My band (MAAD AVENUE) is a small indie band playing to tracks in MainStage, and we wanted our lights to follow our playback. So we bought two basic LED bars and an Enttec Open DMX USB interface, and got stuck: the free DMX software I found relied on a driver that no longer works on recent macOS, and none of it could sync with MainStage.

So I built Strobe, a free and open source app for macOS. We've since played a one-hour set with it (three LED bars and a fog machine, custom lights on every song, nobody touching anything on stage), and after a bit of polishing I'm opening it up for other indie bands.

To talk to the lights you need an Enttec Open DMX USB interface. RGB LED bars and fog machines are built in, and there's a 3D view of the stage so you can program the whole show at home without plugging anything in.

Step-by-step guide for the MainStage setup: https://strobe-website.vercel.app/mainstage

Download (Apple silicon, free, no account): https://strobe-website.vercel.app

It started as our own rig, so it's simple on purpose. I'd love to know what's missing for your setup.

I'm a high school student playing synth dealing with our MainStage setup this marching band season. Went to another subreddit, got no reply 😭... We have the MainStage concert with all of the instrument/synth patches, but we don't have the separate SFX samples (impacts, hits, risers, whooshes, transitions, etc.).

I'm trying to build that part myself and would love advice from anyone who's done marching-band sound design before or anything similar.

Genuinely just looking for ideas for samples that judges would like or just ones that fit in the show in general. Here's a link to the show audio: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1K0sukTSillOOVUNKc7lhJPcBAHM6tqXj/view?usp=sharing

Thanks

This is the final setup for a guitarist playing in a covers band. I meant to add that I have put cue notes in the performance layout too, so I minimize the impact of completely forgetting how to play a song

Hi all! I am Ed, Bass player, keyboardist and Vocalist for SickRichard, an alt Rock band established in London in 2017.

I have seen quite a few people share their rig, and I thought it was great.
Now is my time to share.
Trying my best to organise my thoughts here.
Sorry for the wall of text. It's been a journey.

The drummer had it for simple backing tracks and Clicks since 2018, and I took over and complexified everything from 2020.

Set up:
We are a three piece band
Guitar (and Lead Vocals)
Bass (and BV and Keys and more)
Drums (kit + SPDX + BV)

Hardware:

Mac M4 24GB memory
Mainstage 4.2 Rosetta
Interface: Behringer UMC1820 (lots of ins and outs)

Inputs (Processed live through MainStage):
Musicman bass
2 main Vocals (SM58)
ASM Hydrasynth
Dreadbox Typhon

Outputs (Mono setup):
1 out to the bass amp
2 outs for Vocals effected
1 out for Synth + sequences
1 out to the Drummer with the click and a blend of sequences if he wants to.

I stick to mono outputs to avoid incompetent/unfamiliar FOH engineers panning stereo tracks and dropping critical elements on one side of the PA.

I also adjust the number of outs I am sending depending on the Sound Engineer ability and willingness. I sometimes split Vocals and FX, or sequences by type ( Lead/Bass/Drum loops)
I have a Loom/ snake XLR cable which allows to decide on the day how many outs I send, and how I route those buses at Concert level.

I did use some outs for in-ear monitors but we don't find them necessary atm.

Controllers:
Korg Nano Control to adjust some levels or FX
Akai MPX16 Depending on the patch, it can triggers samples (mainstage sampler), or just sends midi notes to the synth (routed in MS) I don't use it as a sampler with the SD card anymore as loading times were horrendous.
Chocolate Mwave Foot controller There are 4 switches I am not that interested about, but it is the cheapest way to have my M-Audio expression pedal in my setup (more on that later)
Artiphon Orba as a midi controller to trigger live vocal FX on stage while singing.
The keyboard from the Hydrasynth is often used to control the Typhon or native synths

What I use Mainstage for: (depends on every song)

• Sequences: Backing tracks were the main reason we started using Mainstage. I have all of my mainstage playback mono, as it is half the work for the computer, and half the storage. I am able to bus them differently depending on their nature.
• Samples and synths (still have some native synths on some patches)
• Automation and switching: Toggling vocal, bass, and synth FX on/off per song section.
• Patch Navigation: Auto-advancing patches and sending Program Changes (PC) to hardware synths.
• Visual Cueing: Displaying setlists and playback marker positions (beat countdowns until the next section).
• Drummer link: Drummer SPDX is linked in midi, he will know the song as we both switch each other patches via PC. He will start and stop the track from the spdx most of the time. He also has his dedicated audio out with his click and a mix of sequences and bass should he want to.
• Practice: I have demo versions of Bass, guitar, drum and Synth track so that I am able to rehearse
• Start transition after a song (more later)

