I’ve tried several ways and have gotten close but to no avail.  Has anyone successfully gotten all sliders and knobs to work correctly with Apple’s Mainstage?  The closest I got was through the regular MIDI ports.  The USB seemed to complicate things and the MotifXS Remote feature is really only good for working in Logic, not for Mainstage’s Live performance.

(Most importantly I would like to control the drawbars in an organ patch with the XS’s sliders.)

I have a feeling the solution lies in an article I found at Apple’s Mainstage support site (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1043) though I haven’t found anything in the XS’s documentation or Datalist that seems to be what they are talking about…

“If you find that MainStage does not respond to some of the knobs or sliders on your controller, check your hardware’s documentation to see about reconfiguring your controller.”

Thanks,
GRod

You might want to post a question to Bad_Mister in the XS forum on where to locate that information. I could not map to the Sustain/EQ High knob, nor any of the 8 faders…

GRod926 - 04 March 2009 11:14 PM

I’ve tried several ways and have gotten close but to no avail.  Has anyone successfully gotten all sliders and knobs to work correctly with Apple’s Mainstage?  (Most importantly I would like to control the drawbars in an organ patch with the XS’s sliders.)

OK, the answer is really very simple once you think it through… And, actually, it would be good to read pages 254-257 of the manual…

From Master Mode on the XS, I selected the Full Grand Piano Voice. Select edit (Page 254 of manual) followed by [F2] (Other).

Make the following changes:

Zone Switch=ON
Knob Control Switch=ZONE

Press the Part Select #1 Button (and exit Common Edit). Note: If you press [F3], then [SF2] both ‘Knob’ and ‘Slider’ should be checked for each zone...

Press [F1]
Change the transmit channels of Zones 1-8 to MIDI channels 1-8 respectively…
Turn on the Ext. Switch all 8 Zones

Store the Master and have fun in MainStage… :)

Click thumbnail to see full-size image

Of COURSE, Master Mode.  Thanks SO much!  I’ve been on vacation and just getting back, so am excited to give this a try.

GRod926

Of course that will only address 8 of the drawbars. you will have to choose another know, wheel or the ribbon controller to address the ninth. Also, there probably is another way to do this using the same MIDI channels in the zones but changes the transmit controller number for each. I’ll have to think through which is best for me…

OK… I’m just getting started using MainStage 2 with my Motif XS8, but can’t figure out how to use the Remote Control feature of the Motif to control the s/w controls of MainStage.  I followed the suggestions of working in Master mode, but it still is giving me problems.  I am connected using Yamaha’s Steinberg FW.  Playing the patches work fine… it’s just trying to use the surface controls that’s causing me problems.

Trying to follow the Motif manual, pg 52 & 53, I am getting the screen image shown on pg 53, bottom of the right column.  The display shows “Computer DAW Software Control Mode”.  Instructions say that this implies that the DAW & Motif are not communicating (although I can play my patches in MainStage??).  I reboot both Motif & MainStage with no success.  I don’t quite understand that Remote screen, specifically the left side of the screen. 

FYI—Motif Firmware has been updated (OS 1.6) and Logic Studio/MainStage 2 software has been updated.

Any help would be appreciated !  Thanks!

I haven’t used mainstage in a while however, I am certain that it only uses one of the XS’ MIDI ports. And, that should be the ‘Main’ port or port #1. As such it cannot utilize the ‘Remote’ Port. Also, it is my understanding that Mainstage has only limited support for ‘Mackie Control’ which is the protocol used for the ‘remote’ communication.