MainStage 3 - Not a reliable software for live performances

Question

Level 1

1 points

MainStage 3 - Not a reliable software for live performances

I recently spent a lot of money upgrading my Mac just to able to run backing tracks with MainStage 3, but even with the new improvements I've had no success. I have the latest version (MainStage 3.2.3) running on a mid 2010 Macbook Pro, 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo with 16 GB of RAM on a 240 SSD, OSX EL Capitan.

I have a clean desktop, basically a clean machine with everything stored on an external hard drive just to have the SSD handling the programs. When I perform I use the Perform window, I have Wi-Fi off, notifications off, but I keep getting that system overload message telling me that the audio engine was not able to process all required data in time.

I created my own custom template based on the 8 Backing Tracks default template. Some songs do take all the tracks, some don't but regardless of the template or what interface I use, I get the same results. I've also tried every possible variations under the program's setting with no luck.

Last Friday I spent quite a few hours setting up my session for Saturday's concert. The band practiced Sat morning and we went thought the set 3 times. At first, I was getting the system overload message frequently during practice but the sound was not skipping or stopping so I figured it was going to be ok as long as I didn't mess with the program at all. MainsStage eventually closed abruptly so I had to restart. Few minutes later backing tracks just dropped, I was still getting the click and cues on my in-ear but everything that went to the house just died.

I tried removing and re-inserting the .caf steams on the affected tracks but they just wont play. Some songs didn't get affected, on others only a few tracks got affected.

You can see the screenshot above, the only track that plays properly is the first one even though all tracks have steams in them. The playback plugin is actually showing the audio for the 3rd track. So the plugin is loaded with audio but no waveform appear on the template for remaining tracks. It's very weird and very fu&%!! frustrating.

I noticed on the couple of times that we where able to go through the set that my CPU kept increasing as the set progressed. For example, while playing the first song the CPU was around 2 to 4%, song two increased it to 4 to 6%, and so on. By the time we where on the last song the CPU was around 25 spiking up to 35%.

I also noticed that some settings I do to the concert level wont stay saved, like setting the volume fader and meters to the metronome.

We ended up doing the gig without backing tracks. Very disappointed in this software. Very intuitive and the concept is perfect but man, it ***** that is not reliable for professional use. Unless someone here gives me an advise to get it to run flawlessly or point out something that I'm doing wrong I'm just going to have to ditch it and try something else. Maybe Ableton Live?

Any suggestions are welcome and very appreciated.

Thanks!

MacBook Pro, OS X El Capitan (10.11.3)

Posted on Mar 14, 2016 1:27 PM

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Answer 1

Jan 18, 2017 6:03 PM in response to ebarcena

I came on this forum to see if anyone else had noticed that MainStage won't remember when you assign a round knob and a CC controller to the Metronome Volume.

I have had MainStage crash on me at the worst times, and I may need to switch to Ableton Live for that reason. Most professionals that run tracks use Ableton Live. I've noticed that MS crashes more frequently when I am setting up a concert and practicing, and tends to be more stable when I don't add or delete patches during a session.

That said, I am pushing MS to the limits in a lot of ways and it handles it well. I am NOT running tracks, so that could be a key difference. But I I tend to load up patches with several virtual instrument plug-ins, and I have dozens of knobs and sliders and buttons mapped and I tweak them during live performances. I often run MIDI scripts to filter keystrokes in accordance with buttons. With instruments you can often reduce the polyphony count or use sample thinning or other tricks to reduce CPU usage -- see the User Manual for ideas. I have my I/O Buffer Size set to 512 samples -- big enough that it can feed the audio output for a while even if the CPU is busy doing something else, but any bigger and there is an unacceptable delay/latency between keypress and output. I set Driver Latency all the way to the "More Safety" setting, and enabled the I/O Safety Buffer checkbox. My MacBook Pro has 2 cores and I have MS set up to use both.

I ended up mapping the metronome volume to the Klopfgeist Level and that is a workaround to that issue.

