Hi Leroy,
“variations” in GigPerformer only store/recall the states of the widgets that are used on the corresponding rackspace panel - so if you don’t have any widgets in your rackspace there will be nothing to store or recall.
Since i don’t have your soft- and hardware and i literally know almost nothing about it, it is quite difficult to say something helpful. That’s why i’d like to propose to build a common base to work with, because i guess there are still some missunderstandings on how things work.
I built a small rackspace with two VSTs from BlueCat Audio, which are both free of charge and which you can download here:
https://www.bluecataudio.com/Download/Products/
I used the FreeAmp and the Chorus VSTs (they are available for WIN and MAC).
Please install both as a normal (64bit) VST and then have a look at this rackspace:
guitar_rack_3V.rackspace (38.7 KB)
There are three rackspace variations, and as you switch through them, the widgets will get diffrent settings - and that is all that’s happening: A variation only recalls the settings of a bunch of widgets.
So, since those widgets are connected (“learned”) to some parameters of the VSTs, the change of a widget setting will also change the corresponding VST-parameter and so it will change the sound.
What is NOT stored within a variation, is anything that is not somehow presented by a widget, so any other parameter or program/patch of a VST that is not “caught” by a widget will not be changed by a variation - these things are stored within the rackspace itself.
At this point there is still no midi connection needed to make things work.
You can now MIDI-learn a widget to a hardware controller, so that using this controller will then change the state of the widget, which will then change the VST-parameter, which will change the sound. Get it?
As an example: Midi-learn the pedal-widget to your hardware pedal (i guess your device might have one). Now that the widget “catches” the MIDI-parameter you learned it to, you might be able to change the main volume with your controller pedal.
If you have a look at the connection view, you will notice, that there is actually no MIDI-connection to the plugin blocks but everything does work nevertheless. This is because we are using widgets - they work as something as a “go-between”, or a connection element between the hardware world and the software world. The connection between hardware and widget happens via MIDI, but the connection between the widgets and the VSTs happens via “Host Automation”, which is something completely diffrent - but you don’t have to worry about this, because THIS is the job that GigPerformer will do for you.
Hmm… this has become longer than expected. Nevermind.
I hope, this might help you to better understand how things work with GigPerformer.
And again, if you have questions: Ask!