Hi everyone,

I'm experiencing a strange issue after updating to the latest versions of MainStage and macOS.

Environment:

- MainStage 4.3

- macOS Tahoe 26.5.2

- Apple Silicon MacBook Pro

Issue:

Software Instrument patches switch perfectly.

However, Audio Input patches (guitar or even the built-in microphone) do not switch correctly.

When I change patches, the previous patch continues processing the live input for the full duration specified by "Silence Previous Patch" (currently set to 5 seconds). The new patch does not become active until those 5 seconds have passed.

During that time, the audio briefly becomes louder, as if the previous patch is still processing the live input.

Previously, with the exact same setup and setting, only the reverb and delay tails remained while the dry input switched immediately to the new patch. Now, the dry input also remains on the previous patch until the "Silence Previous Patch" timer expires.

Things I've already tested:

- Created a brand new macOS user account

- Tested with a default MainStage concert

- Used the built-in microphone instead of my guitar

- Used the built-in audio output

- Reinstalled MainStage

- Reset MainStage preferences

- Uninstalled BlackHole

- Tested patch switching using both my MIDI foot controller and my computer keyboard

The problem only affects Audio Input patches.

Software Instrument patches switch normally.

This issue did not exist before. I have been using the same Mac and the same MainStage setup successfully for live performances. The problem appeared after launching MainStage again about a month later, following recent software updates.

Has anyone experienced this on MainStage 4.3 or macOS Tahoe?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

MainStage 4.3 has introduced an annoying bug for me: it does not sent anymore the On Patch Change midi messages to Scripter (and probably any other midi FX) in that channel.

It still sends them to the selected midi out channel. But for me it is important to be able to let Scripter scripts do stuff On Patch Change. Therefore my scripts used to respond to the expression message sent On Patch Change. But due to this bug this solution does not work anymore.

Does anyone know a workaround to still activate Scripter scripts On Patch Change?

Something very strange happened the other day. I wrote this program and ran it flawlessly on my keyboard. I connected to a new keyboard, at the gig site and an issue occurred mid concert. However, before I explain that I need to provide more information.

When I connected to the keyboard I had to do so using specific MIDI output ports and not the USB because that's how it was setup (and I didn't know how to activate the USB for MIDI). They keyboard was recognized through Mainstage. I did have to remap the patch change pedal, panic, and previous patch keys. Again, nothing out of the ordinary. I don't recall if I had to remap the sustain pedal, I think I did and that's where this problem starts.

Everything was running fine, sustain was working as intended playing in performance mode. I had to exit performance mode for a moment to adjust the volume of a channel strip and saved it. A few minutes later, I noticed, after pressing the sustain pedal, it was locked on and never would come off.

In looking at this thoroughly I noticed that the sustain control "On Patch Change" option was set to Match and the Saved Value 127 which is why this was locked on.

How did this happen? Is there some keyboard shortcut I could have accidentally have it that would have changed this at the CONCERT level?

Thanks.

Hello everyone

I am a beginner in MainStage. I have acquainted myself with the features. I have to prepare for a gig in 8 weeks where I will be playing keys.

I need advice and tips on how to level the patch volumes and mix the patches (reverbs, compression, saturation etc) to achieve the highest output quality and have the same volume so that it doesn’t sound unstable and doesn’t fluctuate while while switching from one patch to another.

For some context, I have an Audient iD14 audio interface, a Yamaha psr s series arranger workstation that I use as a midi controller, an FC7 expression pedal and a MacBook Pro M4 pro.

I use software instruments like omnispehere, keyscape, kontakt (where I run libraries such as spitfire, shreddage etc), I also use Arturia synth collection and pigments

Thank you

Hello

So I did a lot of reading / watching in the past couple days to understand how mainstage can receive and send program changes. I got to a point where I have my DAW playing backing tracks and sending program changes which are received by MS. I also have MS firing up program changes externally to a synth when I'm selecting a certain patch - all good.

What I don't understand is the use of "bank select" on a patch level. Unless I'm running more than 128 MS patches, why would I fire a patch using MSB + LSB + PC from my DAW when the PC is enough ?

I understand the need for it when firing *from* mainstage to whatever synth that will need such a thing, as they all use it differently.

Is it purely if I was to load a MS patch, triggered by an external hardware that would actually use those values ?

Thanks in advance

Yesterday I just got Mainstage for the first time on my 2019 iMac 21.5 it's OS is 15.7.7 and it let me install the app perfectly fine but anytime I try to open it it shows the first page where it says it's loading everything loads the samples it as soon as it does all of that it closes I right click it and then it says this application is not responding I literally don't know what else to do and I'm lost and stuck

HI. Although I've read the manual, I'm not sure I understand what is going on here. Can someone please explain what is happening in each of these steps? Ultimately I need to make sure the person I'm sending this concert file to can run it flawlessly and have all necessary sounds.

Thanks.

