What Microsoft Surface to get and what specs?

Hi
My 10 year old plays piano and he is getting very very good.

Our Piano is a Kawai Digital Piano and I use Cantabile Lite to control the input levels and route MusicNotes Sheets to the virtual keyboard, fade or mute other midi streams, play along during practice and gradually fade out his partition, etc…
Adding virtual instruments would be very nice because our Piano has a limited sound bank.
I am looking at upgrading to Cantabile Solo.
The old laptop is on its way out and I want to replace it with a Microsoft Surface Tablet.
I read that Cantabile works well with the touch screen.

He performs on a regular basis on the music school keyboard that does not sound very good compared to our Kawai Piano so It would be nice to bring bring the Surface along and use it for better sound, I don’t know the Surface sound card is good enough and if a balance adapter output is necessary.

He also plays some songs with his older brother who drums on an electronic Roland drum. I don’t know if Cantabile can help them play and practice better together?

Can someone help me with the recommended specs on a Microsoft Surface that will make this work great for several years without having to break the bank on getting the top of the line Surface Pro.
Also, does the sound port on the Surface do a decent job, I know it’s unbalanced.

Thank you all for your help.

Hello Bernard

Just make sure it has sufficient internal memory (RAM). If you do want to load a lot of different VSTs, 8GB could be sufficient, but 16GB is definitely better. You will find that once you start using more Cantabile functions, you will get used to (pre-)loading more instruments.

Herman

2 Likes

Hi,

yes, 8GB is good and 16GB better. To be safe with the soundcard you can use an extern audio interface - for example Steinberg UR12 or UR22. Not realy expensive (about 100,- €) and small enough for on the go.

I use the Surface Book (NI Komplete 10) with the UR22. Perfect for me!

Totti

1 Like