Tag Archives: MainStage

What’s New in Version 10.2.1

This update contains numerous fixes and enhancements including:

• New multi-threading feature improves performance when processing multiple live channels
• Faster playback responsiveness when previewing Apple Loops and performing region edits
• Flex Pitch editing can be performed within the Tracks area using a Piano Roll interface
• A collection of 30 plug-ins have been redesigned to add Retina support and improve usability
• Numerous improvements to Alchemy including Apple Loops support and 11 new spectral effects
• Improved reliability when downloading additional content
• Additional content can be downloaded directly from the Sound Library and Apple Loops browsers
• Drum Machine Designer supports drag and drop of multiple audio files
• The Step Editor can automatically create lanes to display all MIDI events in a region
• New export option allows you to to create stems from multiple selected tracks
• Improved VoiceOver support

MainStage 3.2.3 Release info

What’s New in Version 3.2.3

This update contains numerous fixes and enhancements including:

• A collection of 27 plug-ins have been redesigned to add Retina support and improve usability
• Numerous improvements to Alchemy including Apple Loops support and 11 new spectral effects
• Alchemy supports 3rd party Expressive MIDI Controllers including products from Roli and Roger Linn Design
• Allows faster changing of your I/O device with large concert files
• Clicking on an instrument layer in the workspace now selects the corresponding channel strip
• Improved VoiceOver support

Audio Unit Plug-Ins and El Capitan (OS X 10.11)

2015-11-09UncategorizedAudio Unit, Logic Pro, MainStage, plug-inJoe

By now you’ve surely heard about the issues some third-party AU plug-ins had with El Capitan (10.11). It’s important to note that not all third-party AU plug-ins had problems with El Capitan, and most of those were fixed by the 10.11.1 update.

The other thing to know is that even after you update to 10.11.1, plug-ins that didn’t validate before may have to be manually rescanned before you can use them.

Open the Plug-In Manager from the Preferences sub-menu under the Logic Pro X menu.

The Plug-In Manager is accessed directly under the MainStage menu in MainStage.

Select the plug-ins that say “Crashed Validation” under the Compatibility column in the Plug-In Manager. If you click the name of the column, the plug-ins will be grouped by their status, making the ones that didn’t validate easier to find and select. Or, you can command-click all the plug-ins that need to be validated.

Once you have selected the plug-ins to be rescanned, click the “Reset & Rescan Selection” button at the bottom of the window.

A window will appear to show you the validation process for the plug-ins. When the process is complete, plug-ins that are compatible with 10.11.1 (and hopefully later) should show as “successfully validated.”

Of course, consult with the vendor of any third-party plug-ins for more information. Several vendors say they are still not supporting El Capitan yet, even though I’ve seen reports by people who say they have upgraded to 10.11.1 and those manufacturer’s plug-ins work fine for them.

Logic Pro X 10.2, MainStage 3.2 Released with Alchemy, Other Features

2015-08-25FeaturesLogic Pro, MainStage, SyntheziserJoe

I’m not going to lie to you. I don’t really know much about Alchemy as I’ve never tried it before Apple acquired it. But everyone says how great and powerful it is, so there you go. Checking the Logic Pro X 10.2 Release Notes, there is a huge list of fixes, changes, and performance improvements to the app besides the addition of Alchemy. This list is much more than what the App Store shows. (On the other hand, the MainStage 3.2 Release Notes are similar to what you see in the App Store update.) It will be a while before everyone has a chance to try Logic Pro X 10.2 and see what they did, and if they fixed issues some people were running into consistently.

This is a good article about changes to Alchemy and Logic that may be of interest to Alchemy users.

Ars Technica has a rundown of what Alchemy is.

Here is a good thread about the new features at Logic Pro Help’s forums.

My Favorite New Features in Logic Pro X – Part 1, The Effect Slot

2015-06-29MixingGarageBand, Logic Pro, MainStage, MixingJoe

Having recently upgraded to Logic Pro X, there are a lot of changes in the new version(s – 10.0 and 10.1 both added numerous changes) for me to explore. But a few have got me really excited and improved my workflow quite a bit. I’ll highlight these in a few posts.

This one actually changed in Logic Pro X, MainStage 3, and GarageBand 10 because at their core, these apps all share quite a bit.

The Effects slot used to be a bit confusing, and in previous versions of Logic Pro, what it did depended upon how you clicked on it. (Note that right- or control-clicking never does anything useful nor interesting. I’m kidding, but really, I’ve never used that menu.)

Clicking on an empty Effects slot brought up a menu listing all your effects plug-ins. This is still true in Logic Pro X.

Logic Pro 8/9 on the left, Logic Pro X on the right

But strangely, once you selected a plug-in for that Effect slot, if you clicked on the slot again, nothing happened. You had to click-and-hold on the Effect slot to bring back up the effects plug-ins menu. If you wanted to open that particular plug-in window, you had to double-click on the Effect slot. None of this was very intuitive.

Now, the Effect slots are easy to figure out, and there aren’t any tricks to get it to do what you want. When you mouse over the Effect slot with an effect already selected, the slot goes from showing you the effect name to showing you three controls that are available.

On the left is the Bypass button, which allows you to quickly deactivate the plug-in without having to open the plug-in window nor remove it from the channel strip.

Clicking the center area of the slot opens the plug-in window when it’s closed.

The control on the right opens the plug-ins menu allowing you to remove the plug-in or select another one.

For whatever reason, I never remembered the click combinations to open the plug-in window nor the plug-ins menu, so having this change in Logic Pro X has sped up my workflow immensely.

Logic Pro X Manuals in iBooks

2015-06-23DocumentationLogic Pro, MainStage, ManualJoe

Did you know that the Logic Pro X Manuals as well as the MainStage 3 Manuals are available in iBooks? When I saw this, I thought that was brilliant. Now, we can get the current manuals pushed to us when they are updated. Prior to that, I had been downloading the PDF versions but having to check if they had changed for the new version of Logic. Also, it makes them really convenient to have on your iPad or iPhone if you have one. Now you can reference the manual on your iPad or iPhone while working on your Mac. Also, the PDF was probably too big to read on the iPhone. I don’t know, I never tried.

Last I checked, the PDF version had not been updated for Logic Pro X 10.1, and as you probably know, there have been a lot of changes in that update.

These are the links to the English language versions of these manuals, but there are versions in other languages as well. I didn’t check what they all were. Just search the iBooks store with the box I’ve provided below the links.

Logic Pro X User Guide – Apple Inc.

Logic Pro X Effects – Apple Inc.

Logic Pro X Instruments – Apple Inc.

Logic Pro X Control Surfaces Support – Apple Inc.

MainStage 3 User Guide – Apple Inc.

MainStage 3 Effects – Apple Inc.

MainStage 3 Instruments – Apple Inc.