[Stubbsonic]

When I heard Logic Pro 9 hit the App Store for $200, I thought this might well be my opportunity to get Sculpture (and other goodies). But I also saw that MainStage2 was separated into its own product (not bundled with LP9) for $30. After hitting a snag with Audiofile Engineering's RAX (which is hopefully being resolved), I decided to download MainStage2 first to see what was included.

For $30, it includes ALL jampacks, apple loops and ALL of the Logic instruments including Sculpture. Talk about a NO-BRAINER!!!

[clif marsiglio]

Not only this...the Lemur app just hit the iPad! Ths is turning out to be a good day!

If I weren't poor!

[Stubbsonic]

Here are a few more details, in case there are readers who don't know what this (the release of $29 MainStage2) means.

First of all, I don't think there's a big rush. This isn't a time-limited sale. It's just Logic Pro 9 in the App Store for $199, and MainStage available separately for $29.

LP9 is a very complete DAW with excellent instruments, effects, tons of loops, and powerful features.

MainStage2 is a special host for using ALL of Logic's effects, virtual instruments, etc. etc., for live work. To be clear: even if you don't own LOGIC, you will get all these with MainStage2. However, they will NOT be available in other hosts, only in MainStage2 (there might be some ReWire option, but I don't have any experience with using ReWire). It is possible that the JamPack content is available from Garageband, but I already had them installed, so I can't report on this.

The LOGIC PRO instruments cover a wide range of sounds: analog, FM, tonewheel, EP, sampler, drums, and THE MOST intriguing component modeling synth I've ever found (Sculpture). There is also a wide range of effects from the essentials to some more specialized fx. All of these LOGIC instruments and effects are excellent.

Also included with MainStage2 are the many-gigabyte collection of loops and instruments that are associated with the Garageband JamPacks. Whereas the Logic VI's & FX are all uniformly excellent, the instruments and loops from this collection represent more of a range of qualities from barely tolerable to excellent.

On a practical note, when you purchase the App, the initial app download is not too large. The option for downloading the additional content is offered when the MainStage2 app is first launched. You can choose the content you want/need, and download at your convenience.

This post has been edited by Stubbsonic: 10 December 2011 - 11:20 AM

[Marcusmax]

Hey Stubbo. I've been using Mainstage on my Macbook while rehearsing my band and it's a truly great programme. Works pretty seamlessly for me and makes all those instruments available with ease. I have it hooked up to my Axiom 49 which allows me to control the selection of instruments from control knobs on the keyboard. One feature I love is that when you select a new instrument while playing one it changes smoothly, retaining the sustain on the first instrument until you strike a new key. The other thing it allows you to do is to play an audio file (e.g. a backing track) while you perform. This is called Playback.

It really is a great app and I'd recommend it to anyone for any sort of live work.

Mark

[Stubbsonic]

Thanks, MarcusMax. I've been focusing on the interface itself (i.e., haven't spent much time with any of the instruments other than Sculpture) and I'm impressed with it. That is some clever software.

I'm curious about how you use the knobs to select instruments. I'd like to be able to send some keyboard note to switch instruments, but perhaps that is not possible.

[Marcusmax]

Quote

I'm curious about how you use the knobs to select instruments. I'd like to be able to send some keyboard note to switch instruments, but perhaps that is not possible.

You do that in Layout mode. As far as I'm aware you first need to set up a Concert, i.e. a list of all the instruments you want to use in a given song or performance. Once all your instruments are loaded, you highlight the icon that represents Patch up or down, click Learn and then move the knob or controller, or in your case press the key (no I'm not sure the actual keys will work but try it). The colour of the Learn button will change from red to blue if the command has been registered. Then click Learn again and you should be good to go. You can now move between your loaded instruments at the push of a button.

Hope all is well with you,
Mark

[Stubbsonic]

Got it. Using a key-on works fine for incrementing patches. It would be nice if I could assign a particular patch to a particular key. I'll look into that, but in the meantime, this method will work fine.

