On my last 3 or 4 days with the trial version. Great piece of software. Hoping this is what I need, but let me explain further. I do tribute shows. I have a Jimmy Buffet tribute coming up in April. In front of me I have a Montage M8X with a Hammond XK3c. I just received an Arturia Keylab mk3 61 that I want to set to the right side of me to use for secondary instruments. In the case of Jimmy Buffet, I would need to start with steel drums and then have a setting for brass. I know the Montage does a lot of splits and scenes within a preset. I just felt a lot of the VST samples are more realistic sounding then the built in samples. So the Arturia would be hooked to the Mac and GP. If I’m playing a piano part and have GP set to brass and then during the second verse I need the steel drums, how do I switch to steel drums without interfering with my piano playing? Is that possible? Just trying to make the right decision. Thanks in advance Lanny
Many ways to do this - depends really on how you want to control your Montage
Where is the piano sound being generated? From the Montage or from a plugin?
Personally, I would turn off LOCAL ON on the Montage and route MIDI from the Montage into GP and then route MIDI back to Montage.
Then you can essentially treat the Montage as if it was another plugin.
A great thing about Gig Performer is that you can control things in many different ways. At one extreme, you can use sequencing and have everything automated. At the other extreme, you can select sounds individually and manually.
Regarding switching sounds without affecting piano playing, do you want to do so with a foot switch? If you have a soft or sostenuto pedal, you could potentially switch to a special setup for that song that repurposes the soft pedal for that song only.
Let us know what you want to control and how you’d like to control it, and we can recommend solutions.
+1 for the footswitch solution. I bought a M-Vave Cuvave Switch that do this work for me.
Switch hase four programmable switches (foot) and a female 6.3 jack where i connect a Boss expression pedal: it’s connected to my computer via USB.
Into GigPerformer I use it in 3 different ways:
- Footswitch A and B let me browse song parts up and down so I can change rackspaces without leaving my hands from keyboards
- Footswitch C starts and stops GigPerformer metronome (in this way i can start/stop the click anytime)
- Footswitch D is used for generic pourposes (managed by rackspace input blocks or panels)
- Expression Pedal is routed per-rackspace so I use a single expression controller for the entire show with all my soft and hardware synths.
Another good idea is using turning off LOCAL ON and routing midi signals in GigPerformer (you can send program changes at rackspace/song loading)
You could sample the VST’s and load them in to the Montage. This is what I used to do in the past.
That’s the wrong way around 
haha. I thought the might be a bit contriversal, maybe even get me banned 
Hey guys,
Thanks for all the input. Massive help. I made the purchase. One of the contributing factors was that one of the developers reached out and physically called me. I was floored. We had a great conversation. MAJOR LEAGUE SHOUT OUT.The dude is a programming genius and only 1 year younger than I am. I feel like I’m from the stone age. LOL. For 40+ years I’ve avoided MIDI. If it wasn’t built in, forget it. So this is all new to me. I’m watching as many videos as I can. Maybe if you could suggest absolute beginner tutorials to start with. Thanks again for all the input. More questions to come, I’m sure. 
Welcome to the ever-growing crowd!
Welcome! 
Read this: Getting started with Gig Performer - Gig Performer®
lannyg22
For 40+ years I’ve avoided MIDI. If it wasn’t built in, forget it. So this is all new to me.
I can relate. I remember when it felt very complicated to me, then after using it a bit, it clicked.
My recommendation is to focus on Note On and Note Off, and CC changes, and don’t worry about anything else at first. The next layer is Program and Bank changes (and Bank is just CC messages, followed by a Program change.) Pitch change is a unique message, but it just acts like a CC message with double resolution.
After a bit you’ll wonder why it felt difficult at all.
If anything, using Gig Performer is a great way to learn MIDI one layer at a time.
Definitely need details of whether you are using the Montage piano or a plug in.
If you are using a Montage Piano, then need to know if you are running audio from the Montage into GP.
If not. I don’t (it made it easier initially, but in the long run it it probably better practice to do it), then I would do the following:
I use Setlist mode. I would change song parts to change sounds.
The different song parts could be connected to one rackspace with the steel drums and another rackspace with brass.
But, it might be better to put the steel drums and horns on the same rackspace and then use widgets to bypass the plugin you are not using. I would use a different variations depending on what is bypassed and change song parts to change variations.
Maybe start the simple way (different rackspaces for horns and steel drums) and then later start looking into using widgets to bypass some plugins and switching variations.
I hope this helps a bit…
Jeff