Rig Creation - Progress Update and Question

First off, thanks to the amazing responsiveness and support of you guys. It is really appreciated.

I am about 20% through the building of my songs (25 so far) for the covers we do and Gig Performer can do EVERYTHING my GR55 and Guitar/Piezo amplification did.

I checked my activity monitor and Gig Performer is consuming 15gb of memory and the file size is 56Meg. Less worried about file size but wondering if I should be concerned about the RAM as my intention is to run this on a Mac M1 with 16gb. Many rackspaces are loading a Sampletank instance which I’m sure is the driver as well as a Guitar Plug In .

Should I be concerned about this and for you M! users, same more specific question. I’ve been hearing incredible performance stories on the M1 from the forums but a little concerned about the 16gb limitation.

Thanks

MM

There are multiple considerations regarding RAM usage with GP (or any live host for that matter). Are you using a significant amount of samples per rackspace? Are you using predictive loading. A little more context will help us help you.

X

Thanks @xpansion! Some rackspaces will have more than others for sure (most have between 1-4 tones/parts. I haven’t turned on predictive loading yet as I’m still in the build mode. I’m just trying to avoid building a 125 song file that I then can’t use. I assume predictive loading will minimize the RAM requirements and load a select number of rackspaces which is fine as we wouldn’t go that quick from song to song.

More precautionary at this phase and trying to avoid pitfalls or dealbreakers. Thanks

MM

@WITELITE ,

For example, are you using some kind of sampler (Kontakt for example) and then loading large sample sets (in terms of memory usage) into them. Predictive loading will load the next X number of rackspaces based on your preferences rather than loading everything in at once.

There are also other ways to manage gig files other than having one large monolith that contains everything. I would not put all your eggs in one basket so to speak.

X

If you’re using Kontakt, check out this blog article we wrote on how to save significant amounts of RAM

https://gigperformer.com/how-to-save-a-ton-of-memory-if-youre-using-kontakt/

3 Likes

Thanks @dhj and @xpansion

I am using Sampletank and I will look to see if there are similar ideas to reduce RAM usage.

Im intrigued by the idea of separate gig files and how best to do it. Let’s say I have 4 gig files with 1/4 of the songs in each. When I go to make a set list for a show, how do I combine the songs from each of them that comprise the setlist?

MM

You can export a song and import it again.

I don’t think Sampletank has those capabilities.

@WITELITE,

I stopped using Sampletank with GP about 18 months ago. I found that in general, it just doesn’t ‘play well in live hosts in general (first Forte’ and then GP). Yes, it does work, and yes, it has some great sounds, but I don’t think it was really intended to be a live performance VST. Great for recording, but not as good for live (others may disagree). For a live performance sampler, IMHO Kontakt kicks Sampletanks’ #*&$(@(.

As far as how to handle songs/set lists. I don’t know how you might ‘subdivide’ your songs or work moving forward, but I would suggest a workflow in which you export rackspaces and/or songs to folders based on that subdivision. For example, if you work with multiple bands, create folders per band, or if you are working with a single band, subdivide by decade, or maybe genre. Either way, 100+ songs for a single gig file with tons of samples is probably a bit excessive for any live host.

food for thought,

X

It’s not that I disagree… your experience is your experience.

My experience is it’s never had a single issue for me (knocks on wood) in GP. I use ST4 in a very simple way… piano sample, one reverb effect, I change the pitch by -12 semitones and that’s it… it’s just a piano for me.

I have used 5 effects before but I wasn’t getting a lot of difference and so I saved some cycles and paired it down to 1.

There is a lot of functionality in ST4 that I don’t begin to scratch the surface of. I think if it use it for much more than what I am doing with it, you might risk less than ideal live functionality.

I think Kontakt is the better way to go for me and initial impressions are promising in regard to it. Thanks