Q: MainStage 3: Going backward to move forward

A thousand times, YES! I'm definitely one of the people who has had the same experience. I've been on this board and over at Logic Pro Help ever since the MS 3.2.x updates were released trying to figure out why these new versions are completely unusable while MS 3.1.1 is rock solid with the exact same concerts. I haven't been able to actually nail down what's happening. To be honest, I've sort of given up at this point. I'm just sticking with 3.1.1 until I'm forced to change. I can't figure out why Apple isn't addressing this problem.

I did notice that you mentioned aliases and I use them quite a bit and another friend of mine who is a real MS power user uses them all the time. One of his complaints is that 3.2.4 (maybe earlier 3.2 versions too - can't remember) won't automatically hook aliases up to the master patch when he drags patches back into a concert. I wonder if aliases are the thing that got broken and if people who don't use them aren't experiencing the same problems we are. It's just a guess, but at this point, I'm willing to look at anything if I can figure out a direction that might give Apple a clue about how to fix this.

Maybe the alias patch scheme might be broken in 3.2.4 .. I never use them and have been using MS 3.2.4 for a few months now on concerts built since version 3.0.4 ... never had an issue with the newer versions.

I'm using MS on 2 different Macbook pros with OS X 10.11 and MS 3.2.4 and both have been very stable.

Besides the Logic instruments , I only use some virtual instruments from Applied Acoustic Systems and Moddart PianoTeq .

keep us posted

Maybe aliases are the issue. Thanks for the info yfrulla.

Yes, but this is the question. You're using a bunch of aliases and your concerts are causing instability in the MS 3.2.x series. Is this correct? Because this is exactly what's happening to me too. I've had the exact experience you've had with MS crashing even when it's left alone for a length of time. And, like you, I use lots of 3rd party plug ins. Are you using NI stuff by any chance? How about Kontakt? I see spikes with that plug in when I have the CPU history opened. But, to be honest, I'm not convinced that a particular plug in is the problem. I've tried concerts without NI stuff and they also cause instability and CPU spikes and crashes. The only concerts that don't have this problem are ones that use all Apple plug ins. Now that I think about it, though, I'm not sure I ever tried aliases with those concerts.

Did you create any concerts with earlier versions or MS? MS 3.1.1 is rock solid for me, but I can't play more than 20 minutes or so with any of the MS 3.2.x series without CPU overloads and distortion.

Anyway, it's just a theory at the moment, but I'm wondering if aliases might be messed up in the newer versions of MS. All information is useful at this point. It's going to be difficult for Apple to solve a problem if they can't see it. Obviously, this isn't happening to everyone, but it's happening to enough of us that I feel pretty confident that there's a common issue that we're overlooking.

Thanks for the info!

So can relate to this - started a thread on this topic!

It's so weird that it's a time based crash - the longer MainStage is open the higher the CPU usage gets..

I'm just wondering how you reverted to 3.1.1?

Yeah, this is exactly what happens to me too. The longer MS 3.2.x is open, the more the CPU use goes up. If I do nothing and just let it sit there, it will eventually start spiking and causing trouble. When I actually use it, the CPU spikes just happen faster.

Fortunately, I copied my 3.1.1 version before updating because I've been bitten by unstable software updates before. This one isn't just unstable - it's unusable, at least for my main concert.

Let me know if you need a copy of 3.1.1 and I'll figure out a way to get it to you.