Play Plug-Ins Live On-Stage with Gig Performer

A new promo video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msAKZX6moKg

interesting thanx for sharing!

if you want mainstage, but dont own an apple, this is what comes closest..

However, Mainstage comes with a huge package of instruments, and costs only €30, and not just instruments but instruments of high end quallity...

The main idea of this campaign is that they want to make you believe its less processor dependant then mainstage... but then, who cares on my 2011 macook pro, i have never run out of cpu nor memmory using Mainstage...


Mainstage does everything Gig performer does and more... on top of that, gig performer requires you to preprogram absolutely everything, where mainstage also works for sit and play.


The whole advertisement is a little misleading... but this is a good VST host if it fits your workflow, but definately not something that just started out with VSTs would be looking for. For more advanced users, you could use Gig performer, but also ableton live or Reason as an allaround keyboard host...

I don't remember exactly what, but When I tried out Mainstage with my midi accordion, I couldn't do some simple tasks that I could do in other VST host apps. Many MS users seem to like and use Gig Performer
http://forums.musicplayer.com/ubbthreads.php/topics/2823169/5.

Another thing is, is there what Roland calls patch remain in Mainstage? It's an important feature for me, and it works very well in GP.

I dont know how Mainstage handles accordeon's that is not my thing..

The way i use mainstage, i have patch remain or seamless sound switching... I add all sounds i need in a song/performance in a single mainstage patch. And then i use my Kronos buttons to switch between them. They are allways live as they are in the same patch..

This takes care of 2 things... preloading times, because preloading of the next patch can be done while i play the current song..

In the end its just a matter of setting up things.. which is an option on Mainstage to archieve certain features, but is a requirement on Gigperformer.

I have never been in a situation that Mainstage could not handle..


Altough, for being really creative, i prefer using Reason as a host these days, now those combinators are a thing when combined with all the jewels inside Reason.

A MIDI accordion setup would be like that of an organ; two manuals and foot pedal with each part on a separate midi channel.

OK, sounds like a patch in MS is an equivalent to a Kontakt bank or rackspace in Gig Performer.

I haven't updated my Reason in the last 7 years, but now that Reason supports VST along with many other features, I may go back to it.

Mainstage is not a superset of Gig Performer. There are some things it does that we don't and there are many things we do that it doesn't! Lighter CPU utilization along with features like predictive loading that allows you to use more plugins than would normally fit in memory are just a couple of examples. Multi-instance support is another cool feature that opens many doors. Full bidirectional remote control via OSC means you don't even need to have access to your laptop during a show

I would note that if our claims were not true, people would not spend $149 on Gig Performer when they could just buy MS for $30.

You're absolutely correct that Gig Performer requires more initial set up but so what? Unless you're a mix engineer, the visual approach to creating and connecting plugins together is easier for most people to understand than the channel strip model, much easier to see exactly what is going on.

More importantly, Gig Performer is not about instant gratification. We're trying to provide a deep and solid solution for professional players. Based on knowing who are some of our users (who paid for it, not people who endorse in return for free copies), I'm pretty comfortable that we're on the right path. GP is being used by keyboard players, guitarists, singers and by FOH sound engineers who use it for mixer effects, controlling it from the back of the room with an ipad OSC client.

Are we perfect? Nope! Are we striving for perfection? Absolutely!

I would encourage people to download the trial version, which will run fully functional for two weeks and see for themselves. I would also encourage people to browse our own forums and ask questions to our community.

[quote=Bachus]Mainstage does everything Gig performer does and more/quote]

I have tried and owned some of the major VST hosts such as BloXpander, Cantabile, and Forte 4. There is no comparison; Gig Performer is the most intuitive and flexible system for me. From the start, I didn't need to look at the manual. I have DAWs such as Mixcraft Pro 8 and Abelton Live which can play VST plugins, but once again nothing like Gig Performer.

Gig Performer makes my Windows machines run like a smooth Apple.

I think Gigperformer is definately on the right track, for a young program its absolutely incredible.. reports are its rockstable.. and like a said.. it offers most of the things mainstage does, and like you said some things that mainstage does not..

Yet currently, i stick to mainstage at its lower price and including all logic instruments on Mac (altough most of them never used because of my VST collection, but Alchemy is still one of my favorites), makes it hard to beat, espescially since i been using it for quite some time now and know most ins and outs..

If i was however on Windows, i would definately be on Gigperformer.... altough, i am currently also enjoying reason.. and seeing possibilities to use this as both daw and keyboard host, there are also options for preloading patches...


Looking forward to further development of Gigperformer, wondering if there is a list of features planned for the future?

I downloaded a demo Gig performer..
I had a problem with the program reading my VST plugins... same folders that every other program was able to read..
I isolated a folder from MixCraft and selected VST's that came with MC...
Most would not load in Gig Performer... since they are Proprietary.

I am not willing to give up the VST's in MC.... and I found MC to work better...
Also MC has combination VST map that allows unlimited layers and splits.. This feature made Forte not necessary..

Sorry I am convinced MixCraft does the job for me..

I will play around with Gig Performer a bit more {see if I can make head way}.... before I delete it..

Just as you mentioned a number of VSTs in Mixcraft are not available outside of it. As for the other VSTs you have trouble loading in GP, are they 64 bit or 32 bit? GP just like any other VST hosts these days loads only 64 bit. VSTHOST a free VST Host has a built-in bridge that helps import both 32 bit and 64 bit plug-ins. However, the host is just too limited in comparison with GP. I use jBridge to load a particular, discontinued 32 bit VST into GP. Then again, all other VSTs of mine are 64 bit, and I have no trouble loading them in GP.

Gig Performer, aptly named, is dedicated to one thing; make personal instrument setups out of one's collection of VSTs and play them live. It is so flexible and easy to use. It was very easy to make drawbars for organs from scratch and slide up and down right on my hybrid touch screen. You can make just about any kind of customized control. Programming your own setup in it is actually fun. With other apps, it's a big chore.

One of the many neat features of GP that I like is patch persist just like Roland's patch remain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8t8p7JVy-0
MC doesn't do that. Maybe it's not even fair to compare GP with any DAW, as no DAW works like GP, and GP is a VHT host for live performance not a DAW.

Which is the main reason we didn't include any synths of our own. Most users have their favorites and there are also so many free ones out there, it made no sense to us to try and reinvent the wheel. By the way, one trick to allow you to keep using a plugin like Alchemy is to install a great product called Loopback (Rogue Amoeba makes it) and it lets you trivially route audio from one application to another. So you could leave a MainStage instance running with Alchemy and then use IAC (for MIDI) and Loopback (for audio) to route everything back into Gig Performer. I use this all the time to leverage some audio stuff in MaxMSP that I want available in Gig Performer




I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you :-) More seriously, we put out significant updates pretty much about once per month. Some very cool stuff running in house already that will be of interest to anyone interested in such things as automation and real-time processing :-) We do have a couple of interesting plugins coming as well - essentially to address solutions that don't seem to exist already though third party plugins. SIgn up for our news letter if you want to be notified.

Interesting plugins....

If you add plugins for backings, like an arranger (after all this is an arrager forum) players for midi and audio, .. arpeggiators...

Then Gigperformer could take the place of traditional workstations and arrangers (huge market) ...

If you do so, i will convert to gigperformer, that is a promise...