Deskew Gig Performer 5: Another Big Update

Envelope following to control MIDI parameters, Audio & MIDI streaming to/from a DAW, and more.

Gig Performer is a dedicated live performance plug-in host (see our full review from back in 2020 here), used by some prominent keyboard players to manage their instrument and effects plug-ins when they play live.

But the latest version 5 has grown some features that would be equally useful in a synth studio. The one that has us most excited is the envelope follower, which maps audio volume to MIDI parameters.

We’re working with version 5 and will have an update review on the updated program this month – as astute viewers of this month’s cover noticed. Until then, here’s the company release.

Gig Performer 5.0 Brings Powerful New Automation, Recording Features to Popular Plugin Host for Live Performance

May 29, 2024—Deskew Technologies released Gig Performer 5.0, bringing powerful new MIDI and audio automation and recording capabilities to the premium cross-platform live performance audio plugin host.

Gigging keyboardists, guitarists, bassists, drummers, and vocalists everywhere—even front-of-house engineers—have come to rely on Gig Performer to manage and perform with their virtual instruments and effect plugins with confidence and “Own The Stage^®.”

Gig Performer’s widespread appeal is due to its easy-to-use functionality that enables gigging musicians to focus entirely on their live performance while powerful underlying technology does all the heavy lifting behind the scenes. The platform provides an intuitive modular design, with customizable controls, visual plugin wiring, instant switching and remarkably low CPU usage. It is exceptionally light and provides rock-solid stability and reliability.

Principal among the new features in Gig Performer 5 is GP Relayer, an exciting new plugin that provides the easiest way to share audio and MIDI between Gig Performer and your favorite DAW. Simply insert one or more of these plugins into your DAW and one or more into Gig Performer, and you’re ready to move audio and MIDI data back and forth seamlessly. You can directly record high-quality, low-latency audio from Gig Performer for your next album. Alternatively, stream your DAW’s proprietary plugins’ sounds and MIDI effects back into Gig Performer for an unparalleled live performance experience. GP Relayer supports up to 10 relays simultaneously.

The Wiring Activity view displays connections as color-coded virtual MIDI and audio wires when any note is played, helping you to quickly understand and correct your audio and MIDI flow and audio levels. Playing your instrument makes wires illuminate to visualize signal levels — “Green” indicates that your levels are OK, “Yellow” indicates that your levels are getting a little high, and “Red” means that your signal is running hot. Is a particular sound effect only coming out of one channel? Wiring Activity also reveals where the signal is broken so you can quickly and easily fix it.

Ideal for external gear integration and internal channel reconfiguration, the MIDI Rechannelizer is a powerhouse in flexible channel rerouting, enhancing your ability to manipulate and streamline MIDI flows. Using an intuitive grid-based interface, you can easily redirect MIDI signals to and from any channel or send multiple channels simultaneously. For example, playing your MIDI keyboard on MIDI channel 1 will send multiple copies of the MIDI message on four different channels to your external hardware and multi-timbral software synths.

MIDI Chord Maker lets you create complex chords using different sounds or block unwanted notes in a performance simply by playing a single key on your keyboard. For example, now you can simultaneously perform bass, strings and choir, each part using different chords in different inversions, all with one finger on one hand, thus freeing up your other hand to perform a dedicated piano part. Chord Maker features MIDI learn capabilities to speed up your workflow when you map notes to chords. 

The Envelope Follower plugin lets you use audio volume to control envelope parameters in real-time—for example, wah-wah effects, which are particularly useful for guitarists. Or, if you wish to talk while playing music, Envelope Follower can produce MIDI messages that can control ducking, automatically lowering the music volume as you speak. Using widgets, you can use audio volume to virtually control any parameter within your setup.

Gig Performer’s Streaming Audio File Player has been enhanced with new Stretch and Transpose capabilities. It lets you flexibly and quickly tweak your audio tracks—speed them up, slow them down, or change the pitch—to fit any live performance or rehearsal scenario. These settings are stored and recalled as part of GP User presets, particularly useful when using backing tracks with a singer who requires a transposed song pitch. 

The new Global Rackspace MIDI feature allows you to centralize your MIDI effects, key splits and transpositions in the Global Rackspace. Similar to how Global blocks have been used to send audio in Gig Performer 4, this new update allows you to send a stream of MIDI to and from the Global Rackspace as desired, streamlining your MIDI processing.

The MIDI Transposer plugin is a convenient, quick way to transpose note and polyphonic aftertouch messages as messages pass through the Wiring view. It is very useful for quickly changing the key of a MIDI sequence, and you can insert multiple Transpose plugins to create harmonic variations.

Finally, Song Part Actions allow you to define multiple actions to be triggered automatically whenever a song part is selected. Use this feature to send any MIDI messages to hardware, send OSC messages to remote devices for selecting videos or even invoke GP Script functions.

Further workflow improvements can be viewed at https://gigperformer.com/release-notes

Gig Performer 5.0 comes bundled with a sampler of plugins from third-party plugin developers, and related templates to get musicians up and running from the moment they launch the application for either performance or trial evaluation. Of course, users will want to bring their favorite plugins into Gig Performer, but having this convenience right out of the gate helps them immediately appreciate both the functionality and power of Gig Performer. 

Best of all, Gig Performer 5.0 retains its signature visual-based plugin approach and speed of setup, giving musicians unmatched power, ease of performance, and flexibility when performing live. 

Gig Performer 5.0 sells for US$169.00 (macOS or Windows) or $199.00 for a cross-platform bundle. Users who purchased Gig Performer 4 directly from Deskew in March 2024 or later will receive the upgrade to Gig Performer 5.0 free of charge. Additional discount pricing considerations can be found at https://gigperformer.com/store. 

For more information about Gig Performer and to download a 14-day free trial, please visit www.gigperformer.com

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