Mainstage with VB3

[RoadHousePiano]

I've been getting a lot of useful info regarding Mainstage in the past few weeks as I dive into it. Thanks to all for the lively discussion! I'm using VB3 (along with 32Lives) and I'm wondering if there's a way to move it up or down my keyboard. For instance; I have a lot of rhodes/B3 splits on my Nord Stage. Nord makes this very easy as I can set the split point and then transpose up or down octaves. This way if I want to play chords with the B3 in the low octaves of the keyboard I can, but I can also have it in any range that I want. When I try this in Mainstage using VB3, I can't seem to get any notes in the low range unless I use the split setting on VB3. But even than I seem to be slave to the VB3 settings. I hope this all makes sense to someone out there.

[RoadHousePiano]

A quick adendum; should I just go ahead and use the Mainstage Vintage B3 sound when I'm doing splits and avoid the headache of trying to get this to work? I've read quite a bit how it's a pretty close second to VB3 in terms of accuracy.

[Baldwin Funster]

Have you tried setting a split from vb3 and hitting the octave selectors next to the upper manual label? That will allow you to shift only one octave but it is something. Other wise youll need somekind of midi filter to run as an effect inline with the vb3 vsti.

[RoadHousePiano]

Have you tried setting a split from vb3 and hitting the octave selectors next to the upper manual label? That will allow you to shift only one octave but it is something. Other wise youll need somekind of midi filter to run as an effect inline with the vb3 vsti.

I havent tried this yet. I'll give it a whirl. Thanks for the response!

[Phil Aiken]

You should be able to do this easily within MainStage. I tend to not use splits so it has ben a while, but you can do it in the software itself or use a midi plugin.

 

[SpPiano]

You could also insert a 'transposer' plugin (stock in mainstage 3) which is located under 'midi fx' on the channel strip. You can go 2 octaves in either direction very easily.

[Markay]

As you get familiar with MainStage you will find that it has the most flexible split and layer functionality on the planet, including floating splits.

 

If a VST does not make a sound when a high or low note is pressed on the controller that will be because that note is outside the range of the VST.

 

A VB3 example on a 61 note controller using three splits of 2 octaves each and one of one octave.

 

Set VB3 up in a channel strip, in VB3 select upper manual, then in MainStage slide the on screen split graphic up so it only covers the top two octaves on the on screen keybed.

 

Add a 2nd channel strip, inset VB3, map that to the VB3 lower manual. Then split this channel strip in MainStage so it covers the next lower two octaves. Now using the MainStage transpose feature for that channel strip, transpose the two assigned octaves up or down so they sound the required octave range for the lower manual.

 

Then add a third channel strip, insert VB3, map to pedals in VB3, adjust the on screen split for this to just the lowest octave, and then use the transpose feature for this channel strip so it sounds the lowest pedal octave in VB3.

 

This process uses VB3 as an example of how you can have any VI sound any note range the VI is capable of from any note on a controller, and play upper, lower and pedals on a 61 note controller.

 

For the above you can have different draw bar settings in VB3 for upper and lower manuals and the pedals. Floating splits allow you to overcome the limitations of only 2 octaves for each manual. Will save that part for later.

[RoadHousePiano]

Thanks everyone! I'm gonna be dedicating some time to this.

[RoadHousePiano]

You could also insert a 'transposer' plugin (stock in mainstage 3) which is located under 'midi fx' on the channel strip. You can go 2 octaves in either direction very easily.

This seems like it will be the easiest solution but I'm gonna look into all of them.