Yet another Noob looking at converting from Mainstage

General discussion about Gig Performer
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Firstly my apologies as I am sure most of the answers are somewhere on here, but I am working 4 jobs ATM, and a little time poor(tomorrow is my 12th day straight working) . I play in a Rock covers band, and I am basically a 54yo guitarist playing Synths. I have been using Mainstage, and I found it struggling on a 2013 MB, so I purchased an M1 MB Pro 8/512. I find it quite often struggles, and spins around. Fortunately consolidating the concert helps a lot, but I found using 3rd party plugins would slow it down, or cause it to crash. I also find sometimes, it does not save Volume settings, or Solo settings, so I have to manually select them.
several months ago, I saw VST Live, and purchased it, being a student for a good intro price. What a waste. Its pretty much in Beta.

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So this is my setup, I have a Kontakt S49Mk2 + Nektar LS49 as my controllers relying on my Macbook Pro for Sound and a Focusrite 2i2 as the Audio Interface which goes into a Sound Mixer than PA. I also sometimes use an Alesis Vortex 2 Keytar. I have Linkesoft Songbook to display my setlist and songs, as well as send song changes to Mainstage to change songs, however it is limited to 128 songs (As yet I haven’t been able to successfully change songs using banks etc). I also rely on the Chord Trigger heavily (so I can do backing vocals easier), plus sometimes use the Arpeggiator. I have quite a few sounds from Kontakt, some from IK Multimedia including the Hammond Organ B3X, and Roland Sound Manager
We have about 120 songs on hand for various gigs. From what I have seen,Gig Performer looks good. I will probably use the trial first, and no doubt have a lot of work converting, before I can use it live.

  • As far as chord triggers go, I have seen Ripchord. I assume that is the best freeware one, that looks as easy as the one in Mainstage?
  • I haven’t found an easy arpeggiator as yet.
  • Any recommended effects for Chorus, Reverb, Delay?
  • Can I send the chordpro output from GP to my iPad, or will I continue to use Linkesoft on my iPad to control patches on GP (assuming I can get over the 128 limit). Linkesoft has been playing up lately on my MB Pro. I previously used Onsong, but got sick of paying the ‘Hillsong’ yearly tax.

Thank you in Advance, however I will look through this forum when I have time.

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Hi @Darug, welcome to the family.

  • I haven’t found an easy arpeggiator as yet.

Take a look at CTHULHU, it has chord trigger and arpeggiator.

  • Any recommended effects for Chorus, Reverb, Delay?
    Are you looking for free vst or paid?

  • Can I send the chordpro output from GP to my iPad
    What do you want to control/play on your iPad?

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TAL Chorus TAL Software

Screenshot 2022-11-17 at 3.28.50 pm

TAL Reverb TAL Software

Screenshot 2022-11-17 at 3.28.38 pm
Screenshot 2022-11-17 at 3.28.38 pm832×410 99.8 KB

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Hi @Darug, welcome to this GP community forum. We hope you will test GP, be as happy as we are and join the familly here :wink:

I started to use an arpeggiator for the first time of my life last week-end. I read the manual of BlueARP during my breakfast and used it with GP in the afternoon. I think it is cleverly done, but it is the first I use one, so I don’t know how it compares with other, but I like it. It is free and downloadable here:

https://graywolf2004.net/wp/

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Thank you for the tips so far.
I have downloaded the demo, but the main windows doesn’t seem to move from my Macbook. I have a 32" screen and a 27" screen that would be better if I could move it to there.

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Hi, I downloaded but it gives some message about MacOs not being able to scan it and needs an update.

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What main window do you mean?
Can you post a screenshot?

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All good, I just wasn’t seeing the top panel. I have a new A-Logic Dock, and I have 2 external screens. I am just trying to iron out the bugs. Windows is so Easy, but MacOS? Argh!

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What bugs?

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Sorry the bugs are with my setup. I have a new Alogic Display dock, and when it goes into standby mode, the external monitors don’t come back on. One is about 10 years old.

As far as GP goes it’s more, just working on it getting the patches, song changes and chords going, so they are similar to what I am used to in Mainstage. I relied heavilly on Apples sounds, as some 3rd party sounds would crash. I have Syntronik on here which is taking up about 80GB of room, and I am thinking about ‘trimming’ it.

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Now I have an issue. The trial has expired before I could check it out and make sure it is okay.

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Thank you for creating a support ticket. I fixed it, you should be able to have your trial.

2 Likes
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Thank you.