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Using Mainstage to set a pedal board (a Boss GT-1000) to set it up for the next song in the set

Before I buy Mainstage and invest time in the learning curve of the product can someone verify that it's straightforward to do what I want to do with the app?


I'd like to set up a series of patches in mainstage to put my pedalboard (a Boss GT-1000) into the right settings for each song. Then I'd like to program a control on the pedalboard (or it could be a new MIDI controller alternatively) to send a MIDI command to Mainstage as a trigger to have it advance to the next patch (the patch for the next song in the set list). That way, when playing live, I simply hit the control at the end of the song and the GT-1000 is set up for the next song in the set list. Yes, I could do the same by moving around the patches in the GT-1000 to be sequential and then just move up a patch but 1) our set list evolves and 2) I reuse some patches between songs (and would rather not create multiple copies of the same patch as that takes up space and also would require keeping the multiple copies of the same patch aligned as they evolve over time).


I'm pretty sure this would be straightforward to do with Mainstage. It's just an incoming MIDI command tied to advancing the patch and then outgoing commands to tell the pedalboard a pedalboard patch number to go to (and, for extra credit, enable some options for that patch like for example turn on an effect like delay or chorus as that would permit more reuse of standard patches in the pedalboard).


I am not asking for instructions on how to specifically do this necessarily (any guidance would be appreciated however)... I am looking mainly for confirmation that what I am proposing is practical with Mainstage. I was thinking to code a little Mac app to do this myself (calling the MacOS MIDI class) before I found out about Mainstage.

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 15.1

Posted on Nov 6, 2024 9:23 AM

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5 replies

Nov 7, 2024 4:21 AM in response to brantly

MainStage will allow you to send it a Program Change message to select a patch so e.g. you can assign each patch to a PC number and when you send MS that PC number, that patch will be selected. Conversely, you can insert a strip in each patch and have MS send out a PC value when that patch is selected. It does not need to match the incoming PC number for the patch. I do exactly what I understand you are looking to do from my Novation Controller Keyboard. Hope that helps.

Nov 7, 2024 8:46 AM in response to tfromtroon

Thanks much. Very helpful. A quick follow up question… Is there a means to send a signal to MainStage to ask it to advance to the next patch in the defined set list stored in MainStage (the patch for the next song) rather than having to send a Program Change command which, as I understand it, requires a specific patch ID?


In other words ask it to “go to the next patch” rather than “go to patch #004”?

Nov 7, 2024 10:30 AM in response to brantly

Yes, you can, but to achieve this I have set up "next patch"and "previous patch" buttons on the MS canvas and mapped these to Control Change values. When these CCs are sent to MS it does the business you want even to the extent if you CC for 'next patch" and it is at the last patch it will select the first patch (and vice versa). There may be a way with Program Changes but I do not know it.

Using Mainstage to set a pedal board (a Boss GT-1000) to set it up for the next song in the set

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