Frequently Asked Questions

What does "Cantabile" mean?

Cantabile is an Italian musical term meaning "in a singing style", or sometimes "full of expression".

Which VST plugins is Cantabile compatible with?

Cantabile has been tested with many plugins over many hours of extended usage.

Due to the vast number of available plugins though, its impossible for me test every plugin, everytime I make a change.

If you find a plugin that works properly in other hosts, but not in Cantabile please send me the details (use the Send Feedback command in the Help menu), including plugin name, developer and version and I will investigate.

What's the different between ASIO and DirectSound audio drivers?

ASIO is a standard developed by Steinberg and designed specifically real-time audio processing.

DirectSound is a Microsoft audio technology designed primarily for games.

In general ASIO is the preferred type of driver for use with Cantabile. DirectSound support is provided for cases where no ASIO driver is installed or available.

Why do DirectSound drivers not work correctly?

Cantabile allows setting reasonably small buffer sizes (down to 128 samples) when using DirectSound drivers. This is to allow the smallest possible latency.

The capabilities of various DirectSound drivers varies widely however. Cantabile relies on accurate timing information being provided by the DirectSound driver. When this timing information is not accurate enough, Cantabile will appear to "crackle", "glitch" or otherwise not sound correct - even when CPU usage is very low.

Cantabile performs several checks when the driver is first started to check the timing information provided by the driver is accurate enough for the specified buffer size. If not, Cantabile will automatically increase the buffer size and display a message to this effect.

Some drivers however provide irregular timing information. In this case, the buffer size will need to be manually adjusted until a working comprimise is found.

Can Cantabile render MIDI files to audio?

Cantabile only supports realtime rendering of MIDI files. This is done by enabling the automatic record mode of the audio recorder and playing the MIDI file.

Real time rendering means your PC must have enough processing power to process all audio signals in real-time.

A future version will almost certainly include an offline render mode.

Can Cantabile load more than one plugin?

Versions 1.0 and 1.1 of Cantabile were both limited to loading a single VST plugin.

Version 1.2 introduces support for multiple plugins, organised into racks. Cantabile Lite supports two racks of two plugins for a total of four plugins.

The full version of Cantabile 1.2 supports as many plugins and racks as your PC will handle.

Can I play two diffent instruments at the same time with Cantabile?

Yes, Cantabile supports a MIDI channel selector on each rack to allow different MIDI devices to be routed to different racks/instruments.

Can I use Cantabile's MIDI recorder to record the output of MIDI plugins?

Yes. Each plugin has a setting Connect to MIDI Recorder, which when enabled allows recording the MIDI output of selected plugins.

Can Cantabile play/process audio files?

No. This is planned for the next version after 1.2

Can Cantabile act as VST sub host?

No. Although Cantabile's internal design supports this, it's not fully implemented yet

Does Cantabile support ReWire?

No. Although this may be supported in a future version, not sure which version yet.

Does Cantabile support DirectX (DX) plugins?

No. I currently have no plans to support this.

Why does Cantabile make a high pitch or loud noise?

This is almost certainly the result of a feedback loop.

Feedback loops occur when the output audio signal from Cantabile is routed back as audio input, resulting in the same audio signal being amplified many times over.

Some audio cards have the ability to return audio output as audio input. Usually there is a control panel option to disable the feature, or it can be controlled via the Window Recording Mixer settings. Refer to your sound cards documentation for more information about this.

Feedback loops can also be created by external hardware devices that return audio signals.

To check if the loud noise your hearing is a feedback loop, turn down the input gain level to its minimum value. If the problem is caused by a feedback loop, it should disappear when the input gain level is set to minimum.

If you don't record or process audio signals from external devices you can permanently disable input audio. In the Audio Driver settings page, click the Assign Audio Channels button. Select the Inputs radio button and disconnect all sound card inputs. You'll also save some audio processing overhead.

In the full version of Cantabile you can also disable audio input in the Speaker Arrangement settings.

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