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Mainstage and backup plans


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So In a couple of months I"ll start playing live with my new band. Rig is mainstage running on MacBook connected to studiologic sl73. Works perfectly in rehearsal but I know I need some kind of backup plan in case the laptop crashes. I will have a small mixer with me on stage that will feed foh and monitors. I need to limit the amount of additional gear involved.

 

Interested in others mainstage users" backup plans in case of failure...I"m deliberating between (1) hooking up an iPad running Ravenscroft via a korg microplug or (2) using something like a xv2020...with both options I"d take the midi out from my sl73 (usb out is driving mainstage) and run the audio output into my mixer, so if the laptop failed I could switch Immediately to my second sound source.

 

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Either sounds good. Make sure you soundcheck your backup before every gig, to ensure the mixer cabling, gain structure etc is correct.

 

The SL73 has plenty of empty front-panel real-estate for an iPad doesn't it? I think in an emergency I'd want to easily see what's going on with my sound source. The XV2020 might be tucked away on the floor where you can't see it as easily?

 

Cheers, Mike.

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XV2020 would be in a rack, right? Or just laying out somewhere on stage naked? In my view, one of the big pluses of a laptop rig is minimizing the gear count & cable clutter. I started using a laptop on stage close to 20 years ago. I carry a small 1/2 rack module in my accessory case along with my pedals â a Roland JV1010 â for emergencies. I got it used on Ebay for around $150, don't remember the year. I've used it on a gig twice â once when I accidentally left my laptop bag home, and once when my speakers thermalled on a gig and I thought it was the laptop.

 

Anyway, carrying a rack enclosure with a synth module "just in case" is not something I would personally consider, but I understand you doing whatever makes you comfortable. There was a brief period of time when I first started doing laptop gigs where I would hook up both the JV1010 and laptop audio into a small mixer so I could instantly switch to the JV if I had to. That never occured and I went to leaving the JV in the accessory case where it remains today. I wish you a trouble-free experience like mine has mostly been (I've never had an actual crash, but a few hiccups here & there that were not show-stoppers).

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There are common sense things to do to avoid laptop problems.

 

1). If outdoors in the heat, keep it cool. (This is the only situation in which my laptop crashed. My fault.)

 

2). Reboot immediately before the gig.

 

3). Turn off WiFi.

 

4). Make sure your connections to the laptop are well secured.

 

5). In Mainstage before starting the actual performance load each of your presets, thereby pre-loading each of your VSTs into RAM.

 

 

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This is my usual rig on my fly in gigs. BUT...

I just returned from a brief tour of the Balkans and guess what: my XV2020 died on the last gig. Just like it did one month ago in Turkey and two years ago in Tunisia. Every time it was the software that did the job whereas the old hardware died!

For the future my back up to my current Macbook/mainstage rig will simply be my older MacBook (with an older version of mainstage). No more XV2020...

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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Since we're talking laptop strategies, I'll add a few of mine. I have a late-2013 MacBook Pro, currently on Mojave (10.14.6). I use a separate partition on the internal drive dedicated just for playing gigs, with its own separate OSX install (not a second account that shares the same system). Mojave on the "gigging" partition is a stock install with no 3rd party software added except what I need to do gigs with: midi & audio drivers and the music sw I use. Zero "iCloud" stuff, email accounts, etc. I do go online via a web browser occasionally to download driver updates or other things I need to do gigs with, but that's about it. When I play, wifi is turned off. I also disable Notification Center by turning on "Do Not Disturb" in System Prefs with the time set from 5:00AM to 4:59AM (it will turn on for a minute at 4:59AM!). I also have Energy Saver prefs set to "Prevent computer from sleeping automatically when the display is off" and to not "Put hard disks to sleep when possible." I might be a little overzealous but don't want to leave anything to chance!

 

I find that OSX still manages to do a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff and I wonder if it occasionally interferes with audio. "Spindump" reports and log files are what I see the most; I've noticed very occasional "blips" in the audio (at home, not on gigs) and I check the system logs to see that a logfile was written, or there was an attempt to "phone home" to some Apple server at around the same time â but I could be wrong about this.

 

And it goes without saying â never upgrade system software automatically, or just because the upgrade is available! That most certainly applies to the latest version of OSX (Catalina) since 32-bit apps will stop working.

