I am starting to play with song states. I have a song that has two linked racks. I want to use states to change the active instrument in the rack. Rack 1 is piano, elec piano, and a b3. Rack 2 is steel drums and marimba.
I figured out how to use states to change instruments if adding the plugins as a normal route and not a linked rack. Can I do this with song states/
Intro -b3
verse - piano
chorus - b3
verse 2 - marimba
chorus- b3
outro - piano & steel drum
How are you changing the sounds within your racks? Are you using, for example in rack one, one VST to create the piano, ep and b3 sounds, or 3 different VSTs, one for each sound? I ask, because the method would be slightly different for each case…
If you have 3 VSTs, inside the rack you create a route from Rack MIDI in to each VST. Set the input MIDI channel to a unique channel for each one. Then at the song level, you can just change the route from your keyboard to whatever MIDI channel you need, in order to play only that VST.
Of course, this being Cantabile, that is not the only way to do this… You can also have States within the rack, one for each sound, and have the destination of the input route change to each VST as the states change.
This is similar to the method used if you have only one VST in your rack producing all the sounds you need. Again, it’s kind of dependant on the vst itself and if it’s multi-timbral or not. If not, you have to create a preset for each sound, then use the states to change between them. If it is a multi-timbral VSTi, like Kontakt, put each sound on a different midi channel and use the states to change the route to the correct midi channel. Personally, if I’m using a multi timbral vst, I do the midi routing to it from the song level, that way I can split and layer any and all of the sounds in it easily.
Anyhow, sorry for the long, text based reply, I’m away from the computer so can’t give you screenshots. If you need any, I’ll be able to have a look tomorrow, or else I’m sure one of the real experts on here will be able to point you in the right direction…
I also suggest having a look through this page: https://www.cantabilesoftware.com/videos
It’ll give you a good grounding in all things Cantabile…
Best of luck with it all though, trust me, it’s more than worth the learning curve…
P