Logic Pro X and MainStage: My Tracking and Recording Setup

[@buffalohideout]

Could you explain how you are routing the lightpipe/adat from the computer perspective? I have the cable plugged both in and out of the same interface like you said. Then what do you do to route on the computer? I have Ableton and Logic, I don't know if mainstage shows inputs and outputs that say lightpipe or ADAT, but its not clear to me in either Logic or Ableton how to pass this around. I think the key is my Saffire Pro 40's Saffire Mix Control software (which operates a lot like UAD Console) but as great as that software is, I'm getting confused here. Any help is greatly appreciated!

[@buffalohideout]

So update: With Saffire Pro 40 / Saffire Mix Control, I was able to do this without the lightpipe/optical/ADAT cable. I used Ableton to set up my vocal chain (Slate Mic Modeling, pre model, native UAD 1176 and LA-2A.) In Ableton, It comes in input 1 (like how it is plugged into the physical interface) and right on the channel in Ableton, route it like normal to Output 1 & 2. To avoid a feedback loop, in Logic I change any and all tracks outputs to 3 & 4. Then on the track I want to record my vocal on in Logic, I select input 19 (this is the first of the two Loop Back options.) 

In Saffire Mix Control, I choose DAW 1 to go to Loop Back 1. Then near the mid/bottom left of the panel, there are options for where you route to either headphone channel found on the front of the interface. I’m using the first headphone slot, which corresponds to Line Output 7 & 8. I click on the boxes to choose DAW 3 to go to output 7, and DAW 4 to go to output 8. From this I’m able to monitor and record my vocals post-chain, and monitor the music and click track from Logic. This example I think only works for what I need it for - recording one thing like vocals. It seems like learning the lightpipe / adat part would work for recording multiple instruments & voices at once. Hope that helps someone!

[@rootube808]

I have just bought mainstage & I found this video which sounds like a great way to record. I get lost at the lightpipe part. can someone please point me in the right direction.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey Paul. I don’t own a UA Apollo but I really like the idea of their Console (which you need an Apollo to get) so this was my approach to doing the same thing. As for the lightpipe side of things. My interface is a Focusrite 18i20 which has 8 channels of lightpipe ins and outs. I just have them connected to each other so I can send the audio from MainStage to Logic. If your interface doesn’t have lightpipe there is software that can do the same thing. You could try Loopback or Ginger Audio’s Ground Control Cable. I had better results going lightpipe but that was just my experience.

[@rootube808]

@@EverythingMusicRecording Thanks for helping me out. Turns out I bought a second hand Focusrite Clarett 8 Pre a few weeks ago which I am going to set up in the next week or so. Looks like I clicked on the right Video at the right time. Thanks a million.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Oh that’s great Paul! If I was buying a new interface today it would be the Clarett 8 Pre. You should get a long time out of it. My 18i20 is a first gen that I also bought used a number of years ago and it’s still runs like a tank!!! No worries at all. Let me know how everything works out 🙂

[@SkiesDev]

I liked this video and was thinking about doing this exact setup as a way of having a "native" alternative to UA Console. I read your comment saying you've since switched back to printing effects inside of Logic solely. What's the reason for ditching the Mainstage approach?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey hey, great question. The MainStage thing was a successful experiment. If I was tracking more live instruments and such and didn't own an Apollo interface, then what I showed in MainStage would be a great alternative. But except for guitars, bass, and vocals (if any) everything I do is programmed (so drums, synths, orchestral stuff) so there was no point in me continuing to use MainStage. I did a video about my Logic Template which explains how it all works. (There is a part two coming eventually, but I have a bad back injury so it's been hard to do much of anything for awhile now) kzbin.info/www/bejne/fXa1ZIqtqdR5gac

[@matthewmacgillivray7348]

Hi Mr Jeff - very curious to see more of the setup and process. Didn't see anything else your channel related to this video...perhaps I'm missing it? Thanks!

