Gig Performer - Quick Start Guide

Revision 1.2.0
January 2nd, 2017
Welcome to Gig Performer, the cross-platform audio plugin host for Mac and Windows. Gig Performer
makes it easy to put your audio plugins together in various configurations, called rackspaces, to create the
sound YOU want. Glitch free switching from one rackspace to another, along with low CPU usage and
flexible control from remote devices makes it easy to kick your live performance into high gear.
(c) 2015-2017 Deskew Technologies, LLC
Welcome to Gig Performer
Getting started with Gig Performer
Adding more plugins
Adding a widget to control the volume
Working in the connections view
Rackspaces and Variations
Controlling a widget from a MIDI device
Internal plugins
Tap Tempo
Tips and tricks
Glossary of terms
OSC
Scripting
Appendix - License Agreement

Welcome to Gig Performer

Thank you for your interest in Gig Performer. We are certain that you will find Gig Performer to be a
powerful solution to manage your software synths and effects for use in a live performance situation.
Before you start using Gig Performer, please make sure you agree to the Gig Performer license
agreement, a copy of which is included in the Appendix

1 Benefits

Whether you are a keyboard player, a guitarist, vocalist, drummer or live sound engineer, Gig Performer
has something to offer you.
As a keyboard player, you can use Gig Performer to manage all your sounds using software synths and
effects with full real-time control
As a singer, easily add compression, EQ and other desired effects to your vocals.
As a guitarist, you can use Gig Performer to process your guitar sounds any way you want, complete with
the ability to switch from one sound to another in real-time without any audio glitching
As a live sound engineer, you can use Gig Performer to intercept audio coming from your mixing system,
add desired effects processing and send the results back to your mixing board.
In fact, you can even run multiple Gig Performer instances simultaneously so that multiple members of a
band can use Gig Performer independently on the same computer, assuming of course that you have a
reasonably modern computer with sufficient speed and RAM.

2 Entering your license code after purchase

If you have downloaded the trial, then on or before the time your trial expires you can buy a permanent
license for Gig Performer by clicking on the Buy License button which will take you to the online store.

Once you have purchased a license, you will receive a license ID, also known as an activation number.
After you have received your license ID (make sure your anti-spam blocker doesn't prevent the
confirmation email with your license from being received), simply click on Enter Activation Number and
type or paste your license code.

3 Gig Performer Features

Gig Performer has many features to help you create your live show. Among our many features are:
Visual-based plugin connections
Glitchless switching
Patch Persist
Multi-instance support
OSC support
External MIDI device support
Customizable front panels
Low CPU usage
Please see http://www.gigperformer.com/features-and-benefits.html for a full list of current features.
We update Gig Performer often with new features so check back often.
We welcome your suggestions so please feel free to reach out to us through our support page,
http://www.gigperformer.com/support.html

Getting started with Gig Performer

Thank you for downloading or purchasing Gig Performer. This quick start manual will help you understand
the basic concepts provided by Gig Performer so that you can be up and running as quickly as possible.
Note: not all features are present in all versions of Gig Performer.

1 Plugin scanner

The first time you run Gig Performer, it will scan your system looking for plugins. On MS Windows it will
examine all VSTs and on OS X it will examine both VSTs and Audio Units (AUs). This process can take
some time but it is only necessary to do this step whenever new plugins are installed and so on
subsequent uses, this step is almost instant (and you can disable that check until the next time you install
a new or updated plugin)

2 The connections view

Once the plugin scanner has completed you will have immediate access to the connection view. If you
don't see this view, press the Connections icon (1) This view is where you can insert your plugins,
connect them to other plugins and edit plugin parameters directly. The red block at the top represents the
input portion of your audio interface. The brown block at the bottom represents the output portion of your
audio interface.If you have more than one audio interface, you can change it from the preferences menu.

Note that you can use different audio interfaces for input and output if you wish.

