David Jameson

You must have reached out to support before we were able to setup the coupon process Regular customers paid $159 for GP3 and then depending on when they had bought GP3, there was a sliding scale from about $39 to $119, which is the current upgrade price from GP3 to GP4. Those deeply discounted prices were one of the reasons we terminated our relationship. If you bought GP3 after June 2021 (which is when GP4 was released) then you'd get a $99 discount, otherwise you would get a $79 discount. Please understand that GP 4.7 (despite having the same major version number) was a very significant upgrade, not a minor enhancement and a few bug fixes.

With the same respect ( 😀) the cross-grade pricing is clearly documented on our website on the cross-grade pricing page Sure - you wouldn't spend $250,000 on a Rolls Royce if all you wanted/needed was to be able to drive to the supermarket occasionally. We developed GP for the professional market where musicians who perform in clubs, theaters and even arenas not only recognize and appreciate the available functionality which goes far beyond low latency but also the continued enhancements and the value of the support we provide. Lots of inexpensive and indeed free plugin hosts out there for those who just want to "fiddle around" and don't need all the functionality.

I guess they ran into the same concerns that we did. But just to be clear, we don't charge a lot "more" ---- we charge the difference between what people actual paid. For example, if someone bought GP4.5 from PA at full price, then there is NO charge to get the latest version directly from Deskew even though it was a significant upgrade. If they paid $99 for it at PA, then they get a $99 discount for the cross-grade, etc. It's not that we charge a lot more, it's that they were charging too little! We are very appreciative that so many PA users did recognize the value inherent in GP and moved over.

I will take that bet. Any amount you like!

Actually we had absolutely no idea that GP would be massively discounted -- we expected that there would be occasional price drops of $10/15. We know there is a race to zero when it comes to plugins (how many reverbs, compressors, phasers, EQs do people actually need) but there are only a few decent live performance hosts out there. It was a complete surprise to us. Obviously OUR mistake and we recognize and accept that. That said, we are now separated from them and excited to move forward on our own. We have an awesome new update coming in the next few months (sneak peaks will start appearing soon) and people can decide for themselves whether it's worth moving over or not.

While the next 4.x update will in fact have a slew of new features (several new plugins and numerous other updates that we will preannounce soon), it will in fact be a free update to all Deskew Customers who purchased Gig Performer 4 at the retail price. PA customers who bought at full price will also be able to cross-grade for a minor admin fee. That is part of the value of our product and one of the reasons we don't discount. Whether the update is worth the price to users who purchased GP at discount is a different matter. As has been noted by others, the current PA 4.58 will continue to work (unless of course some future OS update breaks it) so casual users who don't need the new features can stay with the current version as long as they wish.

Oh - I see -- yes, the question was ambiguous - I just assumed the OP meant he wanted to use INS files, but he didn't want to use Cakewalk itself and since INS files were designed for physical instruments, I assumed he had the physical instruments already.

However, INS files are text files and can be used by other programs that are able to read those INS files. Gig Performer can do this. Attached is a picture of a GP MIDI Out block intended to control a K2500 where an INS file for the Kurzweil K2500 has been loaded, thereby allowing patches to be selected by name rather than having to specify the bank select and program change numbers explicitly

You can use Instrument Definition Files in Gig Performer - but they have nothing to do with VSTs. You can associate an INS with a MIDI Out block. MIDI Out blocks are designed to communicate with external hardware synths and if an INS is available for the synth you are using, that will work.

You can use blackhole (on Mac) or virtualCable (on Windows) to route audio from your DAW to GP and back

So why can't you use Undo? Well, a lot of attention gets paid to the GUI --- but let's be realistic --- there's only so much we can do for each release ---- if we tried to address everything, there would never be a release --- that's why we have updates 🙂 We continue to improve the product while ensuring that we remember our primary goal, which is reliability on stage. The concept of a grid is on our list, along with about 1,000 other items!

Already implemented for next version! You can already select widgets and align them in various ways. Not sure which example panels to which you're referring but there are numerous examples on our forum and they're all very clean https://community.gigperformer.com/c/gig-and-rackspace-files/26

Already on our list for a future version!

