Looking for Advice

General discussion about Gig Performer
1

I’m looking for advice on the best way to configure my setup in Gig Performer.

Current gear:

  • Yamaha MODX8
  • Novation Launchkey MK3 88
  • Yamaha Montage M ESP running inside Gig Performer
  • Macbook Pro running GP

My goal is to use Montage ESP as my primary sound source, almost as if it were a dedicated hardware keyboard that is always loaded and available throughout an entire performance.

What I’d like to accomplish:

  1. Keep Montage ESP loaded globally so I don’t have to instantiate or reload it for every song in a setlist.
  2. Control ESP directly from the Novation via MIDI mapping, including:
    • Sound/Performance selection
    • Motion Control/Super Knob functions
    • Master volume
    • Other key ESP parameters
  3. Build song-specific entries in Gig Performer’s Setlist/Song structure where selecting a song automatically recalls the appropriate sound or Performance within ESP.

For example, if Song A uses a piano Performance and Song B uses a synth pad Performance, I’d like selecting the song in GP to automatically switch ESP to the correct sound without reloading the plugin itself.

I’m trying to determine the cleanest and most efficient architecture for this:

  • Global rackspace?
  • Shared plugin instance?
  • Variations?
  • MIDI program changes?
  • Something else?

I’d appreciate any guidance from anyone who has implemented a similar “ESP as a permanent instrument” workflow in Gig Performer.

2

The big issue is selecting sounds within ESP.

Although some people use program changes to change sounds within a plugin, it is generally not supported because (as I understand it) every time you change a sound you would be loading samples into memory (not to mention other changes).

So, this could affect the stability of the system.

So, the recommended method is to load all the sounds you intend to use as part of the Gig file.

So, that generally means you would end up with a different instance of ESP for each “sound”.

So, I would tend to treat ESP like how I treat Kontakt.

If there is a sound I only use occasionally, I would put it in a regular rackpspace.

There is a memory intensive sound I use regularly I look into putting it in the Global Rackspace.

There are other options to consider, like Predictive Loading, etc. But, just my $.02, based on (potentially) incomplete information.