A brand new GP licensee here planning to dive in and hopefully create my first rack space or two this coming weekend. For the most part, I plan to set up and use GP in what I presume to be its most commonly used way - namely to create setlists of songs with associated rack spaces that instantly assign appropriate patches to several hardware synths and plug-ins. in my home studio. This will be strictly for non-professional home use - i.e. ad hoc jamming, practice sessions and aiding in song composition. For what itâs worth my home studio consists primarily of two keyboards (a Korg M3 and Korg PA5X arranger keyboard) and a late model MacBook running a wide variety of plug-ins (e.g. Omnisphere, Kontakt, Modartt, Equator). I recognize that there are plenty of truly excellent tutorials
available to help guide me with this, as well as a broad range of templates to jumpstart the process. In fact, yesterdayâs Gig Performerâs live stream that featured Ali Askin showcased some of his rackspace designs that were particularly appealing and which I believe would serve as excellent models for that use case.
However, thatâs not the reason for this post. Rather, I could use some practical advice on how to most sensibly configure GP for another use case that I believe would really help during one of those ad hoc jamming sessions. My hope is to create a short list of favorite plug-in patches from among the thousands stored on my Mac that I could readily browse through and âmanuallyâ assign to either keyboard on an INDIVIDUAL basis using a MIDI controller. My intent is to minimize or avoid entirely the need to use a mouse and computer keyboard to wade through each plug-inâs respective user interface and complete list of available patches. But again, the objective here is to build a plug-in favorites list for each keyboard individually, to facilitate experimenting with new patch combinations across both keyboards that I could later turn into true song-based rackspaces. Also, itâs really only the plug-in patches resident on my Mac that I really care about creating a favorites list for. As for selecting each keyboardâs own onboard patches, Iâm content with simply using its built-in hardware controls to navigate its sounds.
So my question is how best to accomplish this. One idea I wanted to ask about: would it make sense to utilize GPâs set list creation capability and build two separate set lists - one for each of the two keyboards? Where each song in the respective set list contained a single widget (like one of the
widgets in the photo above) that assigned one of the desired plug-in patches to that specific keyboard? Then one could simply use GPâs system actions commands to scroll through the set lists?
I realize that this might sound like a brute force way to accomplish what I have in mind. But not having any experience in building or using GP, I have no idea if this way makes any sense or if there is a better, more efficient way to accomplish this. So any help/advice would be greatly appreciated.
Why would you have separate setlists for each keyboard? What if (as is often the case for me) you want to use both keyboards on a song?
Scrolling through setlists is easy. You could use a system action plugin or set up a widget to move rackspaces in the Global Midi section.
If you want to jump from song to song as they are called out (not in order), that is a bit more involved. There are several threads (and I think scripts) dedicated to the topic. Also check out Dave Bouldenâs Advanced Song Chooser addon (not free): Advanced Song Chooser extension
I learn faster by watching videos. I tend to recommend watching as many youtube videos as you can on setting up rackspaces, setlists, and widgets as you can. And, of course, dig into the manual as well.
I probably could have explained this better. Itâs not that I want to configure and play just one keyboard at a time. Thereâd of course be no need to use a program like Gig Performer for that. Rather, Iâd like to be able to facilitate rapid selection and assignment of favorite patches for BOTH keyboards on an ad-hoc basis. If there was a way to display on a single screen say two âpick listsâ of patches - one for each keyboard - that I could scroll through, that would be one way to accomplish this. When I mentioned using set lists, it wasnât to use them in the conventional way, but rather as a possible means to create those pick lists. Alternatively, if there was a way to display two panels (one for each keyboard) on a screen, where each panel contained a set of buttons that could call up specific patches for that keyboard, that would also accomplish what I had in mind. And as I explained in my original post, this use case is secondary to the primary one which is to use set lists in their intended, more conventional manner - namely to create instantly assignable configurations across my entire setup on a song by song basis.
Does this make it any clearer? Also, I have been reading the manual and watching videos on setting up rackspaces and setlists, and to date I havenât come across something that would either directly or indirectly address what I had in mind. Or even if itâs possible to do this. Thatâs why I thought posting a request for guidance here might hint at a way to accomplish this, or at least indicate that this use case idea is all wet!
When youâre talking about a âplugin patchâ, are you only using a single primary plugin in GP that you want to load a preset for, or are you wanting to load multiple plugins and specific settings?
If the latter, this is what a rackspace does in Gig Performer, and you can only select one set a time - you canât load individual ones for different keyboards simultaneously (unless you go to the extent of running two independent sessions of GP).
I am wondering for what use case you would use Gig Performer.
You know that Gig Performer can run VST/AU plugins?
Do you want to use Gig Performer just to select patches on your hardware?
I think youâve hit upon what I was struggling to convey in my two previous posts - namely to be able to load independent rackspaces for the two keyboards simultaneously, so that I could change a patch for one keyboard without having it affect the patch selected for the other. Ironically I came back to this thread just now to post that I believe the only way to accomplish that was to utilize GPâs Multi-Instance Support to run two independent sessions of GP. Iâm quoting from the GP user manual here (my boldface added):
âKeyboardists that want to dedicate one of their controllers (such as an 88-note weighted keyboard) to one particular soundâsay a grand pianoâwill also find instances useful. Simply create an instance with just a single rackspace containing the grand piano plugin and the appropriate MIDI In block. Now you no longer have to include that controller and grand piano plugin in every single rackspace you create, something that can help simplify your overall design and be a real timesaver.â
In fact, I want to go a little further. Rather than dedicate one keyboard to a single particular sound only, I would like to be able to pick from two GP rackspace lists independently to assign anyone of a number of favorite patches to each keyboard independently. So Iâm guessing that using Multi-Instance support is the best way (or possibly the only way) to accomplish this.
In any event, I apologize to the other community members who responded here for failing to properly express what I was hoping to accomplish. Iâm completely new to GP and am trying my best to quickly absorb GPâs rackspace paradigm and associated terminology upon which it is founded.
No, as I stated in my original post, Iâm perfectly OK with using each keyboardâs own controllers to select their own internal patches. For this particular use case that I was seeking help with, I was talking explicitly about finding a way to assign virtual instrument patches (e.g. one of the thousands collectively available within Omnisphere, Kontakt, Serum, etc) independently to each keyboard, so that changing the virtual instrument assignment for one keyboard would not impact the other keyboard.
You do not need two instances of Gig Performer. You can handle all the keyboards you want at the same time within a single rackspace. Just use multiple "MIDI INâ and âMIDI OUTâ blocks.
I think most keyboard players GP to host plugins, which may allow you to do things far beyond what most hardware keyboards allow.
But, you can use it the way you suggest.
If you want to change the sound in the hardware keyboard, one way to do it would be to just change the rackspace.
You could put together rackspaces that (within each rackspace) include whatever setups you would want (including both keyboards at the same time, if wanted).
Then you could create songs with each set up with a name that is quick to find using the âfindâ command in set list mode.
Then you should be able to quickly move to whatever rackspace you want by âfindingâ the song in this master setlist.
If you want to be able to push a button to select each setup, there are posts that run through this.
[Another approach is to set up widgets to change sounds on your hardware controller without changing rackspaces.]
But, one thing for sure to remember. Unless you use multiple instances (probably uncessary) GP uses one rackspace at a time. But, within each rackspace you can easly control multiple hardware keyboards.