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Answer 2

shattre

Level 1

34 points

Jan 20, 2017 4:24 PM in response to ebarcena

Maybe not helpful, but I've used MainStage as my live keyboard environment, professionally, for over 4 years, and I've never had a single crash. I have an extremely complex project with over 150 patches/songs (~400 Control Strips), on my 2011 MacBook, and it runs smooth as silk. That said, I rarely cue backing tracks (rock keyboardist here), but when I do, I use NI Kontakt or Battery to play them, as I've never gotten the playback plugin to work correctly. So that's my recommendation, skip the playback plugin, and use whatever sampler AU plugin you like to use.

I also just upgraded my HD to an SSD, and that really sped things up in terms of opening and modifying onscreen controls, though I never actually had a crash with the old HDD.

I haven't found any problems with the 3.2 upgrade. In fact, I'm thrilled with it, because it allows me to use multiple alias CSs across the same patch, a feature which I've been crossing my fingers for a while for.

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Answer 3

Jan 23, 2017 9:56 AM in response to ebarcena

one thing I would suggest is to not use .caf files. I noticed that when I attempted to record my sessions with .caf, it always crashed mainstage for me. Also back in the day when I was using .mp3 for my playback it was also crashing mainstage. Is there a reason why you are using .caf? Are your songs like 7 hours long? If not, use .wav files for Playback. That has helped me fix crashes like that, and also .wav files can retain temp meta data and markers.

BTW, I'm running Mainstage on a 2011 MacBook Pro, no real problems.

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Answer 4

Procman

Level 1

29 points

Mar 18, 2016 6:41 AM in response to ebarcena

Hi Ebarcena, as I mentioned for months... the 3.1.1 version is the last Mainstage Version "acceptable" on stage. It's a shame for Apple to not be able to fix all the bugs from the 3.2.0 version ... but... maybe the Musicians community becamed out of interset for Apple.

I was looking for another solution (like FORTE on PC)... maybe Ableton could be the solution. RIP Mainstage

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Answer 5

Apr 1, 2016 9:13 AM in response to ebarcena

Look at the situation - you have brand new software that has been around only three months. You are trying to run that software effectively and efficiently on a computer that is over six years old. THAT is the problem. I am running 22 tracks of audio with three keyboards, multiple foot-switches, and several audio splits to the FOH position. I'm doing it all on a 2014 mac with no noticeable latency, lag, or crashing.😊

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Answer 6

ebarcena Author

Level 1

1 points

Apr 1, 2016 9:44 AM in response to drumthumb

That's not an excuse. Yes my computer is old, but if it's capable of running the latest OS and ALL other software (including other DAW and video production software) without a problem than it should be able handle MainStage too. Specially after all the upgrades I did to the computer. If this was a persistent problem with other software than yeah, I would probably be blaming the computer too, but that's not the case. Also, if you read other posts here you'll find that other people have had similar problems with newer computers.

Either way, even if was my computer was the issue, Apple it's still dropping the ball here by releasing software that wont work on all computers that are compatible with their latest OS. I do envy you though. I like MainStage and I really wish I could use it. In fact, the reason I ended up spending money upgrading my Mac was to use it live. Oh well.

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Answer 7

dmbono

Level 1

98 points

Apr 29, 2016 8:31 AM in response to ebarcena

Unfortunately, even with all your upgrades, your CPU is still quite old. I suspect your video production software suffers from lag and your fan is probably spinning a little harder than usual when rendering. The same thing will happen with audio but in a live music situation, you're going to notice the failure and bottlenecks more than you would in other less critical environments.

Are your samples stored externally? If so, what is the drive speed and how is it connected to the computer? The ideal would be at least 7200rpm and firewire or Thunderbolt back to your computer. Have you considered removing your internal optical drive and installing a second internal drive for sample storage?

Have you tried turning off Spotlight indexing for all disks?

Is it possible your audio interface driver is outdated? MOTU didn't release final El Capitan drivers until very recently so there were occasional instabilities that would pop up occasionally. I've had some MainStage crash problems solved by an updated interface driver.

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