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Re: OT: Mainstage patches - muddy mono feelin' :-(



On Sat, Sep 19, 2009 at 9:45 AM, Buzap Buzap <buzap@gmx.net> wrote:
Crazy, right?

Not "crazy" if it works for you. Happy to hear you finally came up with a patching that brings what you were looking for! 

 
But it has the advantage, that I can control the instrument volume/pan on concert level. So I don't have to assign midi controllers to every patch, just the concert.

Oh, I never realized that to be part of the issue. Over here I assign everything to every patch - although often with some  variations. But I usually do it only once. The trick for that is to not build a new patch from scratch but to start out by copying and pasting the previous patch; because then you are copying all the control bindings as well. Then you only have to adjust in the new patch the control bindings you may want to work differently.

Another tip - not directly related but maybe of general interest - is to not use the channel strip faders for external volume control. They might come in handy for quick "gain adjustment" of the mix during a gig. I rather prefer the Gain plug-in to control audio level in my patches. The reason is that I can place the GAin plug-in at any spot in an effect chain (for example, with mic input patches I like it first before delays, reverbs and stuff) and also because I can choose either to assign a CC# (expression pedal or physical fader/knob) or to an on/off type of event to bypass the Gain plug-in. You know: bypassing a GAin plug-in set to zero DB works like a mute control. Bottom line: by using the Gain plug-in as a general part of all my patches I get access to a lot of dynamic control options. 

For electric guitar patches I may not use a GAin plug-in in the first slot though, because there is no acoustic feedback issue with an electric guitar and I am also used to turn down the instrument's volume knob between notes I play. And you also are likely to prefer an electric guitar volume control more like a volume pedal that is musically playable for creating violin like swelling notes and this means the volume has to sit after all distortion units but before delay and reverb type effects. Since Mainstage 2 I have become fond of using the wha pedal set to "volume functionality" inside the Pedalboard plug-in. If AmpDesigner distortion is heavily driven in the patch I may simply use both the pre amp and power amp knobs of the AmpDesigner as the target for a pedal/knob screen control object played by a physical expression pedal. 
  
Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen 
www.boysen.se
www.perboysen.com