My original plan was to use GP with my Electro 2 as a controller and continue using my Nord Stage classic independently. However, I’ve been really blown away by the quality of the plug ins im using and I’m thinking about using both Nords as controllers. My question is this; can I have one controller playing sounds from one Rackspace and another controller playing sounds from another rackspace? Or, do they have to be using the same rackspace? Ex, I have a rackspace for my B3 VSt and all of the controls that I would need for that. I have multiple rackspaces for my different piano and EP plug ins. Can I have the Stage controlling a piano rackspace and the Electro 2 controlling the B3 rackspace or would I have to combine them into one rackspace and add a panel?
Hello Fred - welcome to our community!
If I understand correctly - you would like to use 2 MIDI controllers and control sounds for those two controllers independently as if you had two hardware synths and independently selected the sounds and parameters on them?
If that’s the case - you will most likely want to take advantage of our unique “multi instance” feature. Basically - you will run two GPs independently. Once is completely controlled by the first controller - the other one by the second one. You can create as many backspaces for each controller as you want and independently switch between them. If you want to synchronize your switching for some backspaces - you can always have one GP instance send out a MIDI program change to another one via virtual MIDI ports as well.
If you do not need to independently control sounds for each keyboard - then you can always place two separate MIDI in block for the two controllers and connect them to different plugins. You can than have separate panels and widgets for each one in each rackspace. In this scenario - you can obviously have separate sounds and control for each keyboard, but only one rackspace can be active at a time so you would always be switching sounds for both controllers.
It really depends on your workflow. The multi-instance feature is not enabled by default - you have to go to options and enable it. Once enabled - you can go into File->Create new instance and give it a name - for example “Stage”. A new GP will open and it will give you a completely new set of options, backspaces and everything else independently from the first one. Once created - you can later open this instance any time from the File menu “Open existing instance”
Hope this helps. There are a lot of ways you can tackle this issue, but the multi-instance is unique to GP and is specially designed for people who want to completely independently use their controllers or want to add a separate vocal processing GP or even add other band members to the same computer (I regularly use a separate instance for a bass player in my band when we have a quick rehearsal and he does not want to carry his amp with him)
Thank you so much, this helped a lot. Your first assumption is correct; I’d like to use two controllers independent of each other. Can I import/export rackspaces? This would save a lot of time in setting up the second instance of GP. Thank you for the quick responses!
Fred, I would encourage you to use Nebojsa’s second suggestion and just create a rackspace per song (say) and put MIDI In blocks for each keyboard into the rackspace and the plugins for that rackspace. Then for your next song, if you want to use the same plugins but with slightly different settings, just duplicate the rackspace (or use variations) and tweak as desired. The Multiple Instance mechanism is really unnecessary for this purpose. For what it’s worth, my own live setup has 5 MIDI controllers, several MIDI expression pedals and various other MIDI devices, and I do everything just using rackspaces.
Edit: note that you are still using two independent controllers in this scenario, each one connected to its own plugins.
Thanks David, this second way would certainly help in saving time as i already have a bunch of rackspaces set up, configured, and mapped. As a “for instiance”; I currently have one rackspace for B3 and all the rest are pianos and EPs. If I wanted to use one controller just for B3, I would add a panel to each of my Piano and EP rackspaces for my B3 controls? Provided that I wanted to always have the option of playing some B3 along with my other sounds.
Well, you would also add the second MIDI In block and the B3 plugin as well. This is exactly what I do except that I don’t bother to add all B3 controls on every rackspace. For example, if I don’t need to change the Leslie in a particular rackspace, then I won’t bother adding a Leslie button on a panel, I’ll just configure the plugin to have Leslie enabled (or not) and save the rackspace.
For example, here’s the front of my Gig Performer showing a song where I have a rhodes piano and an organ
and here’s the back.
Each MIDI in block represents a different controller.
Out of curiosity, @David are you comfortable using only soft synths at gigs or do you have any hardware synths? I’m thinking of patching my Nord Stage into my mixer but only using it if my macbook fails.
Historically, I had been using a Korg Kronos and 4 controllers. Most of my sounds were through softsynths and a few went through the Kronos, which has a great synth engine. However, the reality for me is that if my computer went down, we’d be screwed anyway. I was never concerned about plugins but worried about the computer itself crashing/dying so my solution is to carry a spare computer!
As of three days ago, my entire setup for both my bands is plugin-only in Gig Performer and the Kronos has been replaced by a weighted controller with no internal sounds.
Apart from promises to customers, one of the reasons that Gig Performer itself will always be as rock solid as we can possibly make it is because we need it ourselves!
Right on. I appreciate the help, and continued kudos on a great product. It’s really made me reconsider how much I can rely on using my macbook and soft synths in a live setting.