What is the best way to bypass plugins in Gig Performer 5? I have been using Gig Performer for a while but just realized that if you pack a Rackspace with plugins (Instruments and Effects) the CPU usage starts to really skyrocket. My previous setups have not been this complex. This particular one has at least 100 items in the rack, and so need to bypass all unused plugins to bring the CPU usage to around 25-50%. Otherwise it sits at around 90%. I have been able to set up some switches to bypass some effects that I am controlling via knobs. Thatâs easy as by simply inverting the setting the knob at 0 effectively bypasses the effect and as soon as I bring up the knob and give it some value that plugin is now on. I have played around with note on/note off combinations to silence a plugin. But this time I would like to make a plugin active when I hold down a key on the controller and upon release the plugin is bypassed. I just canât make this work. I can make the plugin come on and off but only if I strike the note twice. Now, thatâs not right as I simply want the plugin to come on and off when I strike a particular key. What is the best way to do this? And I thank you all in advance.
First question is: do you really need this number in a single rackspace? If youâre not running them all simultaneously, then splitting them into separate rackspaces would make much more sense.
Are you bypassing plugins with knobs? Probably thatâs not the best way!
The problem is that I could break it up into multiple rackspaces but I found it difficult to change as there are no real breaks. And I did try the plugin persist idea but that didnât work. But anyway, less rack space changes, and changes where there is a break was the best way. But of course that means that each rack space is large.
How would you bypass plugins if you are controlling the wet mix with the knobs? Is there a better way than what I am doing?
PS I started off with 5 Rackspaces for the piece. I then found it hard to change. Having 3 Rackspaces means that I can change Rackspace twice where I have a three-bar break each time. These are the only breaks in the piece.
PS I used the knobs to bypass as I am already using them to bring up the wet signal. So I thought that this made sense as itâs in one move. The knob goes up, the plugin comes on, the mix level of the effect comes up; the mix level comes down, the plugin is bypassed.
Might this be the best way to bypass ALL the unused plugins? If I put this scriptlet in front of every plugin?
Plugin Persist 2.0
auto-sleep plugin on MIDI inactivity: Keyboards player usually have only two hands, such that they cannot play on more than two keyboards or key range splits at a time. But unfortunately, some plugins eats CPU even while waiting to be played. So, I added an option to disable plugins for which no MIDI activity is detected. This can save you a lot of CPU without having to manually activate/deactivate plugins.
The Best way is to use an on/off button and link it to the desired plugin. If i am understanding correctly, you are just muting signals which does not mean bypassing them. In a nutshell>add rhe button widget> link it to a single plugin,> find the bypass option in the list> try it as it might be inverted. Hopefully it helps
As far as i know there is no way to bypass them all in a single widget (maybe grouping them but i dont recommend this option for this case) you need to set the widgets, with their respective plugins to control, and then save their configuration via racsspace variations. Then you can controll plugin states with their last saved state in the variations
You dont need to add multiple backspace as long as the basic plugins parameter remains the same(idk how to explain this in a simple way but lets say you have a plugin with different amps, as long as you donât change the 1st amps, you donât need to create a new rackspace)
Maybe I donât fully understand this: why is (while performing) switching from one rackspace to another harder than pressing a button to bypass some plugins and activating others?
It seems to me what youâre doing is just mimicking what switching rackspaces does, but then without the benefits. Plugins that are bypassed will stop rather abruptly, sometimes causing artifacts.
But as I said: maybe I donât understand what youâre aiming at.
Thanks so much for your replies. And yes I didnât want to bypass them al in one go. But one at a time with some kind of automation. In other words automated by a certain note that I play on the controller. Rather than with a switch that requires me to press a switch and then play the bit I want to play. So yes a key automation (a note on other words would be great but could not get around the note on note off dilemma). But yes each plug-in that I have in a rack is unique and that is the problem. I have already placed the common effects in the global rack. Everything else is unique. So I can see that when I bypass plugins I restore the CPU usage. And that why I thought that what would work super great would be to take off the bypass of each set of plugins as I use them. And was looking for a kind of automatic way rather than having to press a buttom or a fader to turn them on each time. I though that maybe plug-in persist does that by disabling the plugins not in use but am not exactly sure how to set that up and whether that is automatic or it needs to be told via a switch.
It sound like you need some advance scripting. Not my area of expertiseâŚ
Do you ever use the 100 plugins all at one time? If not, you need to split your mega rack into multiple rackspaces, and switch between them.
Seamlessly swtching between rackspaces is a fundemental feature of GP and it should work flawlessly⌠if it didnât pretty much every user here would be up in arms!
Maybe try and get rackspace switching working for you on a simpler example, then youâll see how to apply it to your performance.
If you really do need 100 plugins working simultaneously, the only other option to avoid maxing out your cpu is to use multiple instances of GP and split your plugins across the instances - that should help as generally the instances work on different cpu cores, so the 100 plugins will not all be hammering the same core.
Thanks so much. And yes, the rackspace switching is what I had in mind at first but because there were no ârealâ breaks apart from 2 in the whole piece, I found it hard to make them seamless. Even though I have seen Plugin Persist work well in Variations I could not get it to work well in Rackspaces and kept losing the tail of the sound. Also, it took Gig Performer a second or two to stabilize after a rackspace change. That might have to do with CPU usage. Anyway, this is the first project where I have pushed things close to the edge and am looking for a solution for this specific project. In other words keeping it to 3 rackspaces so that I have a nice 3-bar space between rackspaces. They are the only empy bars in the whole piece. So that means finding a way to bypass plugins and make them functional as I use them. That seems to be the way out. But yes, of course, in my next project I might rethink things. And yes, when there are lots of 1-bar breaks in a piece you can easily have a dozen rackspaces. That seems to be the best way out I know.
And yes, scripting might be the solution. But I also have no ideaâŚ
Just a thought, but if it all boils up to just three âmonsterâ rackspaces, maybe using three instances of Gig Performer, each one running only one rackspace, could even out the CPU load a bit, since they would be distributed on diffrent CPU cores?
Thanks so much for the feedback everybody. I may have found the answer. I will post it here in case it comes in handy to some of you. And if you a better way than this please let me know. But this seems to be on the right track. Just have to experiment a little.