I think I now have the experience in using GP, and some spare time just now, to make the jump.
Before I start using it, I just want to be sure that I have understood things right, and ask a few questions.
I have two keyboards, an Arturia Keylab Mk II 88 and a Nord Electro 2.
The way I think of setting up my rigs is like this;
2 different rigs for either the Arturia or the Nord being the only and main keyboard
1 rig where I use both, The Arturia as the main keyboard and the Nord as an upper one.
In the MIDI Control Alias list I will set up aliases for for all knobs, buttons and faders that I can use from my Arturia. I’ll also set up aliases for knobs buttons and faders reflecting an extra keyboard that can be used from the Nord.
I suppose that when I use the rig that has the Nord as the only keyboard, the only problem I will have is that widgets that have aliases that the Nord is not mapped to in the Rig Manager, will have to be manipulated directly in the panel where they live.
In the rig with both keyboards, I, of course, will map the MIDI Control Aliases to the respective keyboards controls.
Does the above ramblings make it look like I have the right understanding?
Important question;
Do I need to get everything in my gig files changed at the same time to hva a functioning gig file, or will widgets not having been mapped to an alias still have contact with the physical control it was MIDI learnt to? (And will it be possible to MIDI learn directly from a controller after you have started using rigs?)
Don’t think of brands and models, think rather of generic keyboard controllers: e.g. lower_88_keys and upper_61_keys. The same regarding sliders, knobs of buttons controls: e.g. slider1, slider2, etc rather than nord_slider1 and nord_slider2.
Ok… in Rig Manager there are two types of aliases: Midi Device alias and Midi Control aliases.
The “device” alias can then be used i.e for MIDI-IN blocks (in the wiring view) and should be named as “Main Keys” and “Upper Keys” or something appropriate… this will give you more flexibility if it comes to a change of the used hardware.
The “Control” aliases are rather “model-oriented” because they will mirror the knobs/buttons you are planning to use from each keyboard.
As far as i understand, there is (theoretically) no need to make two separate Rig-setups.
Because, the usage of two keyboards or only one will most probably also be defined/reflected in your rackspaces - i suppose you will have rackspaces/panels which you would use with two keyboards, and others which you would use when you play only one keyboard. Right?
So, after you created the “Device” aliases for your two keyboards, you should create the appropriate Control aliases for the corresponding hardware controls.
I.e. “Art_B1” for button #1 of the Arturia, “Art_F1” (for a fader)… and “Nord_B1”… and so on.
For the widgets in your rackspace panels you would then use those aliases instead of the “physical Midi message”.
If you ever have to change the “source” of a used alias, you would do this change only once for each alias in the rig manager.
I.e. your own keyboard broke and you’ll have to use what is available at the venue…
In that case, you would do the following in the rig manager:
re-assign the new keyboard device to your alias (main keys)
re-assign the control aliases (knobs/buttons…) with those that are available
That’d be it! Should be a matter of a minute or two.
After that, every widget which uses one of those aliases will follow the new hardware.
Also the every Midi-In block in every rackspace which uses the corresponding device alias will be updated as well.
Wouldn’t it be better to use hardware independent names for the aliases, in case I should use the Nord as the only one? I know that it will work with hardware dependent names, but I then would have to map, for example the Nord volume knob to the alias Art_B1, cause that was the one used in a single keyboard situation?
Hehe… the curse of flexibility.
Personally, i like to be able to identify the underlying hardware device whe i assign a control alias to a widget - i only have one keyboard, but i also have a Behringer X-Touch mini (at home) and a Blackstar foot controller (in the rehearsal room) and all of them at least have 5 buttons, so what “universal” naming convention should i use for not getting completely confused when i select a midi-assignment for a widget from the aliases list?
For the quoted question:
I think this should be working exactly the way you described - cannot verify it though (still at work).