My original concert - 17.1 MB (local save)

Then, I save as and select ALL the copy operations - 8.25 Gb

Then, I run a clean up on that save as file - 1.89 Gb (what specifically was removed, or general specifics)

Now, here is the strange thing, if I close that file and reopen my original concert and go through the SAME steps as above this is what happens:

Save as, using the same file name as before and allowing it to replace the concert - 1.94 Gb

Then, clean up - 240 MB!! Why so much smaller this time around?

Now, I do this again for the third time, save as allowing replacement of what is there - 286 MB. It seems as though a lot of samples are gone.

What is going on here and how do I have the confidence to provide a concert to someone?

Seems to only happen with Arturia Plugins (Pigments, Piano V3), however the Plugins do work in Logic or Standalone.

As soon as I drag a knob by clicking and moving the mouse, the cursor disappears (which is fine). After releasing the click the cursor does not reappear. It becomes invisible (however I can still control and click everything).

When I move the mouse out of the Plugin-Window, it reappears.

I think it has something to do with the fact that in Plugins like Arturia's the cursor stays at the current position despite dragging.

(Tested in current version and also in 3.6.6, using newest Mac OS Tahoe 26.5.2)

I teach a small HS front ensemble and both the synths are that model. If I get an HDMI/MIDI to USB cable and plug it into a Mac, will I be able to use the synth to play custom samples, assuming I also route it through our speaker system?

Looking for MainStage patches or recreations of Billy Joel keyboard sounds.

Specifically trying to recreate:
- Scenes from an Italian Restaurant
- Vienna
- Prelude/Angry Young Man
- And So it Goes

Has anyone built these patches or knows of a downloadable MainStage concert? I can only find ones for songs like Pressure and Allentown.

Hi Wizards :-)
I would like to be able to do the following in Playback plugins in Mainstage if possible.

I have 4 samples:
No. 1 Start sample.
No. 2 A loop sample.
No. 3 A sample that slowly fades in and continues for the rest of the song.
No. 4 A short sample.

No. 1 should automatically start No. 2 when No. 1 has finished playing.
No. 2 should stop when you manually select No. 4, while No. 3 should keep playing.

Can anybody help me with that?
Kind regards, Michael Ziegler from Denmark speaking through ChatGPT :-)

I’m running into a frustrating issue with Omnisphere 3 inside MainStage on my Mac. Every single time I switch to an Omnisphere patch, it triggers a sudden, burst of sound/glitch data before I even touch the keyboard. Appreciate any insight

Hi everyone!

I'm a solo musician/singer looking to upgrade my old Macbook Pro 2015 (with 8gb of ram) into something newer to run my live shows with Mainstage without struggling much. I actually use one or two midi keyboards + one synth and backing tracks in some songs to process the voice in real time. Not much more...

Thinking of a gig composed by 20 songs (the maximum) with 2-3 waves plugins on each and 1-2 digital synths (Arturia Analog Lab - Serum - Native Mainstage Synths):

would it be better to get a Macbook Air M4/M5 or a Macbook Pro M4/M5? The cost difference is not that small, and I thought of an Air with M4 and 24gb of ram, but I'm not sure about thermal throttling and fanless being actually a problem or only if you run 10 omnispheres at the same time.

Does anyone have any experience with these machines? Thanks a lot in advance!

Hey completely beginner here, I have a gig in about a month and I was requested to do Ed Sheeran songs. Most of his stuff include looping and i know that there is a loop plugin in mainstage. My setup consists of an electric guitar thats going straight to my audio interface, a midi keyboard for some piano songs, and a mic. Would i be able to use all those in a loop? if so how would i go about doing that... I'd also like to sync up the loops with my backing tracks if possible, like, looping stuff and then having the backing track join me on the chorus (of course i'd have a click track on my ears)

Any help is appreciated!

Hello all, I am a one-person guitarist and vocalist and I want to use MainStage for my performances. I use MainStage to run guitar + vocal effects (like compression, EQ, and reverb), as well as backing tracks.

Here's the problem I have, out of the 20ish songs I perform, 15 of them will all use the EXACT same guitar + vocal levels and effects. I'll call this my default sound. The only thing that will be changing is the backing track. HOWEVER, for about 5 of my songs, I want completely different sounds for my guitar (think amp sims and pedals).

I don't mind using different patches for all of my songs, but I don't want to have to copy all of my effects and levels across 15+ patches every time I want to make a slight change to my default sound, but I also don't want them at the concert level because then the effects are active during the other 5 songs I DON'T want those "default" effects for.

Everything else I'm writing is just more details, probably not as important to read.

If I have my guitar input at the concert level going to bus 1 (guitar effects), this works for the 15 songs that use the same effects and levels. Then, let's say I want to play a song with completely different effects on a different patch, how can I make the patch ignore the guitar > bus 1 and instead go guitar > bus 2 (pedal board)?

I could setup my default sound as patch-level channel strips, but then If I go change the volume on one, it won't change for any of my other default sounds...

Hi! I am using a keyboard that doesn't have any effects and have very limited sound library. I was hoping to use Mainstage to enhance the keyboard. I am figuring out right now how to add reverb, but it seems that it needs to be selected manually per channel. Is it possible to create an effects button that would apply to different instruments depending on what is unmuted? I tried creating a blank channel with effects and set it to solo, along with an instrument also set to solo, hoping the effects from the blank channel will apply to the instrument selected, but it did not. Hope you could help me. Thank you so much!