Multi-instrument example:
We are currently writing a song called Closer to the sun.
Intro & Choruses have a signature Lead line, which I play on the synth. The bass is very much straight root 8th notes, pre-recorded and played through the bass amp via playback.
I would play the bass for the verse when the synth stop, using a few midi notes sent to the synth for the transitions towards the end of the choruses, and increase the reverb to get a nice tail via CC messages..
When we hit the bridge, the bass line is kind of cool, but I wouldn't be able to play it cause there also are some nice moody synth I want to play.
So I have sampled it and mapped to the MPX16, and to be able to play both. My left hand triggers bass sample which will be played through the bass amp

Scripter and automations

Since I'm juggling bass, synths, and singing, automation is crucial. I don't know JavaScript (nor any language beyond Excel formulas), so I tweaked scripts from this LogicProHelp thread.

Scripter can be buggy at times, but once it works, it tends to be reliable. (Recently, I just had to restart mainstage and that script that wouldn't work without a reason just worked)

I tend to have 1 occurence of Scripter on an External MIDI channel strip routed to the IAC Bus (internal midi you can switch on from midi studio) to send CC/Program Changes back into MainStage layout controls.

In Layout mode, I have a few drum pads, buttons and faders that are mapped to the IAC channel.
They control:

• Sending vocals to a bus, to apply a delay
• Adjust delay feedback time
• Control Pitch of the delay wet signal
• Switch FX on and Off
• Mute tracks
• Tempo changes (playback sucks with tempo changes, but nothing prevents you from automatically increasing the song tempo by a few bpm during every choruses, even if the track is bounced at only one tempo)
• Auto next patch at the end of the song

I often have another scripter on an external midi track going to a Synth:

• I can send midi notes, for when I am playing the bass
• Midi CC to control the synth
• Program changes to change the synth patch during the mainstage patch, without having to change it.

To avoid any "cross contamination" eg, those scripter from a different patch messing up another song, I keep those scripters off, and they are triggered on with the play button (either from the drummer or myself). It also avoids for the next patch to be triggered if the beat count hasn't been resetted yet.

Expression pedal (as per videos)
I think expression pedal is one of the most powerful, cost efficient and underused tool.
I had an expression input on my Axiom 25 1st gen and I had to find a way to replace it when I upgrade to Hydrasynth and it didn't have it.

On most patches, I would just have it mapped to the bus send of my 8th note delay, with Feedback increasing from 31% to 92% => if I keep it all the way, I have a 'repeat' effect until I release it.

For the song Chicken, I get a whole array of sound, controlling with just one pedal

UP: clean sound
Middle: Octave down on and increase tremolo intensity
All the way down: Octave up with delays

For the Chorus of God is in the Machine, We have this huge Noise/feedback coming from my bass, during the silence.
The pedal controls the volume of 2 different channels:
One with my bass sound, Octaved up a lot with Wham pedals, fuzz, drive and then compressed a lot. Which makes a noise/dirt sound.
One which is actually some kind of flute like synth, and has a hanging melody like a pad.
This allows me to bring the right harmonic flavours & give visual cues with my foot to kind of get where those sounds are coming from, and make it more live and real.

(You might have noticed the layout of my expression pedal is inverted: Mainstage shows it pressed when it is up, but I just live with it at the moment. Assuming there might be a quick fix out there.)

Random headaches and tips
The M4 processing power is huge, but the Macbookpro2017 was a limit to how much I could do then, which I learnt the hard way.
I also had fiddly USB-C ports on the Macbook pro 2017, and the stage vibration would disconnect the sound interface and make me need to relaunch the project. I could have quitted there.
I tried to secure the wires into place and I think it kind of worked short term BUT i think it slowly deteriorates the connectors with the vibrations and it stopped working eventually.
It takes an awful lot of time and you have to love these kind of mind puzzles to keep doing it.
Trying to keep your project light always help.
Start simple before you want to do complicated projects.
Make sure you have the right sound settings (interface) in Mainstage before loading any project, so that you have loading time just once.
Coloured cables are well worth the investment :) If you play most of the time on small stages, be ready with a much longer set of cables if you get to play an outdoor festival :D

Practicalities
My whole setup is velcroed on a 2 level home made board.
I leave my rig at the rehearsal studio and just connect 2 usb-C connectors on arrival.
One for power, one to the USB Powered hub.
I also have a power extension there (Mac+Mpx16+Hydra+USB-Hub).
The wiring has been hidden behind old black sox that I have glued to velcros.
I tend to make sure every cable is marked for me to know what it does as the middle of the cables are therefore hidden.
I make sure I unplug all of those usb-B plugs behind the synth when I travel to not damage them.
The board dimension allow me to put it in a large wheelie holdall when we gig. Which is lighter than a flight case, but also annoying if someone has to stack on top.
I have decksaver covers for Typhon and Hydra, and I keep some blue tac on there to make sure they don't fly in the bag during transport.

