How to efficiently learn songs with Song Master and Gig Performer

Gig Performer Videos
1

In this video, you will learn how to use Song Master and Gig Performer to efficiently learn and practice new songs. The process is designed to help musicians move quickly from listening to a track to being performance-ready.

Key steps in the process:

  • Song Setup: Import a track (e.g., Tom Sawyer by Rush) and allow the software to identify sections and tempo (0:45 - 1:35). You can manually label sections like “Intro” or “Verse” to improve navigation (3:03 - 3:35).
  • Isolating Parts: Generate stems to isolate instruments, allowing you to mute your specific instrument part to practice along with the rest of the band (3:52 - 4:25).
  • Deep Learning: Use the pitch and MIDI visualization feature to see exactly what notes are being played, which is helpful for learning complex solos (7:53 - 8:25). You can slow down sections or loop difficult passages for focused practice (1:43 - 2:02, 8:33 - 9:15).
  • Sound Design & Rehearsal: Use the software to A/B your own sounds using Gig Performer against the original recording to ensure accuracy (9:26 - 10:55). Finally, build a setlist to simulate a real performance environment (13:19 - 13:49).

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In the context of the workflow demonstrated in this video, Gig Performer is essential for the following reasons:

  • Sound Design & Accuracy: It allows the user to build and refine custom synthesizer patches (like the specific Oberheim filter sweep needed for Tom Sawyer) to match the original recording (9:26-10:28).

  • Performance Reliability: Unlike a standard DAW, Gig Performer is built for the stability required in live stage environments, ensuring sounds are consistent and glitch-free during a performance (10:08-10:20).

  • Integration for Rehearsal: It serves as the live engine where you can host your sounds, allowing you to A/B test your patches against the original audio stems in Song Master to ensure they are performance-ready (10:34-11:00).

  • Live Simulation: By combining Song Master’s practice tools with Gig Performer’s sound engine, you can simulate a professional gig environment, practicing his specific parts with the correct sounds alongside the rest of the band’s isolated tracks (11:12-12:10).

2

This is a really useful tutorial. I bookmarked it 2 years ago when it was released, but it’s definitely worth a revisit. Immediately before returning to this forum, I had just ripped the audio from a YT video (David Bowie - Let’s Dance - Live Festival Glastonbury 2000) and dropped it into SMP5 to create the stems. The female bassist played a great line and I wanted to make a tab from it.

A couple of notes on the video.

First, he’s using Song Master Pro, but keeps saying Song Master. Some of the features he uses are exclusive to the Pro version. Licenses are perpetual and not subscription-based and the Pro version is around $125/125€. That’s about a $40/40€ increase over SM4/SMP2. It’s still a great value for a great piece of software.

Second, SM/SMP v5 was just released. Both versions are now on the same version number instead of SM v4 and SMP v2. Aurally Sound, the dev, released a new app called Prism last year that I also acquired. It’s an audio-to-MIDI engine, with a MIDI editor and a spectrogram view. SMP5 and maybe SM5 now include much of Prism built-in. V5 prices increased because of that, but my upgrade to SMP v5 was free since I owned licenses for both SMP v2 and Prism.

I’ve been using Sound Master and then Song Master Pro for a long time. For me, it’s an indispensable tool. Highly recommended.

Song Master by Aurally Sound

Prism by Aurally Sound

Note that Prism isn’t really necessary now if you have SMP5 since most of Prism’s features were incorporated into SMP5.

Here’s a video introducing Prism showcasing the wonderful Tommy Emmanuel, among others.

3

YouTube in its infinite wisdom just popped this up on my time line. I don’t know how much of Prism got incorporated into SMP5, but being able to work with Prism’s capabilities as an ARA plugin in a DAW is super useful.