What are Temporary Startup Options in Gig Performer

06 Aug What are Temporary Startup Options in Gig Performer

Posted at 16:03h in Gig Performer Blog, Knowledge Base Articles, Troubleshooting by

The Temporary Startup Options dialog is a new feature in Gig Performer 4 that allows you to change certain settings when you first open Gig Performer:

Temporary Startup Options in Gig Performer 4

Changes in this dialog will not be permanent, i.e. when you start Gig Performer again, all changes will be reverted to your existing preferences.

To invoke this dialog, either hold the Shift key and run Gig Performer or press and hold the Shift key immediately after you run Gig Performer. (Keep the key down until you see the dialog). In Gig Performer 3, this action would simply prevent Gig Performer 3 from loading the last gig (as described in this blog article). 

There are four settings that can be changes in the Temporary Startup Options dialog: Load last gig file, Scan for new plugins, Load external libraries, and Run GP Scripts automatically.

Load last gig file

.
By default, Gig Performer loads the last gig file with which you were working and there is a setting in General Options that controls this behavior (Reload the last gig on startup).

If you leave the default setting turned on, you occasionally might want to temporarily prevent automatic gig file loading due to several reasons:

  • You want to load a different gig file and don’t want to have to wait for the previous gig file to load.
  • You want to quickly change your buffer size and/or sample rate (this is done much faster if no gig file is loaded).
  • You want to troubleshoot your setup if there are one or more plugins that crash (read this blog article to learn more).

.

Scan for new plugins

.
By default, Gig Performer scans for new plugins on startup and there is a setting in General Options that controls this behavior (Scan for new/changed plugins on startup). If you do not install or update plugins very often, you might want to leave this option disabled and then just temporarily enable it after you install or update a new plugin.

On the other hand, if you leave the default setting turned on, rare situations may happen that the Gig Performer’s plugin scanner is stuck on startup, while scanning problematic plugins:

Plugin Scanner on startup, in Gig Performer, AU, VST3 and VST plugin host

To troubleshoot this issue, temporarily prevent automatic scanning for new plugins and review your recently installed AU plugins (Mac only), VST3 and VST plugins.

Note: even if you temporarily turn off this setting and run Gig Performer, you can still open the Plugin Manager and scan for new plugins from there.

Load external libraries

.
One of the new features in Gig Performer 4 is an external API that allows third-party developers to create libraries that can be used to interface with Gig Performer. 

Gig Performer 3rd party extension

If you suspect that an extension is causing issues with Gig Performer, simply turn off the Load external libraries toggle button in the Temporary Startup Options dialog and then disable the desired extensions (click here to learn more).

To learn more about extensions and see the list of currently available extensions, please visit this blog article.

Run GP Scripts automatically

.
Another useful feature for troubleshooting issues for users who use GPScript in their gig files. By default, Gig Performer scripts are automatically run on startup. If you disable scripting on startup, you will need to explicitly recompile each rackspace script or restart Gig Performer to resume scripting support:

Gig Performer Scripting Disabled At Startup

.

Please share this article to help spread the word about Gig Performer.

Own the Stage® with Gig Performer® !

Nemanja Pudar
.

Related topics:
– Tips to troubleshoot your computer-based setup (Blog)
– The complete list of Gig Performer Resources (Community)
– The Magic of the Shift key (Blog)

Print page
6 Likes


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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

MIDI Message Helper

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

 

  

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

  

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad

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.

 

Dismiss ad