Hello everyone,

Posting this under software but please let me know if it should be in another thread.

I am not a pro. I do small free shows for kids in which I do music and Sound effects for stories, not unlike musical theatre. It can get really confusing changing VST presets and/or parameters VSTs on the fly, using the right SFX at the right time or driving multiple VSTs at the same time (I do not have a lot of gear: couple of MIDI keyboards, an external MIDI controller and that's it). Small kids are very forgiving but nevertheless, I am trying to streamline my workflow and become a bit more proficient with solutions.

I am aware of Gig Performer, which I think would do the above, but before trying it, I wanted to ask you whether there are any other tools you think I should add to the list of possible solutions. I am looking for clean, clear, low latency and robust solutions that I can easily replicate on a second laptop for backup. If there are better hardware alternatives, I am happy to consider that too, though this may stretch the budget some.

I used Windows 10 x64 and unfortunately don't own a Mac.

Please let me know if you have any ideas, suggestions and recommendations

Thank you all. All the best.

rem

 

Cantabile Live Performance Host by Topten Software
www.cantabilesoftware.com

 

Thank you very much BEAT16. Off to take a look.

 

I used to do shadow puppet plays all over Southern California with my old friend Steven Ritz-Barr, and additionally to performing would (of course) compose the music. I always put each piece on CD and only needed to stop or start the player. Everything that I composed I utilized live playing and would personally never like to depend on setting up keyboards where so much could go wrong and so was able to devote my full attention to the creative process of working off of each other to ensure the best performance and to relate the stories to the best of our abilities.

 

That's good advice, but I also have a number of pieces to be played in a band that are non-linear. Also, I don't have any hardware gear so everything is virtual, though that does not negate the advantage of recorded material. I think I need to balance the two.

 

To have something pre recorded is good advice, but I wouldn't suggest a CD or anything like that (I have already used it live, and had some problems with it skipping etc in the middle of a performance more than once). My particular solution was to use a laptop with our songs in Live (the wav file of a song - usually drums and some keys pre recorded as a backing track) and some synth vst solos played live through a midi controller over these wav files, together with real live guitar, voice and sometimes a bass (it was a duo, sometimes a trio, plus the laptop). I would just press play, the song would start playing in Live, and we would play our instruments over it (guitar, bass, a synth solo now and then).

 

Thank you. I don't own Ableton Live. I did look at it and will again but I do need to be able to change patches/parameters in numerous VSTs on the fly, and I have found it to be vert fiddly, not to mention all the unwanted artefacts, doing that from a DAW. Maybe Live has a better handle on it (I have only used FL Studio). I guess if I have to depend on the vagaries of a laptop and software live, I might as well investigate Gig Performer and Cantabile too. I wonder if they work as VSTs inside DAWs and/or whether that ruins the the latency. Next thing to investigate.

 

LOL,,that was before we had cell phones, circa 1998. I wouldn't use a CD player today, no way!

 

Yeah, we are old my friend lol I have used Cds, mini disks, mp3 players and my beloved boss Dr 5 live, all this from 1998 to 2010. I started my musical journey in 1992, but then got tired of trying to find a drummer and finally adopted a post punk drum machine driven vibe for my music lol

 

Well, Gig Performer is cross-platform. If you plan to migrate your VST setup from Windows to Mac in future - no problem.
There are other benefits, as well.