3 Audio input monitoring

Incidentally, if you see some LEDs flashing on the bottom left of the Gig Performer window, it most likely
means that your default audio input is the microphone and Gig Performer is picking up sounds. The
vertical faders display the volume of the input while the LEDs at the bottom flash if there is ANY input

4 See all available plugins

Right-click (or two-finger tap if you're using an Apple trackpad) to bring up the plugin selector menu from
where you can choose a plugin to insert.
Important: Gig Performer itself has only a few plugins for MIDI support and an audio gain control (mono
and stereo versions). Your own plugins will appear under the line separator (1) categorized by the plugin
manufacturer. The example here is from a system

5 Selecting a plugin

Here I have clicked on the FM8 plugin from Native Instruments.

6 Creating a plugin

After a short interval, the new plugin will appear as a green block in the connection view. By default, the
name of the plugin is displayed although you can change the name if you want to see a name that
represents the actual sound you are using. As we will see later when we learn about associating knobs
and sliders with plugin parameters, changing the name of the plugin is very useful to distinguish multiple
copies of the same plugin that are being used for different purposes.
The plugin block has several pins both above and below it. These are used to connect this plugin to other
plugins. The blue pins are for audio signals and the orange pin is for MIDI signals. In the case of the FM8
plugin, there are two audio outputs at the bottom to send out the audio produced by the plugin. There are
two audio inputs at the top as well. This means that the plugin is able to accept audio from somewhere
else, typically because it is able to do effects processing. The orange pin on the top is used to receive
MIDI from a keyboard or other control surface. Keyboard players will want this immediately while guitarists
or singers might not have any need for it at all.

By the way, you can move a plugin block by clicking on it and dragging it where you wish

7 Connect everything

(From now on, we're not going to include images of the entire Gig Performer window, just the section of
interest). In this picture we have connected the two outputs of the FM8 synth to the two inputs of the audio
output device. We have also connected the output of the MIDI In (OMNI) to the MIDI input pin of the FM8
synth plugin.
To make these connections, simply click on a pin and, while holding down the mouse button (or keeping
your finger on the trackpad), drag the cursor over the desired pin in another block and then release
(unclick!) the mouse.

8 Select a sound on your plugin

Double-click on the FM8 (or whatever synth plugin you created) to open its editor. Select your desired
sound. Of course the steps to do this will depend on the actual plugin you are using. If your plugin editor
has a virtual keyboard, clicking on keys should now cause sound to be generated. If you have a MIDI
keyboard connected to your computer, you should also be able to play sounds from it directly. You can
close the synth plugin editor window after you have finished selecting or editing your desired sound.

9 But I don't have a MIDI keyboard

If you do not have a MIDI keyboard connected to your computer, you can double-click on the "MIDI In
(OMNI) block to open its editor where you will see a virtual keyboard. You can click on this keyboard to
create MIDI notes that will be sent to all plugins that are connected to the MIDI In (OMNI) block.

10 Saving your gig

You can save your new gig by clicking File | Save As... and choosing a desired filename. The saved file,
with the extension .gig, contains the complete state of your plugins and connections. In other words, if you
tweak the parameters of a plugins and save the gig, the next time you load that gig, all those settings will
be reloaded.

Adding more plugins

1

Right click on some empty space in the connections view to popup the plugin selector menu again. Click
on the Gain and Balance Control menu item.

A new plugin block will appear, called Gain and Balance (we will change that name later). At this point that
plugin block has no connections and hence no impact on the results.

As with any plugin block, if you double-click on the Gain and Volume plugin block, its editor window will
open up. The Gain and Volume editor contains a Volume level with level meters to its right and a stereo
Balance knob at the bottom right.
The Bypass button, present in all plugin editor windows is a Gig Performer button that allows plugins to
be, well, bypassed. For the Gain and Volume plugin, that means that no volume adjustments will be
applied to any incoming sound.

Now lets connect the Gain and Volume plugin.

