As an ultimate enhancer, Gig Performer significantly enhances not only your computer-based setup but also your overall music making experience.
Gig Performer is not just another VST host – its impressive feature set allows live performers to improve every aspect of their setups, e.g. streamline their experience with their MIDI controller, their plugins, or backline gear. In the blog article Gig Performer is the best companion for all your musical efforts and more we summarized interesting use cases found in our community, sharing experiences of our users and explaining why Gig Performer is the perfect fit for many fields where stability and reliability are of utmost importance. In this article, we’ll focus on the benefits – what Gig Performer can do for you and how it will enhance your performance.
While experienced Gig Performer users generally know most of the the things we’ll mention below, this article is particularly useful for new Gig Performer users as well as users who have not yet tried Gig Performer.
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Gig Performer improves the functionality of your MIDI controller
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Wouldn’t it be great if you could add poly-aftertouch functionality to a keyboard that doesn’t support this feature? Well, you can approximate that functionality with Gig Performer through the use of scriptlet that will allow you to apply poly-touch to the last note down. In the article The most flexible MIDI processing we described powerful MIDI capabilities in Gig Performer, along with scripts and custom, ready-to-use MIDI plugins called Scriptlets. You simply download the Poly AT Scriptlet, wire it – and that’s it! You can see this feature in action in this YouTube Short:
Scriptlets can also help you completely revamp and modernize your playing experience. For your convenience, we have compiled a list of scriptlets along with their descriptions in this thread.
Next, in some cases, you may stumble upon USB foot switches that can’t be configured to send MIDI at all – they send computer keystrokes. In this community community thread there is an example of such an USB foot switch that simulates the letter “b” on the computer keyboard. Since, Gig Performer can respond to keystrokes, you could use this foot switch to, for example, change rackspaces or songs.
Another common thing that may happen is that your pedal has the wrong polarity. Check out this YouTube Short to see how Gig Performer can solve this issue.
It can also happen that your MIDI controller occasionally sends faulty MIDI messages. Gig Performer can also help to streamline your playing despite faulty messages. For example, in this thread a user reported that on rare occasions his Arturia KeyLab 88 sent a note at a velocity of 127, even if he was playing softly. In another thread, a user reported that his Korg Kronos would send CC events, that would later affect his setup “in strange ways”. You can visit these threads to see how these users solved the problem.
A somewhat special case is dealing with backline gear, and that will be also covered below.
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Gig Performer improves the functionality of your plugins
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In this section, we’ll present a couple of examples of how Gig Performer can improve your experience with your plugins.
First, very few VST synth plugins have a Sostenuto feature. Using Gig Performer, it is very easy to add this feature to any VST. Check out the YouTube Short below:
Next, in this thread you can see an example how Gig Performer can be used to enrich the built-in looper in the TH-U plugin with some extra features.
Further, you may have certainly stumbled upon plugins that have a noticeable lag when they change their presets. Gig Performer’s rackspace mechanism allows you to avoid these shortcomings — putting the presets in separate rackspaces allows the patch changes to be instant (zero latency), and glitch-free. See this YouTube video for a quick demonstration.
If the GUI of a plugin is particularly unintuitive, cumbersome or otherwise hard to get around, you can build your own custom panels for those plugins and adapt the layout to suit your taste perfectly. In this thread you can see an example with MSuperLooper.
Needles to say, Gig Performer can also help to work around certain plugins issues or undesirable behavior. For example, in this thread, a Zendrum user describes how he solved the issue where depressing the pedal didn’t create a “chick” sound in Toontrack (and probably many other) drum instruments. Another example is this thread where a plugin didn’t initialize properly and Gig Performer’s Plugin manager helped to solve the issue. It can also happen that a plugin doesn’t notify the host about parameter changes. Gig Performer has a solution for that as well.
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Streamlined experience with different rigs and stress-free integration with backline gear
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The Rig Manager is a powerful feature that can not only help you switch quickly and flawlessly from your home to your studio rig or differentiate between the same keyboards, but also handle rented or back-lined gear. You can set up the rig that your venue provides in a few minutes. To see how this feature works, check out the video below:
Additionally, we have this blog article that specifically addresses caveats that can arise when you use back-lined or rented keyboards.
Another interesting issue that can arise when you use a different rig is that stuck notes can arise due to half pedaling. Click here to see how Gig Performer can help to solve the issue.
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Gig Performer can even enhance its own functionality!
