Logic studio

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Giorgio Ungania is corporate training and marketing manager of SAE International.

The concept is pretty straightforward: any live performer will now have at their fingertips an enormous amount of ready-to-go sound palettes and virtual instruments they can utilise during the performances.

One of the common features now available in both MainStage and Logic Pro 8 is the template dialogue box chooser that pops up each time the application is launched.

Apple is providing the users with a large selection of starting point templates that makes it easy to get started with the application.

With MainStage, there are a large number of templates that cover a spectrum of scenarios within live performance.

There are templates for keyboard players, guitar players, drummers and so on. The main window within the application is called Stage and gives an accurate look at the nature of the patches available in the session.

The image below is a sample of a keyboard session. To the left of the Stage is the Instrument List, which gives the performer a selection of ready-to-use audio patches divided by instrument genre.

From grand pianos to electric organs and synthesisers, this list is very extensive and covers all the basic requirements of any keyboard player.

Of course the Instrument List audio patches are completely customisable and can be edited and saved at any time. What is really noticeable is that when the user switches from one sound to another, the transition between patches is seamless so there is never an interruption in the sound.

Editing the patches and creating personal sound palettes is quite intuitive and easy. In the middle of the Stage, the main parameters of the current audio patch are displayed through very large graphic knobs, sliders and pedals.

The real beauty of editing MainStage patches is that a user can literally drag and drop any virtual audio controller on the Stage.

The editing takes place in the Patch Editing Stage. Once again, there is a library of ready-to-use virtual controllers that users can include on their customised Stage to control any parameter in the patch. For instance, it takes literally a couple of seconds to add a slider to the stage and control the decay time of a delay, or add a rotary knob and control the distortion amount into an Hammond organ.

Not only is it possible to assign controls to all the parameters but the real innovation of MainStage is the configuration of any external hardware controller. For example, when the user is utilising a midi keyboard, it is possible to control any parameter through any hardware knob, slider, button or pedal.

To assign a hardware controller to a software one is extremely easy; all that is required is to highlight the virtual controller on the Stage, press a 'Map' button and touch the desired physical controller on the keyboard.

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