We have several ways to modify connections. We can

a) Remove an existing connection and then create a new one
b) We can simply click near one end of a connection and drag it to a new pin (or to empty space to
remove it)
Right click anywhere on the connection between the FM8 plugin block and the Audio Out plugin block to
bring up a menu and click on Remove this connection (1). The connection will disappear. Do the same
thing for the second connection.

Now using the same steps as you did in "Getting started", step 7, connect the synth plugin to the Gain and
Balance plugin and then the Gain and Balance plugin to your Audio Out plugin. Feel free to drag the Gain
and Balance plugin to make it line up below the FM8 synth if you wish. Moving plugin blocks or their
relative positions has no impact on audio.
Try playing the synth plugin again from your keyboard and adjust the gain slider on the Gain and Balance
plugin (double-click to open that plugin again if you had closed it)

Adding a widget to control the volume

1

Click on the top left icon (1) to switch Gig Performer to the performer view.

The performer view is where you create widgets (knobs, sliders, buttons and so forth) that are used to
control your plugins. As we will see later, you can cause those widgets to be associated with physical
controls on your keyboard or other control surface so that you can control your plugins directly from your
keyboard or other controller.
When you switch to the performer view for the first time for a given rackspace, you will see a single empty
panel (1) into which you can insert your widgets. You can also create extra panels as needed to group
your widgets as desired.
To edit the performer view, click on the Widget Layout Designer icon (2)

When you switch into the widget layout designer, the list of rackspaces that normally appear on the left

are replaced by a list of available widgets including knobs of different colors, some sliders, meters and
toggle widgets. You can place these widgets on a panel by dragging them to the desired location.
Important note - there are no technical differences among the various knobs and sliders, they all do the
same thing, that is they generate values when you move them. The differences are solely cosmetic so
that you can easily group related items visually or have certain kinds of parameters (for example all
volume parameters) stand out clearly.

To start, drag a blue knob from the left column somewhere into a panel. It will appear highlighted within a
white rectangle and you can resize the knob by dragging any of the corner points. The small section at the
bottom will contain the label for this widget.
When a widget is highlighted, its properties will be displayed in an inspector area lower down. The
inspector area is broken into two sections, Properties and Mapping. The Properties section allows you to
set a label manually as well as associate the widget with a physical knob or slider on a control surface.
The Mapping section allows you to associate a widget with a parameter in a plugin. Together, this allows
you to use the sliders or knobs on your keyboard or control surface to change parameters in real time.

With the knob still selected, click on the (no plugin) item to display a list of plugins currently in use. You will
see all the plugins that were created in the connection view including both the automatically created

plugins (Audio In, Audio Out and MIDI In) along with the two plugins we created explicitly ourselves.

Click on the Gain and Balance plugin and below you will immediately see the available parameters. Click
the Gain parameter.

Clicking on Gain (1) causes the default caption (2) to be set to "Gain" and so you see the label "Gain"
underneath the knob (3)
The knob value will immediately reflect the current gain of the Gain and Balance plugin.

Now click on the Widget Layout Designer icon again to exit edit mode.

You now have a single widget and if you turn it while you play your keyboard you will hear the volume
change as expected

Working in the connections view

As we saw earlier, the connections view is where you can create plugins and connect them up any way you
wish. Some people think of such a structure as an "Algorithm", probably due to that nomenclature being
used in the original Yamaha DX7 to define a particular set of connections. However, we prefer terms like
"Architecture" or "Structure" as the word "Algorithm" really means a sequence of instructions rather than a
static description.
Each rackspace has its own structure consisting of an arbitrary collection of plugins connected any way
you wish. Since you can instantly switch from one rackspace to another, this gives you incredible flexibility
to create exactly what you need for a particular sound or set of sounds.

1 Inserting a new plugin

Inserting a new plugin is as simple as right-clicking somewhere in the view and selecting the desired
plugin from the the menu that pops up.

