Mainstage Garage Band control scripts

Hi Thor,
That's great, well done and thanks for solving this - even though you guessed the wrong user account 😉

I saw the 'property' statements but with no Apple Script knowledge, I thought this was documentation of variables that the next section of the script would set - not prerequisite variables, that needed to be defined for the script to run! There is no mention of this in the tutorial video - in that, it states that if you place your Garage Band files in the correct folder, they will show up in the pick-list.

So, for future reference for others, here are the full instructions on personalising the basic installation achieved by downloading, installing and configuring the AppleScripts and GarageBand controller template components following the set-up in the MainStage AppleScript page http://www.apple.com/applescript/mainstage/index.html:
1. The MainStage scripts sit in the shared level 'above' individual users, in the folder 'Macintosh HD/Library/Application Support/Logic/MainStage Scripts', so you need temporary read/write permissions on this folder to be able to edit & save the scripts. So, use Finder, control-click this folder, chose 'Get info', then under Sharing & Permissions, add your own account and set red/write permissions (you will need the Administrator password to unlock this settings area by clicking the padlock).
2. Open the file 'GB • Open Chosen Song.scpt' in Script Editor (it should be the default) and edit the second line 'property master sourcedirectory' so that the path to your user account's GarageBand folder. Here is what worked for me (my user account is 'Keith'):

property master sourcedirectory : ((("Macintosh HD:Users:Keith:Music:") as string) & "GarageBand:")

3. Use 'Save As' to save your personalised script back to the MainStage Scripts folder (keep the original, just in case you need to set up other users)
4. In MainStage, go into Edit mode, select the 'Open GB Doc' button in your GB controller and set Parameter Mapping to your revised file, via Actions>AppleScript>'your personalised open song file'.

Best
Keith..

Hi Thor,
Yes it's good to have a sequencer available within MainStage, though it's a shame that the current set of scripts and controls do not provide a full integration of the two applications for the performing musician.

I'm a singer & multi-instrumentalist and tend to use a single MainStage patch per song with channel strips for vocal, guitar, keyboards (generally some kind of piano & a Hammond from within MainStage, using the expression pedal to blend/switch) and any other song-specific mic channels for harmonica or sax. I was rather hoping that once I'd got this integration working I'd be able to save the Garage Band song list within my MainStage patches and have GarageBand slave to MainStage as I run through my set. However, there are two areas that could be improved to support my way of working:

1. GarageBand song selection is independent of patch change. I can see this being useful when a player wants to use multiple MainStage patches over a single GarageBand song backing track (without the latter re-loading) but for me it adds to the delay & room for error between songs. It would be nice to have a controller button that can sets specific patches to be 'song masters' to force the loading of a patch-specific, song in GarageBand. That way, a song could be associated with one or the first of a group of patches (until the next 'master' patch is reached in the list). Creating a MainStage button to set the song master state would be easy enough, but I suspect this would need additional AppleScript work in the GB Open Selected Song AppleScript - to enable the saving of the song and the forced load of the saved song - which is currently beyond me.

2. Song parameters: It seems that whilst the GarageBand controllers sit inside a patch, the volume and tempo parameters aren't sent when a patch is opened or when a controller is selected. I can't see a way to force a MainStage knob or slider to send its current value, so this means turning a controller knob away from the desired value & back, which isn't so good for fast, efficient live work. It would be nice to be able to associate a button with each of these two knobs, to send their current value. I can't see how to do this from within MainStage but it may be possible to use AppleScript to get the knob controller's value & assign it to the button

BTW I like the up/down/return foot-switch idea - though as I have my Mac to hand when playing, the arrow keys will suffice for now (until I can assign a song to patches in advance)!

I wonder if the developer of the original AppleScript controller code might one day read this thread 😉
Best
Keith..