Hi Jordan, since this video was so long ago I think it might be a long shot me asking you this... But have you ever had this problem where the undo button of the Loopback clears the whole track, instead of just the last recording? Do you have any way around that? Loved the video btw, it really helped get my head around the whole thing. Thanks!
+theCNprogrammer Thanks. I actually have two other videos I'm finishing up. While it doesn't discuss pedals exactly, one does talk about mapping buttons to control multiple loopback, and you can use the same technique to map the controls to something like a nanokontrol or a pedal. I'll post a link here once I get them uploaded.
Nice tutorial! I'm wondering: do you know if it's possible to record one loop, let it play, then silently record another loop over the top of it? I guess the trick would be changing the routing of the audio when you want to record something without it being heard by the audience, then change it again when you want it to play.
Hi Jordan, I am trying to playback a garage band drum loop and then loopback rhythm guitar. Then I can play lead over them. How to sync live the playback and the loopback is where i am stuck? thanks
Are you exporting the drum loop from garageband and importing it into mainstage (I think there's a playback plugin in mainstage similar to the loopback)? If not, I would recommend you try that. If you must play it back from garage band, I'm sure there's some way to sync mainstage's MIDI clock to a clock signal from garageband, but I don't know the details.
Mark Muir not sure I've seen disabled before.Iis that in the loopback plugin itself, or when you're trying to assign a controller to reset the length? if it is the later case, my guess would be you are trying to assign a controller at too low of a level, check patch/song/concert and make sure you are assigning parameters at the same level your loopback plugin is created on.
Hey Jordan, sweet vid. I'm leaving the length blank so that it automatically loops once I finish playing, but it just continues without looping even though I've stopped. Any ideas why?
It could be a few things. How are you stopping the loop? Try hitting the record button again and not a stop button. Also, Is the overall play button pressed and click track running? My setup uses the main mainstage clock and syncs everything to that. Check all the settings, there are a lot of minor details buried in the loopback settings that could be causing issues. Mostly just try to get one loopback plugin working the way you want (using a mouse to try controls) then copy that to as many as you need, change the groups(A, B, C, etc) and then map your controllers.
I don't think loopback can start recording either based on audio input like some loopers. You could maybe map all your midi notes to start loopback, but that would be weird and probably mess stuff up when you played the next notes. And remember that loopack only records audio, so your midi controller would have to be triggering a software or hardware synth with it's audio routed to loopback. I could be wrong, and there may be a way to set this. so check out the manual for loopback to see if anything jumps out at you. documentation.apple.com/en/mainstage/usermanual/index.html#chapter=B%26section=1
Hi, thanks for the video. I'm thinking about starting to use loops in my live shows, and not sure whether to go for a looper pedal or use Mainstage. We're talking basically just looping one or two guitar tracks (chords) while I play melodies over it, so very simple stuff. It feels to me like a looper pedal would be the better option - what would you say?
The pedal is easier to use and will need less setup every night. The main be benefits of mainstage or more complex Loopers is multiple song sections and sync (can let your drummer play ton a click). What's the band instrumentation? And how many sections per song might you loop and for how long.
@@JordanColburn1 Hi, thanks for the reply. I do solo acoustic guitar gigs (ruclips.net/video/F_Y9oMsoy60/видео.html), so its just me playing, so super simple setup. I'm getting the feeling the looper pedal might be the best option for me.
@@tk3141 Yeah, I would surely go pedal in that situation. Mainstage is nice in coordinating song sections and mixing/effects for lots of instruments, but it has a lot of setup complexity for stuff you probably won't need. Cool video!
Hi Jordan, I'm using mainstage 3.4.3. is there a trick to start recording when I hit my instrument? Recording starts simultaneously when I hit the record button or after the 4 bar count. So I have no time to grab my guitar or keyboard. And yes, there is a checkbox for this option under the controls view, ( Start recording in play action) but that does not seems to be working. Many Thanks!
If you are referring to some king of audio/midi detection that starts recording when it detects the first note, I don't think mainstage has that (and loopers that do have been really finnicky, in my experience). There are two ways to run loopback: Synced, and Unsynced. Sync ties record/stop actions to the metronome in mainstage. I prefer this way and my workflow is: start the main clock. Press record, wait until the next downbeat and begin playing, press stop sometime in the bar before you want to stop recording. If you are using a mouse or a desktop button controller, you can usually do this for single hand synth lines, but it rarely works for two hand piano parts. Because of this, I prefer to use a footpedal to control start/stop and put any other controllers like revers/volume/pan on a small pad like a or korg nanocontrol. Unsynced will start and stop instantly (not relying on the main clock). This is easier since you don't need a click, but multiple loops are hard to get exactly right. A footpedal is a necessity for doing any of this with guitar. I used to use a launchpad and ableton instead of mainstage to loop and I got pretty good at changing my pattern so the last beat of an loop, I could stop playing guitar and quickly stop the loop, but that is not a fun way to perform.
