3.5

19MainStage User Guide
MainStage for vocals, drums, and other instruments
Vocalists and acoustic musicians can use MainStage by sending the audio output from
a microphone connected to their computer to audio channel strips in their patches. You
can use MainStage with CoreAudio-compatible audio devices, such as audio interfaces
and digital mixers, for input from instruments and microphones, and for audio output to
speakers, monitors, a mixing board, or a public address (PA) system. In MainStage, you
can access a wide range of effects in your patches.
Drummers can also use MainStage by sending the audio output from microphones to audio
channel strips in their patches or by using drum pads or a virtual drum kit to control the
Sampler, Ultrabeat, and percussion-oriented plug-ins.
MainStage in live performance
After you have created your custom patches in a concert, you’re ready to play. In Perform
mode, you can select patches and start playing instantly. MainStage switches seamlessly
between patches and sustains notes from the previous patch while you start playing the
newly selected one. You can view patch names, parameter values, and audio output levels
in real time, adjust concert-wide effects, and control other concert-wide settings.
By default, the workspace fills your computer screen, optimizing available screen space for
your onscreen layout. You can also choose Perform in Window to have the workspace fill
the MainStage window, while retaining access to the Finder and to other applications.
You can use MainStage with multiple MIDI controllers, microphones, musical instruments,
and other music equipment. For time-based effects such as reverb and delay, you can set
a predefined tempo, use MIDI input for tempo changes, or tap the tempo as you perform.
Using an iPad, you can also play software instruments, add patches, choose patch and
channel strip settings, mute and solo channel strips, adjust Smart Controls, and control
other aspects of MainStage, using the Logic Remote app.
For tips and more, see the topics in the Perform live with MainStage chapter.
MainStage workflow basics
The following list shows the main steps in a MainStage workflow.
Create a concert from a template
You start by creating a new concert from a template for keyboard, guitar, vocals, or another
instrument. MainStage recognizes many popular MIDI controllers and automatically assigns
hardware controls on the controller to corresponding screen controls in the workspace,
simplifying hardware setup. For more information, see Create a concert in MainStage.