Hello all, I'm new to Mainstage (v4), still reading the manual, playing with templates, and so on. I wanted to ask about something I've noticed:

When I open the Keyboard Minimalist template and click on the epiano patch, I see two reverb channels. But when I click on the concert (what I'm assuming is the concert - it's titled "Untitled Concert") there are now four reverbs. What are the additional two verbs doing there?

My assumption is this: Only the effects that are in use on that patch show up on the patch level, is that correct? If not, can someone point me in the right direction?

Thanks!

I have the need to create a “stage plot” type of document for different keyboard setups for different bands. I am a newby, and I need to pack two rigs. I need a cheat sheet for plugging things in; checklist of equipment for each setup.

Hi! New here and though I'm not totally new to Mainstage I am diving into creating patches more for live performances. Recently patches I have created have been going silent on me. Sometimes the entire thing and sometimes just one in a split I have created. Everything was fine and then the next day or at the gig they just wouldn't make any sound. Mainstage is reading the midi and I see the volume in the channel strip. Just no sound. Here's what I am using:

Macbook, Audiobox USB interface, Keystation 61, USB is connected from both the box and the midi keyboard I am running a stereo split cable into the PA. Thanks!

Hi ya'll,

I'm helping out a band with playback/backline stuff and i've been having a nightmare of a time with one patch in the concert. Assignments for things like Mod Wheel, Sustain, even keys seemingly drop entirely at random, and then re-programming them often does nothing. Literally it's a case of sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't with no rhyme nor reason.

Meanwhile on the B computer, identical patch settings do not in fact do the same thing, e.g. identical settings at concert and patch level for, say, Sustain across four layers. There's a ton of old MIDI assignments in the Assignments inspector from what i presume are old versions of the file and/or rehearsals etc before i was around, but i don't see a way of deleting any of that junk data. Attempting to send a consolidated concert from A to B also causes instability and never acts in the way that one would expect.

I'd love to get this back to baseline somehow but all the older instances of the concert suffer the same instabilities so far as i can tell, and there have been newer songs added to later files. I guess one way would be to dump all the sampler data and start a new clean patch and see if that works? I know i've had trouble finding the sampler data before though, so idk.

Setup is 2x MBP M3's (with different OS's, and i'm unable to change that.) A is a clean install of everything, B is not and seemingly an old studio computer. PA1U for MIDI DIN (In from controller keyboard w/ sustain, out to Fractals to change guitar patches/scenes in Ableton), RTP to Stage Right Fractal patch changes which works fine on both, DADCore256x2 for Audio. MS is 3.7.1.

Out of a total of about 8 patches, this is the only one that is giving me issues. Any thoughts or advice, or suggestions of something i may have overlooked would be appreciated.

thx!

I'm trying to solve a MainStage live-performance workflow problem and I'm wondering if anyone has successfully done this or something similar.

Current setup:

- MainStage 3

- Two MIDI keyboards (M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 and Nektar Impact LX88)

- Physical buttons on the keyboards are mapped to enable/disable (bypass) individual channel strips for layering sounds.

- Sliders and knobs are already mapped to volume controls for blending sounds live.

The system works well, and I have the muscle memory built around it. The problem is that the buttons on my keyboards aren't backlit, so I have no visual confirmation of which channel strips are active unless I look at my MacBook screen.

My goal is to run the laptop closed/off to the side and have a dedicated hardware status display showing which sounds are currently active.

I'm considering using something like an Akai APC Mini MK2 purely as an LED status panel (not necessarily as the primary controller). Ideally:

- Channel strip ON = pad lights green

- Channel strip OFF = pad lights red or turns off

- The LEDs update automatically regardless of whether the state change originated from one of my keyboard buttons or elsewhere in MainStage.

My questions:

1. Can MainStage send MIDI feedback to an APC Mini MK2 (or similar controller) to update pad LEDs based on the state of a Screen Control?

2. Has anyone successfully used MainStage to provide bidirectional MIDI feedback for this kind of status indication?

3. If so, what was your setup? Did it work directly through MainStage, or did you need something like Bome MIDI Translator Pro in the middle?

4. If MainStage can't reliably do this, is there another hardware solution you've used for "at-a-glance" visual confirmation of active patches/layers without relying on the laptop screen?

I'm not looking to change my existing workflow, I just want a reliable visual indicator of the current state of my sound layers during live performance.

Thanks!

Hey, new guy here, i 've been having a couple of issues when trying to play something on youtube while running mainstage, i've already checked that the sample rates on both configurations match and everything is on point there, i have kontakt patches on an external ssd and i've noticed that the issue happens when i plug the ssd to use said patches, i can use them without youtube open but as soon as i open youtube mac starts crashing and running realyyy slow, been using mainstage for about a year but started having this issue like 3 days ago, anyone had a similar issue? any fixes? if this is an issue for another subreddit let me know please and thank you