Cantabile Performer - Another option for remote VST hosting..

[TAFKAT]

Stumbled on this poking around some other forums..

Cantabile Performer - is an application who's primary focus is for running VI's in a live environment, but it has a good VST hosting implementation that can be used to run the plugs/instruments on a satellite system as some of us do with VStack/Bidule/VE, etc

The Free Lite Version hosts an unlimited number of plugs / VI's

Check it out Here (http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/)

Quick Edit, just found out these guys are Aussies... Cool... !

[paulwr]

speaking of hosts, I heard a DAW company recommending Reaper as a slave vsti host. I'd never thought really of using it. Interesting.

-Paul

[TAFKAT]

Not exactly sure how that would work with Reaper .. ?

Cantabile's hosting looks a lot more viable.

[TerryG]

Bonus:

Cantible is closely associated with the developer of JBridge... it integrates fully.

http://www.cantabilesoftware.com/jbridge/

[paulwr]

I haven't done it, but you'd just set up a bunch of tracks and vsti's as you normally would, but setup midi in's matching up with , say, MidiOverLan's ports/channels, and then your audio outs. Great for those soft synths that need to sync to tempo. Bidule is a little slow to hit tempo..... about a second or so from 'start' of play. Since Reaper is known to be a very effecient handler of plugs and vsti's, it could be very good.

I'm liking the sound of Cantabile. Might be worth checking out the demo. Bidule and Play Choirs has a bit of problem on my system..... get clicks/pops after about 25+ voices playing back at once. (not 25 instruments, but the playback voice count...... should be stable up to 450 voices or so) Pianos generates a lot of voices, to, but seems just fine, go figure. C5 64 bit runs Play great, so at mixdown time, I have to load choirs there.

-Paul

[TAFKAT]

Paul,

Grab the free Lite version first, as its not time limited and has the full hosting capablility.

Let us know how you go compared to Bidule , that would be interesting.

With it integrating so well with JBridge , this could be great.

You would think Steinberg could get off the pot and do the same thing in regards to offering a vaible briding solution , instead they continue to trip over the pants around their ankles.. LOL

[paulwr]

I downloaded it (30 day trial of the big version) to give a quick test before getting down to work. No time for a big template yet, BUT DAMN, it only let's you go down to a 512 sample buffer??!! And it is for live playing mainly. I'll have to play more to see if it is really felt. The VE Pro was supposedly doing a lot of buffering, but wound up measuring much better than they claimed it was. I only had the choir up so no telling how tight of a feel it might have playing, say, piano.

-Paul

[TAFKAT]

I downloaded it (30 day trial of the big version) to give a quick test before getting down to work. No time for a big template yet, BUT DAMN, it only let's you go down to a 512 sample buffer??!!

Say what ?

How can that be, latency is dependent on your interface specific ASIO buffer setting , its not set at application level ?

I'll have a dig at it when I get some clear air..

[paulwr]

Say what ?

How can that be, latency is dependent on your interface specific ASIO buffer setting , its not set at application level ?

I'll have a dig at it when I get some clear air..

That's what I thought, too. And perhaps it is truly acting that way, I'll have to measure it, BUT they have a slider that controls the buffer setting, and the lowest within their program is 512. Odd. 512 buffer setting in reality isn't exactly the target for piano playing and similar.

-Paul

[kdm]

That's only in the Lite version - you have to buy Solo or Performer to get lower latency. Only the Performer version has midi clock sync according to their comparison table.

[paulwr]

That's only in the Lite version - you have to buy Solo or Performer to get lower latency. Only the Performer version has midi clock sync according to their comparison table.

I downloaded the 64bit Performer demo. I have sync on the demo, but lowest setting is still the 512 samples for buffer. I didn't see anywhere on the site that stated lower latencies, can you point to that?
-Might be a moot point if it happens to test out better than its own setting.

-Paul

[kdm]

I downloaded the 64bit Performer demo. I have sync on the demo, but lowest setting is still the 512 samples for buffer. I didn't see anywhere on the site that stated lower latencies, can you point to that?
-Might be a moot point if it happens to test out better than its own setting.

-Paul

It's under Setup - Audio Engine Options - Audio Engine. At least in the Solo x64 demo version it goes down to 128, and that's only on our home system under built-in audio drivers (Win7). It might go to 64 on an RME system (haven't tested it at the studio - will try it this week - for some reason when I last tried Cantible before going to Bidule, I decided against it - don't recall the reason though).

[TAFKAT]

Hmm,

Strange, might be worth having a poke around their forum at KVR.., I don't understand how the application can over ride the ASIO driver settings.. ?

I wish I had some time to dig into this more, just slammed at the moment.

I'll stay on it and see what I can dig up..

Quick edit : I found this video tutorial on Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvMJbEP-JrY), the card being used is an M-Audio device of some sort and the lowest setting is also 256.

Might be worth dropping the devs a quick email to get to get a clear answer, it aint gonna fly if we can't use the lowest available latency settings.. :-(

[kdm]

Paul, are you sure you don't have the audio device driver still defaulted to ASIO DirectX instead of ASIO (HDSP or whatever hardware you have)? Both performer and solo go to 128 here on normal ASIO, but are 512 min on Dx.

[paulwr]

Paul, are you sure you don't have the audio device driver still defaulted to ASIO DirectX instead of ASIO (HDSP or whatever hardware you have)? Both performer and solo go to 128 here on normal ASIO, but are 512 min on Dx.

Bingo, thanks! 128 samples is now the option. I was going over all the ins/outs and since the FF 800 was the device, it didn't occur that I had the wrong option selected for device driver.

I'm going to have to take the time and see how it responds to a large template. My EastWest Choirs get screwed up in Bidule when there is a big template loaded, but not in a light template. However, they play perfectly in Cubase 5 64bit, but I don't want them there bogging down my project change overs with a long load time.

Anyone load up Cantabile heavily yet, and tested?

Thanks,
-Paul

[kdm]

I haven't tested it yet extensively - back to Bidule for work - test more when I have time.

Let me know if you figure out how to route racks/plugins to separate outputs - the rack only shows one app "Output", even though multiple ASIO outs are configured. I would need to route and mix multiple instances of Play to 4 stereo pairs on this test system.

[paulwr]

I don't have time to dig further into it right now, either. I did manage to get 2/3 of a fairly large template loaded, and my East West Choirs we're doing fine, unlike in Bidule. I don't know what that issue could be, yet.
However, when I went to reopen Cantabile with the large template, it crashes every time. I may get back to it mid month before the demo runs out.

The ouptuts per rack isn't clear to me yet, either. I can't believe it is that limiting. Must be a way to add more busses in a way we can use them.

-Paul

[LEX]

I don't have time to dig further into it right now, either. I did manage to get 2/3 of a fairly large template loaded, and my East West Choirs we're doing fine, unlike in Bidule. I don't know what that issue could be, yet.
However, when I went to reopen Cantabile with the large template, it crashes every time. I may get back to it mid month before the demo runs out.

The ouptuts per rack isn't clear to me yet, either. I can't believe it is that limiting. Must be a way to add more busses in a way we can use them.

-Paul

Limiting in what way? Please go into detail of what you are running into, why and what you would need.

LEX

[paulwr]

Limiting in what way? Please go into detail of what you are running into, why and what you would need.

LEX

I was just referring to what KDM said above my post. At first glance, it appears only one set of outputs can be configured on each 'rack space'. I'm sure that isn't the case. So I just have to see if it will load a large template, since my current saved template crashes when I load it, and need to be sure multiple output busses can be configured.

-Paul