A Studio Session with MainStage: First Impressions
I have just finished doing a session away from my own studio, and I used Apple’s MainStage as the main sound source to lay down some organ (using the EVB3) and Mellotron (using 3rd party plug-in M-Tron), as well as a few other bits and bobs like accordion and celesta, (sourced from the Jam Packs included in Logic Studio). The session was recorded to Pro Tools. I used a 15” MacBook Pro dual 2Ghz with 1.5 gigabytes of RAM. I used the onboard soundcard for output (straight out of the phones minijack!) as I’ve found this is the best way to avoid latency issues.
Generally, my experience was very positive. Using MainStage in the studio as a sound source (with no MIDI capture, just audio), was a better experience than using Logic for this purpose, as its uncluttered interface allowed me to concentrate on playing, rather than pixel-pushing.
Very quickly, here is my experience so far:
• Latency did not appear to be a major issue as long as I used the internal soundcard. This is, obviously not ideal, but I’ve tried a couple of external sound cards, and they appear to require bigger buffers. So far I’ve tried the Digi 002 and the Edirol UA25. Both have added, to my ears, unacceptable latency. I’d be interested to hear people’s opinions on this.
• I found that my MacBook Pro with 1.5 gigs of RAM did struggle a little with the more demanding EXS24 samples, such as the big pianos. There is a new Steinway piano which appears a lot lighter on RAM than the Yamaha one, and this is a welcome addition, particularly for MainStage. I reckon I’ll be maxing out the RAM on my MacBook Pro to its rather pithy to 2 gigs soon!
• An interesting limitation of MainStage is its inability to transmit MIDI. Of course, it receives MIDI willingly, and it’s very easy to map controllers all over the place, but not transmitting MIDI is, to my mind, a missed opportunity. Logic allows MIDI devices to be controlled; why not MainStage? As a result, you can’t use MainStage as a controller for your various hardware. So, no MIDI filtering, creating splits, etc, unless you only use the internal sounds. Now, it’s not major, but still, wouldn’t it be great if you could use the excellent interface of MainStage to do this kind of stuff? It’s almost like they left this feature out on purpose, as it’s already a part of Logic.
• One missing feature at the moment is that I can’t see an easy way to tell if your patch is loaded or not. Non-sample-based instruments load very quickly so that’s not a problem, but EXS instruments take a little longer. It would be nice to get a bit more feedback as to when the patch is ready.
• I still did get a few dropouts and glitches, even on non-EXS instruments, but especially at the start of loading the patch; almost as if the synth needed a few seconds to “warm up”. Not major in the studio, but potentially disastrous live.
• As you load a patch, the previous patch stays alive for a few seconds, so avoid dropouts. Very nice!
• The floating split is pretty clever, and it works well. It’s like having an extra octave when using splits!
Overall, MainStage was very successful in the studio, though the real test is still how it behaves where is was designed to be; on stage!
September 17th, 2008 at 27 09279u30e00 pam0030 10 279 3010e am
Hi, I am having the same issues but have a fix!!
Logic P8 and Mainstage are almost 1 program and when MIDI IS IN use they merge based up what you are asking your controller to do. Turn all non-essential programs off. Use MIDI/Audio devices in Utility section to choose your setup. Any effect in LP8 can either be imported or setup as a BUS and are both MIDI controllable. Parameter Mapping is the key to keeping the CPU levels down so the program won’t lock up.
Another interesting FACT if you install Maestro an use DUET Logic pro 8 runs smooth as could be. Disconnect DUET and LP8 shows an error in LP8 and locks up. Plug Duet back in no problem anymore. Mainstage is an incredible piece of software that has its bugs and there are workarounds to the issues on the logic site of Apple.
Best setup ever for guitar players or bass players or even vocalits.
1) laptop 1) external drive, 1 or 2 powered PA Speakers (or straight into the PA after you route it) and your guitar/guitars your good to go. Now just take your Laptop. Duet and your instrument anywhere and play and record. battery is good for close to 4 hours with no power just a battery.
NY-G-player
September 17th, 2008 at 31 09319u30e17 pam1730 10 319 3010e am
Hi, I am having the same issues but have a fix!!
Logic P8 and Mainstage are almost 1 program and when MIDI IS IN use they merge based up what you are asking your controller to do. Turn all non-essential programs off. Use MIDI/Audio devices in Utility section to choose your setup. Any effect in LP8 can either be imported or setup as a BUS and are both MIDI controllable. Parameter Mapping is the key to keeping the CPU levels down so the program won’t lock up.
Another interesting FACT if you install Maestro an use DUET Logic pro 8 runs smooth as could be. Disconnect DUET and LP8 shows an error in LP8 and locks up. Plug Duet back in no problem anymore. Mainstage is an incredible piece of software that has its bugs and there are workarounds to the issues on the logic site of Apple.
Best setup ever for guitar players or bass players or even vocalits.
1) MAC Laptop 1) external drive, 1 or 2 powered PA Speakers (or straight into the PA after you route it) for live sound and your guitar/guitars your good to go. Now just take your Laptop, Duet and your instrument anywhere and play and record. battery is good for close to 4 hours with no power just a battery. Duet, Apple and Logic Pro, Mainstage or Garageband together is all you need!
NY-G-player
October 5th, 2008 at 12 101210u31e23 pam2331 10 1210 3110e am
Hi
I’m using Mainstage as well. I run 5 vocals through my Firepod and out into the mixer, but I’m having severe feedback problems with my vocals. I can’t turn the mixer up to a fair level of volume without the microphones (Shure Beta 58a) capturing every little single sound in the room and converting it to high freq feed.
This is very annoying, and I believe it might be because of the very short latency that mainstage applies to my vocals.
But my softsynths work just fine.. I’ve had some issues with my alesis controlpad: mainstage doesn’t always receive the midisignals from the controlpad, and I don’t know what to do about it. It’s absolutely unacceptable in a live-show.
June 13th, 2009 at 14 06146u30e43 pam4330 6 146 3006e am
I am using logic 8 to run backing tracks while at the same time using mainstage for my soft synths. Is there a way to get logic to send instrument change data per song (all of the songs exist in the same session divided by markers) so I don’t have to do so manually live?
Thanks