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magenta1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Is Mainstage Useless.If its not 100% reliable ?????

I so want Mainstage to work, willing to pay for it to work....

BUT unless its 100% reliable, then its a pointless program.

If your Photoshop program crashes..a nightmare, but you carry on.

If Logic crashes an inconvience...you bite your lip and re boot..

IF MAINSTAGE crashes in front of 5000 people !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! .....NIghtmare !!!

I use it live, as main one and only osund source for my keyboard rig.

As a working program its a dream, it does it all....I LOVE IT....

BUt today in rehearsal ( and not for the 1st time) it looses connection with the MOTU, and leaves me with no sound,

the meters still go and show mainstage playing, but silent...

You can read about endless people having the same problem( and many more problems)

You cant get it to do this, its completely intermidant...the worse kind....

Then you have all this stuff about LION,etc...

Then differant versions hav differant faults...

I run 2.1.3 on an old macbook...

I am willing to spend the cash IF i can get 100% reliablility.

I only use EXS samplers, plenty of ram,etc...all by the book...

BUT still not 100% stable....

I compare it to haveing a buggy version of a airtrafic control system,...only once it has to fail....!!!!!

So whats the answer..... Two sytems running in sync....???? $$$$$$$$$

Im so close to having what I want.

A compact and easy system....BUT PLEASE reliablilty.....thats all I want.

Posted on Jun 7, 2012 4:11 PM

24 replies

magenta1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 1, 2012 11:41 AM in response to busterkubrick

The Nightmare continous......

Twice this week the dreaded ultra hi white noices and death of the audio connection to the motu.....

Still showing on meters on macbook.... looks like it re sets to internal or just looses firewire connection.

Tried re doing buffer to try re connect ...didnt work....had to switch off the motu ( actuallt happend with 2 diffeant motu's, and re boot Mainstage.....

Festival this weekend..!

The computer and audio interface on A frame above a midi controller keyboard.... not giving it large just playing away ( sitting down)....?????

As said..... is MAINSTAGE useless if not 100% reliable...????????????

So now ive ordered a SSD drive to quicken up re boot of Maintstage...

Also ordered flightcase to hold laptop and audio interface, so I can tie down Firewire connections.....

It wouldnt be so bad if I could trigger it so i could see what is causing it......

One crash is too many in any live gig....... the nightmare continous..........................

Mainstage 2.1.3 Snow leapord latest ...and 4 gig of ram on a Macbook ( not pro)...but showing no spikes ( ram or CPU ... well under half),etc....... ALL EXS/ES2,etc .... no audio units....

Jul 1, 2012 12:06 PM in response to magenta1

It seems to be so hit and miss with live performance reliability, and that is what MS can be so frustrating. I suffered from audio dropouts (MOTU ultralite mk3 firewire) so much I gave up, and stopped performing with MS and went back to hardware. Months later, I decided to try again with a faster system: now I am using a Mac Mini Server with Lion (latest) and MS (latest), and the same ultralite. Things are stable enough now (never a dropout, running at 30% cpu with no-audible-latency buffer size) that I have gone back to performing with MS, and have no fear. One CANNOT deliver a good in-the-moment live performance while worrying about technology.

So, I am pro MS once again. BUT why these annoying problems for some users?? Why can't we just draw a line in the sand for RAM/CPU/OS minimal requirements (and "verified" audio I/Os) and have it be predictably reliable?! Granted, third-party plug-ins or sw could effect the crash/noise equation, but that should be the only effecting variable when it comes to fatal crashes (other than a faulty system).

magenta1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 1, 2012 3:00 PM in response to dingdangdawg

Very interesting.....

If I thought that getting all the latest and fastest was the answer....??? tempting.

Its weird that I dont see any spikes or crash logs or warning when it loses the audio...

Just a high pitched whine and no keyboard sounds, though the synths are still registering on mainstage.

Its knowing when enough is enough and 2K+ spent on this system gets you a Kronos or something hardware...

I still ove Mainstage but its pushing my limits of loyalty to the brink !!!!!!!!!

Jul 2, 2012 10:15 PM in response to magenta1

You could try running Console (look at all databases) and running a loop of audio for an extended period of time and see if you can catch an audio dropout in the act, reading the Console log for clues. You might find some sort of hidden or unknown culprit program that is doing something in the background. Its worth a try....

Jul 3, 2012 9:55 AM in response to dingdangdawg

DingDangDwang,

It seems that with the same setup as I have you go problems free.

I actually had to downgrade to 10.7.3 to be able to run shows with Mainstage. else it would go glitching after less than 1 hour of use.

The only difference would be the soundcard. I have Fireface UC, and RME claims the problem is not on their side.

I have no CPU spikes at all.

Just glitches after a few days of not rebooting.

magenta1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 3, 2012 11:29 AM in response to busterkubrick

Ok... here goes....

I have just upgraded the whole lot.

New SSD drive ( BE AWARE that you may have to regress the Firmware...When I put the new one in ..it was rubbish.Crashing and slowwwwwww..... read on google that you had to use old firmware...ALL Ok...

Lightning fast ...9 second boot !!!!!)...so thats that...

Im now using a MACBOOK pro (2.3 i5) , LION latest and Mainstage latest....

LETS see...... unfortunately now i have to choose if to use the new set up for the gig on weekend.....

So im going to hammer it tomorow ans see if it crashes...

(Ive also bought new Firewire leads , some 90o firewire adaptors , flight case...

as I was thinking of flightcaseing it all and tying down the firewire leads,etc.... to rule out andy movement...)

LOTS to do...!!!!!!

magenta1 Author

Level 1

23 points

Jul 9, 2012 11:42 AM in response to magenta1

Well....

Flightcased it all up.... basically a guitar pedal board with tigh/cut foam all around.

All the firewire connections are locked down,and cannot move.

( left gap behind for air flow...)

New SDD , MAcbook pro 2010..latest mainstage and latest Lion...

DID 1st gig... and a big one at that.....

didnt have chance to run it properly before, just on soak.....

WORKED Like a dream..... so I dont know what or which of the new additions made it all hang together....

Dont care..as long as it keeps like this...Im a VERY happy man !!!!!

Jul 13, 2012 10:57 AM in response to magenta1

Hey Bambihustler,

RME released driver version 1.73 wich fixes our problem

Mar 6, 2013 3:01 PM in response to magenta1

I haven't used MS in a while, but I similar problems in MS 1. My solution was to have a separate minimal operating system install whith most services disabled. Then, before the show I ran daily weekly monthly and then did a fresh reboot. I did this and played at church every Sunday for about a year and a half and don't really remember having any issues after that. Also, if it works don't fix it.... Don't update anything! I recall the major issues I saw was no sound output but the GUI responds, and midi lock up were the midi would lock up on a note and I had to restart. Foul systems sounds great, but I'm again on a college student budget.

I recall a s/w update one time caused the airport driver to output static on the internal sound card. The problem is s/w might work fine alone but not together. It took 6 months to get apple to fix it with an update, and they wouldn't even admit there was a problem. A stripped down system with incremental time machine backups is the only way to go. Duel machines or not.

Is Mainstage Useless.If its not 100% reliable ?????