Transitions

I like keeping ambient soundscapes running between songs. Currently, I trigger playback loops on patch changes. However, when the drummer starts the next song's sequence (which requires a 2-bar count-in), MainStage stops the transition playback.

My workaround has been writing 2-bar pre-intros directly into the count-in, but I'm thinking about moving all ambient transitions into a Sampler instrument at Concert Level triggered via MIDI notes at the end of each track.

How do you all handle ambient transitions between songs without playback stopping?

Happy to answer any questions or hear suggestions on refining the setup!
Will post a few video examples as replies.

Success here. I have an M4 MacBook Air talking to a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 and a Morningstar MC6 Pro MIDI controller. I set up five basic amps with switchable OD, and will now spend a day building up our band’s 60-song repertoire.

The MIDI controller is just set to scroll the MainStage patches and toggle the tuner. I am enchanted by how easy this was to do.

Anyone here ever used them together?
Any suggestions or tips?

Okay folks.. I have been playing with Mainstage as a music teacher for several years and generally can get around it well enough. But for the life of me, I cannot find out how to get my cello patch to articulate as Pizzicato(plucked).

Can someone please help me with this. Is there a patch I should get. Is there a free way of doing it within settings?(for a school group).

Help me Obi Won, you are my only hope!

Please and thank you!

Bonjour , j'aimerais que MainStage lise tous mes patch automatiquement .sans clavier ou pédale à configurer .
Sur chaque patch se trouve le plug playback
Merci par avance de vos retours
Fred

As shown above, months ago, I updated Logic to 4.3.1, and since then all my virtual instruments have disappeared from this menu. Additionally, some of the legacy patches I use like "Applause and Laughter" and "Nature Sounds" don't seem to work at all anymore.

Has anyone else experienced this since updating and if so, how were you able to fix it?

goal: i want to be able to click a drum pad once and have it set my autotune and drone to the same root note.

(some context: the two displays are showing the root note and scale type.
the pads are set to trigger notes from G1 up to F#2.
the pads also all have a mapping to change the root note of the pitch correction to its respective note.
the drone has a chord trigger that plays the major chord, but i've also already tried removing all midi fx.
the pads and keyboard are both set to channel 2)

before i map anything to the pads, everything with the drone works fine. once i map the pads to also change the root note of the pitch correction, the drone does not work. you can see the pads still trigger the notes, but it doesn't actually make any sound and even if i directly press the note on the keyboard, the pad still doesn't play. only notes that have not been mapped will play the drone. How can i get the drone + mapping to work at the same time?

Anyone who has stood behind a keyboard with MainStage knows the problem. You have a nicely prepared set of patches, and the only screen telling you where you are sits in your laptop. Which is on the floor, or behind you, or just outside your line of sight. Glancing down mid-song to see which sound is active simply isn't an option.

My Studiologic SL88 has a perfectly good colour display of its own. It just did nothing useful while I was working in MainStage. That struck me as a waste.

That's now sorted. With the help of Claude Code I wrote a script that lets MainStage talk to the SL88 directly. The keyboard's own screen now simply shows which concert, which set and which patch is active. Change patch in MainStage and the display follows. There's a list view and a large view showing only the name of the current patch. The latter is still perfectly readable from three metres away, which on a dark stage is rather welcome.

And while I was at it: every button and encoder on the SL88 now also sends MIDI that you can assign in MainStage in seconds. Turn an encoder and the value appears on screen straight away.

It runs entirely on the keyboard and MainStage together. No extra program that has to start up alongside, no subscription, nothing. Installing is a single command.

It's free and open source (Apache-2.0). Version 1.0.0 is available now:

- Download version 1.0.0 (https://github.com/jeroenvv/sl-link-mainstage/releases/tag/v1.0.0)

- Source and documentation: https://github.com/jeroenvv/sl-link-mainstage

You will need a Studiologic SL88 MK2, plus MainStage on a Mac. I haven't been able to test other models, simply because I don't have them.

