Markoman

Q: Using aliases in Mainstage?? I've been scouring this site and others.

Is there an official document link to using them... I've gotten info on them but no mention in the Mainstage manual.

I'm using 2.1.3.

 

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.5.7)

Posted on Sep 13, 2011 9:45 AM

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Q: Using aliases in Mainstage?? I've been scouring this site and others.

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  • by Thomjinx,

    Thomjinx Thomjinx Sep 13, 2011 4:49 PM in response to Markoman
    Level 1 (125 points)
    Sep 13, 2011 4:49 PM in response to Markoman

    It is really easy.

     

    Select the patch you want to make an alias of and click COPY in the EDIT menu.

     

    Go to the patch above/before where you want the alias and click PASTE AS ALIAS in the edit menu.

     

    That's about it.

     

    -Thomjinx

  • by Markoman,Solvedanswer

    Markoman Markoman Sep 14, 2011 7:55 AM in response to Thomjinx
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 14, 2011 7:55 AM in response to Thomjinx

    Well that's simple enough. Thanks Thom!

     

    So if I could pick your brain further, If I'm using 25-30 different sounds total for a show, which include the basics (acoustic pianos, e. pianoes, punchy brass, strings,organ, clav, analog "Jump" type sound) which would cover 3/4 of the gig... and then the more specialty sounds for specific songs like the newer synth pop/rap heavy dance stuff...

     

    1) Do I need to make all these channel strips at the concert level? Should I make 2 sets... one set with the ONE "master" patch only, that would include the aforementioned piano, e piano, clav, organ, string, brass, jump sounds (which will cover most classic rock, motown, funk, rock stuff)  and then perhaps another set for the newer specialty stuff?  Maybe it doesn't matter and I'm reading too much into this. Just trying to make Mainstage as efficiant as possible and not load samples twice. BTW, I'm only using the EXS24.

     

    2) Am I locked into the layer locations of the sounds? In other words, will the alias always have the same attributes as the original... or can I change the position (octave, zone,) of an alias without affecting the original.

    Sometimes I need that great piano sound in the right hand... sometimes in the left.

     

    Thanks!

  • by michaelhuisman,

    michaelhuisman michaelhuisman Sep 15, 2011 1:06 AM in response to Markoman
    Level 1 (60 points)
    Sep 15, 2011 1:06 AM in response to Markoman

    I have a set called to be aliased channels. Putting the strips at concert invokes the questions of hierarchy, patch level overriding/not overriding concert level channel strips. Don't need to run into that problem. Aliases are already complex enough.

     

    Some, but not all parameter are exactly the same between the original and alias. The things you want to do, at a midi level, such as transpose, range, play from a different controller, are editable on the alias without affecting the original. Not documented as far as I could tell, but it works as it should.

     

    So, how 'bout audio, effects, eq, etc. If I edit those on the alias, it also changes the original and every other instance of an alias. Not good if you've got say one instance of Ivory to save memory and want to alias it all over the place but then EQ or effect differently per patch...

     

    For this, using the Ivory scenario, on the ORIGINAL, I set the output to a BUS. Then, when I paste an alias of the Ivory channel strip into a song-specific patch, I also add an audio channel strip whose input is the bus where the output of the Ivory channel strip sends to.  EQ, effect, set levels ad nauseum on that audio channel strip w/o affecting all instances of that one piano over your whole concert.

     

    Works well, I've done this with Ivory, Kontakt and other memory-intensive AUs.

     

    I'm still working on a similar strategy for using just one instance of Omnisphere, together with the TR Omni app. Unfortunately though, it appears Omni won't load multis based on a program change message, so those have to, and can be loaded from the TR Omni interface, but other than that it looks workable.  Only one instance of Omni per concert, and a touch interface... Like I said, still workin' on this approach...

     

    Michael

  • by Markoman,

    Markoman Markoman Sep 15, 2011 9:24 AM in response to michaelhuisman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Sep 15, 2011 9:24 AM in response to michaelhuisman

    Very cool ( the bus idea) Thanks Michael. I'm wondering why this is nowhere to be found in my Mainstage2 manual. Oh well.

     

    Cheers.

  • by RockstarHealer,

    RockstarHealer RockstarHealer Oct 4, 2012 2:54 PM in response to michaelhuisman
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 4, 2012 2:54 PM in response to michaelhuisman

    I've been trying to set this up, and am running into a weird problem.

     

    Every time I try to route a channel strip to a bus, it seems to want to have the same bus available in every alias situation as well. Not only that, but every time I try to route to a bus for which I have not yet assigned an audio channel, it then creates an aux channel at the concert level!

     

    How can you set it up so that you're routing to different busses in different patches as you described above?

     

    Thanks

     

    Mark

  • by CCTM,

    CCTM CCTM Oct 5, 2012 12:12 AM in response to RockstarHealer
    Level 6 (10,949 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 12:12 AM in response to RockstarHealer

    Hi

     

     

    RockstarHealer wrote:

     

    Every time I try to route a channel strip to a bus, it seems to want to have the same bus available in every alias situation as well.

     

    That would be a function of the Channel Strip Alias: changes on one affect all instances of the Alias.

     

     

    RockstarHealer wrote:

     

    Not only that, but every time I try to route to a bus for which I have not yet assigned an audio channel, it then creates an aux channel at the concert level!

     

    If you want a Bus/Aux channel at Patch level, create a channel for it (at Patch level) before assigning aSend or Output to it.

     

     

    CCT

  • by RockstarHealer,

    RockstarHealer RockstarHealer Oct 5, 2012 12:43 AM in response to CCTM
    Level 1 (0 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 12:43 AM in response to CCTM

    Thanks,

     

    So what can I do if I want a particular channel strip to be assigned, let's say, to Bus 3 in one patch, but Bus 6 in another. Is there a way?

     

    RSH

  • by CCTM,

    CCTM CCTM Oct 5, 2012 12:49 AM in response to RockstarHealer
    Level 6 (10,949 points)
    Oct 5, 2012 12:49 AM in response to RockstarHealer

    Hi

     

    I don't think that this is directly possible when using Alias Channel Strips (not in my studio to check right now).

     

    I guess that you might be able to trick the system by assigning the Alias output to a bus/aux as a default for all 'instances', with the aux set to no output. Sends on the Aux could be used to direct the output to additional bus/aux channels as you require. Again, just a guess.

     

     

    CCT