Torsten-- do you have any trouble moving songs from your portable rig to your performance rig? I’ve thought about doing this as well, but right now I just VNC into my live rig. I was worried that moving files back and forth would cause issues with different interfaces, drivers, controllers, etc. And do you have live cloud sync to move your instrument presets back and forth if you change them?
No trouble at all: my Cantabile folder is on Dropbox, so all songs, setlists, racks (including background rack) and patches are automatically replicated across my three machines (live cube, live laptop, studio PC).
Making sure that plugins are in sync across my rigs is more of a manual task - I have a little script that helps me compare versions, but that’s it. I try to do version updates or new installations on all three machines whenever I do them.
I try to avoid plugin specific preset mechanisms like the plague - mostly I use Cantabile “entire bank” state behavior or VST parameter automation of all synth or effects parameters, so that all relevant data is embedded in my Cantabile racks. This has worked nicely so far.
Re drivers or controllers: I use abstract port names (Main Output, Guitar Out, Main Keyboard, Upper Keyboard, …) for all MIDI and audio ports; the actual hardware behind them may change depending on the configuration, but ports stay identical. My live machines are supposed to play backup to each other, so both have the same interface drivers installed and configured, but my studio machine is very different. Still, songs run perfectly across all three machines.
My vacation setup is just my usual live laptop, but with a different ASIO configuration for the mini interface, and my usual MIDI ports are mapped to the mobile keyboard. There’s a bit of wizardry in the background rack so the mobile keyboard can be upper or lower keyboard (different routing to loopback ports, assigned to background rack states), but that’s just to make things easier for me - and because I can 
Cheers,
Torsten
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Thanks as always for your help. So as long as the abstracted port names are identical, the song files move back and forth without issue?
Exactly - the song files just reference the “virtual” port names; the hardware behind it is hidden to them.
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A new post to an old thread! Here are some pictures taken at our IQ show at the Boerderij in the Netherlands on Saturday.
But notably, it was my first show running Cantabile 4, and it ran beautifully!! Although like others, I’ve seen my load indicator running higher, and it did hit 100% a few times where it didn’t with Cantabile 3. But nevertheless solid!!
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Great pictures and good to see live music “coming back to life”.
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Here’s my current live rig. I only use Cantabile with a double keyboard setup, and I have my stuff pretty dialed in at this point. As discussed earlier, I was trying to keep the two keyboards close together, and I finally made changes so the StandTastic stand is working out great (with the addition of some Velcro to stabilize the top keyboard, which works great).
The cord spaghetti is for the PA. I generally have all my cables loomed or sleeved and try to keep the PA neat and clean, but alas when other people get into the mix (pun intended), cable management goes to hell.
I use my MOXF8 as a controller, a sound source, and the interface for Cantabile. Saves me bringing another box with me and it’s been VERY stable over the last couple of years. This time I went directly into the PA (XR18) from the MOXF, used my QSC as a “side fill” for the rest of the band, and in ears for me. Much better than the traditional volume wars that I usually deal with in bands. I heard everything clearly (except the people talking on the other side of the stage discussing what to play next - a pet peeve as they never say what the song is at a volume that I can hear).
Two laptops (one because I was running the PA, the other for Cantabile), plus a tablet for charts and some remoting of the PA.
I’m trying to figure out the best way to sync songs between Cantabile and Music Sheets on my Android tablet (Kindle 10), which will be my “July” investigation. Watch for a thread on that later 
Pat
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Nice layout. I have the Standtasic stand, but was nervous to move the lower keyboard so far out. I use a Juno-d88 on the bottom, and a Juno-d61 on top. The 88 is not as deep as the MOXF88, so it should be a little more stable (I’m an, shall we say, aggressive player).
The thing I don’t like about that stand is, the arms for the keyboards really need some friction, they just want to slide around without no-slip mat.
I only push the arm extenions about another 2.75 inches to make it work, and they are pretty stable at that length. Earlier the extension was over 5 inches and it was pretty bouncy.
