I have come across what could be a useful program for jOrgan users who wish to stay with WindowsXP. I recently posted about my problem of not being able to activate sfz.exe for some reason. I am grateful for the posters who tried to help me, but my problem was not resolved. After some time of trawling other chatlists, I discovered Cantabile12, which is called a "free VST Host, MIDI and Audio Recorder". Its free version allows you to run two plugins. I had no trouble getting SFZ to work (using the sfz.dll file), along with a nice, free Reverb plugin downloaded from another source. This was using Bruce Miles' Classic English Organ and jOrgan Version 2. The free verson of the program is called Cantabile 12 Lite. The full version costs only $USD25, but offers an unlimited number of plugins (i.e. multiple uses of SFZ along with some reverb). It also offers routing to a number of separate audio channels. Another plus is that it automatically loads the SFZ banks etc. on startup, giving you the previous setup use with no fuss.
The one "problem" I had with SFZ was that with each instance of SFZ in use, the last organ stop used (and cancelled) still speaks, but at a slightly lower level. I suspect this problem could be solved by using a default-on "silence" stop in each SFZ bank.
I bought the full version, but have not had the time (or the expertise) to test it properly with a full jOrgan use. My main problem is that I am still wrestling with MIDI, MIDI-Ox etc.
Could someone with more knowledge buy the program and report back? The website is www.toptensoftware.com
John Reimer