2 Using the CMD-P shortcut to insert a plugin

The CMD-P keyboard shortcut gives you another way to create a plugin more efficiently using the Quick
plugin finder as you can type a partial plugin name and the list of possible plugins will be restricted to
those that match what you type.

3 Other plugin operations

If you right-click on an existing plugin block, you will see a menu popup through which you can perform
other plugin operations
Bypass - disables this plugin
Delete - remove the plugin
Disconnect - remove all connections to and from this plugin
Rename - change the displayed name - this is useful if you are using the same plugin many times and
you'd prefer to display the name of the sound (say) that the plugin is producing
Duplicate - create a new plugin instance (quicker than using the menus)
OSC (See section on OSC management)

Scripting (Not available in current version)

Edit plugin - open the plugin editor (you can also just double-click on the plugin block)
Replace plugin - shows the plugin menu so you can use a different plugin

Rackspaces and Variations

Gig Performer allows you to have multiple Rackspaces --- each Rackspace represents a collection of
plugins connected together however you wish. You can switch from one rackspace to another any time you
want, either by using UP/DOWN commands (if you're a guitarist using a MIDI pedal board controller for
example), by sending MIDI program change messages with optional bank switching messages as well as
through OSC (see the chapter on OSC for more on this).

1 Rackspace list

For example, here is a list of the rackspaces used by one of our team members with his band. The
selected rackspace is called Wallflow and we're looking at the connections view.

2 Panel widgets

Switching to the performer view for the same rackspace you can now see the panel widgets that are
configured for that rackspace. Note that there does not have to be a one-to-one correspondence between
a rackspace and a song. That decision depends totally on the way you want to approach your rig design
and because of Gig Performer's ability to switch instantly from one rackspace to another, you may choose
to spread your song out over multiple rackspaces.

3 Variations

However, there are other circumstances where it makes sense to use exactly the same plugin setup but
with different settings. For example, suppose you are performing a number of songs, all of which use an
electric piano with a chorus pedal, phaser pedal and for different songs you just want to enable/disable
one or both of those pedals or you just want to change the phase rate or the piano's tremolo amount.
Here, we have created a setup like the one shown here consisting of the Lounge Lizard electric piano, a
phaser, a chorus, and some gain controls. There is a single rackspace called Rhode songs and there is a
default "variation" called Clean Piano

In the performer view, we have created some widgets and attached them to the appropriate parameters of
the plugins so that we can control them. Here, we have set the master volume to 5 (a little less than half
since this particular volume knob goes up to 11!) and the phaser, chorus and tremolo effects are turned
off.

Now create some variations by pressing CMD-N and naming them as desired. Here, we now have four
variations defined.

Click on the Phaser variation and then click the "Phase On/Off" button to turn it on. You will now find that if
you switch between Clean piano and Phaser, that button will turn off or on respectively as you do so. Note
that if you are currently playing a chord on your keyboard, the chord will continue playing though this
change.

Continue adding variations as needed. Here you can see that the "Fast tremolo and chorus" variation is
selected and the widgets reflect those settings. Note that variations do not save the complete state of all
the plugins. What they actually save is the value of each widget (Knob position, button on/off and so
forth). However, since those widgets are connected to plugin parameters, whenever the widgets change,
the parameter values will also.

By the way, you can associate an explicit program change with each variation. Just double-click on the
variation and the Variation Properties dialog will appear. Here we have associated program change 4 with
the Fast Tremolo and chorus variation. Note that since you must always select a variation, even if there's
only one, there is no program change associated with the rackspace itself.

As we mentioned the goal of variations was to allow instant lightweight changes without having to
duplicate an entire plugin configuration. This works extremely well but as we used this feature ourselves
we realized that it is extremely useful to be able to exclude specific widgets from variation changes. For
example, even though you are changing effects like phaser, chorus and so forth, you may not want your
volume to change. To prevent the Variations mechanism from being applied to particular widgets, select
the widget and check the "Ignore variations" field that is near the center bottom of the widget inspector.