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It's a great question and one I think of all the time. In my current band I originally had a rig that involved using sounds only from my laptop / Mainstage. Then after some challenges with reliability, over a few months I moved to a more hardware-based rig with my MODX7 providing 100% of sounds at smaller gigs and my Kronos or Crumar Seven as a second board at bigger gigs. All of this is still controlled by Mainstage but purely as an easy way to change patches / performances. My next step, and my ideal, is to have the same hardware boards but use software sounds the songs. My plan is eventually to have two Mainstage setlists. One for hardware only (where MainStage just switches performances) and one where it's fully softsynth. Then, if my laptop dies, I just revert to my board to manually switch patches. Only downside is setting up two lots of sounds each time I add a new song....
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I"m deliberating between (1) hooking up an iPad running Ravenscroft via a korg microplug or (2) using something like a xv2020...with both options I"d take the midi out from my sl73 (usb out is driving mainstage) and run the audio output into my mixer, so if the laptop failed I could switch Immediately to my second sound source.

 

I"d go the iPad route, but just curious what other apps you"re talking about in addition to Ravenscroft - given that your other option is a module.

____________________________________
Rod

Here for the gear.

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5). In Mainstage before starting the actual performance load each of your presets, thereby pre-loading each of your VSTs into RAM.

This is one thing that MainStage does automatically, whether you want to or not. ALL patches are pre-loaded into RAM/VRAM (OSX offloads a lot into VRAM). It's one of the best and worst things about the program. For me, it's the vastly preferred behavior, and I can't think of a situation where I wouldn't want it on. However, some people don't like this. Some programs like Gig Performer allow you to select which patches get pre-loaded. While others (Camelot) don't pre-load at all, which is a dealbreaker for me. I love MainStage, and have learned to accept this behavior, as I find it vastly preferable to not-preloading, though I wouldn't mind if they made an option to turn it off or allow selection to satisfy other people's needs.

 

My solution: I just gig with a Mojo61 too, so if something were to ever fail, I can play it on organ/rhodes and make do. At the end of the day, most of the audience just knows 'that's a keyboard', and 'that's a guitar', so if something gets played on the wrong patch for a few minutes while I have to re-boot, it's not the end of the world, and we can avoid heavy synth numbers until I'm back up and running. I could probably play all night on just the Mojo and the gig would go fine.

 

So my recommendation is to have some simple hardware board there that can be a "spare tire" if things fail. It might not be perfect, but you can still get through the set. iOS alternate wouldn't be bad either, though if software fails me, I love just switching to hardware to take my mind off computers for a sec while I fix the problem during breaks.

Puck Funk! :)

 

Equipment: Laptop running lots of nerdy software, some keyboards, noise makersâ¦yada yada yadaâ¦maybe a cat?

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Use DMC-122 with Macbook Pro 2102 with Mainstage.

 

My first backup is: Gemini module in the DMC-122 (I do not use it because Mainstage can do the same and more and is easier to not mix the two)

 

Second backup is a Boss DR-synth module (General midi box), where I can select instruments per channel.

Sounds good enough to get through an evening

 

In case of laptop error, Perhaps I'm going for the second backup. is more flexible.

This reminds me to train my backup setup and add the new Gemini-open piano to the Gemini.

 

In simple band siutations I can leave the MBP home and play with DMC-122 + Gemini alone. now the new piano seems nice.

 

 

 

Nord Piano 5-73, Nord Stage 3
Author of QSheets: The fastest lead sheet viewer in the world that also plays Audio Files and send Program Changes!
https://qsheets.eriknie.synology.me/

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I"m deliberating between (1) hooking up an iPad running Ravenscroft via a korg microplug or (2) using something like a xv2020...with both options I"d take the midi out from my sl73 (usb out is driving mainstage) and run the audio output into my mixer, so if the laptop failed I could switch Immediately to my second sound source.

 

I"d go the iPad route, but just curious what other apps you"re talking about in addition to Ravenscroft - given that your other option is a module.

 

 

I have a bunch of different apps on the ipad...and it's already running Forscore so it's sitting on my SL73 anyway (the magnetic back on the SL73 keeps it locked in place).

 

I mentioned Ravenscroft because piano is core to most of my patches, and I'd be able to busk through a couple of tunes (or the whole set if needed) using piano, while the laptop was (hopefully) re-booting!

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MX49

 

That's what I've been doing up until now...having two keyboards on stage, one of which was capable of producing its own output (e.g. Yamaha CP33) as a backup to Mainstage.

 

For this band I'm keen to stick to one keyboard only...the portability of the SL73 is great and I'd like to stick to using it rather than the CP33.

