Gig Performer 3 with setlist support debuts at NAMM 2019

16 Jan Gig Performer 3 with setlist support debuts at NAMM 2019

Posted at 11:17h in Gig Performer Blog, Uncategorized by

At this year’s NAMM show we will be debuting Version 3 of Gig Performer, our VST, VST3, AU live performance audio plug-in host for Mac and Windows systems.

At the Anaheim Convention Center, January 24-27, live demonstrations of Gig Performer 3.0 will be presented at Ilio (ACC Hall A, booth #11910) and TASCAM (ACC North Hall #18910).

Gig Performer 3 in the setlist mode.
Gig Performer 3 in the Setlist view

Renowned for its rock-solid stability, low CPU usage, ease of use, and flexibility, Gig Performer 3 adds a bevy of powerful new capabilities, especially to the program’s control features.

The addition of setlists came largely by popular request. In Gig Performer, users create complete systems of plug-ins and controllers and store them as rackspaces, each of which can have settings presets called “variations.” Gig Performer 3 adds the ability to create setlists of songs, each song consisting of a number of parts (rackspace variations).

Before, Gig Performer users often created a rackspace for each song; Gig Performer 3 setlists allow rackspaces to be reused. For example, a single rackspace containing an acoustic piano sound can be reused to cover 10 songs needing piano. Reusing rackspaces greatly reduces load times and memory needs. Guitarists will love that a song part can be accessed using a MIDI pedal controller, as well as from a control surface or Gig Performer’s main window. New OSC commands load songs or song parts, and parts can be laid out onscreen to mimic the physical layout of a MIDI foot controller, making the display more intuitive to use.

Gig Performer’s Predictive Loading feature, which slims resource demands by loading only the next few rackspaces that will be needed, can now be applied at the song level. All parts of a song are loaded into memory when the song is selected for glitchless, instant switching. At the same time, Predictive Loading limits CPU and memory requirements.

Control surface support has been strengthened with the addition of bidirectional MIDI control of widgets on Gig Performer rack panels, and the program now allows programming and transmitting SysEx (MIDI System Exclusive) messages, commonly used with hardware synthesizers.

Gig Performer 3 displaying the Chords/Lyrics window for the current song
Gig Performer 3 displaying the Chords/Lyrics window for the current song.

Gig Performer 3 adds support for the Chord Pro lead sheet format. This allows Chord Pro documents to be created, edited, and linked to songs in a setlist so a chords-and-lyrics chart can be opened when a song is selected. Version 3 also introduces the ability to synchronize Gig Performer with other applications on a wireless network, using Ableton Link. Design workflow enhancements include inserting multiple widgets simultaneously and using new keyboard shortcuts to arrange them on a rack panel.

To supplement Gig Performer’s popular Audio Recorder, Gig Performer 3 adds a MIDI recorder, which records incoming events from each MIDI device connected to Gig Performer to a separate track in a format 1 Standard MIDI File (SMF) that can be imported into a DAW for post-processing.

Related topics:
– Still on Gig Performer 3? Ten keys reasons to upgrade (Blog)
– What’s new in Gig Performer 4 (User Manual)
– Gig Performer in Action at NAMM 2022 (Community)

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Scaling Curves

Scaling curves allow you to control the shape of the output of a widget or convert an incoming note velocity to a new velocity. Various predefined curves are available and they can be tweaked as necessary. You can also just draw your own curve as well to achieve the effect you require.

 

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MIDI File Player Plugin

You can load up to 128 MIDI song files in a single plugin instance. Switch from one song to another, mute tracks and/or change their channel numbers. Tempo can be controlled by individual songs or you can use the global tempo and tap tempo to control the BPM interactively.

 

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Favorites and Presets

Create a sound by placing and interconnecting your desired plugins, such as a synth, some effects and perhaps a mixer. Select them all and then save the selection as a named favorite. The favorite will subsequently show up in all plugin insert menus, making it easy for you to recreate that configuration whenever you need it again. This feature is also very powerful for creating your needed sounds on your studio computer and then transferring them to your touring laptop.

 

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Probabilistic Sound Designer

Parameters you select in an open plugin are captured into the Probabilistic Sound Designer dialog window. When you click Randomize, you're only adjusting those selected parameters. Each entry in the PSD dialog has a curve but unlike widgets where the curve controls scaling, in the PSD the curves are used to define the probability of particular values being selected. Make sure the filter cutoff never gets too slow so as to block all sound. Perhaps adjust the max range of the VCA attack parameter so that the sound doesn't have too much delay. Constrain the octave ranges of the oscillators, perhaps ensuring that 1/3rd of the time we select 8' and 2/3rds of the time we select 4'. The possibilities are endless.

 

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More Widgets

Numerous new widgets are included in Gig Performer - a new sustain pedal, plastic knobs, drum pads and more colored sliders. Shapes can be colored with different borders and fill colors and morphed from rectangular to circular. Your creativity is now the limit to creating fabulous front panels in Gig Performer.

 

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MIDI Message Helper

Select MIDI devices by name. Choose the MIDI message type and adjust the appropriate parameters for the specific type

 

  

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Layout management

Gig Performer supports arbitrary resizing. Layout your widgets the way you want - resize the main window and the widgets will grow or shrink as necessary to maintain the same interrelationships. No matter what size screen you have, your front panels will still be neat and usable.

 

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Undo Support

If you move your widgets around and/or resize them, or even delete them by mistake, the Undo facility will correct your mistake. Minor moves to a widget by mistake will no longer spoil your design

 

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Plugin Channel Count

Some plugins support a large number of outputs and they depend on the traditional channel strip to control how many ports should be available.   When you only need a stereo pair, it is convenient not to have a large horizontal block. In Gig Performer, the number of available ports  is controlled by the channel count override, which can be applied to individual plugins and will be remembered when the gigfile is reloaded or if the plugin is saved as a favorite.

 

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Input muting and output fading

Rather than a single audio length tail, Gig Performer 4 gives you the ability to control input muting and output fading separately. Input muting controls how much time it takes for audio input to be silenced when you leave the rackspace. Output fading controls how much time will be taken for audio to fade out when you leave the rackspace.

 

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Faster Plugin Finder

Instead of searching through menus of perhaps hundreds of plugins (you know who you are!), the Quick Plugin Finder makes it easy to find the plugin you need by simply typing partial strings. For example, as shown here, to find the Modartt Pianoteq 7 plugins, it's enough to type pia mod 7 (in any order, by the way)  to restrict the list of available plugins to those matching your query. The Quick Plugin Finder also knows about manufacturers, presets and favorites.

 

  

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Touch Friendly Input

Any entry field can be changed by either dragging your mouse (or finger) up or down, or by using the large popup touchpad where you can just tap on the squares to enter a value. The large popup keypad also does validation so you can't enter an invalid value. You can also just tap the BPM field to pop up a larger view where you can quickly change tempo, tranpose, trigger Tap Tempo and enable Ableton Link, the last allowing you to synchronize Gig Performer with any other application that also supports Ableton Link.

 

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New Tuner Display

The tuner view makes it easy for guitarists to quickly check and adjust their tuning. You can toggle into the tuner view from any other view and toggle right back as soon as you're done. All output will be silenced automatically while you're in tuning mode. You can adjust the concert reference pitch from its default of 440 Hz to suit your own needs. The tuner view fills the entire screen so you can easily see it from a distance.

 

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