10 Rackspace properties

Double-clicking on a rackspace name opens a dialog to display rackspace properties.

Rename
To rename the rackspace, simply type a new name in the name field
Tempo
A rackspace can have its own tempo value. If you do not set explicit information here, the rackspace will

use the global tempo information

Tail length
You can control the maximum time before a sound will be cut off when you switch rackspaces. Often
known as the audio tail, this feature is useful for effects such as reverb or echo. The maximum length is 5
seconds
Patch Persist
When you switch from one rackspace to another, all synth plugins for the old rackspace are immediately
silenced even if you are holding notes down or have pressed the sustain pedal. If you enable Patch
Persist, then notes that were held down will continue to sound until you release the keys for those notes.
Press Apply when you are happy with all your changes

Controlling a widget from a MIDI device

You can control widgets (knobs, sliders, buttons etc) from your physical devices. Gig Performer makes it
easy to learn the appropriate MIDI commands for this purpose

In widget edit mode, drag a knob on to a panel (we assume you know how to do this by now).
Note there is a section called MIDI and underneath it says (not assigned yet)

Click the Learn button (1)

Next, move a slider or knob on your keyboard. In this example, I moved one of sliders on a Roland A800
keyboard controller. The device is called "A-PRO1 Port 3" and the slider is sending CC number 73 in MIDI
channel 1

Note also that the widget (slider or knob) that you placed on the panel is now also moving as you move
the physical slider.
If you wish, while Learn is still enabled, you can move a different physical knob or slider and the
information below MIDI will switch to show the new information.
When you're done, click Learn again to turn off Learn mode.
Learning aftertouch messages
Learning aftertouch messages requires some extra care. Normally, when you press a key, Gig Performer
will recognize and learn a Note On event. If Learn is still enabled and you release the key, then Gig
Performer will recognize and learn a Note Off message. However, aftertouch messages (also known as
channel pressure messages) occur in between a Note On and Note Off, as you push the key harder
before releasing it. To

Internal plugins
Gig Performer only comes with a few plugins of its own. We made the decision to not design our own
general purpose plugins as there are so many available plugins, both free and commercial. We fully expect
most users to want to use their own favorite plugins. Having said that, we will add more internal plugins to
address functionality that is not readily available from other developers and vendors. Our current list of
internal plugins are
Audio In - represents the current physical device used to receive audio
Audio Out - represents the current physical device used to send audio out
These plugins cannot be removed from your rackspace.
MIDI In - receive MIDI messages from external devices and from OSC sources. There are several
versions of this plugin. The OMNI version, the default in any new rackspace, will forward MIDI events from
ANY device in your system. You can also create Midi In plugins that only forward incoming MIDI messages
from specific MIDI devices.
MIDI Out - send MIDI messages to external synthesizers. You can also configure this plugin to
automatically send out program changes each time rackspace containing it is activated.
MIDI Filter - block or remap MIDI messages
Gain/Balance - adjust the gain and the balance of an incoming stereo signal
Gain Control (Mono) - as above but for a mono audio source
Gain/Balance (Mono to Stereo) - allows you to pan an incoming mono source across two channels
As with external plugins, our internal plugins have parameters that can be used for automation and remove
control

1 Midi In

The MIDI In plugin supports channel mapping, min/max note values (for keyboard splits), transpose and
"sticky notes".
Channel mapping

