VisualGIGVersion 1.2

Fire the intro without letting go of the guitar.

VisualGIG runs your tracks from a grid of coloured pads on your iPhone. A tap on your Apple Watch or a button on your MIDI controller fires the next cue, so the phone stays where you left it.

Download on the App StoreTry the pad demo ›

Free on the App Store. Live mode is free, forever. Watch and MIDI are PRO.

  • iPhone · iOS 17.6+
  • Apple Watch · watchOS 10+
  • Any USB or Bluetooth MIDI
  • No account, no upload

The rig this replaces

A laptop adds a boot, a driver and an audio interface to a stage that already has enough to go wrong.

Ableton on a laptop gives you stems, click routing and tempo changes, and plenty of bands need all three. A lot of bands carry the machine to play one stereo file per song. That job fits on the phone already in your pocket, and the phone has no boot sequence, no dongle and no lid for someone to close.

Try it here

One pad holds one file, and it fires on the first tap.

Features9 pads

Tap a pad to light a feature.

Device
iPhone · iOS 17.6+
Remote
Apple Watch · MIDI
Audio
Stays on device
Account
Not required

Live mode is free. The wrist and the pedal are PRO.

See pricing ›

Running order · 5 steps

From a folder of files to a running show.

01

A setlist for every gig

One setlist per gig, rehearsal or service. Name it, tag the venue, pick an accent colour so two similar shows never look alike.

  • Venue and context line
  • Five accent colours
  • Unlimited setlists

02

Bring your own audio

Import WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A straight from Files, iCloud Drive or AirDrop. Preview a file before you commit it to a pad.

  • WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A
  • Preview before assigning
  • Copied to the device

03

Build a cue in ten seconds

Pick the audio, name the pad, choose a colour. Done. Edit mode keeps rename, recolour, reorder and delete one tap away.

  • Label and colour
  • Reorder by drag
  • Delete in Edit mode

04

Your show, laid out in pads

Tap a pad. The cue fires. That is the whole interaction. The playing pad carries elapsed and total time where you can see it.

  • Grid sized to the show
  • Elapsed / total time
  • One transport bar

05

Live mode locks the show

Nothing editable on stage. Bigger targets, a green frame, one large STOP, and a hold gesture to leave.

  • Locked interface
  • Hold to exit
  • Watch and MIDI control

Audio engine

Your files sit on the phone, so nothing streams or buffers before the downbeat.

1 voice / pad

Loaded before you touch it

The audio sits preloaded on the pad. The cue fires with no delay.

40 / 120 ms

Click-free fades

Tap the pad, hear it in the PA.

Airplane mode

A reminder before the show

Before the set starts, the app asks you to switch on Airplane Mode.

Live mode

In Live mode the grid stops accepting edits and the screen stops sleeping.

Locked grid
A tap fires a pad and edits nothing, so a knee, a cable or a stray finger cannot move a file or wipe an assignment.
Screen stays lit
The display never sleeps during the set, so the grid is still there when you look down four songs later.
NEXT badge
A badge names the pad that is queued, so you can check what comes next between songs without leaving the grid.
Apple Watch remote · PRO

Your wrist fires the next cue while both hands stay on the instrument.

The Watch app carries the same setlist as the phone. You fire the intro from your forearm with the guitar still on you, and the phone stays on the amp or in the case for the whole show.

The setlist, on your wrist
You read the pads by name and fire the one you want, without looking for the phone in the dark.
Full transport
Play and pause, stop, next and previous all work from the Watch, so a song that ends early ends on your terms.
The phone stays put
Leave it cabled to the desk, screen locked in Live mode, for the length of the set.

19:13

First show

● LIVE

A1Introduction
A2Post IntroNEXT

Try the transport

MIDI control · PRO

One press teaches any USB or Bluetooth controller which pad to fire.

Learn in one press
Open the pad editor, or hold the pad on the grid, then press the button on your controller. The app takes it.
Transport mapped once
Play, stop, next and previous keep the same buttons across every setlist you ever build.
One button, one pad
Port and channel are set per device, each button fires one pad within a setlist, and the app warns you when two mappings collide.

Pairing, Learn and the input monitor are free, so you confirm your controller talks to the app before you pay. Firing pads from it is PRO.

Tutorials

Eight videos take you from an empty setlist to a MIDI-controlled show, in about 6 minutes.

In the order you would learn it. Every one was shot inside the app.

Build the show

0:39
01

Setlists: one per show

One per gig, rehearsal or service. Name it, tag the venue, give it a colour.

0:38
02

Library: your audio files

Import WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A from Files, iCloud Drive or AirDrop. Preview before you assign.

0:45
03

Pads: name, colour, audio

Turn a file into a pad, label it, colour it, and drag to reorder the grid.

0:35
04

Playing cues and transport

Fire a cue, scrub it, and read elapsed and remaining time while it runs.

Run the show

0:41
05

Live mode

Lock the grid, keep the screen awake, follow the NEXT badge, hold to exit.

Free

0:39
06

Apple Watch remote

The setlist on your wrist: fire cues, play, pause, stop, next, previous.