@@JordanColburn1 yes, I was referring some kind of detection to trigger recording. I have assigned my keystation 49's buttons to loopback plugin. But I think I should add a midi foot controller into my setup because ı play bass and keys. Also I have downloaded your template, it is much more handy than my concert file :) Thank you for your detailed response. That's very kind of you.
@@leisureit support.apple.com/kb/PH13669?locale=en_US This page clears up what each of the options should do. With sync turned on and the mainstage clock running (this is important, remember to press play and listen to the click), it will wait for the next (bar/beat/loop), to start or stop recording the first pass of a loop.
hi , i think iv been setting up my MainStage wrong ? or dose it matter that ? that what you call patch level i use that as song level dose it matter ? thanks for the video
YAMAN SITAR no, that should work fine as long as the controls you need are mapped at the appropriate level. For example most looping controls should be concert level, while controls for a specific keyboard sounds (volume, cutoff, mod, etc) will probably be mapped at the patch level. Are you having any specific problems?
no every thing works good ,,i was just thinking maybe the way you do it would be better for the cpu and stuff ,, iv not used the looper live yet but i will soon ,, thanks
Dakoda Tanksley do you notice this delay in other audio apps. What is your audio buffer set at? If it is too large, there could be a delay causing the issues you are talking about. If the buffer isn't an issue, we could look at sync settings for mainstage and loopback.
I just installed the update and it seems to have resolved the issue! Is there a way to set a CLEAR ALL parameter? Clearing all the loops after the song is finished. Have you ever had any troubles with Overdubs clearing out when the loop comes back to start? Last question. Is there a way to have new patches automatically route to the loop bus, i.e if i wanted to add something on the fly for improvising but dont want to waste timing routing and setting bus level. Thanks for your videos man! Ive really wanted to be able to use mainstage the way you are and the vids helped out so much!
Dakoda Tanksley glad it's working. You can map multiple clear commands to one button and I would also recommend mapping the length to '--' for each looper to the same button. This let's you reset all loppers with one button. For auto routing, first make sure you have global busses, looperbacks and audio routed at the concert level and anything whole song specific at the song level for each song. Then you can have a 'template patch' last in your list that has a basic guitar or keyboard sound routed like you want. You can the copy/paste that and adjust the sounds on the fly. I have experienced something similar to the other bug you describe where it seems like overdubs aren't recorded although they should be, but it seems intermittent. If I find a pattern or workaround, I'll probably do another video on it and let you know.
how do you keep patches from changing when you hit Pl/St on the midi controller? Ill have a patch selected, ill record with it but when i hit Pl/St the patch will change to a differnt one, usually whatever is the top patch
alexxi10able yes! I have up to 5 loops. Each loop needs a separate loopback plugin. You can then map separate controls for each loop. You can also use loopbacks groups to turn off other loops when you start a new one.
@@JordanColburn1 i added different loopback plugins to different instruments. after recording one loop, i let it play on, but it stops when i switch instruments. how to i fix this???
@@JaiveerM18 my first guess would be that your loopbacks are on the patch level, you need to put all loopbacks up at the concert level. The other option is to look some of the loopbacks and mainstage settings that may start or stop playbakc when patches switch.
@@JordanColburn1 thank you so much. I will try that. Is there any way I can contact you if I have anymore problems as I'm new to the software. Would really appreciate the help ☺️
Really awesome, video. Thanks for sharing your setup!
Great way to explain looping! Thank you so much!!
Thank you, it helped
Thank you
Great video, super helpful. Thank you!
Hi Jordan, since this video was so long ago I think it might be a long shot me asking you this... But have you ever had this problem where the undo button of the Loopback clears the whole track, instead of just the last recording? Do you have any way around that?
Loved the video btw, it really helped get my head around the whole thing. Thanks!
Awesome work! How about a vid for the pedal setup with Loopback.
+theCNprogrammer Thanks. I actually have two other videos I'm finishing up. While it doesn't discuss pedals exactly, one does talk about mapping buttons to control multiple loopback, and you can use the same technique to map the controls to something like a nanokontrol or a pedal. I'll post a link here once I get them uploaded.
+Jordan Colburn Cool. Looking forward to that!
