spent quite a few hours setting Cantabile up for my purpose. I play guitar and want to start/stop backing tracks from my foot controller (managed to set that up, works great). Also, I have combined audio/ midi CC tracks in Ableton LIVE9, which I’d like to record in Cantabile and then play both tracks back. The audio, obviously, goes to the speakers. The midi track goes to my Axe FX guitar effects processor and manages some functionalities in there. Sync with the audio is critical here.

I’m using Cantabile trial version of “Performer”, SW build 3570.

I have managed to record MIDI notes to a Cantabile recording, play them back, etc. but sofar have’nt been able to record MIDI CC’s there.
So, I wonder: is this possible at all? And if so: how to do it?
I saw a post/thread about using Cantabile (C3) as a sysex librarian, which seemed to indicate there are ways to record even sysex commands. So, I figure it should be possible.
Some help would be highly appreciated.
Cheers!

Update (few hours later): dug further into this, and especailly re-read the post about using C3 as a sysex librarian. Found there a reply of Brad to Dave_Dore (who wrote: “As it turns out I was wrong, Cantabile does not record all midi events, my tests show only notes and velocity are recorded which is probably why it won’t record your sysex events”. The answer of Brad was: "That’s not correct - Cantabile’s midi recorder records all event kinds including sysex".
Well, that’s great news, because from what I understand then it is indeed possible to 1) record CC-commands and then probably also 2) record CC-commands in parallel to audio. Right?

Question remains however: how to do that? I have, for test purposes, created a midi-track in Ableton LIVE9 that contains one midi-clip with MIDI-Notes and one other midi-clip with two alternating CC’s 30 and 31. If I send the notes part to Cantabile it starts recording automatically and everything works perfectly. However if I send the CC part no recording starts, and even if I start the recording manually the recording file is empty. What am I missing here? I can see by the green ligths under INDICATORS (and on my Axe FX) that the commands do actually come in, and are also passed through to my Axe FX, but no recording seems to take place. Under CONTROL, I do not apply any MIDI filtering, and the control is set to OMNI.

I hope someone can help me out here … pulling hair … banging head against the wall … you know what I mean … :slight_smile:

Thanks!

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The Transport Position Triggers function allows you to set up bindings at user specified positions on an audio track in media player. This would allow you to send CCs to your guitar FX. Would that work?

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Hi AlanMHuges,
I will try that, but I don’t think it will be synced with enough precision to the audio. My preference is to record the (very precisely audio synced) midi-cc’s that I have created in my DAW (Ableton Live 9).
But thx for the hint anyway!

4

Hi @CheapEdge,

There’s nothing special you need to do to record CC’s… it should just work. If it’s not, perhaps try bringing up the MIDI monitor on the port you’re recording (right click in the monitor panel on the port and choose “MIDI Monitor” and check the CC events are being received by Cantabile.

That said, for the auto record feature, most CC’s won’t be enough to trigger the recording. From memory, just notes and the pedal CC’s are considering when determining if auto record should start. However, once the recording is started, all MIDI events should be recorded.

Just ran a quick test, see video below…

Brad

1 Like
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Hi Brad,
Great, that explains a lot. As mentioned the CC’s do come through. Apparently I should not have only kept an eye on the Auto Record. I will try your approach asap. Will be earliest wednesday, coz’ I’m away from home until then.
Cheers, Rob

1 Like
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Just round this up: I managed to record Midi CC’s now, works like a charm. Then I tried to record audio and midi in parallel, and ran into trouble again, coz’ I could’nt figure how to record audio. Then, after some searching on this forum, found a suggestion to EXPORT midi and audio from my DAW. Wondered why I did’nt think of that myself, tried it and it works great. So, problem solved and very very happy with Cantabile now, will definitely buy a license. Thx for the help and suggestions.

1 Like
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Hi @CheapEdge

Glad you figured out a solution. Just to clarify on the recording, to record audio you just need to select the audio ports that you want to record.

eg: suppose I had a typical setup of MIDI coming in on “Main Keyboard” going to a synth then audio sent to “Main Speakers”, I could record both the MIDI In and the Audio Out by selecting those two ports:

image

(to get to this panel → View → Side Panel → Recorder Ports)

image

Brad

1 Like
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Thank you Brad,
I actually did figure that out. But what I was trying to do is record incoming audio from another device (my DAW, in this case). Is that possible and if so, how’s that done? As said, I found another way, which is simply load an MP3, but it might be useful to know for future activity.
Thanks, Rob

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For that you’d need some sort of virtual audio cable. I think VoiceMeeter is the goto solution here.