I recently switched from a Nord Stage to a MacBook + Gig Performer 5 setup and my first experience has been quite frustrating.
Gig Performer keeps freezing when I change rackspaces or songs, especially with predictive loading enabled.
I am a software developer, so after my acquisition I quickly went from zero to 40 rackspaces (one per song), each with gpscripts and dozens of plugins. Everything worked fine in the studio, but when I went live and started running through a full set, the problems began. While changing songs during the gig, Gig Performer would randomly freeze.
I started troubleshooting by simplifying my setup, which reduced the frequency of freezes, but did not eliminate them.
The most reliable way I have found to reproduce the issue is:
Using Setlist mode with Song Transpose enabled
From that scenario, a few changes in my setup clearly reduced how often the freezes occurred:
Using Rackspace mode instead of Setlist mode
Applying transpose directly in the MidiIn block instead of using the MidiTranspose plugin (or song transpose in setlist mode)
Removing audio tail from each rackspace
Other tests I tried that had no noticeable impact:
Clean OS reinstall and downgrade from macOS Sequoia 15.5 to Sonoma 14.8.2
Fresh reinstall of everything (Gig Performer and all VSTs)
Not installing the Motu driver and testing with native Core Audio
Removing all gpscripts
My current setup:
Computer: MacBook with Apple M1 Max, 64 GB RAM, 2 TB SSD
Audio interface: Motu M4
Gig Performer: 5.1.4 Apple Silicon
VSTs in use: Kontakt, Komplete Kontrol, Waves Scheps, Waves IDX, Waves Dorrough, Ample Sound AGM. On average 4x instruments + 4x effetcs per rackspace
Although the frequency has decreased, the issue still occurs and, during a live performance, it is really frustrating.
Does anyone have any guidance or tips on how to resolve this?
Even though avoiding setlist mode and embedding transpose in each MidiIn block helped reduce the problem, I definitely want to use setlist mode and having song transpose is very important to me.
Hi npudar, I have already removed all GP Scripts from every rackspace, but this was one of the troubleshooting steps I tried (among others) that had no impact, the issue is still happening in exactly the same way. Thanks very much,
Yeah, if GP Script is involved, there could be all sorts of issues including feedback or infinite loops - we’re not in a position to debug user scripts (that’s a black hole that we can’t go down or we’d never get any development work done)
However, the op noted that he removed all GP Script (which I presume means code in all rackspaces, song parts, global rackspace and gigscript) and if so, the most likely possibilities are
Infinite MIDI loop — any chance you’re using MIDI OMNI blocks and MacOS IAC ports?
An action in a song part trying to switch to another song part that has an action that’s trying to switch to the first song part?
If the op is getting a freeze, then he should open the activity monitor, open the GP process and create a Sample dump that we can look at
Hi dhj, sure. Regarding gpscript, I completely understand that Deskew cannot troubleshoot that, it makes total sense. But that is not an issue in my case, because I have already removed all scripts from my setup.
Your suggestion about MidiLoop is a good lead for me to investigate, since I map some CCs to widgets and then route them back through GP Local MIDI Ports so they can reach my instruments. To make this work, I have some MIDI blocks set to Omni.
I will look into this and, if I get another freeze, I will capture a dump.
As for song actions, this does not apply, because I have stopped using setlist mode and I am now working only with rackspaces directly.
Thanks so far… if you guys have any other tip, I would greatly appreciate.
Hi triple B. During live gigs I am not connected to the internet and predictive loading is enabled. However, to be honest, the freeze is now also happening in my home studio, even when I am connected to the internet. The problem occurs exactly when I press “Next Rackspace”. I am still not sure whether the screen freezes on the rackspace I am leaving or on the new one while it is loading, I will double check that tonight. When I reformatted macOS I disabled all data tracking options, but I am not sure if there are any additional settings that I should turn off.
I’m also relatively new here and am currently switching my live setup from Logic to GP. I’m still in the testing phase – live performances aren’t planned until the middle of next year. GP is also freezing for me. This only happens when I switch to a new song from my iPad and the previous song played a note during a variation. It’s all very strange. dhj also suspects that I have a loop somewhere that GP can’t process.
If I switch songs manually on my computer, this doesn’t happen.
So far, I’ve only been able to reproduce the error with one song. I’m still looking for the cause…
Perhaps my observation will help you in your search.
Are you setting Predictive Loading to one? I there is to test if you could load the gig file without Predictive Loading? (You seemed to say you sometimes had this issue even without Predictive Loading enabled(?)).
Maybe if you create a smaller gig file, see if you have the same problem, and then see what happens if you disable Predictive Loading? (Just shots in the dark….Maybe try other suggestions first so I don’t waste your time).
Hi pianopaul… hummm… now I’m feeling stupid hahaha. I didn’t notice there is a “thru” option. (yeah, I know, it’s there and I didn’t pay attention, lol)…. When I first realized the widget was capturing the CC messages and blocking them from reaching my instruments, ChatGPT suggested using the widget to control a MidiIn block and retrigger the message through a loopback.
I’m not sure if this will solve the freeze issue, but it is definitely a cleaner solution and I will change it right away.
I will run many tests tonight. If the freeze continues, I will post the gig file as you requested. Thanks very much.
npudar, since I am still pretty new to Gig Performer, I wanted to ask for your opinion. Based on your experience, if the freeze only happens when predictive loading is enabled, and does not occur when predictive loading is turned off, does that necessarily mean there is a faulty plugin involved, or not always?
I have not performed extensive tests with predictive loading turned off….. another test to my checklist….
Thanks, I will read the blog post carefully. I created one rackspace per song, because each one has very specific instruments and arrangements. Even though I have plenty of RAM, loading 40 rackspaces with predictive loading turned off takes an extremely long time.
I guess it depends on the number of rackspaces. If predictive loading is OFF, loading all 40 rackspaces takes an extremely long time. If predictive loading is ON, it loads only the number of rackspaces I configured, in my case 3.
Right, but with predictive load set to off you can seemless switch between all rackspaces.
And some plugins do not like to be loaded and unloaded and loaded again.
This can be happen with predictive load set to on.