#Mainstage 3 review Patch#
#Mainstage 3 review mac#

MainStage does, however, often have a bunch of default routing options enabled-and donвЂ™t forget that many plugins simply respond to MIDIВ channels on their own, no help from MainStage required! Routing is a pretty simple process, as you can use MainStage to вЂlearnвЂ™ what to do with each physical control on your keyboard. One of the coolest things about MainStage is the ability to have just about anything on your physical keyboard control any element of your sounds and plugins.

#Mainstage 3 review Patch#

You can do this with an entire patch, or you can do this with individual elements within a patch like a channel strip. To create an alias, simply copy something, then go to the вЂeditвЂ™ menu and select вЂpaste as aliasвЂ™. Adjust the original piano sound, and all of the aliases follow suit. By creating your first piano sound, then copying it and pasting it into every other utilized sound as an alias, your new patches are all simply pointing to the piano sound instead of creating their own new piano sound. You donвЂ™t have to worry about this if youвЂ™re using aliases. YouвЂ™ll have to go back into every patch and change the piano sound for all of them. Now imagine youвЂ™re at the gig, and you decide the piano you chose is far too bright for the venue youвЂ™re in. LetвЂ™s say youвЂ™ve created a concert that has a piano sound, then you also make a bunch of patches that have layers on top of it-piano and strings, piano and organ, piano and choir, etc. Basically, you can use aliases to create вЂpointersвЂ™ that direct MainStage to utilize a previously created patch or channel strip.ДЄt the channel strip level, this can be helpful to utilize a common sound throughout various combinations and layers. Using aliases is one of the most powerful features of MainStage, and it also helps to make your computer better mimic the behavior of a patch/combi setup of a keyboard workstation. I can simply tweak the sound at the concert level and the adjustments apply across all of my patches. If I determine at sound check that the venue isnвЂ™t being kind to a certain frequency, I donвЂ™t have to go into each individual patch to make adjustments. IвЂ™ll often put some EQ controls at the top level. This is incredibly helpful if you want to create global adjustments. If you select a patch, however, and add a channel, then whatever you created is only available for that patch. Select the entire concert in the browser, then create a reverb channel, that reverb is now available for every single patch in the entire concert. Essentially, anything you create and set at a higher level overrides whatever you set at a lower level. There is a hierarchy that exists to allow you to have consistency across your sounds, and allow for diversity within patches at the same time. Understanding the concert, set, and patch paradigm is key to harnessing the power of MainStage. Configuring your MainStage concert files takes some time, and setting things up so that your show runs efficiently and in a stable manner is key for having a successful MainStage experience. YouвЂ™ll also find MainStage in the backline setup of a multitude of tours, driving both keyboard and guitar setups. YouвЂ™d be hard pressed to find a Broadway musical these days that doesnвЂ™t trigger sounds for the keyboard players using MainStage.

#Mainstage 3 review mac#

AppleвЂ™s MainStage has quickly become the de facto standard for hosting virtual instruments on Mac platforms.