Hi everyone,
I'm totally new to Mainstage (and got started with MIDI only a couple of weeks ago), so I apologise in advance for the noob questions. I read the manual, watched quite a lot of videos, read a bunch of posts here, mucked about with it and I'm starting to get a clearer picture of how to use it. However, there's one thing I still haven't managed to figure out, and I couldn't really find any info on how to handle it.
I would think what I'm trying to do is a pretty standard thing, so maybe I'm not searching the right way and just missed it, or maybe the way I envision my workflow is wrong. I'd happily take any suggestions!
I need to set up a live keyboard rig for a repertoire containing about 20-30 songs. Within each one of the songs, I'll use several different patches. For instance, in one song a Rhodes patch on verses, a synth patch on choruses. In another song, a B3 and a piano. Stuff like that, varying between songs.
I'm currently trying to figure out how to switch between patches within each song easily, from my controller. Using Next Patch/Previous Patch is not an option, as I will sometimes need to jump very quickly between non consecutive patches. I saw I could assign each Patch to a PC message. That sounds good, but for what I'm trying to achieve it it looks like I would need some kind of bank change management as I'd like to restrict the number of buttons dedicated to this kind of operations to the minimum, and keep them always at the same location on the keyboard.
A convenient scenario for me would be something like that :
* For song #1, I'd like to assign patches #1, #2, and #3 to buttons C18, C19, and C20 on my controller.
* For song #2, I'd like to assign patches #4, #5 and #6 to the same buttons C18, C19 and C20. And let's say #7 to C21 for good measure. And recycle an existing patch using an alias, too.
* and so on
So, I thought I might be able to use Sets in my Concert as some kind of banks, and then to assign my controller buttons to PC messages assigned to each Patch within these banks. But from what I understand, I'm not sure if I can really do that, or how. Or if it is the right solution.
Something like that, for instance:
* Set 01 (Bank 01 ?)
* Patch 01 - Button C18
* Patch 02 - Button C19
* Patch 03 - Button C20
* Set 02 (Bank 02 ?)
* Patch 04 - Button C18
* Patch 05 - Button C19
* Patch 06 (patch 01 alias) - Button C20
* Patch 07 - Button C21
So, I guess nothing new or unusual here. But I don't understand how to achieve that (if it's doable straight from Mainstage). Would anyone be able to point me in the right direction?
Cheers from France,
Tim