PRO

0:58
07

MIDI controllers

Pair USB or Bluetooth, learn a button in one press, put the transport on a pedal.

Setup free · PRO to fire

0:38
08

VisualGIG PRO

What the subscription adds, and the rule that does not bend: nothing downgrades you mid-show.

Download on the App Store

Specification

A cue is a file, a name and a colour. That is the whole data model.

Cues

Pads
Grid sized to the show
Per cue
Name, colour, own voice
Timecode
Elapsed / remaining while playing

Library

Formats
WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A
Import
Files, iCloud Drive, AirDrop
Preview
Audition before it hits a pad

One audio file per song is the show this app runs.

Musicians
Backing tracks and intro stings, fired from stage without turning around.
Worship and event teams
Beds, walk-ins and applause, cued in order by whoever is on the desk.
Theatre and small venues
Reliable playback for a room that does not have a laptop rig.
DJs and hosts
Drops, horns and idents between segments, one tap each.

Who wrote this

I lost a show to a laptop crash, then built the app I wanted that night.

I play guitar in Over Rage, a metal band, and for years our tracks lived on a laptop at the side of the stage. One night the machine went down between songs and we finished the set without samples, in front of people who had paid to be there. Standing there with a guitar in my hands, the part that stayed with me was the reaching: someone always has to walk over and touch the thing, and everyone's hands are already full. So I built a grid of pads for the phone I already carry, then moved the firing off the screen, onto my wrist and onto a footswitch. Every feature in VisualGIG went to a real gig before it shipped, and the ones that did not survive a show came back out.

Aloisio Mello, guitarist in Over Rage and the developer of VisualGIG

Pricing

PRO is the only way to run the whole set without touching the phone.

VisualGIG

Free

Build the show and run it from the phone screen, with no limit on how big it gets and no trial clock.

  • Unlimited setlists and unlimited pads
  • Import WAV, AIFF, MP3 and M4A from Files, iCloud Drive or AirDrop
  • Preview any file before you assign it to a pad
  • Transport with scrub, elapsed and remaining time
  • Live mode, and the airplane-mode reminder before the show
  • Full MIDI and Apple Watch setup, so you confirm your gear talks to the app before you pay
Download on the App StoreDownload free ›

VisualGIG PRO

Monthly · Annual

Fire the set from your wrist or your pedalboard, with both hands on the instrument.

  • Apple Watch remote: the setlist on your wrist, with fire, play and pause, stop, next and previous
  • Fire pads from any USB or Bluetooth MIDI controller, with Learn in one press
  • Transport mapped once and valid across every setlist, port and channel per device
  • A network failure never downgrades a paying user, and no billing event interrupts a show in progress
  • The paywall never appears inside Live mode
Download on the App StoreGo PRO in the app

Monthly and annual prices appear inside the app, in your own currency, before any purchase.

Six things players ask before they trust a phone on stage.

A phone on stage will ring, sleep or throw a notification in the middle of my set.

Live mode holds the screen awake for the whole show, so the grid is there every time you look down. Before the set, the app reminds you to turn on Airplane Mode, which is what stops calls and notifications. The app cannot flip that switch for you and will not pretend otherwise. Airplane mode costs you nothing here, because your audio is already on the device and there is no account to sign into.

I am not touching a screen mid-song. My hands are on the instrument.

That is the reason the Apple Watch remote and MIDI control exist. With PRO you fire pads and run play, stop, next and previous from your wrist or from a footswitch, and the phone can stay on the amp, cabled to the desk, for the entire show. On the free tier you tap the phone, so if your hands are never free, PRO is the version you want.

What if your subscription server is unreachable at a venue with no signal?

Nothing happens. A paying user is never downgraded by a network failure, and no billing event or downgrade interrupts a show in progress. There is no login and no cloud, your files play from the phone's own storage, and the paywall never appears inside Live mode. A basement with no bars runs the same as your living room.

I will hit the wrong pad.

Live mode removes editing from the grid, so a wrong tap fires a pad instead of destroying a setlist, and the NEXT badge names what is queued so you can check before you commit. With MIDI, one button fires one pad within a setlist and the app warns you when two mappings collide, which kills the most common cause of a wrong fire. It cannot stop your foot from landing on the wrong switch, and no app can.

I already run Ableton, QLab or an SPD-SX. Why change?

If your show needs stems, click routed to a separate output, tempo or key changes, or fades, keep what you have. VisualGIG plays one audio file per pad and does none of those. What it gives you is a rig with no boot time, no driver and no interface, running on the phone you already carry, fired from your wrist or your pedalboard. Bands who print samples and click into one file are the ones this replaces a laptop for.

It is another subscription, and it will not export my setlists.

Setlist export does not exist, and neither does sync or any cloud feature, so what you build stays inside the app on that phone. Your original audio files stay where you put them, in Files or iCloud Drive, untouched. Everything about building and running a show from the screen is free forever, including unlimited setlists and pads and the full MIDI setup. The subscription buys one thing, which is running the show without touching the phone.

Import one song and fire it from your wrist before rehearsal ends.

VisualGIG is free on the App Store. No account, no upload. Your audio is copied to the device and plays from there.

Download on the App StoreRead the privacy policy