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey Matt!! Thanks for the question. I’m not sure how to go forward with that just yet. My idea is to work on songs, track parts and such and make videos about it (that would show the setup in action) but I’m not sure if they would be interesting enough for people to watch. Can I ask what part of the setup and such you might want to see more of?

[@musicjazzvez]

A question, can you do the same-thing on GarageBand? Thank you for sharing!

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

I don’t believe so (but I could be wrong. I don’t have GarageBand on my system to verify) but GB is pretty limited so I’d be very surprised if you could.

[@musicjazzvez]

@@EverythingMusicRecording Thank you !

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

No worries. Sorry I couldn’t give you a definitive answer on that one.

[@joshuawilder5199]

Hi there - I have been searching for a dumbed down solution like this for a while, and this is the closest I have come - so thank you!!! I am just a bit confused about the routing. I am trying to make my mainstage master out as as channel strip into logic, but I am unclear how to set that up?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

On my interface i have my ADAT out connected directly to my ADAT input. Thats how I was routing when I was messing around with this setup. So a track in MainStage would output directly to ADAT (nothing went to the master output) and in Logic the tracks input would be whichever ADAT input the audio was coming in on. Hope that cleared it up =)

[@markmanter6508]

Hey man, dope video…but I was wondering how you do this process in just Logic alone? I’m think I do have MainStage installed on my MacBook but I honestly have no experience with it, only Logic…and also I’m not too sure how well my computer would do running both programs at once tbh 😅 I’m gonna give this method a try later today or tomorrow, but would definitely be interested in that other video about prepping everything/doing everything in Logic as you had mentioned…if I understood correctly 😅

[@mygoogle1525]

Is it possible to use Logic in tge same manber ,as Mainstage?

[@realgreyrecords6015]

Well done, I like that you get to the point. My MainStage rig is in the live room. I'm investigating some options to connect the MainStage rig with the control room Logic recording rig. I work in much the same fashion. I create ideas w/ midi and then bring in players to interpret "what I meant". The end game is to use the MainStage rig like a production (midi) capture space for me OR a live instrument source for session tracking. Any thoughts?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

If I was gonna run two rigs like that I’d go with a Dante setup 100% to get audio back and forth. I stopped using the MainStage setup. It was a good experiment and if I was tracking live bands or not having to rely on midi drums and such, it would have been great. I’ve since (and I’m planning to do a video on this in the coming weeks) made a new Logic template that lets me to the same thing without needing MainStage. Basically I have two folder stacks set up. One for working out parts and tracking and a second folder stack for mixing. That way when parts are finished I can print them to the mixing stack, then hide and shut off all the stuff on the tracking side and just focus on mixing. Lol that’s the best I can explain it in a short paragraph.

[@djorlando57]

Continued… seriously , your video was the first one to pop up as I need to play keys into MainStage and have it Record into Logic. If I could have every of my 8 tracks separately in logic that would be cool. I play live with 8 keyboards (it used to be) now 8 layers. Can you help? Thanks in advance

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

My reply continued lol So for what you’re doing, it would depend on your audio interface. Again my routing was done via ADAT. As for getting audio from MS to Logic, it’s just a matter setting each channels output in MS and the input in Logic. In my case that was ADAT output channel 1 (as an example) on a track in MS and then in Logic setting that tracks input to ADAT input channel 1. So the audio would leave MainStage, out to my Focusrite on adat output 1 right back in to the Focusrite but on adat input 1 and right in to Logic. And because it all stays digital (there would be no DA-AD conversion) there was zero latency. You could also do something similar via software like Loopback. There are some others as well but latency was hit and miss for me. Hence why I just connect my adat ins and outs together. Let me know if that all makes sense or if you still need more help Doug 🙂

[@djorlando57]

