I am newly returned to the world of Gig Performer, and last time I barely dipped my toes in.
I just picked up an M1 Mac Mini and it seems to be doing fine running everything I’d be doing in GP.
I would like to get a touchscreen monitor for this thing for live use so I can pick my presets and see a performance view similar to what you’d see on the Helix LT’s Performance View. I have quite a bit of width available on my pedalboard, but really only about 8” of height so probably looking at what they’d call a 10.1”.
Any recommendations?
I looked into using the iPad for this but seemed to have several issues where I may be better off plugging in something HDMI
Did you check those results? The relevant threads seem to be mine and one other. Lots about audio monitors and windows, but I’m kind of stuck on the mac options.
The Magedock recommended in the other thread is no longer available, is there something available now people would recommend?
A more expensive, but more versatile, option is an iPad plus either a VNC app (like Screens) or even better one of the ‘external monitor’ apps such as Duet or Luna. I use Luna - which uses a dongle on the Mac for a bit of hardware processing stuff compared to Duet that is all software - and it runs brilliantly. It feels really ‘native’. Can work over WiFi or USB. And you have an iPad as a bonus - obviously if you have one already then even better!
Ah, just actually read your OP and you said you tried iPad….. what issues did you find? Mine (M1 Pro connecting to an M2 Mini) has worked flawlessly with Luna.
I haven’t tried it yet but i hear its tricky, like it can’t be the only monitor? I guess I should try, I saw people recommend Yam, Duet, Jump Desktop and Luna for it.
I’m not 1000% sure that Gig Performer can actually do the visual setup I want, but seeing all the widgets and stuff, I bet it can.
Are you using the iPad as the primary monitor? How does it connect when you first turn on the Mac Mini?
As you can control GP using OSC, you also have options to use apps like TouchOSC on your iPad. With this you can have bidirectional sync with widgets, display/select songs and rackspaces and much more.
Eventually, what I’d like to do is similar to what the Helix Floor can, but with all the awesome extras Gig Performer allows:
I would like to have Rackspace Variations mapped to 7 of my MIDI pedal’s (in this case a Behringer FCB1010, but likely changing to a Paint Audio MIDI Captain) 10 switches, this would be similar to the Helix’s Snapshot system, but way better
an 8th switch would be for a specific CC to turn on or off a pitch plugin for when my singer would rather do a half step down
A 9th switch would be for a tuner and a 10th for tap tempo
I think this is all doable, but next is where I think it gets ugly:
On the Helix, I can set it so hitting either bank up or down button shows me all the presets in that bank and if I pick one (which to me would be akin to a Rackspace), the pedalboard goes back to picking snapshots (or variations)
If that isn’t doable, I figure, I can use the touch monitor or ipad or whatever to manually switch to a new rackspace, but if I have 100 presets normally, does that mean I’d have to load 100 instances of every plugin to have all those rackspaces?
I’m still really learning. I have a lot of concepts not quite figured yet
Luna can certainly be the only monitor - when I first moved to my Mac Mini setup, I had no “monitor” at all and basically did everything via the iPad. Details here: Headless Mode - Luna Display - Astropad. In terms of connecting when first turning on, it just works - you launch the app on the iPad and as soon as it can ‘see’ the Luna app on the Mac - which you just set to open at launch - then it connects.
As rank13 mentions, I’ve now moved to OSC for actual performance based control as touch control - not GPs fault - of MacOS is just too clunky and fiddly; a TouchOSC or whatever setup is far more effective for live control of GP, but having Luna available is great for being able to do any more ‘system’ level setup without a dedicated monitor.
I saw some very cool scripts, still getting into understanding how it works in GP, but very used to scripts from REAPER. Awesome that this is so customizable!
Just backing up @speed12’s comments here. Luna is by far the most reliable option for what you want to do. I tested an earlier generation Luna dongle around 7 years ago with a 2015 MacBook Pro (no SideCar) and a 2017 iPad Pro and I was incredibly impressed with its capabilities. Astropad are on their game.
I also bought Luna and it worked great when I started using it…then brought it to a show, & promptly lost the dongle right after! So I’m gonna go check out some portable touchscreen monitors haha
I bought Yam, and intend on setting up a virtual display for the primary, and then using the iPad Pro 13” for the secondary. It’s going onto a Pedalboard. It is a work on progress… I have a LOT of work to do both to set it up on a pedal board and then work on OSC/Gig Performer to make it a reality.
However I debated putting this on a Pedalboard as well. I bought it… but I don’t know if I’m gonna like that screen, its a bit small. But it is pretty nice, it works amazing and I really like it actually for my set up with my 60” TV. It sits right below it and acts as the primary monitor, so I can just keep the Mac dock on it and have the TV for everything else.
