Mainstage ques

[TommyRude]

hey guys - Mainstage newbie (it's awesome!)

 

Context: Electro 6 controller;

 

Is there a way to assign a fader, knob or other control on the Electro to act as a pitch bend or mod wheel for a sound in Mainstage?

 

Trying to trick a way into getting pitch bend for my Electro! :-)

[nursers]

Off the top of my head I can't see why not - you just assign the knob / fader you want to the Pitch bend MIDI CC and should work

[AnotherScott]

There is no pitch bend MIDI CC, it's its own thing. But mod is CC 01.

[Reezekeys]

CC to PB is easily done in my host, Plogue Bidule â but somehow I don't see anyone getting Bidule just for doing that!

 

The free Piz Midi plugins have a midi converter module. I run one of their other modules in Bidule. These guys are very old, very nerdy to set up, but free and cover a wide range of midi mangling needs. I'm assuming Mainstage can load midi plugins, as Bidule does (on my Mac, they go in the VST plugin folder along with audio plugins). I believe the latest versions (9 years old!) are here: https://code.google.com/archive/p/pizmidi/downloads

 

The particular module you want is the midiConverter3. Apologies if stating the obvious, but you might have an issue with mapping values since a spring-loaded pitch bender that returns to center is quite different from a pot or slider. And the levers have a dead zone in the middle to insure you're in tune when you're not bending.

 

HTH and good luck.

[nursers]

There is no pitch bend MIDI CC, it's its own thing. But mod is CC 01.

 

Oops great point

[Tusker]

Is there a way to assign a fader, knob or other control on the Electro to act as a pitch bend or mod wheel for a sound in Mainstage?

 

 

Sure. I am going to share a one minute method. First, take a look at the Channel strip of the Mainstage instrument you are controlling with your Electro.

 

 

You should be able to locate the MIDI FX just above the input. Click on that and turn on Modifier.

 

1) Click on input event in modifier and select: Learn MIDI. Now move a slider on your Nord.

2) Click Re-assign to and select pitch bend, pitch bend up or pitch bend down.

3) Adjust Scale and Add (offset) to taste.

 

Modifier is awesome. Every midi stream from your controller can do multiple things for you in MainStage. You can add as many modifiers as you want. Enjoy.

[TommyRude]

guys thank you - YOU ROCK!

 

Tusker - I started with your recommendation, easy peasy is right on my level! However, it didn't work - dang! I tried about 10 different combinations, tried knobs and faders, couldn't get the pitch bend. Tried different actions within the Modifer to see if I could get a slider or knob to react - no success there either. Very good chance of operator error here! The assigns - something is happening as I see Mainstage reacting (via numbers changing), just not making it to the desired outcome. I'll keep working here - probably something simple I'm missing.

 

Reeze - thanks as well. I will try your recommendations.

 

All of this is a good refresher on Midi and doing something more than just turning on the board and playing.

[obxa]

My personal rig is using a Crumar Mojo to control Mainstage, but sometimes use an older Electro's (mine or those provided) as a controller, along with a Korg Nano Control. One important thing is to start with a basic patch, and to start at the very top Concert level, as you may have made edits on a particular patch, and that's why they're not showing up.- the concert patch overrides any other control assignments you may have made unless specified. Also that top little Midi activity window is great to find out what your Nord is sending out.

 

And as Tusker greatly showed, you can be map to any controller. I can send you some basic Electro controlled Mainstage patches, but there are some plugins I regularly use that probably won't show up (Korg Triton & Wavestation, Pianotek). AFAIK, all the Nords send out pretty much the same thing, and I've used my basic setup with Electros 2-5. Before I got the Nano, I'd sometimes use my old Electro2 to control patch changes, reverb, synth stuff etc, plus organ control for Bx3 or the Logic Organ. I've never been able to get pitch bend to work well enough- even with scaling using faders it's always kinda wonky. I've done side by side buttons that do ½ up and down and that kinda works.

 

In Worship World, Mainstage, and that Korg NanoControl is de facto standard for calling up patches and doing controller stuff. Reason being , for $50.00 you can use any generic keyboard, and have your hardware controls translate with something you can easily carry. Religion aside Abel Mendozza https://thatworshipsound.com/producer/abel-mendoza/. and this guy: https://sundaysounds.com/. have some really great free and paid resources, templates, on how to really use mainstage. I split my time between secular and ministry- there seems to be a real lack of mainstage resources for the typical gig you'd do for a corporate/club wedding, so I've learned much from them and carried it over.

[TommyRude]

OBXA - that's it! The concert setting was overriding - I tried with an individual sound and it works beautifully! I used the far left drawbar - maybe not quite as cool as the pitch stick, but it works!

 

Thanks again guys