@@EverythingMusicRecording thanks much ! Yes it looks like you’re feeding MainStage into logic with the PC’s ADAT interface (unless you have something else?). I want to do that and also play MainStage live onstage. Reason is I’m developing a training course. And want to capture a few Performances. So I need to be able to play using the focusrite Scarlett’s audio interface as well for a live output to the board. OR if I could figure out how to play logic out to the board and record at same time I’d be good. But I want to have 8 separate channels recording MIDI live and if I can feed an audio input as well to capture. The audio track we play to that would be the ultimate. Ideas?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Lol I’m tired and had to read this like 6 times for my brain to kick back in. MainStage was designed for live use (as I’m assuming you know) but since you want to record the audio and midi plus feed audio to a board (and this going forward is just my thoughts on it) I would skip MainStage and just do every thing in Logic. You can record as many tracks simultaneously as your computer can handle which would allow you to capture all the live midi performances, and all that audio can feed the outputs to the board. All you’d have to do is have each track record enabled and have input monitoring turned on. You could even add FX and mix on the fly if need be. Are you using hardware synths or software synths in Logic? I can go deeper down this rabbit hole once I know a little more about this 🙂

[@JeffyG]

Great back story. Exactly the same for me. I paid $1500 for Logic from eMagic a million years ago. Akai DSP 12 before that, Yamaha Porta 4 trac b4 that, and a 2 channel,TEAC reel->real {see what I did there} b4 that! I also saw the value of MainStage right away and used it for live. As a digital console I use UAD Console today, but had MOTU CueMix in the early days. This is brilliant.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

I miss having a porta-studio. They go for bonkers money now though or I'd buy one and find some cassette tapes just to mess around with one again. I love the idea of the UA Console, I just don't want to get locked into UA everything. I'm very happy with my Focusrite 18i20 but if this channel ever got large enough to justify the cost I'd likely pair a Focusrite RED 16line with a Neve 1073OPX or two.

[@maxamedshareeco]

I need to know how to plug in logic and mainstage

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

How do you mean? As in how I was feeding MainStage into Logic?

[@chetandavdra]

I'm wondering - is there a way where I can use Logic Pro X's live loop, have a dedicated hardware mapped for triggering the loops, but then route (clock sync as well) that into Mainstage and use Mainstage purely for playing my live keys? I would setup all the patches in MainStage. I don't want to use Mainstage's playback as i find it's not very good, also I'm creating like a 25-30min non-stop set where I'm going to be doing mash-ups of different songs and require the flexibility of live loops?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey Chetan. That setup is absolutely possible. I’ll start with the audio routing aspect. To route the audio from Logic to MainStage you could use software like LoopBack. You would then set logics output to one of the channels in loopback and in MainStage, set that same channel from loopback as the input on a track. The other option is if your audio interface has either ADAT or a SPDIF connection. As an example on my set up I have my SPDIF in connected to my SPDIF out on my interface. So you could then set logics output to the SPDIF output and then set the input in MainStage to the SPDIF input. This saves buying a piece of software. If you have an ADAT connection then you could do the same thing and you could have up to 8 channels you could run out of Logic into MainStage. With the software I found it to sometimes have too much latency. Using either SPDIF or ADAT eliminates this, for myself anyway. As for setting up in Live Loops and using external triggering. I’ve never done it. I’ve honestly never even opened up Live Loops. So I’ll refer you to a couple articles from Apple that should help you get that setup rolling 🙂 support.apple.com/en-ca/HT211140 support.apple.com/en-ca/guide/logicpro/lgcp00c0b301/mac

[@Lucky-sn1my]

I’m a beginner but a lot of what you are saying makes sense. I’d like to learn more about how to set templates like this up.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Is there a specific thing or part you wanted to know more about?