+theCNprogrammer The third video has the info on how to setup midi controllers to control loopback.
ruclips.net/p/PLL5ESXFOLvPJ3hWtzzzt6z4VnDyDfEXjW
+Jordan Colburn Awesome！
Nice tutorial! I'm wondering: do you know if it's possible to record one loop, let it play, then silently record another loop over the top of it? I guess the trick would be changing the routing of the audio when you want to record something without it being heard by the audience, then change it again when you want it to play.
Hi Jordan, I am trying to playback a garage band drum loop and then loopback rhythm guitar. Then I can play lead over them. How to sync live the playback and the loopback is where i am stuck? thanks
Are you exporting the drum loop from garageband and importing it into mainstage (I think there's a playback plugin in mainstage similar to the loopback)? If not, I would recommend you try that.
If you must play it back from garage band, I'm sure there's some way to sync mainstage's MIDI clock to a clock signal from garageband, but I don't know the details.
Hey Jordan, when I try to change the length of the loop, it says 'disabled'. How do access the length
Mark Muir not sure I've seen disabled before.Iis that in the loopback plugin itself, or when you're trying to assign a controller to reset the length? if it is the later case, my guess would be you are trying to assign a controller at too low of a level, check patch/song/concert and make sure you are assigning parameters at the same level your loopback plugin is created on.
Hey Jordan, sweet vid. I'm leaving the length blank so that it automatically loops once I finish playing, but it just continues without looping even though I've stopped. Any ideas why?
It could be a few things. How are you stopping the loop? Try hitting the record button again and not a stop button. Also, Is the overall play button pressed and click track running? My setup uses the main mainstage clock and syncs everything to that. Check all the settings, there are a lot of minor details buried in the loopback settings that could be causing issues. Mostly just try to get one loopback plugin working the way you want (using a mouse to try controls) then copy that to as many as you need, change the groups(A, B, C, etc) and then map your controllers.
Thanks for the quick response dude, I'll look into it following your suggestions.
Does anyone know if you can trigger loopback to start recording when the first note is played..from your midi controller
I don't think loopback can start recording either based on audio input like some loopers. You could maybe map all your midi notes to start loopback, but that would be weird and probably mess stuff up when you played the next notes. And remember that loopack only records audio, so your midi controller would have to be triggering a software or hardware synth with it's audio routed to loopback. I could be wrong, and there may be a way to set this. so check out the manual for loopback to see if anything jumps out at you.
documentation.apple.com/en/mainstage/usermanual/index.html#chapter=B%26section=1
Hi, thanks for the video. I'm thinking about starting to use loops in my live shows, and not sure whether to go for a looper pedal or use Mainstage. We're talking basically just looping one or two guitar tracks (chords) while I play melodies over it, so very simple stuff. It feels to me like a looper pedal would be the better option - what would you say?
The pedal is easier to use and will need less setup every night. The main be benefits of mainstage or more complex Loopers is multiple song sections and sync (can let your drummer play ton a click).
What's the band instrumentation? And how many sections per song might you loop and for how long.
@@JordanColburn1 Hi, thanks for the reply. I do solo acoustic guitar gigs (ruclips.net/video/F_Y9oMsoy60/видео.html), so its just me playing, so super simple setup. I'm getting the feeling the looper pedal might be the best option for me.
@@tk3141 Yeah, I would surely go pedal in that situation. Mainstage is nice in coordinating song sections and mixing/effects for lots of instruments, but it has a lot of setup complexity for stuff you probably won't need. Cool video!
@@JordanColburn1 Thanks for the advice, much appreciated! :) Gonna go and look at looper pedals next :)
Hi Jordan, I'm using mainstage 3.4.3. is there a trick to start recording when I hit my instrument? Recording starts simultaneously when I hit the record button or after the 4 bar count. So I have no time to grab my guitar or keyboard. And yes, there is a checkbox for this option under the controls view, ( Start recording in play action) but that does not seems to be working. Many Thanks!
If you are referring to some king of audio/midi detection that starts recording when it detects the first note, I don't think mainstage has that (and loopers that do have been really finnicky, in my experience).
There are two ways to run loopback: Synced, and Unsynced. Sync ties record/stop actions to the metronome in mainstage. I prefer this way and my workflow is: start the main clock. Press record, wait until the next downbeat and begin playing, press stop sometime in the bar before you want to stop recording. If you are using a mouse or a desktop button controller, you can usually do this for single hand synth lines, but it rarely works for two hand piano parts. Because of this, I prefer to use a footpedal to control start/stop and put any other controllers like revers/volume/pan on a small pad like a or korg nanocontrol.