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Yes, that’s true – Gig Performer can even enhance its own functionality! Since it provides developers with an SDK, it supports third-party extensions that can extend Gig Performer with new features. For example, take a look at the Advanced Song Chooser extension:
To learn more about extensions and see the list of available extensions (free and paid), see this link.
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Gig Performer enhances the manageability and integration with your external devices
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Not only is Gig Performer an ultimate enhancer for all the aspects mentioned above – the sophisticated extensions, MIDI and OSC support allows Gig Performer to seamlessly integrate with external hardware.
For example, this extension allows for integration with MCU compatible devices such as the Icon Platform M+, Behringer X-Touch, and the PreSonus Faderport 8. Click here to check out the extension for the Novation SL MK3 series keyboards and click here to see the extension for Morning Star MC8, MC6, and MC6 Pro.
Check out this this article if you use an RJM GT Mastermind and this gig file if you use a Boss SY1000.
Finally, Stream Deck users can make the most of their devices with this extension.
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Gig Performer enhances your experience and adapts to your personal feel
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Having supreme configurability, Gig Performer allows users to design their workflow the exact way they want it to be. It will not only adapt to the visual representation of controls you need to see or your preference to tap tempo, but also provide you with the desired response from your keyboard controller.
You can use Gig Performer as simple or as advanced you like it to be. For example, there are users who don’t use widgets at all and users who create design masterpieces.
Next, you can have a simple metronome or metronome with the custom sounds or even build your own custom visual metronome that gives you visual cues.
Gig Performer also provides you with multiple tap tempo algorithms, allowing you to address your personal feel of time. See this YouTube Short to learn more.
You can tap tempo using your MIDI controller, footswitch pedals, your computer keyboard or mouse, or even have the audio stream tap tempo for you! (click here to learn more)
The Scaling Curve mechanism along with the Curve Designer allows you to get the best response from your MIDI controller. For example, in this thread and in this thread you can see examples of how adjusting velocity curves gave a better personal feel to these Gig Performer users.
For those music makers who do not want to be bound to a click track and want to step through their MIDI files manually, Gig Performer provides you with a MIDI Finger tap feature. See this feature in action:
And check more examples in this thread.
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Gig Performer allows you to use your computer resources better
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First, we’d like to mention that there was research on Gig Performer’s latency and jitter and that Gig Performer achieved remarkable results. You can read about this research and see the results in this thread.
Next, in the article Clever ways to optimize your plugin usage we presented not only the ways to better use your computer resources using multiple instances or the Predictive Loading feature, but also to use clever ways to optimize your complete setup. For example, you can use Gig Performer’s Auto Sampler to sample CPU-intensive patches.
To see more tips, check out this community thread.
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Gig Performer’s next level of support
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We believe that a great support is very important for live performance musicians, particularly if a problem arises before a gig. We respond fast to our various support channels.
We put significant effort into maintaining the user manual along with accompanying screenshots. Additionally, we create blog articles, collect the best tips and tricks, interview Gig Performer users in our Backstage with Gig Performer show, and create instructional content on our YouTube channel. You can take a look at our Retrospective — 2023 Year-in-review.
Needless to say, the developers are actively participating in the forum discussions and looking for new ideas to improve Gig Performer.
We follow your progress from the moment you Get Started, connect your MIDI controller, create your splits, to the moment you want dial in your setup or want to make your computer the most optimized and robust platform for making music. We will highlight our:
1. Free e-book: The Ultimate Guide to Optimize your PC for the Stage
2. macOS guide: Optimize your Mac for a Gig
You can also review our massive resource repository with tutorials and how-to guides in this thread.
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Gig Performer enhances your confidence and reduces your stress
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Gig Performer was created for musicians by musicians and in this article you can see what was the motivation for creating Gig Performer. All Gig Performer developers and contributors are musicians who will tell you the same story – while in ‘music mode’, they want to enjoy music without thinking about technology or be worried that something may go wrong. Our goal is that you don’t have the slightest feeling that something could go wrong, which is demonstrated by many testimonials we find across the Internet.
Of course, this list can go on and on, for example, Gig Performer can enhance your DAW experience and allow for zero-latency tracking.
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If you have any questions or you want to share your feedback, please visit this Community thread.
Own the Stage® with Gig Performer®
Nemanja Pudar
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Related topics:
– Why use a computer with Gig Performer rather than hardware
– Gig Performer is the best companion for all your musical efforts and more
– The most flexible MIDI processing