Hi there.
I’m reading Gig Perfomer manual, I do not have the software.
From what I understand, it is really interesting and has a bunch of interesting features, but I do not understand if the software lets you create what I call patches. I mean the following concept. In many keyboards and modules, the basic brick is usually a patch (in Roland vocabulary, a voice in yamaha vocabulary, a program in Korg vocabulary, and so on…). So you can create a patch, let’s say a piano sound with all effects and editing done, and then use it in many performances or combinations (bundles of sounds).
The great advantage of this, is that when you change that patch, you do not have to change all the performances that use that patch. All the performances that use that patch will use the new editing.
I do not know if there is this possibility in Gig Perfomer.
It would be nice to create a set of atomic patches, and then use those in the wiring diagram as many times as you want, without having to change and re-assign the wiring whenever you make a small change to the basic patch.
Is something possible in Gig Performer 4?
Thx a lot.
It sounds like you should look into the song/setlist feature. You can link the same rackspace to many different songs/song parts. If you change that rackspace, the change will occur in all of your songs/parts that used this rackspace .
Don’t mistake the concept of GP with the concept of a single instrument (i.e a synthesizer)!
Gig Performer is much more than this and thus much more complex as well…
You should see Gig Performer as a virtual way to set up many complete (but diffrent) racks!
The usual way a keyborder would set up his gear would be to hardware wise connect a piano, an organ and a synthesizer (each with its individual sound/patch) in to a sub-mixer, maybe use some additional effects modules - all this using solid devices, cables and cases.
In the very most cases, a keyboarder is used to have such a hardware setup done only once and then change the sounds/patches and maybe also change or bypass an effect.
In Gig Performer you have a virtual way to have such a complete setup done diffrently for each Rackspace (i guess therefore the name!) - it’s not just a “patch” it can be seen as a whole new setup with completely diffrent devices (=plugins), complete diffrent effects, complete diffrent wiring, complete diffrent submixing, including some automation (by using GP script and such).
And using the concept of widgets on your panel, you can simplify the use of a very comlex setup by picking only the essential parameters that you actually need to change during your performance.
…of course also these widgets (respectively parameters) may change for each rackspace.
And, as already mentioned, there is a “link” concept if you use the setlist mode.
There you can use one rackspace/variation for multiple songs/songparts while the connection between them is just a “link”, so if you change the regarding rackspace, this change will affect every song/songpart which makes use of it.
I wouldn’t get too caught up in that. Once you get acquainted withe the way GP operates, you will see it gives you the flexibility and options you need. But, I think you sort of have to try to avoid going in with a preconceived notion of how it functions based on your experience with your hardware synth.
First within Gig Performer (host) you are using whatever plug-ins you want, which can have thousands of sounds (including sampled acoustic instruments, sampled synthesizer sounds, physically modeled synth sounds, physically modeled acoustic sounds, etc.). You can call them “patches” if you like.
Once you have a plugin (e.g. Kontakt, and Arturia softsynth synth, etc.) in a rackspace and you choose a sound you like, you can re-use that “rackspace” as many times as you want either directly (by triggering the rackspace variation) by associating it with a “song part” (Setlist Mode).
I guess the best analogue to what you are saying is you would us a rackspace with a certain sound (including whatever layers or splits you want). You can re-use that rackspace (that has the sounds you want) as much as your want, either directly or associating it with a song part.
So, if you use that rackspace in many song parts, and you tweak that rackspace, you do not have to repeat that “tweak” for each song part.
Thanks to all. That is clear, the solution seems to be to use setlist, songs & part.
I still have a missing bit. The point for me is the following:
let’s say that I have two good patches (rackspaces, if I undestand well) that I tweaked and I like, for example a piano and string. When I want a layered sound or maybe a splitted sound, should I create a third patch (rackspace) with all MIDI tweaking? That brings me to have now 3 patches (rackspaces), and if I change the first piano patch (rackspace), the third it is not updated.
So, the main doubt is: does layering/splitting implies a new patch?
Rackspaces cannot be layered, a rackspace is always its own entity.
But you could create a rackspace which contains the piano AND the strings and then do with the sounds whatever you want or need - splitting, layering, or both, or having each sound individually playing.
This would easily be doable, and using widgets to control the whole thing, any combination could be stored and recalled as a rackspace variation (this means, the state of the used widgets is stored and recalled), and evrything could also be altered on the fly (by hand, or midi controllers, or…)
So instead of three rackspaces (piano, strings and a split) you would only have one… sounds not too bad, does it?
As a consequence, if I have many piano related performances or combinations, they must all be inside the same rackspace, with different variations of the same rackspace. So, for all performances (combinations) where the piano appers, I should put all performances inside that rackspace as variations. For example, piano layered with strings, piano splitted with brass, piano layered with pad, and so on. in order to have a single twicked piano, all variations should go inside one rackspace.
Variations are a basic part of a rackspace - each rackspace must (and will) have at least one variation!
And just to make this point clear again: Variations only store the state of the widgets of the front panel - nothing more, nothing less! If there is no widget, there is nothing to store for a variation!
As Jeff said Gig Performer is extremely flexible and you decide what works for you. Some people have just a few rackspaces they use over many songs, some people prefer a single rackspace for each song it’s up to you what suits your style.
You also have a global rackspace that can hold those patches that you find you use in almost every song and in that case it can be layered with another rackspace.
It’s important to note that variations hold changes in widget states (widgets are the knobs, switches, sliders that control plugin parameters) they are not changes in the underlying wiring view.
If you consider a patch to be something like a group of wired plugins, potentially involving a GP mixer (for mixing layered sounds) and with a MIDI input (and/or an audio input) and an audio output, then your patch can be selected and saved as a favorite and reused in any other rackspace. But you cannot modify a favorite and have the modifications applied to all rackspaces in which your used this favorite before. I personally use favorites, but I never needed to modify a favorite and to apply the modifications in other rackspaces. As you can see there are a lot of possibilities with GP, and you will have to try them and decide which one is for you.
Congrats for reading the manual before trying GP. Many users start to use GP and eventually read the manual afterwards. I suppose, you will soon download and test GP?
I think the best way and maybe not for you or others is to put the piano sound assuming is the one you need all the time and maybe a couple more of the ones you use all the time in the Global Rackspace or better in a second instance. In each local rackspace you have the option to route midi to them and manipulate the range and transpose. You can use Osc midi but if you dont know how easy is to install and use loopmidi or similar