THANKS!!!!

[Marcusmax]

Glad that worked out for you. Ideally you should be able to do what you describe in a programme like this but I'm not sure it can recognise Bank Select / Program Change type messages. Must look into it myself as it would be very handy not to have to scroll through 10 instruments to get to the one I want. At the moment I have it set up to select instruments in the sequence I need them but it could get awkward if e.g. we change the track order.

[Stubbsonic]

The problem is that you can't select an individual patch in the layout editor and say "use this controller to call up THIS patch" at least as far as I can tell right now.

[Marcusmax]

Quote

The problem is that you can't select an individual patch in the layout editor and say "use this controller to call up THIS patch" at least as far as I can tell right now.

Yeah I understood what you meant but it looks like that's not possible at this point in Mainstage, not as far as I can see anyway. The closest you can get to it is to assign a group of patches to a Set and then map a hardware controller to change the Set in the same way as you do to change Patches. That way each time you press the key or button you go to the first patch in the next set. So you could have a Concert set up with groups of instruments for say 10 songs and by stepping through the Sets you could skip straight to the first patch in the next song. This would have to be done sequentially, i.e. there isn't a way to call up a patch or a set in random order, but at least it's better than scrolling through every single patch to get to the one you want.

Perhaps in a future update it might be possible to assign a given controller or keypress to a particular patch. That would indeed be an excellent facility but it would need some sort of MSB/LSB/Program Change protocol built into the software. That should be easy enough to implement I would think.

Mark

[Stubbsonic]

Though I see why they might want to have some MSB/LSB capability, but it wouldn't be necessary if MainStage was just going to "hear" a particular control and call up a patch in response.

Since I was able to assign a note to move patches up & down, why wouldn't I be able to assign a note (perhaps at the set level) to call specific patches.

I see there's a link in the menu to submit feedback. I guess I'll start there.

Thanks for your help.

[Marcusmax]

That's a good idea re. the feedback. Let us know how you get on as I'd be particularly interested in finding a way around this limitation.

M.

[Marcusmax]

Did a quick search in the Apple Support forum and it turned up some interesting threads about this. It looks like it might be possible to do what we are discussing but I haven't tried any of these suggestions out yet.

Here's one that looks promising.

[Brian Stone]

Stubbsonic, on 15 December 2011 - 08:53 AM, said:

The problem is that you can't select an individual patch in the layout editor and say "use this controller to call up THIS patch" at least as far as I can tell right now.

You can totally do this. It has nothing to do specifically with layout. If you have some buttons on a keyboard and you want to make them jump directly to any patch or set, you can set it to do so.

if you already have some buttons in your layout then:

• Switch to Edit mode
• You must select the concert level (the top item in the patch list that looks like the MainStage app icon)
• In the workspace (the big window that contains the custom layout), select the button that you want to assign to make a patch jump selection
• in the screen control inspector at the bottom of the screen, select the "Actions" folder in the first column
• select 'current patch' from the second column
• on the far right side past the columns, there is a 'button on' & 'button off' value field. You'll notice two patch names display there.

Now when you push the button, it should only jump to a single patch. Its important to add these mappings at the concert level because you want the behavior globally, no matter which patch is currently selected.

[Stubbsonic]

I really appreciate your explaining that. I have a couple more questions.

I have one micro controller keyboard where I only have one transmitting button (it's a sustain button)-- which I could use to change sounds -- either as you describe or as a "next patch" function.

1. How would I assign a particular MIDI note to change to a specific patch?

I can see a place where MIDI notes can be selected, but it is unclear whether I'm selecting a MIDI note as input, or as output from another controller.


2. Is there a way to make the sustain pedal (button in this case) be a latching button so I can press it for one sound, then press it again to toggle it off and go back to another sound?

Under type, the options for toggle were greyed out.

Thanks for your help, Brain.