 

So I guess I'm looking for the most compact backup option...I will have a small table beside me with laptop, mixer, breath controller etc, so it would be trivial to add a small module like the XV2020 as a backup sound source, taking midi from the SL73.

 

Some great feedback here guys...I'll let you know what I decide to do.

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XV2020 would be in a rack, right? Or just laying out somewhere on stage naked? In my view, one of the big pluses of a laptop rig is minimizing the gear count & cable clutter. I started using a laptop on stage close to 20 years ago. I carry a small 1/2 rack module in my accessory case along with my pedals â a Roland JV1010 â for emergencies. I got it used on Ebay for around $150, don't remember the year. I've used it on a gig twice â once when I accidentally left my laptop bag home, and once when my speakers thermalled on a gig and I thought it was the laptop.

 

Anyway, carrying a rack enclosure with a synth module "just in case" is not something I would personally consider, but I understand you doing whatever makes you comfortable. There was a brief period of time when I first started doing laptop gigs where I would hook up both the JV1010 and laptop audio into a small mixer so I could instantly switch to the JV if I had to. That never occured and I went to leaving the JV in the accessory case where it remains today. I wish you a trouble-free experience like mine has mostly been (I've never had an actual crash, but a few hiccups here & there that were not show-stoppers).

 

Sounds exactly what I'm planning on doing! The gig is a Peter Gabriel cover band so the keyboards are REALLY important...I just dread the thought of Mainstage crashing as it would be very difficult for the rest of the band to carry on. Compact but comfortable sounds like a good objective!

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My situation is different and not as demanding as yours - I play mainly jazz/r&b/funk type gigs and need basic sounds like acoustic & e pianos, strings, organ, clav, horns, some synth pads and a lead sound. They all get loaded at the beginning of the gig. I do have a few presets with splits & transpositions, but for my main touring gig there are only six of those. If something were to go wrong I could muddle through with another board set up with a few sounds â but it seems that might not work for you.

 

The one thing that made me comfortable and confident using my laptop rig on the road with a touring band without backup was doing a lot of smaller local gigs with it first. I did this in years past when I was in a full-time band doing weddings & corporate work. When you play 30-60 gigs a year with a laptop for a few years, you'll figure out what works and what doesn't. You might not have that luxury (if you can call playing weddings that! :) ) but I think software has matured to the point where it's pretty reliable now. I would still not want to deal with a full-size rack module like an XV2020 as a backup â at that point I'd be wondering, why not leave the computer at home and just use that? If the iPad can work as a backup that might be cool, or maybe there's a more modern version of my JV1010, a small Sound Canvas module perhaps, that will fit in a laptop bag and give you the basics for getting through a gig if something happens to the computer.

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MX49

 

That's what I've been doing up until now...having two keyboards on stage, one of which was capable of producing its own output (e.g. Yamaha CP33) as a backup to Mainstage.

 

For this band I'm keen to stick to one keyboard only...the portability of the SL73 is great and I'd like to stick to using it rather than the CP33.

 

So I guess I'm looking for the most compact backup option...I will have a small table beside me with laptop, mixer, breath controller etc, so it would be trivial to add a small module like the XV2020 as a backup sound source, taking midi from the SL73.

 

Some great feedback here guys...I'll let you know what I decide to do.

 

I was thinking the MX49 would be good (sitting offstage/nearby/unseen/etc.), just in case the SL73 goes down. You could have the MX49 power/audio cables always ready to go on the stand, and just switch out boards quickly. Just as a last resort (backup of backups) kind of thing.

 

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This is my usual rig on my fly in gigs. BUT...

I just returned from a brief tour of the Balkans and guess what: my XV2020 died on the last gig. Just like it did one month ago in Turkey and two years ago in Tunisia. Every time it was the software that did the job whereas the old hardware died!

For the future my back up to my current Macbook/mainstage rig will simply be my older MacBook (with an older version of mainstage). No more XV2020...

 

That hadn"t even occurred to me...I have a few older MacBooks I could use...thanks!

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My situation is different and not as demanding as yours - I play mainly jazz/r&b/funk type gigs and need basic sounds like acoustic & e pianos, strings, organ, clav, horns, some synth pads and a lead sound. They all get loaded at the beginning of the gig. I do have a few presets with splits & transpositions, but for my main touring gig there are only six of those. If something were to go wrong I could muddle through with another board set up with a few sounds â but it seems that might not work for you.

