GP support act - automated setup

Gig Performer on Mac OS X
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Hi all, I wrote a utility that does checks and gets everything ready to start GP. For me, it saves time and catches silly mistakes – like not plugging in my MIDI keyboard the other day! It’s Mac-only because of the AppleScript :man_shrugging:

In case it’s useful to others, I’ve posted it as “GP support act” on github with the script, source and doc. Let me know any issues to fix and I’ll take on suggestions too. musios.app: tools, scripts and docs for music nerds

Things it can do:

  • Check that an SSD or other external storage is connected
  • Check that your audio devices, MIDI devices, and other USB and bluetooth devices are connected
  • Check whether the computer has internet access and that specific sites are reachable (like ilok, musescore…)
  • Open apps like MuseScore, Divisimate, Bome with config.
  • Open web pages for lyrics, sheet music, backing tracks or whatever
  • Open documents for playlists, lyrics, etc.
  • Start Gig Performer with your Gig file
  • And most other tasks you need when they can be run from the command line
6 Likes
2

Nice! Thanks for sharing!

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I do something similar with the Apple shortcuts (aka “Kurzbefehle” in German - also using AppleScript in the background :sunglasses:)

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I’ve taken a look at your optimisation post. I’ll see if it’s possible to bring some of those into the script

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5

aka ‘short commands’ :slight_smile:

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Sounds good!

6

There’s a major update available for Support Act. New features…

  • Enable light or dark mode
  • Enable / disable Siri
  • Hide / show desktop widgets
  • Select sound devices for Input, Output and Alert (aka system)
  • Set the volume on each sound device for input, output and alert
  • Start/stop Amphetamine
  • File selection
  • Simpler installation
  • Packaged as a library to make it easier to use and with less code
  • Cleaner doc and web site
  • The site is setup for bug reports and suggestions

I looked at some other setup and performance recs in the docs that people shared. Some need admin privileges which means some thought to security and safely. There are some controls that are not easy from Applescript or the console which also need some thought. I’ll take another look. For now, the workaround is popups in which you can remind yourself to make a change like…

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Example…

-- Setup for Friday night gig

tell script "support-act"  
  setDarkMode()
  disableSiri()
  hideDesktopWidgets()

  beep 1 -- get our attention

  -- When Support Act can't automate, popup user instructions
  showInstruction("Manual", "Enable Do Not Disturb mode")

  set steps to { "Open a terminal", "Run \"sudo lsof | grep MusicSSD\" " }
  showStepInstructions("Check usage of external drive", steps)

  -- Keep the computer awake with the screen on for 90 minutes
  startAmphetamineSession(90)

  -- Setup the audio and config
  checkAudioDeviceConnected("FLOW8")
  setSoundDevice("input", "FLOW8")
  setSoundDevice("output", "FLOW8")
  setVolume("input", 50)
  setVolume("output", 90) -- about -1dB

  checkUSBDeviceConnected("XPIANO73")

  -- No beeps through FOH speakers!
  setSoundDevice("alert", "Mac mini Speakers")
  setVolume("alert", 20)

  checkNetAccess("www.musescore.com")

  checkFileOrFolderAccessible("/Volumes/ExternalSSD/Instruments")
  openDocument("/Users/musios/Documents/Bome MIDI Translator/Presets/numa-x-piano73.bmtp")
  openWebPage("Google Chrome", "https://musescore.com/official_scores/scores/6937415")
  openDocument("/Users/musios/charts/Let me entertain you - Robbie Williams.pdf")

  -- Finally, let's kick off Gig Performer with the user's choice of Gig files
  set dir to "/Users/musios/Documents/Gig Performer/Gig Files"
  set gigFiles to {"gig-friday.gig", "thrash-klezmer.gig", "folktronica.gig"}
  set selected to chooseFile("Open which Gig file?" & return & dir & "...", gigFiles, dir)
  openDocument(selected)
end tell
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