KEYS
MODERNIZING YOUR KEYBOARD RIG WITH MAINSTAGE | David Pfaltzgraff
In the mid-2000’s Hillsong United single- what MainStage was, but I assumed it was you’re letting MainStage function as the brain
handedly rewrote the job description for the something expensive. Then, one day, I learned instead of your keyboard.
average worship guitar player as they released that MainStage was an app for Mac computers a series of groundbreaking worship albums that could connect to almost any keyboard, Unfortunately
filled with amazing guitar work. As United and that it was only $30! MainStage I had no grasp of this concept. I
when
I
first
started
using
broke new ground, worship guitarists around had cables running between my computer and
the world dove headfirst into a new world full my keyboard with no real rhyme, reason, or
of effects pedals, amps, and dotted-eight delay understanding. After countless hours and cups
as they tried to keep up.
In recent years I’ve seen another paradigm shift
take place. Where ten years ago there were
walls of electric guitars, it’s now just as likely
you’ll hear stacks of synth bass, pads, and
programming.
As a worship leader I remember hearing Hillsong
Young & Free’s We Are Young & Free album for
the first time in 2013 and knowing immediately
that those songs would become staples for my
worship teams. As I began to wrestle with how
to incorporate them into our song rotations I ran
into two problems. First, I didn’t have room in
the worship budget to invest in backing tracks,
and second, my church’s ‘90s era keyboards
were quite lacking in the “cutting-edge synth-
pop sounds” department.
I felt like I’d run into a technological wall. How
could we pull off these amazing songs live
without investing thousands of dollars into new
Then, one day,
I learned that
MainStage was
an app for Mac
computers that
could connect
to almost any
keyboard, and
that it was
of coffee I stumbled upon the right combination
of connections and played my first notes
through MainStage.
As I continued to explore I learned that
MainStage solved many of my issues and
frustrations with our older hardware keyboards
in elegant ways. If you’re not familiar with
MainStage, here are a few of my favorite
features that made it a game changer for my
worship teams.
YOU CAN BUILD YOUR SETLIST IN ADVANCE
In MainStage, you’re able to arrange your
sounds (in MainStage they’re called ‘patches’)
in any order you’d like. Need to swap the order
of the first and second song at the last second?
That’s as easy as drag-and-drop in MainStage.
MAINSTAGE IS DESIGNED FOR LIVE PERFORMANCE
MainStage
only $30!
is
entirely
focused
on
live
performance, so it includes a lot of built-in tools
that make live performance easier. For example,
equipment? So, I did what any self-respecting you can set the BPM of any patch in advance
21st century worship leader would do. I turned so when you select it the tempo is dialed-in and
to worship leading groups on Facebook for I downloaded MainStage that day and have ready-to-go. Other handy tools like a built-in
help. It was in those groups that I discovered never looked back. metronome, the ability to transpose any preset
a whole new world of possibilities that changed
the game for me and my worship teams.
independently, and the freedom to connect to
MAINSTAGE 101 literally any combination of keyboard gear make
The simplest way to understand MainStage it even easier to nail your live performances.
I CAN DO ALL OF THAT FOR $30? is to think of it as the ‘brain’ of your keyboard As I spent time in those worship leading setup. Traditional hardware keyboards have a TOTALLY CUSTOMIZABLE
Facebook groups I began to notice talk about built-in brain that generates all of the different, MainStage features a unique “Workspace”
something called “MainStage” that people pre-loaded sounds. When you connect your visual onscreen that is completely customizable.
were using with their keyboards. I had no idea keyboard to your Mac running MainStage, You can display keyboards, faders, knobs,
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November 2018
WorshipMusician.com