Mainstage 3

[Sjefke]

I have a €50 itunes gift certificate burning in my pocket...

Generally i am a hardware guy, but bought this 2 year old Mac last month and i need something to start with and something as a base to add some free vsts to it...

What can i do with mainstage 3, its only €29 and my old Roland A 800 masterkeyboard?


Anyone here using it?

[surferman]

http://mac.appstorm.net/reviews/music-r ... mance-app/

[beely]

What can i do with mainstage 3, its only €29 and my old Roland A 800 masterkeyboard?

Loads. It has all of Logic's instruments and FX built in, and you can layer them all in sophisticated ways for live performance.

Also an AU host as well, of course. It's basically Logic, without the sequencer, dedicated for live performance.

[Dewdman42]

Its an unbelievable bargain at $29!!

[jdoo]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

[aMUSEd]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

Look interesting but I only have Logic 9, not X - site says:

You can also choose to open the channel strips individually in older versions of Logic, although this is a bit more tedious than using the new patches feature in Logic Pro X.

How tedious?

[Dewdman42]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

Will those open in Mainstage?

[jdoo]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

Look interesting but I only have Logic 9, not X - site says:

You can also choose to open the channel strips individually in older versions of Logic, although this is a bit more tedious than using the new patches feature in Logic Pro X.

How tedious?

When I was using Logic 9, it took me a 1/2 day to convert the MainStage Concerts into reusable Channel Strips that I could use in Logic. Easy actually.

[jdoo]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

Will those open in Mainstage?

Yep. They're actually MainStage Concerts.. but you can use the Patches in Logic Pro X.

hth -

Joe

[aMUSEd]

One thing that I highly recommend to new Logic Pro X, or MainStage users .. is to pick up "Logic Pro Famous Sounds 2000s and Beyond - Mainstage 2 Concert Synth Sounds" off of eBay. It is ~ $20, and uses the native Logic software synths in replicating classic rock tunes. He has a couple of sound sets like this, and it gives you presets that you can use outside the Concert files that they come bundled in. Frankly - you can use the same sound sets in Logic Pro X now (he converted the concerts to Patch files that index directly into Logic).. No affiliation -- just a happy customer.

-JDoo

Look interesting but I only have Logic 9, not X - site says:

You can also choose to open the channel strips individually in older versions of Logic, although this is a bit more tedious than using the new patches feature in Logic Pro X.

How tedious?

When I was using Logic 9, it took me a 1/2 day to convert the MainStage Concerts into reusable Channel Strips that I could use in Logic. Easy actually.

So what you're saying is you basically have to replicate them all one by one?

[jdoo]

...
So what you're saying is you basically have to replicate them all one by one?

Not really. What you find, is that the difficult part, is setting up a common bus/channelstrip structure, so they can be reused across the sounds, and mixed and matched. Saving a channel strip one by one, takes a second and is straight forward. If that is what you're going to do (just replicate the Concert as individual songs/channel strips) - it will take 10 minutes to save the strips. If you want to go through the trouble of saving each patch as a reusable sound, that can be mix/matched across many different songs - then it takes an hour or two. Honestly - it is a very simple process to open each channel strip and "save-as" something you can call up in another song. The LP X Patches make this a slam dunk, and even easier to work with. I am probably making it sound more complex than it is... In any case - the LPX patches are sweet. For all I know - Rob still has the LP9 channel strips saved off. Might be worth dropping him a line, and seeing what's available..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lt_pbZcr7fc

[Dewdman42]

The more I get into mainstage, the more I realize how powerful it is. Aside from the environment itself, which is quite powerful, but all the logic plugins and content really make this quite a tool. it actually has all the various elements that any workstation type synth would have. its not marketed that way, but if you think about it, even all the included plugins and sounds, if layered together carefully, could create quite a monster workstation type setup, with endless mixer and routing capabilities due to the architecture of Mainstage.

It seems like if someone were to come out with a set of Patches that basically mimics the layout of many workstation synths, layering together and carefully programming all the included plugins, creating a giant set of maybe 500 workstation-esque sounds, then Mainstage would be quite a contender against all the others that have come out over the years. The nuts and bolts are all there with this one $30 app to create a huge array of sound.

Apple does ship quite a few patches with it, but I think they barely scratched the surface of what mainstage is capable of, using all the included plugins.

Never mind that you can always use your own plugins and go even further.