The MainStage GarageBand Controller

[mmm42]

From the Apple website:

 

http://www.apple.com/applescript/mainstage/index.html

 

The MainStage GarageBand Controller

 

A popular use of GarageBand amongst musicians who perform live engagements, is to use it as a virtual backing band. GarageBand makes an excellent accompianment tool and offers many advantages over playing along with recorded audio backing tracks, specifically:

 

* Individual tracks, such as the track assigned for playing the melody, can easily be muted or soloed.

* GarageBand’s cycle controls can be used to repeat or loop specific sections of a song, allowing for adjustable arranagements for live performance.

* Song tempos can be adjusted without altering the pitch or key of the song.

 

In addition to GarageBand, the MainStage module from the Logic Pro suite of audio tools, has become a popular live-performance controller for delivering an infinite variety of virtual instruments and settings. However, it has always been problematic to use GarageBand and MainStage together, as it necessitates the computer be readily available to allow switching between the two applications.

 

With AppleScript and the MainStage GarageBand Controller layout view, this problem has been solved. It is now possible to load and controll GarageBand from within MainStage and even from your MIDI devices!

[ankely]

That is kewl.

[David Nahmani]

Very cool, thanks for posting.

[Thorste]

I tried this, but the applescript to open a Garageband file looks for the "musicman" user Garageband folder in the Music folder. I don't know applescript, and I can't find a spot in the script to input my Garageband folder directory. If anyone could look over that particular script and make an adjustment available, that would be great.

[Thorste]

O.K.

I found the answer to the file directory issue. In Script editor, open the script "GB open chosen song" (in the mainstage scripts folder where the installer placed it), and in the 2nd line that starts with "property master_source_directory :" replace "(path to music folder)" with your path to your music folder. (who would've thunk).

For example, if your user name is SteveJobs and your boot drive was Macintosh HD, this line would read exactly

property master_source_directory : (("Macintosh HD:Users:stevejobs:Music:" as string) &"GarageBand:")

 

I originally tried forward slashes but the colons seem to be the way to go. Also, don't forget the quote marks!

 

You can now save it or save as back in the Mainstage scripts folder and you're good to go.

It isn't necessary to place your .band file in a garageband folder, Just delete the first "(" and the "as string) &"GarageBand:")" It just makes it more organized. If your folder has other files in it, the files will show up in your selection box, so make sure you're final folder has only .band files in it.

 

Good Luck,

Thor Stevens