Unsynced will start and stop instantly (not relying on the main clock). This is easier since you don't need a click, but multiple loops are hard to get exactly right. A footpedal is a necessity for doing any of this with guitar. I used to use a launchpad and ableton instead of mainstage to loop and I got pretty good at changing my pattern so the last beat of an loop, I could stop playing guitar and quickly stop the loop, but that is not a fun way to perform.
And thanks for watching!
@@JordanColburn1 yes, I was referring some kind of detection to trigger recording. I have assigned my keystation 49's buttons to loopback plugin. But I think I should add a midi foot controller into my setup because ı play bass and keys. Also I have downloaded your template, it is much more handy than my concert file :) Thank you for your detailed response. That's very kind of you.
@@usandthem82 No problem. Good luck finding a good pedal, all of the available ones have pros/cons and I haven't found one I just love.
Hi, how I've tried to use it, but I have a big problem...is it possible to quantize the loop tracks? thanx
Yes, the loopback setting let you choose what to quantize to (I think it defaults to the bar).
@@JordanColburn1 thanx. Can u tell me how? In my experience in default doesn't quantize, neither setting the sync mode
@@leisureit support.apple.com/kb/PH13669?locale=en_US This page clears up what each of the options should do. With sync turned on and the mainstage clock running (this is important, remember to press play and listen to the click), it will wait for the next (bar/beat/loop), to start or stop recording the first pass of a loop.
hi , i think iv been setting up my MainStage wrong ? or dose it matter that ? that what you call patch level i use that as song level dose it matter ? thanks for the video
YAMAN SITAR no, that should work fine as long as the controls you need are mapped at the appropriate level. For example most looping controls should be concert level, while controls for a specific keyboard sounds (volume, cutoff, mod, etc) will probably be mapped at the patch level. Are you having any specific problems?
no every thing works good ,,i was just thinking maybe the way you do it would be better for the cpu and stuff ,, iv not used the looper live yet but i will soon ,, thanks
Whenever i record a loop the play back is off by an eight note or sometimes almost a full quarter. Nothing is lining up. What am I doing wrong?
Dakoda Tanksley do you notice this delay in other audio apps. What is your audio buffer set at? If it is too large, there could be a delay causing the issues you are talking about. If the buffer isn't an issue, we could look at sync settings for mainstage and loopback.
I just installed the update and it seems to have resolved the issue! Is there a way to set a CLEAR ALL parameter? Clearing all the loops after the song is finished.
Have you ever had any troubles with Overdubs clearing out when the loop comes back to start?
Last question. Is there a way to have new patches automatically route to the loop bus, i.e if i wanted to add something on the fly for improvising but dont want to waste timing routing and setting bus level.
Thanks for your videos man! Ive really wanted to be able to use mainstage the way you are and the vids helped out so much!
Dakoda Tanksley glad it's working. You can map multiple clear commands to one button and I would also recommend mapping the length to '--' for each looper to the same button. This let's you reset all loppers with one button. For auto routing, first make sure you have global busses, looperbacks and audio routed at the concert level and anything whole song specific at the song level for each song. Then you can have a 'template patch' last in your list that has a basic guitar or keyboard sound routed like you want. You can the copy/paste that and adjust the sounds on the fly. I have experienced something similar to the other bug you describe where it seems like overdubs aren't recorded although they should be, but it seems intermittent. If I find a pattern or workaround, I'll probably do another video on it and let you know.
You are the man! thanks a ton! Subscribing to your channel now.
how do you keep patches from changing when you hit Pl/St on the midi controller? Ill have a patch selected, ill record with it but when i hit Pl/St the patch will change to a differnt one, usually whatever is the top patch
Hi, is it possible to have multiple loops? How can you control them live?
alexxi10able yes! I have up to 5 loops. Each loop needs a separate loopback plugin. You can then map separate controls for each loop. You can also use loopbacks groups to turn off other loops when you start a new one.
Jordan Colburn Ok thanks!
@@JordanColburn1 i added different loopback plugins to different instruments. after recording one loop, i let it play on, but it stops when i switch instruments. how to i fix this???
@@JaiveerM18 my first guess would be that your loopbacks are on the patch level, you need to put all loopbacks up at the concert level. The other option is to look some of the loopbacks and mainstage settings that may start or stop playbakc when patches switch.
@@JordanColburn1 thank you so much. I will try that. Is there any way I can contact you if I have anymore problems as I'm new to the software. Would really appreciate the help ☺️