I’ve been busy today! I’ve finally managed to create that mixer Rack within Cantabile that I felt I needed.
Why go to all this trouble? Mainly so that I can now bind to fixed controller targets, but also so I have a graphic display of my mix.
With my new mixer (Linked Rack) inserted into any Song I will now have a fixed set of faders, and all I need to do is point my instruments at whichever channels I want them to live on.
Plus my mixer Rack spits MIDI back out to MIDI Designer on my iPad and shows me my current mix in a friendly format.
Of course, I could make it a lot more sophisticated, more FX sends, multiple outputs… but for now this is a proof of concept. Working nicely!
Just thought I’d share! Here are my MIDI Designer Layouts:
The graphics look fimiliar. What did you use to create your layouts?
Oops! Please disregard. I was thinking you might have used an app that someone else here was using to control his lights. I can’t remember the name of it. The cost was around $10.
Looks great to me - a lot of nice detail and good usability.
My only criticism would be that it is pretty complex and would be too much for me for live use - controlling a setup with 8 faders plus FX routing would just be too distracting for me.
Given that I have a dual job (lead singer and keyboarder), I need to be able to run my rig with minimum attention, so I generally have two main faders (main volume, solo volume) that I need when gigging; plus of course the red button for “next state” - that’s it. I do have two other faders (main FX, solo FX), but I’ve yet to use them during gigs.
But of course that’s just me - if you can concentrate fully on your keys, and if you manage complex soundscapes, then this solution is a great addition to a live setup!
I used MIDI Designer to create it. It’s moved on quite a bit today, so I’ll drop a pic here later. I’ve added controls for my looper, which I use for some improv gigs. I’ve also added a third FX send and FX output faders. Behind the scenes I’ve created a test Cantabile Song that is MUCH simpler than my older ones. My mixer Rack gives me consistency and my iPad gives me the details.
TBH the main reason for me doing this is more as a display to see what is going on, rather than as something I would do any great of work on during performance. I would only fiddle about with it in rehearsal. The big ‘PLAY’ button and Song ‘NEXT’ buttons are the only ones I want to have to press on stage!
Having the big ‘TALK’ and ‘PLAY’ lights at the top will be reassuring, though. Sometimes when I’m waiting for a recorded intro to kick in I do doubt whether I’ve hit the right button until I hear the fade-up!
Which software do you use to connect Cantabile to your iPad? Some weeks ago I have built up a mixer with MidiDesigner in order to send and receive midi data to/from C3 and up to now it was working very well with loopMidi and the MusicIO plugin. Now it gives me some problems and I am looking for an alternative.
I use rtpMidi to connect iPad to laptop wirelessly. At some point I’ll need to look at a wired solution.
Today I’m in the middle of standardising all my MIDI controller numbers and allocating channels to Layouts - I use Ch16 for overall Cantabile control, such as Song Prev/Next, View, Song States; Ch11 for my mixer Rack; Ch14 for my looper Rack… It’s working really well.
Having the Layouts changing to show me the current Song/State number, a big, friendly ‘Play’ button, and my mixer updating to show the current mix… it’s all hugely useful.
On my side, today I have implemented my MidiDesigner layout so that it shows the audio level of each rack in the song like a real VU meter: much more visible than the audio level meters in C3
Each VU meter is a fader (display option: meter) placed under each volume fader (but one could place it next to each fader as well) and receives from C3 a cc message binded to each rack audio level.
Elf, would you be so kind to take a look at the problem I have expose in this post?
[Strange problem with bindings]
Maybe you could be familiar with it.
Thanks