 

The one thing that made me comfortable and confident using my laptop rig on the road with a touring band without backup was doing a lot of smaller local gigs with it first. I did this in years past when I was in a full-time band doing weddings & corporate work. When you play 30-60 gigs a year with a laptop for a few years, you'll figure out what works and what doesn't. You might not have that luxury (if you can call playing weddings that! :) ) but I think software has matured to the point where it's pretty reliable now. I would still not want to deal with a full-size rack module like an XV2020 as a backup â at that point I'd be wondering, why not leave the computer at home and just use that? If the iPad can work as a backup that might be cool, or maybe there's a more modern version of my JV1010, a small Sound Canvas module perhaps, that will fit in a laptop bag and give you the basics for getting through a gig if something happens to the computer.

 

Thanks for the feedback. The xv2020 is half rack so it wouldn"t take up much space beside my MacBook. I"ve played live with mainstage for ages and never had a serious problem...but I"ve always had some kind of hardware backup like my cp33 or xp50 as part of my rig. The iPad is already sitting on my sl73, so that might be the simplest way to get some redundancy in the setup.

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So after a bit more thought, I"m leaning towards a two-laptop solution, I should stress that this is very situation-specific...if you know Gabriel"s output, you"ll know it relies on a lot of keyboard and for some songs I run through 7 or 8 patches in mainstage, usually with a number of layers and splits within each patch. It"s much closer to musical theatre in that respect. So a laptop crash would derail the whole thing, I could cope with basic piano for a couple of songs IF the laptop could re-boot and I could get mainstage back up and running, But if not....I"d be screwed, as would the band. I"m one of those people who always expects the worst, and probably overthinks.

 

Adding another laptop (which I have) running mainstage with the same set of patches would probably be the only way to really be safe here. It"s closest to what I"ve seen in rundowns that are mainstage based (David rosenthals springs to mind). Carrying round an extra laptop and power supply isnt a hassle, and possibly worth the piece of mind! I mean, if I can"t get that shakuhachi sound in sledgehammer, or the bagpipes in Biko, it ain"t going to down well!

 

So maybe running the sl73 usb into the main MacBook, and its midi output into a second MacBook via a midi-usb interface would do the trick. Unless there"s an easier way to split the single usb out into both MacBooks?

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Sounds like a great plan since you have the 2nd laptop and all the sw! I would also go with USB on one and 5-pin midi for the other, as you mentioned. As I just wrote about in a recent thread, USB issues can sometimes bite you.

 

And, my bad for not remembering the XV2020 is a half rack unit! I must have been thinking of the XV50-something.

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philtre71

That hadn"t even occurred to me...I have a few older MacBooks I could use...thanks!

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Good thing about this option is that you can duplicate your patches, so even if the new Macbook goes down, the old one w/Mainstage will do the exact same sounds. The XV is very dated soundwise, even with the SRX cards on. You will never have a Scarbee rhodes, a Pianoteq, even the quality of ESX24 instruments (you name it...) on an old XV2020. It might be reliable (it was for many years to me, but it failed me three times...) but you compromise on the sounds.

 

Be grateful for what you've got - a Nord, a laptop and two hands
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The only headaches I can see with a 2-laptop rig on a gig are the logistics of placement, setup, and protection from all the possible issues of being on a stage. My situation is pretty easy â the computer is on an SKB Studio Flyer case sitting on top of a bass amp, in back of me. I still worry a bit when we're an opening act, or on a festival gig where a tech crew swarms the stage as soon as your last chord dies out. They're there to clear the stage as fast as possible â that's a concept that doesn't go well with laptops. Our road manager/monitor guy tells all the crews at our gigs to leave my stuff alone after our set. I come back on stage quickly after we're done our bows to the tumultuous applause and cheers of the crowd :) where you'll see me quickly gathering my USB & midi cables, wall wart, etc., putting it on top of the SKB and getting off the stage as fast as I can. Things would be a little more complicated if I had to deal with two laptops!
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Does anyone use a headless setup? In theory something in a mac-mini-like format that's configured to start up everything you need on boot would be a little easier to schlep and keep out of the way. Assuming you only need to interact with it via MIDI and don't need monitor or keyboard.
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philtre71

That hadn"t even occurred to me...I have a few older MacBooks I could use...thanks!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

 

Good thing about this option is that you can duplicate your patches, so even if the new Macbook goes down, the old one w/Mainstage will do the exact same sounds. The XV is very dated soundwise, even with the SRX cards on. You will never have a Scarbee rhodes, a Pianoteq, even the quality of ESX24 instruments (you name it...) on an old XV2020. It might be reliable (it was for many years to me, but it failed me three times...) but you compromise on the sounds.