But this is something you can easily try by yourself! Dare to experiment! (But make a backup first )
Was just a little bit afraid the rig manager stuff was not reflected in the gig files themselves. I suppose I will have to take a backup of the whole gig performer folder structure
Sorry for the aside, but definitely getting used to how things work is key.
I used to get flustered when I set up my rigs for gigs and something did not work exactly as expected.
For example, neither of my two keyboards seemed to work because I had one set up keyboard on one midi channel and and the other on another one on a different midi channel. So I got no sound when the two keyboards got swapped.
I figured out if I put the keyboards in the proper input location in my USB hub and start both the keyboards up first (before starting GP), everything always works.
But, occasionally, I mess up and I do not turn on both of my keyboards before opening GP and/or I do not put them in the “right” location in my USB hub. When I do this I have the same “issue” (no sound).
But, I learned all I have to do is shut off both keyboards and start the digital piano/controller first, followed by my synth/controller and everything works. (I would rather not swap keyboards the Rig Manager, because I do not want to change the default settings going forward, which works perfectly if I do everything right when I set up the rig each gig).
So, the (long-winded) bigger point is, what used to fluster and paralyze me is now something that I know how to deal with.
I consider that what you need in your gig file is a control that’s named after what it’s supposed to do, regardless of whether it comes from one piece of hardware or another. And that’s because you can easily replace it with another if it breaks down. For example, imagine you have a sustain pedal connected to your Arturia that fails, then you can connect any switch pedal to the North, relearn your sustain_pedal control alias name and it will work in all Rackspace. If your Arturia breaks down while you were using its sliders as slider1, slider2, slider 3… You can then replace this keyboard with any other controller keyboard that may not have sliders. If you have a cheap control surface as a spare, just plug it in, relearn the cursors in Rig Manager and there you go. You can name these sliders Arturia_slider1 and so on, but does that still make sense then? Anyway, if you start using Rig Manager, you’ll be safe side.
No. Have been away for a few hours, but already went for your way to do it before you wrote your answer.
I call faders meant to be mapped to my main keyboard FM1, FM2 and so on, then I call faders meant to be mapped to my secondary keyboard FS1, FS2 and so on. That makes the aliases hardware independent.
I know. Getting used to things, doing it enough times, is what is needed.
I don’t have your problems with the order of turning on things. The Nord Electro 2 is too old to have MIDI over USB, so I connect it directly to my Focusrite 6i6 sound card with a 5-pin DIN cable. In the rig manager it doesn’t show up with it’s hardware name, it just shows up as Focusrite USB MIDI. That’s ok with me.
It does take a bit of thought to understand the abstraction, but once you do it really makes sense. I started with physical controller names also but it only took the first time using a different controller to make it all make sense.
I’ve taken the leap and completed my Rig Manager setup. Very satisfied so far!
Have set up one rig for using my Keylab as the only keyboard, one for using my Nord as the only keyboard and one for using the Keylab as the main keyboard and the Nord as a secondary, upper keyboard.
Everything working as it should!
Just one little question before I go on to the next things I need to get in order in GP;
Is there any consistency, of course there must be, after all GP is a program, that does the same thing in the same way every time, in what happens when opening old, pre Rig Manager setup, gig files?
I have tried out a few files of that kind. It seems like in some rackspaces the widgets are magically reassigned to the MIDI device aliases on their own, while some of the rackspaces still have widgets that where assigned to the same physical knob retaining, at least if you go by what’s displayed, their assignment to the physical keyboard knob?
Yes, if the MIDI message used by a widget is later defined in the rig manager, the widget will then use that alias instead of the raw message. That’s the whole point
I have understod the whole time the use of the alias was the point.
However, some video, or writing, have left me with the impression that there was a lot of work after starting with Rig Manager, going through excisting rackspaces, manually assosiating the widget with the aliases.
In fact, that was part of the reason I waited so long before starting to use Rig Manager. I thought I would need a lot of time to make my gigfile ready for the next gig
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