I’m trying out various effects plugins for modifying piano VSTs.
I have a song which has a routing from my MIDI keyboard to a piano VST (let’s say Garritan CFX) then I have a routing from that to an effects VST (let’s say Waves F6), then out of that to my speakers.
I want to be able to insert additional plugin effects and be able to try them alone and in combination with the piano VST. Right now, I have the effects routed in serial after the piano VST and have to manually select a bypass setting in each effects plugin to turn it off and on.
Is there a better way to do this in Cantabile 3 Performer?
There are many ways to modify VST Effects when they are inserted after a VSTi (Instrument) in Cantabile. I am assuming that you are successfully hitting keys on the controller and have audio at your speakers.
If you have a MIDI controller feeding MIDI CCs into Cantabile, the Midi CC can be bound to the VST controls in the VST. For instance, if the Waves RVerb Wet/Dry Mix were to be changed from a slider on your controller, the CC from the slider could be “bound” to the Wet/Dry Slider in RVerb to move the RVerb Wet/Dry when the physical slider is moved.
To do something like that, go to “Bindings” at the top of song, then “Add Binding.” For C41XX+, Source would be your MIDI Input for controller and the CC. Target would be Wet/Dry in the RVerb. When the physical slider is moved, the wet/dry slider will move.
Reading about Cantabile Bindings in the Cantabile Guides will help you.
Hi! Thanks for the quick response. I"m not sure this is what I’m looking to do. I’m using a hybrid digital piano (Kawai NV10S) as my controller and not looking to control the routing with that. What I want to do, within a Cantabile Song, is to have one Piano VST (I have licenses for many and a song for each in a master set list), and then have multiple effects on the routing chain after the piano vst. I’m looking for a way to turn the effects plugins on and off (with a mouse) so I can try out various effects with the same piano VST. Does that make sense?
Switch to table view (table vs. arrows in upper right corner of picture) and click on the check beside each route to turn on/off. Below, the red X turns off the output to the Reverb VST so the only output to the speakers is direct from the VSTi. No Reverb in this case. To add Reverb, mouse click on the X and turn to a Check.
I second @easteelreath suggestion. I will add that, in Performer, each configuration can be “saved” as a state. Assuming the OP wants to switch quickly from a configuration to another, states are the fastest way to do it (at least the fastest I can think of ).
select the States tab in the left part of the main window
prepare a configuration that you want to try
create a “New state” with a suitable name for the configuration (if you change something after doing that, remember to update the state with CTRL+U, otherwise changes will not be saved in the state)
change configuration
create a new state etc.
When you are done, you just have to click on the button next to each state to change configuration. You could also use buttons in “Live Mode” or use a binding to select “Next state” or “Previous state”.
You could also route the stereo out of your piano plugin to the FX plugin and it could be daisy chained to the next plugin until you reach the last plugin in the series and it would route to the main speakers. After that you can use the bypass on each plugin to select what FX are used in your signal chain. In the picture only the reverb is selected with the other 2 bypassed.
All the above illustrates how versatile Cantabile is. Not too confuse you, but I think many of us create an EFX rack. Think of it like a rack of outboard gear, except it’s all filled with plugins. And you can do exactly what Dave suggested, but all your effect plugins are in one rack. Read up on racks and states in the guide.
The advantage to that, at least for me, is that you can route various configurations and settings, and save each one as a rack state. Instantly recallable, as others have explained. Easily modified… Even if you decide to add a new effect later to the rack, all your previous rack states are still good. And effects you aren’t using for a particular state can be suspended, so there’s no additional hit on your CPU. For example, let’s say you have a EQ, Daisy chained to a delay, then to a reverb, saved as a state. You can then create a new state where the order is changed…reverb, then delay, then EQ. Or you don’t want Daisy chained, you want parallel processing, then the EQ reverb and delay would each get their own dry signal. The possibilities are endless.
Thanks guys!!! These are great suggestions. I was watching Brad’s videos after I posted this and saw the ‘table view’. I didn’t realize this existed. I currently have the effects daisy chained and now see how easy it is to turn them on/off in table view as shown in Dave’s screen capture. That’s going to be my first solution. I am not familiar with states and racks so I’ll try out what you’ve detailed and see if I can figure them out. Brad has en excellent document (https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/guides/racks) on it and an effects rack seems like it might ultimately my best solution for selectively adding effects to any VST song. Will start working with this tonight.
I have really used Cantabile in a very basic way so far. I have one master set list with 140 songs in it, each one representing my favorite settings for each VST product and instrument within that product. I’d like to be able to selectively add effects to a number of these.
This is my first day on this forum. I can see it’s going to be full of practical info.
BTW- I have an interest in soliciting opinions on personal experiences with dynamic EQ plugins but I don’t want to hijack my own post. Is this forum appropriate for that subject or should topics be limited to Cantabile?
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