You can block a channel or reroute incoming messages from a certain channel to another channel
Transpose
You can optionally transpose all incoming note messages.
Keyboard splits
You can select a range of notes that should be allowed through, all others will be blocked.
Velocity scaling
You can scale the velocity of all incoming Note messages to within a desired range, including a single
value. For example, by setting both the Scale from: and to: fields to 64, all incoming notes will have their
velocity changed to 64
Velocity layering
You can use velocity ranges to determine whether particular notes should be played based on how loud
(or soft) you press a key. For example, you could connect a Midi In plugin to a piano synth but only hear
the piano if you press keys hard. This is particularly useful if you want to have multiple sounds available
but control when some are heard based on how you play.
Using velocity scaling with velocity layering
After you have defined a velocity range inside of which notes will be played, you may want to change the
actual velocities that are sent to your synth plugin. For example, you may have created a piano sound that
you only want to be heard if the velocity value you play is great than 80 (say). However, you may still want
the piano to respond as if it was being played quietly. For example, set the min/max velocities to 80/127
respectively so that you only hear the piano when you hit the keys hard. Then select the Scale from/to
values to 1/50 respectively. Notes sent in with velocity 80 will produce notes with velocity 1. Notes with
velocity 127 will produce notes with velocity 50. Notes in between will be mapped somewhere in between
as well.

2 All Notes Off

There is also an explicit "StopAllNotes" command which can be used to turn off MIDI notes when
switching variations. Although normally one wouldn't do this because the whole point of variations is to
allow you to continue holding notes down while changing effect values, it is useful if you want to use
variations to actually change the underlying sound you're creating, in which case any notes from the
previous sound need to stop immediately once you change variations. Also, a sustain OFF message is
sent and a Center PitchBend message is sent. Just associate it with any widget, typically a button, and it
will trigger automatically when you change variations.

3 Gain and Balance

The Gain/Balance plugins lets you adjust the gain, the location in the stereo field (except for the Mono
version!) and also provides instantaneous magnitudes that can be used to audio drive meter widgets

4 Sticky Notes

Sticky notes are designed to allow loops or sample playback by sending Note On events only, as if you
played a note but didn't release it. There are parameters for setting the MIDI channel and the default
velocity and then there is a parameter for each MIDI note. You can select one and associate it (typically)
with a button that, when pressed, will send the associated note. When released, the note off event will be
sent to stop the sound.

5 Midi Filter

The Midi Filter plugin allows you to block certain kinds of messages and also to map certain messages to
other messages. Common uses of this filter might to block sustain pedal messages, convert mod wheel
messages into volume messages and map aftertouch messages to into mod-wheel messages. Clicking
on any line causes a popup menu through which you can make your choice.
Allowed: Messages of this type are passed through
Blocked: Messages of this type are blocked
->
: Messages of this type are converted into messages of another type
There is also an option to block all MIDI messages. If you enable this option, everything, including Notes,
will be blocked. This can be very useful if you use multiple variations and want to allow MIDI messages to
go to some plugins but not others depending on which variation is selected.

Tap Tempo
Gig Performer supports Tap Tempo. You can use this in conjunction with plugins such as delays or echoes
so that their delay values can be synced to whatever tempo in which you are playing.

1 Associating physical control with Tap Tempo

You can associate a button or a pedal with the Tap Tempo mechanism through the Global MIDI page of
the Options dialog. Click on the Learn button for Tap Tempo and press the button or pedal you want to use
for detecting tempo. You will most likely need to enable the Momentary option as well.

2 Responding to tempo

Once you have learned the MIDI message and you start tapping, the BPM display at the top right of the
main window will show you the current tempo that it has detected. All plugins that respect global tempo
will now synchronize to this tempo.
It may be necessary to enable 'sync' to external tempo on individual plugins. Please check your plugin
documentation for more information on this topic

Tips and tricks

1) Hold the shift key down while moving a widget for more fine-grained control
2) Hold the shift key down and touch the output pins of one plugin to the input pins of another to make a
quick stereo connection. If there is already a connection, it will be removed instead.
3) Many more to come
Keyboard shortcuts
Keyboard modifiers

