Tacet

Status: v0.1.0. Verified in a live GigPerformer 5 rig — loads as an instrument, accepts MIDI, and is silent. Early release; no installer yet.

An empty VST3/CLAP instrument that does exactly nothing: it declares itself as a synthesizer, accepts MIDI input, and outputs silence. Its purpose is to fill unused synth slots in GigPerformer (and other hosts) with a near-zero-footprint placeholder instead of loading a full synth, saving RAM and CPU while keeping the plugin block's handle and connections valid.

• Vendor: Kapellmeister
• Formats: VST3 (primary), CLAP
• I/O: 1 stereo output, no audio input, MIDI input (discarded)
• Parameters / UI: none

Why this exists

GigPerformer rackspaces often expose more synth plugin blocks than a given song actually uses. Loading a real (Arturia, Roland, …) synth into an unused slot wastes RAM and CPU. Dropping Tacet into those slots instead keeps the block's handle and connections valid at a near-zero footprint.

Tacet is part of the Kapellmeister toolset — a companion controller for GigPerformer — and shares its Kapellmeister vendor brand with the planned future MIDI-processing plugin, which will reuse this same nih-plug scaffold.

Related projects

• GigPerformer — the host Tacet is built for.
• Kapellmeister — on-stage companion display for a GigPerformer rig (chord sheets, song/part status, timeline).
• GigPerformer Global Rackspace script — the OSC-streaming GPScript that feeds Kapellmeister.

Build

Requires the Rust toolchain (MSVC). Build for the host's architecture — a VST3 must match the host it loads into. GigPerformer 5 on Windows is x64:

cargo xtask bundle tacet --release --target x86_64-pc-windows-msvc
# → target/bundled/Tacet.vst3 and Tacet.clap

On a native ARM64 host, use --target aarch64-pc-windows-msvc instead (or omit --target to build for the native toolchain).

Install (Windows)

A VST3 is a bundle folder (Tacet.vst3), not a single file, and needs no installer — you just place the bundle where your host scans for plugins, then rescan. Get Tacet.vst3 from a release (unzip it) or by building it (see above). The bundle ships both x64 and ARM64 slices; the host picks its own.

Option A — no admin rights (recommended for GigPerformer)

You never touch Program Files, so no elevation is needed:

1. Put the Tacet.vst3 folder anywhere you can write, e.g. %USERPROFILE%\...\GigPerformer\Tacet\Tacet.vst3.
2. In GigPerformer, add that folder as an extra VST3 scan path (Options → General → VST plug-in paths / folders), then Rescan plug-ins.
3. Tacet appears under vendor Kapellmeister as an Instrument/Synth.

Option B — system-wide (needs admin)

# elevated PowerShell (writing to Program Files needs admin)
.\deploy.ps1

Builds x64 and copies Tacet.vst3 into C:\Program Files\Common Files\VST3, the folder GigPerformer scans by default. Override with -Target / -VstDir for a different architecture or scan folder.

Test

cargo test