Under Cantabile 2.0 I could create set list entries that were dummy line items causing no session load, but helped to organize the list. I cant’ seem to do this under 3.0. This feature was helpful to include songs in the list that I did’t play on or to group tunes into 1st set, 2nd set, 3rd set in the gig. I would start the song title with a string of “****” so it would stand out as a separator. Under 3.0 a song file is required in order to make an entry in the set list. Am I missing something or is this how it will work going forward? I guess I could work around it by creating separate set list files for each set in the gig and dummy song files if necessary, but it will not be quite as clean. I’m just wondering if there is a better way to handle this that I’m not aware of.
I do/did that in Cantabile 2 as well, and in fact, you can still do it in Cantabile 3. The only difference is that C3 saves songs as individual files on disk, and so you’ll need an actual song file. This also means you can’t name your “separator” song with “****” because that’s an illegal character in filenames. However, you can set up a song called “=======” and it works fine. You can even add it several times to a setlist, so you can re-use the same separator song.
However your point about using different setlists is probably the better way to go - note that if you have “Preload Setlist” set in the Tools menu, Cantabile 3 will pre-load all racks for your whole set, to minimise song switch times. Consequently, it probably best to make your setlists actually reflect actual sets, to avoid using memory on songs you’re not planning to play.
Yes this is a problem with the current set list. One idea I did have was the ability to insert “set breaks” - which would essentially be a label inline in the list. These could also be used to break up larger set lists and also perhaps be used to pre-load just the songs in the current section.
May be more than readers want to know, but I organize my set lists for each gig using Cantabile and an iPad app Set List Maker (SLM). Requires of course, an iPad, SLM app, and a device to allow iPad and PC to talk with each other via USB (iConnect). The end result is that the set list I’ve created in SLM “reads” a particular song’s Set List number in Cantabile and immediately loads the correct Cantabile song as I swipe to the next song in my SLM set list. You can easily incorporate Breaks and Pauses in the SLM set list and add lyrics and chord documents for each song in SLM. I actually use one master set list in Cantabile which contains all of my band’s songs. With a set list this large (around 70 songs) it’s important to preload songs for this to work smoothly. In SLM I create a new set list for each gig, with a smaller number of songs specific for that gig.
Love it - tastefully done!! I also like how the breaks don’t count as songs, so “Next song” will skip them. Previously, when using a song as a separator, this obviously wouldn’t be the case.
