New to Gig Performer, came from Mainstage, absolutely loving it so far!
I’m using Gig Performer in perhaps a different context than most– It’s exclusively being used as a VST host for synths and plugin chains which I want to have on in the studio at all times. I’ve recently re-discovered the Arturia synths, because many are MPE compatible, and work well with the Osmose, and having a blast getting them running.
However, I’m struggling to get the program/bank change messages to register on the Arturia synths at all. My use case is to get immediately to a playlist in the Arturia synth of all of my favorite user patches, on load. I know that Gig Performer generally doesn’t advise using program changes, but that seems to be the only way to get the Arturia synths to load a specific playlist of sounds on startup. Otherwise, the “next preset / previous preset” buttons just default back to the Factory sounds. Ideally, I’d want the Arturia plugin to load, my playlist of sounds be pre-selected, and then I could jump through only the presets which I’ve put in that playlist.
I’ve tried a number of methods to get program changes to be registered by the Arturia synths – there are some clever-looking extensions on here to send program change messages– but no matter what I do, the synths just don’t seem to register program change messages at all, or respond to them by loading the correct playlist.
Has anyone gotten this functionality to work with the Arturia synths? I’m kind of at a dead end, not sure what I might be doing wrong.
However, there is a reasonably elegant workaround.
Select sounds that you want to keep and save them as GP User Presets using just a number for each name, the number being the program change number you want to use.
Use a simple GPScript to respond to incoming program changes by loading the appropriate GP User Preset
Attached is an example gigfile that demonstrates this using the Arturia SQ80.
Both options are very interesting and I will explore both. Are there any downsides to using the VST2 version of the Arturia synths in Gig Performer, versus the VST3? I’d happily just switch to VST2 if it gets program changes messages to send correctly.
Oh my gosh! Luck is on my side today. I was just playing around, and I found a few parameters in Pigments labeled “1982 - VST_Program_Change,” numbered 0 through 15. Presumably this is a workaround in the VST3 spec to get the host to send program change messages.
If I create a knob in Gig Performer and map it to “VST_Program_Change_0,” Pigments will correctly accept that as a program change, and playlist 1 will be selected. Now, the presets in “Next Preset / Previous Preset” will be constrained to that list! That’s essentially what I was looking for. So now, I can send a message via that knob on startup, and Pigments will stay on that list of patches, and I can recall individual patches by sending specific values to that knob.
I’ll test with the other Arturia synths later today. I’m not sure if there is a way to select between multiple playlists, using re-routed bank change messages. But to get the synths to constraint themselves to one playlist and essentially have a “favorites” playlists that retains on startup, things seem to be working.
I always use the VST2 version if it’s available — they tend to be more mature.
Steinberg is refusing to allow new companies who don’t already have access to the older version to include VST2 - they’re trying to force everyone to use VST3, despite these issues.
Interesting! “Save GP User Preset”, on the plugin’s GP menu, brings up a window into the “Documents\Gig Performer\Presets\Arturia\SQ80 V” folder. After saving a preset there, how do I then associate it with a GP Plugin Preset program change #?