One advantage is that for some setups, a laptop is more resistant to a power outage.
A laptop system coupled with a good battery powered pa, i can usually go 1-2 hours before worrying about anything.
Very few hardware boards have built-in batteries.
A modern laptop and controller setup is fairly light+portable as well.
Alot of hardware can be pretty heavy and hard to maneuver.
Daniel Mackin
I’m working on a Tom Petty show, and it crossed my mind how many tears I would have shed programming all these splits and patches on my Kronos.
Gig Performer 5
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About reliability of computers on stage.
Gary Dillon
Have been using Gig Performer for around 3 years now and doubt I’d go back to hardware keys now. So much flexibility and speed of configuration is a major win.
A quote from Sev Lewkowicz
I already own a vast expensive collection of VSTis, and it made much more sense to invest in software that allows me to use them live, infinitely configurable, rather than invest in several expensive hardware keyboards, that still won’t sound exactly “right”.
So, I got Gig Performer, 4 years ago, and have never regretted the change for one moment.
Source: Keyboard Players in Cover Bands.
Bryan Williamson
Such a great program. I’m making the leap from hardware synths/sounds to going fully VSTs using Gig Performer.
Although only a few months in and learning as I go I’ve so far not found a situation that just isn’t better workflow wise. And anything I have needed to figure out is normally well explained in a quick google or search on the community.
A quote from Mark Kapit
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I made the same decision last December, despite having a whole lot of hardware synths. I started by buying a 3-year-old top of the line Dell laptop from retired executive. It came with 32 gigs of memory, and an SSD. I added a second SSD, because VSTs can take up space. As others have mentioned, dedicate your computer to music.
After doing much research I went with GIG PERFORMER and have no complaints at all. It’s versatile, and there’s a great community of support. It runs anything…
For VSTs, I waited for sales at Cherry Audio, Arturia and Universal Audio. I was able to load up on all my favorite gear, vintage and current. I bought other things as well, but the most disappointing came from Soundpaint.
Once you get that stuff loaded, then you need to get the sound into your mixing board. By the best audio interface that you can. Currently I’m using an Audiobox USB96, which has been adequate. It also gives you an extra midi in out.
For controllers, I wanted keyboards that have after touch, and at least 61 keys.
My favorite is my Arturia Keylab 61 MkIII, but also have a Novation Impulse 61 and Nektar Panorama T6. Eventually I will configure at least two of them to work together with Gig Performer.
I would say I’m about $1,500 invested, maybe a little more. And my rig is versatile, sounds amazing, and includes things I could never afford as hardware instruments.
I won’t be looking back.
A Gig Performer quote by jazz guitarist Mark Wingfield:
I need to have some very complex things going on with my signal chains, way more complex than I could ever make with hardware boxes. And I need to be able to change and control them as I’m playing with just like two pedals and a couple switches and sliders. It needs to be dead simple because I’ve got so much else to concentrate on. So, there’s this thing where I need to do some really complex stuff, but I need to have those controls to be very simple and not a lot to look at or think about. That’s always been the challenge for the kind of player that I am. And Gig Performer absolutely excels in all of that!
Allan Lobo quote:
A lot of people still hesitate going to the VST route, but the technology has arrived – it’s basically unbeatable using VSTs nowadays. Because the quality and versatility you get with stuff like Gig Performer, Arturia, and Cherry Audio plugins – it’s just fantastic.
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