Any one knows how i could play midi files in MainStage?
Any one knows how i could play midi files in MainStage?
MainStage, OS X Mavericks (10.9)
Question marked as
Best reply
If you are looking for more than a short step sequencer, the short answer is, you can't.
The longer answer is, there is a very primitive MIDI playback function buried in Mainstage, but it's practically useless for any form of performance (which is what Mainstage is all about). It can only play a MIDI file start to finish. You cannot stop it once it starts, except by quitting Mainstage and there is no real interface for it, so you have no control over it.
Here's from the Mainstage 3 manual (pp 57-58)
You can also send MIDI messages, including SysEx and continuous control messages, to your connected MIDI hardware devices using an external instrument channel strip. The Channel Strip Inspector includes a Send MIDI File control where you can select a standard MIDI file with the information you want to send.
Send a MIDI file using an external instrument
- 1 In the External Instrument Channel Strip Inspector, click the MIDI Output tab.
- 2 Select the Send MIDI File checkbox, then click the Select button.
- 3 Browse to the location of the MIDI file you want to add, select the file, then click Send.
The MIDI file is sent immediately to the port selected on the external instrument channel strip. The MIDI file is re-sent when you change patches, just like the other options in the Channel Strip Inspector (such as Program Change or MIDI Clock messages).
Only SMF (standard MIDI file) types 0 and 1 are supported. MIDI files are sent sequentially, one at at time, per concert. If you switch rapidly through several patches that send long MIDI files, the MIDI files are queued and sent in succession. MIDI messages are sent at the tempo stored in the MIDI file.
There are many plugins that have built-in step sequencers (SugarBytes, Numerology, etc), though I'm not sure how many are 64-bit.