I put some rubber on the arms to provide some friction, but it’s not necessary for the MOXF and my Novation have a recessed channel into which the end of the arms can fit and this keeps them from moving front to back.
This is my rig in progress. I’ve been building this as my needs become clearer. I make improvised music using loops, so I have not really exploited the Songs, Set lists and States features of Cantabile, since everything is decided on the fly. I am thinking of adding a Stream Deck if I thought I could use it to switch between virtual instruments, e.g. accessing a CS-80 with the push of a button and then a Kontakt player instrument. I am the type who learns only what I specifically need.
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A steel guitar with bass pedals. How cool is that!
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That looks like a lot of fun. Does the steel guitar have any pedals? ( as in PSG) Would be interested in learning more about your setup
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It is a lot of fun and I’m really enjoying the journey. It is a massive change from what I’ve done previously, though I am a real jazz fusion maniac and also into electronica.
There are no pedals or levers on my steel guitar, it’s just an eight-string Hawaiian or lap steel guitar. I use the bar slants to change pitches. They don’t always track that well with the synths.
My set up is pretty simple—the steel goes in an Audient iD14, which goes to both MIDi Guitar 2 and Neural DSP plugins, which I love. The MIDI goes to any number of racks, mainly Kontakt player loaded with Chris Hein strings and woodwinds, then there is a rack of various synths, another with electric piano and organ (all Arturia), etc.
For the bass pedals I use Trilian which is amazing, and also an out put to Forager, which turns bass notes into midi chords sent out to VSTs.
The Oxygen 25 is for finger drumming, and playing bass lines. I have a few different drum racks.
The heart of it all is Mobius looper, but I am starting to use MSuperLooper. The Launchpad and the MiDiBuddy control numerous functions of the looper.
The best thing is I can go in any direction style-wise at any time. I am making strides with it.
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I don’t have photos but I have this baby Jean Paul USA AS-400 https://houseandbeyond.org/best-alto-saxophone is the best sound. If you’re looking for an alto sax and are a brand new player or someone that’s rekindling their love for this instrument after a layoff, you cannot go wrong with the Jean Paul AS-400. It’s a great value, and you can buy with confidence because this company stands behind their product.
Hmm, joining the forum 2 days ago, posting a number of content-free comments on months-old posts, then posting an advertising-type link in a thread that doesn’t fit the topic at all doesn’t really instil confidence in a new member. I strongly suspect we have another spam-poster here…
@Phil0110: we don’t really want spam posters here, so if you truly are a Cantabile user looking to exchange information, then by all means do so, but just coming here to direct traffic to product placement is not welcome.
Cheers,
Torsten
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I have a similar rig, but I have a Juno-DS 61 on top, and a Juno-DS below. Be aware, Roland used the same driver for both versions, which was causing issues with Cantabile, basically, the system had trouble telling the difference between the two keyboards, sometimes ignoring one, or confusing the two, despite hooking USB up the same way each time. Get your second keyboard someplace you can return it, if it doesn’t work out. My method was to use a separate USB-to-Midi adapter for one of them.
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Good idea, I happened to pickup a few maudio midisport USB to DIN MIDI adapters recently - I didn’t think of using one of them for my second Axiom 61 so they stop swapping by themselves when I set the computer to sleep. One of the keyboards has a worn out USB connector anyway.
I’m using a Mio, working like a champ. I don’t always do good research before I buy things, but the Mio was solid, and a leftover from some previous experiment. I’m looking through this thread for ideas to help shrink my rig, and simplify setup. I’ve seen some good ideas.
+1 for the Mio. I’ve been using a Mio4 for the last few years, and has been rock solid too. Lots of MIDI port filtering options.
Curious about the MIO with Cantabile. I have one that I thought was awesome when I was using a hardware-based rig. But since going to laptop and Cantabile I’m just using a generic midi hub. What can the MIO do that I can’t do directly in Cantabile?