[@cheesesofmexico]

This looks very cool. How does it work with Lightpipe (that's what you said right?). Is that separate software? Where would one find this.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Yea, lightpipe, ADAT, Optical, all the same thing. It’s a digital connection. So my interface has 8 in and 8 out via lightpipe. They are just connected together with a single cable. So audio is going out of my interface and straight back in. But because it’s digital all the way through there is no extra digital to analog and back conversions. And there is zero latency. There are software apps that do the same thing but I found them to be rather hit and miss and sometimes would add lots of latency.

[@cheesesofmexico]

@@EverythingMusicRecording Ah. that's interesting. I was thinking it was a virtual connection like Loopback or Blackhole or something. Anyways that's how I set it up at the moment. I'm going to check whether my interface supports this. I like this idea.

[@cheesesofmexico]

Are you aware of the Analog Obsession Channev plugin? It's a nice Neve Console like Channel Strip Plugin. I've been using that with your setup. Thanks!

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Loopback was one of the ones I tried. Sometimes it was ok and other times the latency was pretty bad. That’s about when I decided to try adat since I had the connections and a cable kicking around.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

I’m not sure if I’ve heard of that one. I’ll check it out. I grabbed the Lindell Audio 80-series a year or so ago when it was on sale for like $40 and it’s been fantastic. CLA Mixhub is really good for mixing, though I wish you could group things in 16 instead of only 8. That’s about my only complaint lol

[@Arsonloke]

Interesting video. I would definetly like to see a video on how to set it up in logic without mainstage.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Thanks Arsonloke. It’s an easy set up in Logic. I just wanted to separate the process and that’s why I’m using mainstage for my set up. But for sure I’ll do a video on how to set this up just using Logic 🙂

[@JuanitoGT502]

I'm interesting about the guitar mug 🍺 where can I get that 🤔 👀? 😀😀😀 really nice 👍

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Lol you’re not the first to ask about the mug John. It was a gift and it was a store in Niagara on the Lake that sells them. Not sure if they still do. I’ve had it for years.

[@djorlando57]

Hey buddy, great video I played it three times, and now I understand what you’re doing lol. But I’m still wondering are you recording separate tracks in logic for each channel input or midi input? How are you routing that ? Is it 32 channels from mainstage to the 32 channels in logic? How do you map those?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey thanks Doug! Actually the whole thing was a bit of a long-ish term experiment. I don’t own a UA Apollo so therefore I’d have zero access to UA’s Console software. So I wanted to trying doing the same thing using MainStage in between my Focusrite and Logic. My Focusrite was also how I was able to feed audio from MS to Logic. I just connected the ADAT output to the input on my interface and that then gave me up to 8 channels I could feed to Logic simultaneously from MS. I’m actually not using this approach anymore. It’s not that it didn’t work successfully. It’s just that except for recording guitars or bass, everything I do originates in the box. So for me it made this workflow kinda pointless. Also taught me that buying an Apollo with how I work would be pointless lol. No offense to UA. I actually set up a whole new template after that in Logic which is perfect for how I work since then. I’ve been meaning to do a video about it. I’m actually taking a break from planning it out right now.

[@djorlando57]

@@EverythingMusicRecording is your ADAT output otherwise known a “Loopback” in the Saffire 4i4? That may be where I’m confused and not sure I set that up. Thoughts ?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

The 4i4 doesn’t have ADAT. My bad. I thought it might have. I have the 18i20 which has ADAT so they are patched together. As for the loopback function on the 4i4, I’m not sure how that works. I’d have to take a look and see what it says.

[@atharvasanjayjoshi]

Loads of Support Brother

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Sweet!! Thanks for that ☺️

[@alessandroguerra112]

I love this idea and after watching your videos on organising the layout of logic with names, grouping, colouring, stacking etc. this is something I want to do in the future. I am however super confused as to the actual chain of inputs, outputs, and how you are physically sending the tracks that you've recorded in MainStage to Logic Pro? I'm also confused because you have all of those tracks (i.e., snare, kick, vocal 1, guitar 1, bass, guitar 2 etc. etc.) but then its been sent to only 4 tape buses which you briefly explain in the video then get outputted to logic? So in that case are you then only mixing 4 tracks on logic from those "tape outputs"? Is there even an easier less technical way to do this? Like separating the tracking and mixing process within Logic itself and then removing the need to use MainStage? But still have that simplified setup of just the NLS and tape plugins?