Oh - ha ha ha --- a perfect example of language ambiguity. I got worried that the plugin wasn't working and checked it quickly. Thanks for clearing that up!

See attached image --- that plugin works absolutely fine with Gig Performer 4

Understood --- but actually, we got quite a few messages (and posts) from people saying exactly that 🙂 To be honest, I wasn't even sure I wanted to respond at all on this forum but I just felt I had to clear up some of the misunderstandings. GP4 works beautifully (and natively) on the M1 🙂 but you have to have M1 versions of the plugins to really get the best performance.

The "hate" is coming from people who feel that they should be able to just spend $30 and then be entitled to get a product that is conservatively valued at $150. They understandably feel this way because they have seen software plugin companies sell $200 plugins for $19, etc --- that's the problem with the price race to zero.

One might think so except that if you were to calculate the overall MTBF for the combination of those individual components, I think you'll find that statistically the risk of something actually going wrong is not significant. Further, if the risk was that high, there would not be hundreds of thousands of musicians touring with computer-based systems.

Except you don't have to recreate anything - that's the point. You simply run GP, route it to your DAW via either virtual audio or physical cables (depending on your audio interface) and record.

There are a few differences - our version has different templates and uses our own licensing system. The version we license to PA has templates that they wanted and uses their licensing system with the toolbar at the bottom.

Yes, it deliberately does not run as a VST in a DAW just like a DAW doesn't run as a VST inside Gig Performer! This was a philosophical choice and there's a rather wonderful guest article on our blog on this topic (https://gigperformer.com/music-software-has-failed-you-and-this-is-why/) We have numerous instances of guitar players who have dropped the Kemper, Fractal Axxe etc. . It is a complete myth that hardware devices like modern keyboards or guitar units are less prone to bugs/failures, etc. They are all running software as well. I have been in the audience at more than one concert where they had to stop in the middle because a keyboard failed! This topic is also the subject of a blog article (https://gigperformer.com/guitar-rigs-computer-based-vs-hardware-based/)

Yes -- that's a big deal for us. We really care about our users trusting us For example, if you browse our forums where we occasionally recommend particular plugins, we've made it very clear that we do **not** receive any kickbacks for such recommendations. Our recommendations happen because we have actually bought and used such plugins ourselves and we think that others will benefit.

Gig Performer is not a plugin! As I said earlier anybody who bought GP3 from us at full price after March 1st (3 months before GP4 came out) got GP4 for free. There were several price tiers so that people who bought GP3 from us after various earlier dates got decent price breaks as well. It is simply absurd that a product that sells for $169 (and indeed valued even higher by more than a few people) should be available for free to someone who paid $30 (or even $60) a few months earlier. The deep discounting/price racing to zero happens with plugins because There are essentially uncountable numbers of plugins (including some damn great free ones) that pretty much do the same thing (how many different phasers, EQs, chorus effects, flangers, bitcrushers, distortion, etc., does anyone really need) and so for plugins the only differentiator often is just the price The software industry has trained people to believe that they're entitled to really cheap upgrades --- most of the industry can indulge this by just adding one or two features a year and a bit of GUI tweaking. By the time you get an equivalent number of new features to what we deliver, you will have paid a significant amount of money. It's just like the frog in the pot --- turn the heat up very slowly and the frog will never notice how much they're paying 🙂 Further, if you looked at the GP3 release notes history, you'd find that very significant new features showed up in pretty much every update we put out during the GP3 life. So the entry (or upgrade) price is not just buying you a "static" set of new features, but it's also an investment that will deliver you new stuff that will appear in perhaps ironically called minor updates. That ain't happening in those $29 plugins! By the way, we do it this way because, as touring musicians ourselves who also depend on GP for our own shows, when we add something new, often because we need it ourselves, we want to get it into the hands of everyone ASAP. Why? Because if we put on our consumer hats (we're just too, not a faceless corporation), that is how we would like to get our software updates.

Indeed --- neither were we - and we expressed our dismay. However, while we continue to hope that such users will eventually recognize the value of our product, including our commitment to continuous improvement, there will always be some who don't and there's simply nothing we can do about that.

Nope -- I'm one of the developers of Gig Performer and we refuse to participate in the race to zero that goes on some parts of the plugin world.