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

I use Mainstage every night, and never has the soundcard lost connection!

I use an RME Fireface UC.

In the past 2 weeks I glitched once dring a show. This is why I switched my secondary drive ( containing audio files) to an SSD ( last week)

Since then, everythings runs smooth.

Was able to update to 10.7.4 with the new update (Mainstage 2.2.2)

And yes I have 2 systems running in sync. The dream!

Yes, but nothing is 100% reliable. Do you play guitar? I assume you have a backup guitar, in case a string breaks? Same with computers and software, however typically a total crash could be fixed by relaunching/rebooting within a few seconds, maybe a minute.

If that is too much, you need a backup system: a second - preferably identical - Mac with same audio/MIDI hardware and software. You may even feed the incoming audio/MIDI data in both computers (e.g. via a splitter).

Many years ago, I heard about a case were a test signal was feed in via one audio channel and custom hardware at the output detected if the signal was broken and switched automatically. I think that is overkill, again: if a guitar string breaks, it also takes you a moment to switch. Triggering a button is not more.

http://midisolutions.com/prodthr.htm

This is how you do 2 machines in sync

Hello busterkubrick,

I am using MS (2.1.3) with an RME FIreface UC on Lion 10.7.4 with an SSD drive and have experienced similar audio glitches to the ones you have described in previous posts. Next week I'm going on a long tour and I'm a bit scaried about MS behaviour.

Some questions:

1. Would you recommend to go for MS 2.2.X?

2. Did the high-quality USB cable make a difference?

3. Are there any overall settings that you could recommend me for improving MS reliability?

Many thanks.

Hi BambiHustler, I experienced a glitch yesterday during a show, hopefully, with my sync system, I just hit a button and the audio switches from 1 system to the other, so I was fine. Just a little scared.

I updated to 2.2.2, but I think the most stable one is 2.2.1

The thing that helped the most was to update to the latest driver on my Fireface UC. from v1.62 to v1.69

We experience the same things with the same setups. Then I don't think it's the USB cable...

One setup I have Uses MS 2.2.2 with OSX 10.7.4 w/ SSD drive (Sata 6Gb/s)

the other uses MS 2.2.1 with OSX 10.7.3 with 7200RPM drive

The glitch happened with the 2.2.2 / 10.7.4 / SSD setup

I have a novation controller that sends a program change to an audio switcher.

I tend to think the problem comes from the Fireface UC...

EDIT: Just saw a new driver for the UC: 1.72

I'll try it tonight and tell you how it went today.

So the whow went well yesterday, but I left the computer on overnight. I arrived today and the mainstage set was glitching. I had to restart MS to have it work again.

Still not fixed 😟

I posted on the RME forum.

Hope to find a solution quick

What do you mean with "glitch"? You might want to contact Apple regarding this http://www.apple.com/feedback/mainstage.html

Hard to describe with words! It's like the audio is saturated with noises, cutting fast, with a touch of white noise.

It sounds like the loss of connection with your MOTU device is due to just enough movement or vibration to interfere with your firewire connection to your MacBook. It has nothing to do with the stability of MainStage. I've been using MainStage live almost every night for the last year and a half. When I used my MacBook Pro the firewire cable would occasionally lose communication. It was simlpy due to movement and vibrations from my keyboard and/or loud audio.. I since got a Mac Mini Server and placed it on a shelf in my rack. Absolutely rock solid. For keyboardists using MainStage I recommend using MIDI cables instead of USB, because of the same problem.

The monitor is just a basic 14" LCD I found cheap. It's lower res than the MacBook Pro, but good enough for stage. It's mounted to a desk-clamping display bracket that's clamped to the back of my rack. If you want something even slicker, check out the Toshiba 14" mobile USB monitor. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=56731 9&CatId=164

A wireless Apple keyboard and mouse sit on a sliding rack shelf. I'm using a MOTU Ultralie Hybrid and I have no firewire problems. The Mac Mini Server(dual core 2.66 ghz running Snow Leopard 10.6.8, 8 gig RAM) has 2 drives. The second drive contains Ivory II samples. Don't have an iPad, so I can't advise you on that.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4010817?answerId=18623367022#18623367022

to rackmount 2 Mac Minis

http://midisolutions.com/prodthr.htm

To split the midi signal to go to the 2 Mac Mini

Then the audio of the 2 sound cards could go to either a console so you switch faders or to a switcher:

http://www.radialeng.com/r2011/sw8.php

Got $$$?

1. Would you recommend to go for MS 2.2.X? - I WILL Roll back to 10.7.3 with MS 2.2.1 and FF UC driver version 1.69. It is the most stable setup so far

2. Did the high-quality USB cable make a difference? Didn't do any difference

Hey Bambihustler,

Are you still on tour? How is your setup going? Onmy side I have audio glitches every 4 or 5 days.

RME claims the problem is not on their side.

No answer from Apple support.

My workaround is to restart computers frequently.