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Mainstage- the tool for the job?


tristancalvaire

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Hello all.

 

Soon, I'll be needing to prepare a few performance auditions for a college application. I'm applying for music technology, and while instrument proficiency is not necessary, they do require you to include two video performances.

 

Since I don't have a recording of that one time I played a very simple bass pattern in a band covering Mississippi Queen in eight grade (and also since that wouldn't particularly show off what I do now), I'm looking for a tool to help me create a live performance with my gear.

 

I have three hardware synthesizers, all of which I've got hooked up into Logic via audio and MIDI through my PreSonus Firestudio Mobile. I also have a Maschine Mikro and Traktor Kontrol S2 for controlling via USB.

 

What I'm looking to do is to be able to experiment with my instruments in a live setting, playing a live rendition of a song of mine. Hopefully, I can send CC or MIDI note messages to any of my synthesizers, so that I could be perhaps manually playing one, manually changing say a cutoff parameter on another, yet having the computer sequence the synthesizers which I'm not playing. I'd like to be able to run Maschine as an AU, as well as use Logic's dynamic processing tools like the compressor or EQ. The ability to record live loops would be a bonus, as well as to trigger samples. Finally, it'd be nice if the software was organized in a DAW-like method, where once I start the performance, say, after 16 measures a sample that I set up previously would trigger as it would in a DAW.

 

I must admit, I know nothing about Mainstage other than that I own a copy of it and it isn't installed on my Macbook. I hope to fix those two things today, but any preliminary information would be much appreciated. Hopefully I won't have to purchase a copy of Live to suit my needs.

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As far as I know, there isn't any midi file player in Mainstage. Apart from that, all of this can be done.

If it were me, Logic would be my weapon of choice. You can play you're instrument live, send midi to

you're synth, tweak it, have loops and samples loaded and record the whole thing as audio to splice

with you're video. All in a DAW environment. Mainstage can playback audio files so, you might look

into it. I'd say install it, get you're feet wet. It's a great tool. It might inspire a diferent approach to you're

performance. Good luck BTW.

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As far as I know, there isn't any midi file player in Mainstage. Apart from that, all of this can be done.

If it were me, Logic would be my weapon of choice. You can play you're instrument live, send midi to

you're synth, tweak it, have loops and samples loaded and record the whole thing as audio to splice

with you're video. All in a DAW environment. Mainstage can playback audio files so, you might look

into it. I'd say install it, get you're feet wet. It's a great tool. It might inspire a diferent approach to you're

performance. Good luck BTW.

 

MainStage features ReWire and MIDI-out support. That means everything you use to perform is right on your Mac, giving you total control.

 

That's what Apple's site says, though I'm uncertain if it's the same version that was bundled with my Logic Pro 9 / Logic Studio copy. I'm installing it as we speak.

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