Hi, I got Gig Performer because I heard you can set two different buffer sizes on your computer: one for your DAW like in Ableton and one for just using Gig Performer standalone mode on your desktop. This allows you to monitor yourself with zero latency while recording huge sessions in your DAWS. For instance, you can set your DAW buffer size to 2048 to utilize your computer’s whole CPU, and set your Gig Performer to a really small buffer size like 64 or 32 samples, working simultaneously on your recordings.
However, it turns out I can only get this to work on Macs Gig Performer allows you to pick multiple buffer sizes in options settings but when I try on my PC, I cannot pick different the different buffer sizes and am just stuck with one!. This limitation might have something to do with ASIO drivers on PC versus CoreAudio drivers on Mac. I’m really trying to figure this out for PC users. The only solution I can think of is buying another interface so I can have them talk to each other, routing one for Gig Performer and another one for just my DAW. So I ended up did trying this method with a cheap interface I had lying around, and that seemed to do the trick, but it’s a big hassle compared to just using one interface for everything.
If this problem has occurred with anyone else, I’m very curious to hear your methods as far as trying to pick two different buffer sizes on PCs Mac users have it easy. Lol.
(Talking about Windows here. I don’t know about MACos)
I suppose it depends on the driver. I just tried it out, using the ASIO driver for the Behringer UMC1820. If I assign a buffersize of 128 in GP, then start Reaper and request a buffersize of 2048, all clients of the ASIO driver are forced to 2048. The other way around is exactly the same. The applet of the driver also confirms this:
The same goes for the Focusrite Scarlett drivers.
Of course it is possible for a developer to create an ASIO driver that virtualizes all clients, so each can have a separate buffersize, but obviously not all manufacturers do that. Maybe RME does.
With the Blue Cat Connector ASIO driver you can indeed have multiple buffersizes. It looks like the sample rate is fixed to 44.1 KHz (for the ASIO driver).
The BC connector ASIO driver let have each client its own BC Connector interface. The Blue Cat connector plugin (which is connected using a network connection) ‘just’ mixes the received audio.
I cannot get the instance that hosts these BC plugins working without glitches unless I use a sample rate of 44.1 KHz or 88.2 KHz (in my case the UMC1820). 48 Khz also does not work.
The instance hosting the plugins must have the smallest buffersize, so you cannot have a and BC Connector ASIO driver with a size of 64 and the interface of the host withe the plugins having a buffersize of 256. (That makes sensen: The 'processBlock` callback of a VST plugin is called at intervals the buffersize divided by the sample rate dictates).
TL:DR:
The GP instance hosting the plugins must have the lowest buffersize for the audio interface
Always set the audio interface to a sample rate of 44100 or 88200
The GP instances or other (DAW) clients have to stick with a sample rate 44100 for the BC Connector ASIO driver
The GP instances or other (DAW) clients have to have a buffersize >= the buffersize of the GP instance that hosts the plugins
The GP instances or other (DAW) clients are not limited to have the the same buffersizes
That’s what I can figure out for now. My two cents. I can (and at occasions have proven to) be wrong.
