Using GP in a band setting with a MIDI click track (but no backing tracks)

General discussion about Gig Performer
1

Hi all - I play in several bands where a click track is supplied over audio, and could be supplied by MIDI. We do not use backing tracks. I wish to set up GP so that I can place MIDI actions at specific bar/beat positions so that it does two things:

  1. Send MIDI messages to external hardware
  2. Automate changes within GP itself (Rackspace selection etc)

I see mention that the Audio file player has a timeline for this purpose, but not the MIDI file player - which would be an option requiring me to create blank MIDI files.

And I could create blank audio tracks to run in the audio file player and use that.

But - as there is incoming MIDI clock/sync is there a way to add things to a MIDI based timeline. One reason for this would be flexibility - say the tempo was adjusted from one show to the next.

The idea of coding a script simply for a few PC messages seems like overkill and also very inflexible if quick changes need to be made.

Any suggestions on how best to approach this (or pointers to previous posts) would be much appreciated :slight_smile:

2

I do all my automations using global play and the timeline call back in GP script.

3

Thanks @pianopaul it does look like that is the only option in GP (at the moment)? I can’t imagine changing a script on stage if required is an easy job.

I am also looking at Camelot for this but currently even less suitable for the task as it doesn’t even have a timeline in bars/beats…

I might have to do this in a traditional DAW I guess..

4

What situations do you face that this would be required?

Here an example of a rackspace script

// Called at specfied bar:beats
On Timeline(bar : integer, beat : integer)  // EveryBeat
   
   1:1 
      DisplayTemporaryMessage("Starting")
      CloseAllPluginWindows(true)  // Close all plugin windows
      
   5:1         
      EnableMetronome(false) // Useful if you turned it on before starting
      
End
5

Thanks for providing an example - that’s useful context.

An example might be where the musical director decides to cut a 4 bar section, or change the time signature of a bar. You can probably tell that these bands are score/arrangement driven, a similar setup to what you might find in an theatre band situation I suppose. It doesn’t happen often but I suppose I am just balancing the ‘cognitive load’ of setting this up and maintaining it vs the gains to be had from automation.

6

OK, in this case a DAW is useful.