I'm certain this has been asked but I just can't start. My frustration is unbearable. I've seen the NIN/Trent Reznor solution so I know mainstage can do a lot for us..
YES, I've read the manual but it's using what I think of as proprietary terminology without a basic explanation so I'm not getting a foothold on the concept. I'm a bit old basically.Â
I understand the different 'levels' (sort of) but the terminology is throwing me. Â I can only presumeÂ
Concert,Â
Set,Â
PatchÂ
are reallyÂ
Gig,Â
Song,Â
keyboard soundÂ
but why would we want a concert wide tempo???, 24 songs with the same tempo -seriously?.
Plus nothing in the preset templates is remotely right for us it seems. How would anyone know though?
Frustration aside, and I'm not expecting anyone to troubleshoot this for me but I'd  appreciate any help I could get. Maybe explaining some fundamental misunderstanding or point us in the right direction.(I haven't got any money for a training DVD)
We are a mainly electronic act performing on a VERY tight budget.Â
Our setup is 3 keyboard players and a lead singer.
Each keys player has a MacBook pro with a controller and a separate hardware synth.
 1 keyboard player plays a guitar on some songs.
We use backings which areÂ
 mixed down to a stereo WAV or AVI video file. Played using VLC
Works fine but has limitations.
We want to have timecode and midi on stage and also reduce the hardware we take with us due to costs that promotors won't meet.
We want to do several things
1.) Connect two controller keyboards to each mac and use competely VST synths/samplers. Then we could do away with a hardware synth or three.
2) Have a separate volume set for each song backing. At the moment we are changing volume manually song by song.
3) Have 'Mainstage' output midi time code from the backings (somehow) to a lighting rig and/or send patch changes to effects units. I saw the playback plug in detect tempo from a backing track.
4) Have 'Mainstage' to play video files in some songs instead of stereo WAV
5) have Vocals and Guitar to go through mainstage for different effects on each channel and from there to the front desk (separate outputs I know)
6) long shot, we'd like to trigger samples using a clip launcher like the Akai APC, mainly for visual effect.
Like I say, any help would be much appreciated.
YES, I've read the manual but it's using what I think of as proprietary terminology without a basic explanation so I'm not getting a foothold on the concept. I'm a bit old basically.Â
I understand the different 'levels' (sort of) but the terminology is throwing me. Â I can only presumeÂ
Concert,Â
Set,Â
PatchÂ
are reallyÂ
Gig,Â
Song,Â
keyboard soundÂ
but why would we want a concert wide tempo???, 24 songs with the same tempo -seriously?.
Plus nothing in the preset templates is remotely right for us it seems. How would anyone know though?
Frustration aside, and I'm not expecting anyone to troubleshoot this for me but I'd  appreciate any help I could get. Maybe explaining some fundamental misunderstanding or point us in the right direction.(I haven't got any money for a training DVD)
We are a mainly electronic act performing on a VERY tight budget.Â
Our setup is 3 keyboard players and a lead singer.
Each keys player has a MacBook pro with a controller and a separate hardware synth.
 1 keyboard player plays a guitar on some songs.
We use backings which areÂ
 mixed down to a stereo WAV or AVI video file. Played using VLC
Works fine but has limitations.
We want to have timecode and midi on stage and also reduce the hardware we take with us due to costs that promotors won't meet.
We want to do several things
1.) Connect two controller keyboards to each mac and use competely VST synths/samplers. Then we could do away with a hardware synth or three.
2) Have a separate volume set for each song backing. At the moment we are changing volume manually song by song.
3) Have 'Mainstage' output midi time code from the backings (somehow) to a lighting rig and/or send patch changes to effects units. I saw the playback plug in detect tempo from a backing track.
4) Have 'Mainstage' to play video files in some songs instead of stereo WAV
5) have Vocals and Guitar to go through mainstage for different effects on each channel and from there to the front desk (separate outputs I know)
6) long shot, we'd like to trigger samples using a clip launcher like the Akai APC, mainly for visual effect.
Like I say, any help would be much appreciated.