Using Aliases // Using Mainstage For Musical Theatre

Using Aliases in Mainstage is a great way to cut down on RAM and CPU usage to help run your concerts much smoother in performance. This tutorial explains what they are, how to set them up and some handy shortcuts for integrating them into your Mainstage workflow.
www.samjohnsonmusic.co.uk

[@hmcvm]

Super useful - Please keep this series up! It is especially handy to people like me who are approaching from a musical point of view and DEFINITELY not a technological one..! A few problems I have run into in my MainStage for MT journey that you may be able to advise on/make some content on: - what are the best additional sounds for use in MT (e.g. Expanded orchestral sounds) - how to create single key triggered harp glisses of defined range, scale and speed - how to add effects such as sforzando for a defined dynamic/duration - A guide to using the samplers/plugins to customise the output sound, and what the various effects do. Keep up the great work

[@samjohnsonmusician]

Thanks for commenting! I have a few ideas lined up for the next few tutorials (harp glisses being one of them!) but will take on your suggestions and do some videos on those in the near future. Glad they are of use!

[@reubengreeph4727]

The best MainStage tutorial I've seen - Thank you!!

[@danieletto78]

Hi, great video, really helpful. I've just started to use alias patches instrument today. Hoping to increase my experience soon :-)

[@samjohnsonmusician]

Brilliant! I’m glad it was helpful!

[@csbond64]

Hi, for some reason when I create an alias, and change the volume in the original, the volume of the copied aliases does not change - this seems strange? - how would I go about turning down the volume of all my violin patches, for example? Adjusting the volume across all duplicated patches (say if the strings were all too loud or something) seems to me like one of the most obvious reasons for aliases. Would appreciate your input - thanks!

[@samjohnsonmusician]

Christopher Schlechte-Bond Hi Christopher, that’s correct, the aliases volume setting is separate to the original. I get what you’re saying as it would be handy to be able to change all those aliases at once. The way I work around this if I need the volume of all aliases changing, is to change the volume output of the plugin itself (exs/kontakt etc) if the plugin doesn’t have that option (though most do!) I would put an instance of the gain plugin on and just use that to knock overall volume for all aliases down! Hope that’s helpful!

[@TuGinecologo]

Hi, is there a way to change time signature automatically? I mean, if I have a song with lots of time signature change (prog metal for example) can I do it with only one playback?

[@samjohnsonmusician]

Gustavo Rojas Hi, do you mean when using the playback plugin within Mainstage? If so, you could have the playback instance running on the concert level (on a channel strip when selecting the orange concert logo at the top of the patch list) and then have different patches with the different time signatures in the inspector selected in the drop down menus. I unfortunately don’t know if there’s a way using a script etc to make the patches move without you moving them on yourself with a trigger pedal or note. There may be a script available somewhere but I haven’t come across one!

[@TuGinecologo]

@@samjohnsonmusician hi and thanks for answering, I mean using only One patch with all the changes, I have made a click track with a metronome with los of time signature changes but when I loop or I use some complex arpeggiators their behave becomes quite unpredictable :( (sorry for my English). Thanks

[@petterrong1590]

Is there a way to use alias only for the instrument plugin, so that you can use different FX plugins and routing for different patches using the aliases?

[@samjohnsonmusician]

Petter Rong Hi, unfortunately not no, if there is a patch you need to change anything like that for, you would need to convert that channel strip/patch to a full original one rather than an alias reference!

[@petterrong1590]

@@samjohnsonmusician Too bad, I use the exact same piano for most songs, but the EQ, comp and reverb settings are vastly different, so I have to load a new piano for every patch