I’m in a band that does a lot of improvising. We have songs where the presets are carefully set up. But I would like to freely jump to different unplanned rackspaces or variants within those songs. I thought I could do that with “previous/next reckspace” but that doesn’t work when in Setlist mode. Any other ideas how to do that? I am able to send a previous/next Instrument/Preset in Pianoteq which might be a good workaround. Just wondering.
There are a number of discussions about this with various options.
Maybe start by doing a search in the forum for the term “selector”.
Then maybe try other searches so you can get up to speed on some of the options.
I think basically you would need a controller where buttons could be assigned to certain PC numbers to call up a rackspace you want (in rackspace mode) (or you could do it by song in setlist mode).
Yes, that is by design.
You have to switch to Rackspace View.
I guess I am wondering how you think you would be able to “freely jump to a different unplanned rackspace or varia[tion]” by using the “previous/next” rackspace/variation or song/song part.
I think you would typically use a Program Change (PC) command to select a specific rackspace variation or song part.
My current approach to Gig Performer is to put all of my regularly-used instruments into the Global Rackspace. The signals from those instruments then go to the Local Rackspace, in case I want to apply unique effects, then back to the Global Rackspace for mixing and any standard effects, like a bus for reverb. Then mastering/limiting and out to the audio card.
Note that I’m doing a kind of one-man-band, so I have, drums, bass, piano, etc., etc.
Every instrument can be Bypassed, leaving it in RAM, but having no CPU load, and I can mute the input to any instrument (by blocking Note On, or muting input audio for guitar/voice), when I want to stop new notes from playing, but allowing old notes to be held or ring.
The Local Rackspace maps my keys, pads and controls with MIDI routing and handling. This is where I do keyboard splits and other unique control stuff.
There are many advantages to this. First, I load each item once, so load times are fast. Second, I can have any combination of instruments by just enabling the ones I want in any given Variation. Third, every oft-used instrument is available in any Rackspace at the touch of a Widget or two (one to enable the plugin and the other to un-mute Note On or the input signal.)
This approach could allow some improvisation. Let’s say you’re in a given song part, and the variation has enabled piano and a given synth sound. If you have hardware buttons that can disable the synth and enable, say, a B3, you could push those buttons and start playing organ blues. Go to the next Song Part, and you’re right back into your scripted music.
Gig Performer makes this pretty straightforward. Put your instrument and any control Widgets that you need in the Global Rackspace (including Widgets to bypass the instrument and to mute its input notes.) . Assign a Global Parameter number to each Widget. Copy those Widgets to the Local Rackspace. They will automatically be linked to the corresponding Global Widgets. Great feature! Now you can control the configuration of your instrument with Variations, physical MIDI controls, or scripts,
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Did I ask you this before? Are you feeding MIDI to those instruments and playing along with that?
Yes, mostly virtual instruments. Also guitar and mic. It’s mostly instrumental.
I put all of the virtual instruments that I use more than once in the global rackspace. Same with vocal processing and guitar amp sims. Those outputs go to the local rackspace. Any unique processing and one-off virtual instruments are Local. Then back to the Global Rackspace for looping and mixing.
The key to this is being able to turn off (bypass) unused, Global plugin blocks, so I don’t overload the CPU. I can also mute signals and keep a plugin alive, when I want the tails to ring.
In general, I host things Globally by and I control things Locally. My load times are very fast, all things considered.
Great minds think alike because this is the exact way I use GP
So the MIDI In blocks are in the Local rackspace, connected to the Global instruments. What happens if you hold a note and switch to another rackspace?
@schamass came up with a pretty good way to handle tails. It involves a little scripting. But when you set the bypass on a VST, the “envelope follower” holds it until the gate detects no more signal and then closes it. I used it in my JAM RackSpace . It should work as well in global as local.
My reasoning for not going that route is I tend to tweak settings for each instrument for each song. I don’t think individual song settings will be retained with the VST in global. Wouldn’t I need to build a script for each song to adjust settings for each appropriately? I also may have different splits, up to 5 in some cases. Again, I would think I would have to script to set those splits in global for each song. I would be curious to see an example of your gig file to see how you handle things.
Since each Local Rackspace is mainly for control,rather than for processing, I just create as many variations as I need for a given song.
If I were to switch to another rackspace with similar MIDI routing and control settings, I expect that it would work without any problems, since the audio signal flow is in the Global Rackspace. Of course, if the Local Rackspace does some processing between the From Global Rackspace and To Global Rackspace blocks, there would be discontinuity.
But this to be expected. I generally stay within one Rackspace for a song.
The ability to keep a plugin alive until the tails die is excellent. I’ll look into this.
Regarding splits and settings, I handle these locally. I then send the MIDI to the Global Rackspace via a virtual MIDI port.
Philosophically, the Global Rackspace has the sounds. If I’m composing in a sequencer or notation program, I can have one channel for drums, another for piano, etc. without concern for the physical controllers. I just need to have the right Variation or Song Part selected, so the sounds are active.
I have a different MIDI port available if I want to emulate my physical playing. It can emulate moving controls, playing within certain splits, etc.
Sometimes I want to compose without thinking about how my controllers are mapped. I just want to think about the instruments and sounds. This is the global point of view.
Al other times, I need to think about my playing the controllers at hand (and at foot). This is the Local View.
Global is about what the sounds are. Local is about how I play or loop it, what auto harmonies are generated, etc.
This lets me write a piece of music first and then figure out how the heck I’ll pull it off!
That’s the trick right there.
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