Corrupt Rackspace

General discussion about Gig Performer
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I’ve been working on MIDI stuff and its complicated…So I went into Global MIDI - selected Learn MIDI from Selected item - Tried it - it found what I was doing then GP hung. After a complete reboot, I had three rackspaces created - the first one was my main test setup - I can no longer load it. If I try to select it with a mouse - the rackspaces just scroll to rackspace 3 - I tried loading the saved file - to no avail. Same behavior. I tried using the up arrow - same thing.

I have to admit that this makes me really nervous. I can’t imagine spending tons of hours on a rack, only to have it corrupt. Or losing all work. This is a time consuming process.

What’s the process? What can I do to avoid this? I’ve had GP freeze numerous times, specially when unplugging devices or even just making changes to MIDI hardware as I experiment and get everything working.
W10 Pro
i7 12th gen processor 64 GB
NVME drives
Everything new and fully updated

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tset.gig (345.1 KB)

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Update - I was able to load rackspace 1 by deleting 2 and 3. Still something wrong. GP is running sluggish and slow. Moving a block takes a second…

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And one more - GP is just crashing…looks like a re-install is coming…sigh

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repair installation has done its job. GP appears to be working right now - with rackspace 1

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I spoke too soon. Tuner is non functional.

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What version of Gig Performer? (Be specific, don’t just say “latest” :slight_smile: )
What platform (Mac or Windows)?

Are you running trial version or did you buy it? If the latter, from where (Deskew version or Plugin Alliance version?)
Did it ever work properly or has it been failing since you got it?

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W10 pro
4.5.8
Full version
Deskew

Its hung lots but only while disconnecting hardware. I’ve never had a corruption, but I am only getting started.

Other devices connected are as follows:
Fishman TriplePlay Wireless
MIDI Commander foot pedal controller
Tascam US 2x2
OTraki MIDI to USB cable
Expression pedal plugged into MIDI commander
All input into a USB 3 HUB into the computer - A Lenovo Legion 5i Pro
Only vsts running are Helix Native and Tripleplay.
The Rackspace that corrupted had a 4 chan mixer (built it) 2 other waves VSTs for vocal processing
2 audio inputs - a guitar and mic
MIDI for the TriplePlay and pitch bend MIDI from a Virtual Jeff
I got the Virtual Jeff working - but not at the same time as the MIDI Commander - this is why I’ve been trying things.
Virtual Jeff is a digital whammy bar system.
That’s everything.
Thanks.

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Forgot to mention. I deleted the corrupt rackspace and the tuner started working. GP seems fine now after a repair install and deleting the rackspace.

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This sort of thing is commonly a midi feedback loop. Are you able to get the Global MIDI Monitor to open to confirm?

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Yes. I’ve just gone down a rabbit hole with the Triple Play MIDI channel usage and see where my problem lies. After deleting the corrupt rackspace, everything is working. BUT - this is a rant - why do the manufacturers not include a way for us to define our MIDI channels? They all default to Chan 1 - and I’m stuck. I only have three devices - they all use MIDI chan 1 - I think I can edit the MIDI Commander - but the triple play and the virtual jeff are stuck on chan 1. I have no idea how to work around this.

I am digging deep in GP and starting to clearly understand some things it does not like - like removing devices live.

This is the most important question: Do you build all your rackspaces in one file? I’m going to have over 100 songs. Plus three mode of operation. Live with backing tracks - live looping - recording.

If not, how do you approach this? A set per file? I’ve been looking for videos looking at the basics of file management, overview - and there’s not much. You start with a rackspace (sounds) build them into songs, the arrange songs into setlists. But how many songs in a rackspace? How about version control and backups? Just save lots of versions?

Spent too much time on this forum and I apologize. Running out of time, and this is taking days and days just to get figured out and working - and to date - no songs of course. But deal folks - THANK YOU for the help. It is sincerely appreciated. In a few weeks I should be rolling along.

I had to wait to afford my new laptop before doing all this. And this is just audio system 1 of 4 that are coming. One is vlogging, one is for performance, one turns my motorcycle into a musical instrument, and one is for mutitrack/overdubbing. When I get this performance part working, the rest will go easy.

Again, my thanks to all.

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I’m glad that you found the culprit and I understand your frustration. But don’t worry, once you set everything up, it will be rock solid.

This has nothing to do with Gig Performer, but with the audio manufacturer’s drivers.
I’ve seen here in the community videos of RME devices, where people tested pulling out the USB cable and attaching it again - the RME was operational within a second or two (if not less) and was behaving like nothing happened.

Something is mentioned in this blog, this tip, to be specific.

This works better on Mac, to be honest.

1 Like
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It is a learning curve to get where you want. But using GP blows away hardware alternatives in terms if quality, flexibility, etc.

One aspect of all this that has taken me a bit to learn is how being aware of ram usage. I just dug in originally creating new rackspaces freely with different sample libraries.

If you just have a single “Gig file” for everything (without using “Predictive Loading”) you basically can access all your rackspaces freely and with no loading time. The downside is every new rackspace (especially if they are sample oriented, rather than soft synths or physically modeled) increases the ram you use on start up.

I have 32 GB of ram in my “old laptop”. So far, I am not having a problem with lots of rackspace and sample libraries, but I think I “may” be getting close (in terms of ram usage) and loading up a gig file (I think) takes about 6 mins.

So, I splurged on a new laptop with 64 GB of ram (expandable to 128). This is crazy for most people, but I wanted to “future proof” my system.

But, really like the comfort of having two duplicate laptops, so I am trying to think a bit about ram usage now that I understand things a bit better. So, I may shift to more physically modeled sounds, reuse rackspaces more, use variations with bypassing plugins more, etc.

So, let me at least try to respond to a couple questions:

Q:But how many songs in a rackspace?

A song (setlist Mode) will usually require one rackspace and variation. If you reuse variations of the same rackspace for different songs, this will conserve ram

How about version control and backups? Just save lots of versions?

A: I basically use the same large Gig file for everything. This can (and does) use a lot of ram. But, I have access to every rackpace immediately. I now end up saving this Gig file on a Google Drive and on my new duplicate laptop. But, if I want to do something that I am unsure about, create a new Gig file to “experiment”.

Don’t know if any of this was helpful to you, but…

2 Likes
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(Nitpicking, I apologize :grinning:):
That is once the gig file is loaded. The initial load time can be quite long, depending on the amount of work each plugin wants to do when it is loaded.

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Yes, very true (I mentioned it earlier in the post, but thanks for clarifying that :))

PS: On my “old” laptop:

  1. It just took almost exactly 5 minutes to load the Gig file. Not as bad as I thought.
  2. Task Manager (Windows 10) showed 98% of ram being used right after I finishing loading/opening GP
  3. After about 10 minutes, ram usage in the Task Manager now dropped to 48% of ram being used (that still amazes me!).

I don’t think I have noticed much of a performance issue due to ram use. I think on one guitar multi in Kontakt, there might have been a noticeable delay when I first triggered the sound (due to it being a “multi” in Kontakt, it can’t stream from my SSD quite quick enough(?)). But, then I think (guess) it takes a priority in ram and it performs okay,

But, I think in most cases, for most of my sounds, I have not noticed any issue. I suspect they can basically stream from my disk even if ram is not used? (More knowledgeable people here would know more than me).

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Unfortunately that work can often include the plugin trying to connect to remote server and depending on network, that can delay things quite a lot