Sorry for creating such a flurry of topics in a short time, I’m still discovering everything. I was wondering if there is any way to switch sounds without notes or fx tails become cut off? My Kronos does this automatically between any two patches, though it will cut off the first if I select a third. I know for a fact that the way it does this with FX is by “double slotting” them. It has a total of 16 fx for every patch or combination, and basically it has a hidden extra set of 16 so it can load the FX for the new patch while leaving the old ones ring out. Is there any way to achieve a similar effect on Cantabile?
Just been meaning to say hello for a while. Derek from Korg Forums, also over here as a long time Cantabile user, but so far I have mainly used it for click tracks and light shows - about to take the plunge into using more VSTis live.
That’s an interesting fact on how the Kronos does SST! Hadn’t heard that before.
Hi Neil, I will try that, but do you mean then that it works only between song states and not between songs? I’ll check out what went wrong for me before.
Oh and hey Derek! Nice to see you here. I’ve been toying with the idea of switching to an all VST setup for a while but it’s more involved than one might hope. I tried Forte, it had a good rep from years back but it’s hopelessly unstable and you need all sorts of tricks to get fx buses. So far Cantabile has been rock solid which is really the number one requirement. But after 5 years of playing live with my Kronos I’ve gotten pretty dependent on some parts of the workflow so it’s a bit of a chore to try and replace all of it.
Yes, between song states - there are some technical reasons why it’s difficult for Cantabile to handle smooth transitions between songs. But for song states, if you change sounds by modifying your MIDI routes (either by enabling/disabling, or by changing their targets), you can hold or sustain notes/chords across song state changes, and in fact hold them indefinitely. It’ll happily keep the notes sustaining across any arbitrary number of song state changes if that’s what you want
Cantabile keeps the note-off messages paired up with their note-on messages, so they go to the correct plugin, so you don’t get hung notes, even when your MIDI route is transposed, or zones changed etc. It means in many cases you can do a song state change half a bar before the next section, so your next sounds/splits are ready waiting for you.
The temptation many people have is to change sound by either enabling/disabling plugins, or cutting their audio routes, which means your sound cuts the moment you do a state change, and you lose reverb tails etc.
Ok right, good to hear it’s possible with song states. I do however need smooth transitions between songs. Some bands I play with do lots of impromptu medleys or leave a chord hanging until the next song starts. I’ll think a little more on how to organize this for myself.
The problem is that when you change song, your entire routing of everything is rewired. Even if a linked rack exists in both songs, the MIDI route into the rack is temporarily broken before being re-established in the new song, thus releasing any held notes. It’s a problem Brad is well aware of, and it wouldn’t surprise me if he came up with an ingenious solution to it one day.
However, there are two workarounds that you might consider:
Set up the songs you’re likely to play as medleys as different groups of song states within a single song. Fine if you’re not using many plugins, and the number of likely songs isn’t too large.
Set up a rack for the sound you want to hold across songs, and inside there, route directly from your keyboard MIDI (not Rack MIDI in) into your plugin(s), and directly out to the audio interface (not Rack audio out). Then if you have setlist pre-loading enabled, and you have that rack in both songs, you should find you’re able to hold chords across the song change. It’s fiddly, and a bit limited, but it’ll work.
Neither approach is particularly nice, nor handles the “impromptu” aspect well, but worth being aware of.
Yes, it has been stable for me since I started using it around 2009. I don’t plan to retire the Kronos anytime soon, the VSTis that I will be getting into Cantabile will be adding to what it can, do along with the Montage that has just replaced my EX5.
I thought about that but I’m already going nuts with my iPad l/Kronos combination being so interdependent. I’m really hoping to simplify my setup (if you can speak of simplifying with so many VSTs). As an added bonus I could prep sounds from the couch or hotel room.
But as I’m sure you know, it’s pretty tough to replace something like the Kronos. Not sound wise for the most part, as I have many VSTs that in a lot of cases trump the Kronos, but just in general organization and features. Kind of renews my already sizeable respect for the Korg people responsible for it. As many “problems” as there are with Korg OS, it is incredibly powerful within its limitations.
Derek from Korg Forums, also over here as a long time Cantabile user, but so far I have mainly used it for click tracks and light shows - about to take the plunge into using more VSTis live.