Keyboard shortcuts
As you get more comfortable with Gig Performer you will find it very convenient to use keyboard
commands for more rapid access to certain tasks
File management
CMD-O: Open a new gig
CMD-S: Save current gig
SHIFT-CMD-S: Save current gig with new name
SHIFT-CMD-I: import rack space from a file
SHIFT-CMD-E: Export the current rackspace to a file
Window management
CMD-T : cycle between the performer view and the connections view
CMD-G: toggle widget edit view
Rackspace management
SHIFT-CMD-N: Add a new rackspace
CMD-D: Duplicate the current rackspace
SHIFT-CMD-BACKSPACE: Delete the current rackspace
CMD-N: Add new variation to current rackspace
CMD-BACKSPACE: Delete the current variation
Connections management
CMD-P: Insert a new plugin in the connections view (Gig Performer will switch to the connections view
automatically if necessary)
CMD-, : Show preferences
Scripting (experimental, not available in all versions of Gig Performer
CMD-R: reload script

Keyboard modifiers
In certain cases, if the Shift key and/or the Alt key are being pressed during some operation, the behavior
of that operation will be changed
Startup:
If you hold the Shift key down while Gig Performer is starting, it will not reload the previous Gig even if
you have the preference "Load last GIG file on startup" checked. This is mostly for testing purposes to save
time but we mention it here in case you wonder why your last gig file didn't get loaded
Dragging plugins:
If you hold the Shift key down and you drag one plugin slightly over another so that audio pins "touch", a
stereo connection will be made automatically, or if the two plugins are already connected, the stereo
connection will be broken.
Customizing parameter labels for widgets:
Normally the widget caption will be assigned the parameter name only. If you hold the Shift key down
while selecting a parameter, the widget caption will include the plugin name as well as the parameter
name. If you also hold the Alt key down, the widget caption will include the plugin name only.
Toggling channels in the Midi In plugin
You can enable/disable individual MIDI channel by clicking on their respective checkboxes. However, if
you hold the Shift key down while clicking a checkbox, the other checkboxes will be set to their opposite
states . This is a convenient way to quickly enable a single channel while blocking all others

Glossary of terms
1) Plugin architecture: a collection of plugins connected together in a specific way
2) Connections view: the area where you create the desired plugin architecture
2) Performer view: the area containing knobs, sliders and buttons that you use to control your sounds
during performance
3) Variation: the combination of settings of all knobs, sliders and buttons associated with a single plugin
architecture. You can have multiple variations
4) Rackspace: The combination of a plugin architecture and all its variations
5) Widget: a generic term for a knob, slider or button that is used to control plugin parameters from a front
panel or remotely from a keyboard or control surface

OSC
Gig Performer supports OSC (Open Sound Control) for controlling and responding to widget changes. You
can also send MIDI messages over OSC and you can select a desired rackspace and variation via OSC.

MIDI over OSC

Widgets
Plugins
Switching rackspaces and variations
Tap Tempo

MIDI over OSC

You can send various MIDI messages to a MIDI Input plugin from a remote MIDI source.

1 Enabling OSC

Before you can send MIDI events to a MIDI in plugin over OSC, you need to associate an OSC handle
with that plugin. OSC handles must be unique within a single rackspace but you can use the same OSC
handle. An OSC handle is just a word comprising of characters only. The handle name is case sensitive.
This handle will be used as part of the OSC address target to which you will send your messages

2 Sending MIDI messages over OSC

For our examples, the OSC handle for the MIDI In plugin is called Remote
/Remote/NoteOn n v c
Send a NoteOn message with the specified note number, velocity and channel (channels are specified
from 1 to 16). A velocity value of 0 will be treated as if it were a NoteOff message
E.g., /Remote/NoteOn 60 64 1
Sends MIDI NoteOn event with note number 60, velocity 64 on MIDI channel 1

/Remote/NoteOff n r c
Send a NoteOff message with the specified note number, release value and channel (channels are
specified from 1 to 16). A velocity value of 0 will be treated as if it were a NoteOff message
/Remote/Note n v c d
Convenient way to send a NoteOn message with a duration in milliseconds. The associated NoteOff
message will be triggered automatically after d milliseconds

...more MIDI commands here

/Remote/Midi <int> [ <int> [ <int> ] ]

This message may have between 1 and three integer arguments representing the explicit bytes of the
various MIDI channel messages. This OSC message is typically for special purpose use, perhaps with
algorithmic note generators.

