I’m almost sure it’s already on “the list” but in the German musiker-board Forum a new GP user recently asked for a way to merge two Rackspaces. He created two different sounds but now decided instead of switching Rackspaces he wants to be able to play them at the same time with two keyboards. I don’t know any way to do this (apart from copying XML structures and take care of unique IDs) as we can’t select blocks and copy/insert them into another Rackspace yet. Which is the way better way than a merge function…
But maybe there is a workaround I haven’t thought of…?
Until we implement this - there is some work involved.
You’d have to go through each block in a rackspace and save it’s state to a file using our menu when you open the plugin.
The panels can be copy/pasted so that would help, but the blocks must be inserted manually and then states loaded from those files. Finally - widgets must be reconnected to the plugin parameters.
Being able to merge Rackspaces (or parts of Rackspaces) would still be a great feature.
Let’s say I have an Amp sim with a nice panel UI and an effects unit, also with a nice UI. I want to make a Rackspace with both the amp and the effects unit by copying and pasting. I’m mainly interested in keeping the connections between widgets and block. I’m not so interested in transferring the state, though others might be.
In my use case, I’m building a mixer with numerous input channels and a number of processing blocks for each channel.
Step 1 - Create the panels for the block types. I’ll do one block type per Rackspace during initial development. Manual steps including mapping to a block, which can be done with a select and right click. Great feature. Then there is connecting to parameters, setting the GPScript name, and writing the scripts.
Step 2 - Copy the panel into the mixer Rackspace. Add a block to the Wiring. Set every parameter manually. Add the script to the Rackspace script editor.
Step 3 - Copy the panel within the mixer Rackspace for channel 2. Connect the parameters. Update the GPScipt names (since they would be “_1_1_1…” instead of “_02”. In an external editor, find and replace all instance of “_01” with “_02” and add it to the script.
Step 4 - Repeat a dozen times or so for every channel, then start again with the next plugin type.
Step 5 - Decide to change one item in a panel or change out an old plugin with a better one…
Should I be using Ableton Live or some other solution instead for mixing? I love the flexibility of Gig Performer, but it’s not labor efficient for scaling modules or groups of modules.
Maybe what is needed is one more level of abstraction - a Module, which is a combination of a Block and a group of Widgets, as well as a Module script. Just drop them into the Wiring view and they add their Rack panels in the Panel view. Drag the UI modules around where they best fit, delete empty Racks in the UI, and you’re all done but the wiring!
Any timesaver for building mixers with effects is much appreciated!