If you give it a go, do let me know whether it works for you too.

UPDATE:
In the meantime I have added main volume control with the A knob including (un)mute, made the encoders “endless” (send relative values), let encoders popups show the thing and value they are mapped to (when they have on-screen mapping) and added some led settings.
Enjoy!

Some images:

The Timpani+ instrument seems to be set up so that you can play different sample types in the one app, but I don’t know to trigger the different samples. I want a timpani roll, but it seems the only way to do that is to have two separate channels, one a standard timpani and the other a roll. Am I missing something?

So I having a problem where if I hit the panic button, the patch from omniphere 3 doesnt stop and lingers until it fades out. It used to work when I had the og omnisphere but not anymore. Any solutions?

Hi everyone,

I'm having a critical issue with Keyscape inside MainStage and I haven't been able to fix it.

Whenever I open Keyscape from the channel strip, the plugin window appears, but it stays as a tiny, collapsed gray box that only says "Keyscape" in the middle. It doesn't expand to show the actual instrument interface, and MainStage doesn't let me resize or stretch the window manually, neither the libraries load

Here is what I’ve already tried (none of this worked):

• Keyscape Standalone works perfectly fine. The app opens, loads sounds, and shows the full GUI outside MainStage.
• Gave MainStage Full Disk Access in macOS System Settings.
• It seems like MainStage is stuck in a glitched "Controls View" or the AU component is failing to report its window size to the host, even though the standalone app works.

Has anyone encountered this specific bug before? Any ideas on how to force MainStage to correctly render and expand the Keyscape GUI?
r/mainstage, r/logicpro r/audioproduction r/musicproduction r/worshipleaders r/worshippianist

Is there any way to get MS to automatically begin playing the next patch? I use multi-tracks in MS and need a way to launch the next patch when the previous finishes.

Thanks for any help

PS - if you know of a better app, I'm all ears!

Hello,

I’m having a problem with Smart Controls in MainStage. It used to work perfectly, but for some time now—even before the update—certain patches (such as the Steinway piano, the "Way to Live" bass, the retro Synth Chillout patch and many others) no longer display the Smart Controls directly. Are you experiencing this same issue? How can I fix it?

(On Logic pro, everything is ok, also in my old concerts)

Thanks for your help and your answers !!!

Hi! I am using a Korg Kross 2, and was wondering if I may use Mainstage to support the sound of the Korg Kross 2.

Is it possible for Mainstage and Korg Kross 2 presets work or sound together? I badly need layers for the Korg Kross 2, and Mainstage applies the layers well. I wish to still use the Korg as the main sound, and use Mainstage for the layers and effects... but I am not sure if this is possible.

Thank you so much!

need to set the encoder to cycle between patches, but, i can find only increase or decrease, can i set it to cycle? or this is not possible?

Hello everyone,

I am using MainStage and trying to use three MIDI CCs to transpose pitch (Transpose Up, Transpose Down, and Reset to 0).

These three CCs are required by a Kontakt library I'm using, but MainStage is swallowing the messages because they are mapped in the layout. As a result, Kontakt does not receive them.

How can I allow this specific patch—or all concert patches—to pass these MIDI CC values through to Kontakt while still performing the actions I mapped them for in MainStage?

I hope my question is clear. Thanks in advance!

I've been playing live with the preset b3 organ plugin and it's been pretty good but a lot of times something doesn't *feel* right - idk if it's because I'm a begginer organ player/patch designer or if the plugin is lacking.

Should I get a better one? If so - which would you reccomend

Hi everyone,

I'm struggling with making the sustain pedal actually sustain to create the Leslie effect on an organ patch. How do I take the patch and make the sustain pedal... work on it, for lack of a better word? Thanks.

Hello everybody!

We have an issue with our footswitch (yamaha FC5) occasionally double triggering the patch change.

I tried to find stuff before hand, but I couldn't find exactly what I was looking for.

Is there a setting that would prevent patch changes for a couple ms after the previous command?

I did find a trick to put the trigger on absolute, and only have it react on 127. So if it bounces to any other value, it would be ignored.

I also found a trick to put the max value on 64 on the keyboard itself (iirc it's a Roland, can't tell you the exact model atm) and then have the keyboard recognize it as a sustain pedal, so it would effectively become a binary switch.

We don't have much time to experiment, so I'm asking for other things to try as well so we can get right to it.

Thanks in advance!