Mainstage CPU spikes

Why?

By being candid with our experiences, others coming along more recently can better evaluate for themselves what they should do. I'm not a new user. I used MS for almost 2 years, discovering problems (and workarounds which I reported here) before finally giving up because of this issue.

As a couple of others have also suggested, MS is wonderful for simple stuff but it just doesn't seem to handle more sophisticated environments well for some reasons not yet understood. In the meantime, life goes on and there are alternatives out there for those who have run into similar problems. Why should we keep that secret?

I have an economic interest in Apple's success (as a shareholder) but it doesn't mean that I'm blind to their faults.

I'd welcome a discussion regarding alternatives, beginning with: what are they (in a Mac environment)? I'm a happy Mainstage user with rare glitches. If there's something out there that gives me the options and flexibility that I get from MS, it has escaped my notice.

You say yours is working 100%, are you running MS1 or MS2? what plugins are you using?

I have no issues at all with MS1, MS2 on the other hand is completely unusable for me, and I'm using nothing but Mainstage sounds for my setup. I can create a new concert from scratch with 1 piano sound and within a short period of time I will get notes cutting off and random cpu spikes. I've done everything from blow out the MBP, maxed out memory, tried 32 bit and 64 bit mode in both the OS and the app, does the same thing.

I don't understand how for example 2 people with the same exact setup could achive completely different results in performance.

I think it is a GREAT suggestion. Maybe somebody from Apple will see that they are losing users to other options. This isn't somebody trading in their horse for a bike, this is somebody trading in their Mainstage setup which is unstable for some other controller/module setup just because it's more stable, but they would much rather use the working Mainstage. I've been reading these forums for many many many years, and everybody is still having the same exact issues. This can't be user error!

I tried several alternatives (Rax, Jambalaya, a few others whose names now escape me) but none of them had the sophistication of MainStage nor the MIDI capabilities that I needed.

Eventually, I rolled my own using the Max/MSP environment. There's a writeup of my original effort on my blog (http://deskew.com/component/content/article/19/62-replacing-apple-mainstage-with -a-custom-maxmsp-implementation.html) but it's now quite out of date as I have more recently made a lot of changes to support persistence and direct mixer control...I need to write up the new version.

Nevertheless, that environment is working flawlessly for me.

I think there must be something in the setup that produces such errors. It's possibile mainstage is a little picky when it comes to kernel extensions or different audio interfaces. I'd be curious to explore those setup and try to make it work.

I am using MS2 and it's plug-ins, plus I have a whole boatload of Waves plugins and use a few of those. I used to use the NI B4 Hammond, now use the amazing GSI VB3. My controller configuration varies between bands, but is usually an Alesis QS8 (as controller only), and either two Edirol PCR 800's or one Edirol and a Korg MicroKey. I'

ve only recently started wiring the audio from the Alesis in case of a glitch but I've been pretty lucky. The one glitch I do have on rare occasions is sudden loss of audio. I see midi on/off, etc. activity in the window at the top, nothing makes it to the channel strips. I have to close and re-open. Anybody else?

Your spikes with a single piano sound in a concert that you've created should just not be happening. Using one of the Logic pianos? What about if you open one of the included pre-made concerts with piano patches, do you have the same results?

Yep --- that happens to me --- not sure about your definition of "rare" but for me, if I'm playing or rehearsing 3 sets (about 30 songs), I'm very likely to hit that glitch (or the overload) at least once.

I don't know how many of the MS developers are active musicians but it should be understood that there's a huge psychological issue here as well. Any time I played, I would be worried that something might go wrong and as a result it was very difficult to stay completely focused on just performing.

Imagine for example you're playing the guitar. There's always a risk that a string will break. Clearly that happens, but it doesn't happen very often (and you can put new strings on before every performance, etc) so you don't tend to worry about it too much. But imagine if you had to worry that every time you play a note, the string MIGHT break.

Takes a lot of fun out of the experience.

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The one glitch I do have on rare occasions is sudden loss of audio.

I'm able to recreate the problem just using ms2 built in concerts

On a separate topic, tell me more about the GSI VB3 --- is it really much better than the NI B4? I worry about B4 failing on some upcoming OS update since NI has stopped selling it. I mostly use a real hammond but it's often very useful to use the B4 as well.

Yes it's happened with the included pre-made concerts. And apple replaced my MBP under warranty with a new unit and it still did it, so I know it's not something with the hardware in the MBP itself.

Yes, I think the VB3 is that much better. The 'thunk' to the percussion when you play down low is absolutely amazing. The Leslie sim is MUCH better. It is extremely processor-friendly (modeling, not samples), and dirt cheap. Believe me, I'm very picky about my Hammond sound. Note that an upcoming upgrade to the software is already running in the Hamichord. There are plenty of samples out there to listen to, in addition to those on his website: http://www.genuinesoundware.com/?a=showproduct&b=24

Mysterious. What are you using for a controller (not that it should matter)? Can you eliminate the controller and make it happen using only musical typing?

My 'rare' is maybe twice in 50-60 full shows. Still, it's the closing and reopening of a large concert is the real issue, just takes a lot of time.

One of the suggestions I made a long time ago was for MS to not preload ALL AUs for a concert. Instead, just load the AUs needed for the current patch and optionally (as an optimization in the background) for the next patch.

That way, the whole notion of "Concert" can go away (at least within the confines of a single performance) and there would also be a significant improvement in memory management as only a few AUs would need to be loaded.

However, not unsurprisingly, the silence has been deafening.