[@SlowCarToChina]

So is Mainstage just there so Logic records already printed audio?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Basically, yes. Since I don’t own a UA Apollo interface and therefore do not have access to UA Console, this was my way of using MainStage in a similar fashion.

[@SlowCarToChina]

@@EverythingMusicRecording I guess you could do all that in Logic by sending input tracks to buses while outputting the busses to ‘print’ tracks. One shot printing. Would that work?

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Pretty much yea. That’s how I did it before running stuff thru MainStage. I’ve since gone back to using just Logic. But I have each session divided into a tracking section and a mixing section. Now I just finish tracking first and then print each track over into the mixing section. Then I turn off all the plugins and tracks on the tracking side, hide those tracks and just worry about mixing. But yes, the first X number of busses in Logic are used just for this. So track one on the tracking side ends up outputting to bus 1, and track 1 on the mix side is an audio track but it’s input is set as bus 1. Rinse and repeat for how ever many tracks I have in a song.

[@AnthonyGartung]

nice video

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Thanks Anthony

[@ybyap]

Amazing setup, never thought it is able to organize it like that. By the way, your organization of the info is fantastic! Great job! Thank you.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey Blow. Thanks for the kind words and I’m glad the video wasn’t total crap lol. It’s hard sometimes to know if I really got my point or message across in a video. You know where the idea came from though? My lack of thousands of $$$ laying around to invest in a UAD Apollo system. I love the idea of their Console software, but you need to buy an Apollo to get the console software. So this became my way of doing the same thing using stuff I already own. Sometimes any of us can think of super cool workarounds when we have no other choice 🙂

[@ybyap]

@@EverythingMusicRecording that's true, this is a great way to do it. I will playback your video and try to get the setup... Thanks.

[@gibs613]

Billy Corgan needs 100+ channels haha. Actually I think he layered 60+ guitars for that wall of sound on Siamese Dream. Keep the content coming Jeff's, I wanna get a Scarlett or something and play with IR's. Your videos have excellent guidance bud!

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hahaha I remember watching something about that. I think it made my brain explode. There was an Evanescence record like that too. Everything was a billion tracked and 9,000 part vocal harmonies all a billion tracked... I would not want to mix that lol. The Scarlett is really good. Mine is still the first gen, 3rd gen came out awhile ago. Have you tried Amplitube 5 yet? You can load IR’s into it now. I like it cuz I prefer being able to move mics around a cabinet instead of sifting thru tons of IR files. There is a free version as well. Hahaha still lying to me eh? I try tho

[@timothy5974]

🤯

[@internetpaddies5851]

Great Stuff I'm in

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

+Internet Paddies sweet!! 🙂

[@biekanez1]

Awesome channel my dear friend I subscribed to your channel 👊👍😎

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Hey Rob. Glad you like the channel, and thanks for the sub. If you have any questions at all, feel free to ask away 🙂

[@KAMAHOUSE679]

Subbed 👍🏾

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

Awesome!! Thanks!! Glad you like the channel 🙂

[@LUDOPOINCARRET]

Blablablabla

[@bobbeaver2361]

This seems totally unnecessary, why not just do the whole thing in Logic? I’ve watched this video numerous times and still don’t see the advantage of this setup other than to put more stress on my CPU.

[@EverythingMusicRecording]

I do everything in Logic now. That video is actually next on my "to Do" list. As for the original point of using MainStage, it was an experiment. I don't own a UA Apollo but I like the idea of the Console SW. So the idea was to try and use MainStage in the same manor, which actually works pretty well from that stand point. As for the CPU if it used more it wasn't anything noticeable.