 

Yep...I think in my original post I was really thinking about creating a 'make do' backup that would get me through a couple of songs while the macbook (hopefully) rebooted. But that's not going to be enough for this gig.

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The only headaches I can see with a 2-laptop rig on a gig are the logistics of placement, setup, and protection from all the possible issues of being on a stage. My situation is pretty easy â the computer is on an SKB Studio Flyer case sitting on top of a bass amp, in back of me. I still worry a bit when we're an opening act, or on a festival gig where a tech crew swarms the stage as soon as your last chord dies out. They're there to clear the stage as fast as possible â that's a concept that doesn't go well with laptops. Our road manager/monitor guy tells all the crews at our gigs to leave my stuff alone after our set. I come back on stage quickly after we're done our bows to the tumultuous applause and cheers of the crowd :) where you'll see me quickly gathering my USB & midi cables, wall wart, etc., putting it on top of the SKB and getting off the stage as fast as I can. Things would be a little more complicated if I had to deal with two laptops!

 

I'm wondering about using a flightcase for this. I currently carry the SL73 in a soft bag, but will be getting something more rugged in the next month or so. I need a flat surface to put my breath controller, small percussion instruments etc. anyway, so maybe sitting the flightcase on a X-stand at a right angle to the keyboard would give me a suitable surface for two laptops (with appropriate velcro etc) plus mixer, and other odds and ends. That way the whole setup would be two stands, SL73 in flightcase + bag with laptops, cables etc.

 

Would still need to have a think about quick setup/strip-down etc...

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When I use the Mainstage or Gig Performer rig, My 88 note controller is my Casio PX-5S. My 61 note controller is either my Komplete Kontrol 61MKII or my Arturia Keylab Black Edition

The PX-5S is obviously my backup should something go haywire. So far I've never had to do that.

 

As Reeze has stated, I, too, have several years now of gigging with Mainstage (and GigPerformer) and have not had a failure.

 

 

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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When I use the Mainstage or Gig Performer rig, My 88 note controller is my Casio PX-5S. My 61 note controller is either my Komplete Kontrol 61MKII or my Arturia Keylab Black Edition

The PX-5S is obviously my backup should something go haywire. So far I've never had to do that.

 

As Reeze has stated, I, too, have several years now of gigging with Mainstage (and GigPerformer) and have not had a failure.

 

Thanks David...that's similar to what I've been doing up til now...fully Mainstage, but with the safety of the audio outs from my CP33. Like you and Reeze, I've never had a problem with Mainstage.

 

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Maybe consider a board that has a built-in Audio i/o?

 

I've used my MODX6 a couple times along with Mainstage. Nice clean setup since the MODX is an audio i/o and even has it's own volume knob on the board for that.

 

Just an idea.

David

Gig Rig:Casio Privia PX-5S | Yamaha MODX+ 6 | MacBook Pro 14" M1| Mainstage

 

 

 

 

 

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I feel like when I don't have the backup is when I'll need it. I carry an Ipad with Korg Module and the M1 apps. . Since I already use the Ipad for charts it's not anything extra to bring. The Korg Module app is a great bread and butter synth/piano that you can even load on an iphone, which I also do.

I also keep an ancient Alesis Nanosynth ($20.00 at Goodwill) in my gig bag on fly/road dates, and a Kurzweil ME1 in my car for local gigs along with back up power supplies, cables, and a cheap back -up sustain pedal- which I've needed more times than I can count!

 

I've had my Mainstage rig fail once. It was user error: stage -hand had mistakingly turned off the powerstrip on my macbook after soundcheck and I never noticed, until it died mid show.

Chris Corso

www.chriscorso.org

Lots of stuff.

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So, other than my admission that I had a laptop fail in the outdoors sun, has anyone come back telling you about a failure?

 

Check out Reezekeys, who is all too reticent about his gigs, and tell us that you need to be more prepared than him?

 

Sorry, but I have gigged for years with a laptop without problems, and assert that the worries about crashing are from those who haven"t developed the discipline to take care of their laptop, or those who have never tried.

 

There is a constant skirmish on this forum between hardware vs software. You stepped into the no-man"s land and will decide which side you run to for shelter.

 

 

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