Widgets
1 Controlling widgets with OSC

You can associate an OSC handle with any widget and then control the value from OSC using SetValue
and a parameter between 0.0 and 1.0
E.g.
/MyDial/SetValue 0.5
Sets the position of the knob with OSC handle "MyDial" half way
You can request the current value of a widget using the message
/MyDial/GetValue
However, if you are listening to incoming messages, you will receive messages automatically when a dial
is changed and you can of course cache that information rather than explicitly asking for a value

Plugins
You can associate OSC handles with plugins and then set or receive OSC messages to control or query a
plugin. Each plugin in your rackspace must have a unique OSC handle (you CAN reuse the same OSC
handle in another rackspace though)
You can get a list of all plugins that support OSC by sending the following OSC message into Gig
Performer
/GetOSCPlugins
You will receive a list of OSC messages back consisting of a header, the actual names and a terminator
/OSCPluginListStart
/OSCPluginName <string>
/OSCPluginName <string>
/OSCPluginName <string>
/OSCPluginListEnd

If you have given a plugin the name K1 then the following OSC messages are available
/K1/GetParamCount
Requests the total number of parameters in K1
/K1/SetParam <int x> <float f>
Set parameter x to value f (the latter being a value between 0.0 and 1.0)
Note: if you actually adjust a parameter on a plugin host, the above OSC message will be sent out
automatically as well

/K1/GetParam <int x>

Explicitly request the value of parameter with index x. The result will be /K1/SetParam x f i.e, you get
back the index you requested along with its value

Switching rackspaces and variations

Switch to another rackspace. You can specify the rackspace by its index (the first one will always be 0) or
by name. A second integer parameter is optional but if present defines the variation within the rackspace
(starting at 0)
/GigPerformer/SwitchToRack <int> [<int>]
/GigPerformer/SwitchToRack <name> [<int>]
Change variation. The first variation is always 0
/RackSpace/SetVariation <int>
Move up - Moves to the previous variation or rackspace
/GigPerformer/MoveUp
Move down - Moves to the next variation or rackspace
/GigPerformer/MoveDown

If your plugin supports presets (such as GuitarRig from Native Instruments, in this image) then you can
send an OSC message to set the desired preset.
If the OSC handle of a Guitar Rig instance is GR then the following will set Guitar Rig to the first preset
(presets start at 0)
/GR/SetPreset 0

Tap Tempo
The simple OSC message
/Tap
can be sent to GigPerformer which will measure the rate at which the messages arrive, using that
information to set the global tempo, which can be referenced by various plugins that sync to the current
BPM
The OSC message
/SetBPM <value>
can be sent to set the current BPM
E.g.,
/SetBPM 120

Scripting
Gig Performer has an embedded scripting language. It is not yet officially supported as we are still
experimenting with it. The purpose is to extend the capabilities of Gig Performer beyond what is directly
available to users through the standard user interface. The scripting language, still unnamed, allows
functions to be created that can, among other things, respond when MIDI data arrives or when widgets
change (i.e, turning a knob). Simple uses of the scripting language would be such actions as
1) Allow a single knob to control multiple faders, perhaps with some going up while others go down, i.e.
cross fades
2) Respond to incoming MIDI events and add chords or MIDI echo
3) Function generators such as low frequency oscillators with different shapes can be used to automate
plugin parameter changes or widget changes
More on this in a future update.

Appendix - License Agreement

DESKEW TECHNOLOGIES, LLC - END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR GIG PERFORMER (THE
SOFTWARE)
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