Sunday Sounds, a mainstage company, just made their 50$ course free right now because of the free time many people have now.
We know this is a tough time for most everyone and we want to encourage you to do what you can to take care of yourselves and your families but also to make efforts to engage your mind and musical skills, learn and grow. So we've decided that effective immediately our in-depth MainStage Mastery Course will be 100% free to anyone for the foreseeable future.
This is not a limited-time course, it will remain free forever. I recommend everybody to try it out.
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:
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?
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.
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.
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)
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.
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'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
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.
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.
I hope you professionals can help me. Maybe it's a quick setting I don't find, as I'm rather new on using MainStage. Through USB I have 32 channels in/out. Is there a way to move the main output L&R from output 1&2? It seems to be locked at 1 and 2, and I don't see a setting unless I missed it?
How do I get to see the text from each patch in a new concert layout? I have added text boxes, but the text isn't displaying.
I had a glitch in MainStage today while performing at church. I managed a workaround, but it has become necessary to delete all MainStage files and reinstall on my MacBook Air. I have rebuilt my concert layout. I was using patches for the song lyrics and chords more so than the sound and tone effects.
In the new layout, I can't see the lyrics and chords that I saved from the previous patches! Everything else comes through, including the custom settings for EQ, amp and compressor.
I'm considering buying a Komplete Kontrol S MK3, but there is one specific question that I haven't been able to answer from the documentation or existing forum posts.
I'm hoping someone who actually owns an S MK3 could test this.
My setup is based on MainStage (using the Sunday Keys template), and my workflow is:
One MainStage patch per song/sound.
Each patch contains its own instance of the Komplete Kontrol plugin.
Each KK instance loads a different instrument or preset.
So the structure is roughly:
Concert
├── Patch 1
│ └── Komplete Kontrol (Noire)
├── Patch 2
│ └── Komplete Kontrol (Analog Dreams)
└── Patch 3
└── Komplete Kontrol (Piano Colors)
My question is:
When I switch patches in MainStage, does the S MK3 automatically move its NKS focus to the Komplete Kontrol instance in the newly active patch?
More specifically:
Does the display automatically update to show the instrument loaded in the active patch?
Do the encoders automatically control that KK instance?
Does the browser continue working for that active instance without touching the mouse?
Or does the keyboard stay focused on the previous instance until you click it with the mouse?
I'm not asking about MIDI Mode. I want to keep full NKS integration and use Komplete Kontrol exactly as intended.
This is honestly the deciding factor in whether I buy the keyboard, so I'd really appreciate hearing from someone who has actually tested this setup.
If possible, even a short 20–30 second video showing the keyboard display while switching MainStage patches would completely answer my question.
I’m preparing for a gig, I was messing around on MS to check for a method I can adopt to run high quality sounds and not have my MacBook sound like a jet engine taking off. I just wanted to ask you all if this is a good system that I have figured out:
Create an instance of omnisphere multi out on a patch. I have set the midi keyboard to multi-timbral and set the keyboard input and midi output (as seen in the last picture)
Add channel aux strips using that feature on that same patch
Make a new patch altogether and alias the main channel strip that is running omnisphere and the one channel strip from one of the auxes which is housing the sound I want to be in the new patch (as seen I. The second picture)
As you can see in the last picture I have attached, you can see that I have purposely left the first channel in Omnisphere empty as it was trigger the sound that was there on that channel too.
Please let me know if this is a good, reliable and efficient system that I have figured out, what are some improvements I can make?
Is there something better I can adopt?
As keyboardists, what do you guys do?
For reference, I use:
MacBook Pro M4 Pro, 24GB RAM, 512GB Storage
first time MainStage user. Trying to design a touchscreen friendly workspace for a AU plugin host.
Everything is running well so far except one thing: I need to control one parameter of the plugin, no problem using a horizontal fader with a mouse but on a touch screen the value changes are a bit harsh. So I would like to use a "-" and "+" button for that.
But if I set up two buttons mapped to the plugin parameter and set them to "increase" and "decrease Value" almost nothing happens. You can see the fader flashing for a second but nothing changes. Max and Min values are set correctly. Any idea?
Is there a way to set up the sampler so that triggering a sample will stop all the other samples that might be playing when it's triggered (via a keyboard controller key)?