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The Edit Page
The Edit page is where you will spend a majority of your time loading the sounds you want to use live, assigning controls you see on the screen to control the different software synths, route the audio from the program to the inputs and outputs of your audio interface, and insert effects. You'll also be able to create keyboard layers and splits, monitor your CPU usage, and see how much memory you have used up. In the center of the screen there is a Workspace window which allows you to visually see what Performance mode will look like as you make changes to presets and channels. Now lets take a look at a few of the other windows on the Edit page.
Patch List
In short, this section is where you will organize and name your *presets (patches) to be played. You will notice that in this screen shot there are essentially three things: the concert folder, folders to organize your presets, and then the presets themselves.
*A preset or patch contains all information pertaining to the sound you are playing, including what sound is to be played.
The Concert Folder is the master folder that contains all the presets you'll use for a performance. In addition, when you select the Concert Folder you can assign your screen controls to a MIDI keyboard or other hardware to parameters such as master volume or master effects that you always want to be active no matter what preset you have selected. The idea is to have global control. To give you an example, I run my vocals through Mainstage and I like to have a little reverb and delay on my voice. So I assigned the reverb to one of the sliders on my midi controller and delay to another in the concert folder. Moving the slider on my MIDI controller will give me more or less of either effect on my voice. By doing this in the Concert Folder I can change presets but my reverb and delay don't have to deal with being reloaded each time and it saves on computer resources.
The folders inside the Concert Folder can be used to organize your presets. In the example above they are used to organize presets by type so that you can quickly go to the section that contains a certain sound in that category. This is similar to browsing presets on a regular keyboard. Another use would be to label these folders as song titles instead and then place whatever presets you will be playing for that song inside it. It provides great flexibility to make it work in whatever way you need it to. As for organizing the presets themselves, just drag them around with your mouse until they're right where you want them (this includes folders as well). So where do you change the sounds assigned to the presets you have selected?
Channel Strip
The answer is the Channel Strip! Here you can see all Concert Level channels which are always active no matter the preset and you will see preset specific channels as well. Notice the name of the first channel in the picture to the right. It's labeled Steinway 1 which tells you what type of sound has been assigned to that channel in the preset. Here are a some quick definitions of some of the other parts of the channel strip:
I/O - This is where you can change the sound assigned to the channel as well as tell it what outputs of your audio interface to send the sound to
Inserts - Most often you would place EQ, compression, limiting, or other effects you want to be applied to the sound you have selected. * Don't forget that every time you add an effect it uses CPU resources.
Sends - This lets you send the sound to another channel most often dedicated to effects like reverb and delay just like you see in the picture. The best way to think about it is that you have a reverb that everything runs through but you can control how much of that same reverb is being added to each channel. It's very useful for saving CPU resources so you aren't loading lots of effects on every single preset. There are, however, times when you would want to do this but do so wisely.
A few other things you have are volume control for each channel strip, digital meters so you can see if the signal is clipping (distortion), mute and solo buttons, and panning control.
The Edit page is where you will spend a majority of your time loading the sounds you want to use live, assigning controls you see on the screen to control the different software synths, route the audio from the program to the inputs and outputs of your audio interface, and insert effects. You'll also be able to create keyboard layers and splits, monitor your CPU usage, and see how much memory you have used up. In the center of the screen there is a Workspace window which allows you to visually see what Performance mode will look like as you make changes to presets and channels. Now lets take a look at a few of the other windows on the Edit page.
In short, this section is where you will organize and name your *presets (patches) to be played. You will notice that in this screen shot there are essentially three things: the concert folder, folders to organize your presets, and then the presets themselves.
*A preset or patch contains all information pertaining to the sound you are playing, including what sound is to be played.
The Concert Folder is the master folder that contains all the presets you'll use for a performance. In addition, when you select the Concert Folder you can assign your screen controls to a MIDI keyboard or other hardware to parameters such as master volume or master effects that you always want to be active no matter what preset you have selected. The idea is to have global control. To give you an example, I run my vocals through Mainstage and I like to have a little reverb and delay on my voice. So I assigned the reverb to one of the sliders on my midi controller and delay to another in the concert folder. Moving the slider on my MIDI controller will give me more or less of either effect on my voice. By doing this in the Concert Folder I can change presets but my reverb and delay don't have to deal with being reloaded each time and it saves on computer resources.
The folders inside the Concert Folder can be used to organize your presets. In the example above they are used to organize presets by type so that you can quickly go to the section that contains a certain sound in that category. This is similar to browsing presets on a regular keyboard. Another use would be to label these folders as song titles instead and then place whatever presets you will be playing for that song inside it. It provides great flexibility to make it work in whatever way you need it to. As for organizing the presets themselves, just drag them around with your mouse until they're right where you want them (this includes folders as well). So where do you change the sounds assigned to the presets you have selected?
The answer is the Channel Strip! Here you can see all Concert Level channels which are always active no matter the preset and you will see preset specific channels as well. Notice the name of the first channel in the picture to the right. It's labeled Steinway 1 which tells you what type of sound has been assigned to that channel in the preset. Here are a some quick definitions of some of the other parts of the channel strip:
I/O - This is where you can change the sound assigned to the channel as well as tell it what outputs of your audio interface to send the sound to
Inserts - Most often you would place EQ, compression, limiting, or other effects you want to be applied to the sound you have selected. * Don't forget that every time you add an effect it uses CPU resources.
Sends - This lets you send the sound to another channel most often dedicated to effects like reverb and delay just like you see in the picture. The best way to think about it is that you have a reverb that everything runs through but you can control how much of that same reverb is being added to each channel. It's very useful for saving CPU resources so you aren't loading lots of effects on every single preset. There are, however, times when you would want to do this but do so wisely.
A few other things you have are volume control for each channel strip, digital meters so you can see if the signal is clipping (distortion), mute and solo buttons, and panning control.
Patch Inspector
Mainstage comes with TONS of presets with all kinds of sounds from pianos and strings to world instruments like sitars. You will find all of these presets here. Once you have created a software channel strip you can select from any of these presets and it will automatically load all associated effects, sounds, etc. right into the channel.
You will also notice there is an Attributes tab which allows you to set some important features. The one I use the most is the Tempo preset because I use lots of synth patches and loops that need to lock to the tempo of each song. Here's how it works. If the "Change Tempo To" box is not checked, this preset will retain the tempo from the previous preset. If the box is checked you can tell it exactly what tempo that preset should be and all effects, loops, etc. will lock to that tempo so everything is in sync.
There you have it! Next time I'll cover the Layout Page and cover some of the ways you can customize your Performance page to look and feel how you want it to.
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