Back View shortcut key to list rackspace plugins

I have a VERY busy rackspace that I use for general piano, organ, strings, etc. like many of you (keyboard players). With limited “back view” real estate in GP 3.7, is there a shortcut key to show all of the plugins installed in the current rackspace and select one to open/edit, similar to Ctrl-P for adding a new plugin? I have so many plugins installed in this rackspace that they are literally on top of one another and difficult if not impossible to double-click on with the mouse. Apologies if this has already been asked or requested.

Not that I am aware of. You can use GPScript to ultimately create widgets that will open a plugin when clicked, but it will probably be a pain to set up if you have so many of them.

Only other hack I could think of is to use the Edit mode of the front view. If you have a dummy widget (text label or panel) and select it, use the Mapping section to select your plugin from the list and click the Open plugin button in the top-right corner.

May I ask why you have only ONE very busy rackspace and not several ?

My gig files has about 25 total rackspaces, one of which is the piano/organ/guitar/brass/strings “swiss army knife” that I can use on about 70% of the material.

I understand, but I am very very interested in your use case. Why do you have this complicated piano/organ/string/bass/guitar rackspace and not several easier to handle rackspaces ?

Because I need the ability to split or layer any of the instruments to either controller and it is more efficient and less hassle to set it up once rather than custom configure an infinite number of combinations.

Very interesting! Could you please post a screenshot of your front view and connection view to have a better idea ?

Here is the “busy” connection view, followed by the un-beautiful front view panels. This is all in one rackspace. I don’t do much if any real-time front panel adjusting while performing. The widgets are there primarily to preserve custom settings between variations, which there are currently 65 of.







I like your front views, but the connection view is scary :grimacing:

Could you please tell me how many keyboard controllers you are using, and per controller, how many splits and layers with different sounds do you need at a time ? (I suppose you only have to hands) e.g. left hand split (bass), right hand split (piano), right hand layer (strings).

To tell the truth I am thinking of a solution to use several GP instances at the same time to cover the kind of need you have. If you could transparently switch from on instance to the other, say push a knob “lower” to choose the left hand bass sound, boom the bass presets appear, push a knob “upper1”, boom the piano presets appear, pushd a knob “upper2” and boom the strings presets appear. And in each rackpanel you coudl find at the same place some volume faders acting on lower1, upper1, upper2… Well something like that, if I am clear enough.

Would my approach make sense for you ?

I use two controllers, both Studiologic (SL88 and Numa Compact 2X). I generally have no more than one split per controller, but on some songs I have three zones per controller.

Perhaps, depending on the additional overhead required to run a second instance. Running Windows 10 on a laptop, I don’t have the horsepower that a tower or rack-mount PC would have.

Honestly, the config I posted is manageable for me and makes it a snap to add new songs that utilize my core set of instruments. My gig file is smaller and load time less by not replicating the same instrument plugins across many rackspaces.

I’ve pondered how to use GP in a setting similar to yours for awhile. I was working with a group that would call sets on the fly and really left things open for improvising with different textures on the fly. My GP space got so cluttered and complicated on my 13inch notebook that i gave up the ghost and used a hybrid approach of built in sounds on my Roland RD700sx stage piano with some bread and butter sounds (or whacky synth tones) on a handful of different racks i would cycle through.

I applaud your gigantic solution

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Running a second instance should not add to your overhead - it will most likely do the opposite - spread the cpu usage better.

You just have to make sure that your audio interface asio driver supports multiple clients.
You should definitely try it - multiple instances is a GREAT way to separate things a bit, add more stability and versatility.

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Such that I have an idea of what made you give up, could you please post a screenshot of your complicated setup front and connection view? It is of great interest to me.

I honestly haven’t tried since GP 2. My current groups all use a more “standard” set list, and the laptop that GP2 was on bit the dust.

It wasn’t nearly as involved as the one posted. I had a single rack with several different synths and tried to use variations to get as many presets as I could with controls so I could tweak things like ADSR, cutoff, and standard things. Add in trying to switch pianos and drawbar settings, and a plethora of effects possibilities all that I could only use a handful at a time due to serious processing constraints… it was frustrating. Although to its credit, gig performer was the only thing that could even come close to what I needed.

Basically, I had to come to the realization that software is best in planned out situations (like the rest of my career has been) and that hardware can fill the need for spontaneity live - if needed.

I think the only thing that could mitigate this would be the ability to interact with a GUI on the rack itself — which I imagine is a huge coding challenge and question if the juice would be worth the squeeze. It would allow Users to see something like Komplete kontrol or Analog Lab in a rack, where they could load/unload “presets” in real time. Again, I get the myriad issues with host automation vs midi vs actual coding. That’s why I decided in my case to use GP to host VB3, some pianos/clavs and go to leads, and my stage piano to use random sounds (pads, leads, eps, strings) on the fly. It worked, lol.

Hope that helps, sorry I can’t be more exact!

This is exactly what I would like to change. I am pretty sure that there is a way to use GP to compete with hardware stage keyboards. It is at least the way I am exploring right now.

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I wonder, and this is at the mercy of developers probably, if there was someway to use some of the protocol standard to give you library access in the rack itself.

I’d imagine it like a drop down window that when you click on it/touch it/midi message it, opens the preset list. Maybe it’s a giant list, or it’s in sub lists like Omnisphere and Komplete kontrol do — thats Probably an individual developer issue. In real time, and from the rack panel, you can change the preset for the soft synth you set that dialog window to open.

The management side of this is probably left to the respective company, but seems kind of what NI are trying to do with their NKS standard, and what Arturia do with analog lab. Turn the computer into what feels like hardware. Takes the Flexibility live of gig performer, which is already one of the best, and makes it just that much better.

This kind of list is not exactly what I am trying to do, because it is currently beyond what you are supposed to do live with GP. I am rather thinking to something like a stage piano in which you could decide to split you keyboard and select a set of bass presets for your left hand (I mean only a few of your favorite presets), or change quickly the right side of the split for another piano preset, or quickly add a layered string pad… If you try to do this in a single rackspace the connection view becomes in my opinion unmanageable, if you do it with multiple GP instances it could be much more efficient. That’s the way I follow… but I am not at the end for the moment…

I have 450 rackspaces each representing a song. To change a song takes only a few seconds. The songs change using an iPad sending pc commands. The iPad has a note attached stating which plugins are used, normally four or less. The iPad’s main purpose is to act as a lyrics/chord chart, but it is also the master midi controller. Each rackspace is named for the song, but you could change that to an instrument list on the front panel. I couldn’t imagine a rackspace like the one shown - it would be too unwieldy for me.

Out of curiosity, how would switch between instances? A script? Or just keeping them on different midi channels and changing channels on your controller?

Yes the idea I am working on is based on a script and an internal communication between GP instances via OSC. There is one little detail that makes it not completely reliable (I am not taking from the reliability of GP, but the one of my approach in the current context). Well, stay tuned, if I have something new I will post it here. I cannot plan, but hopefully it will happen.