Although these steps aren't exhaustive or intended to cover any specific issue, they are fundamental, basic, and effective in getting MainStage 2 into good working order.

MainStage 2.2 or later

Confirm requirements and versions

1. Check system requirements
   Make sure that you haven't overlooked any hardware aspect that's required to use MainStage 2. You can view system requirements on the Mac App Store.
2. Update to the latest software version
   Check the Updates button on the Mac App Store for updates and make sure that you have the most recent version of MainStage. Installing the latest update ensures that your software has the latest improvements and enhancements.
3. Check compatibility and driver versions for devices not manufactured by Apple
   If you're using a product not manufactured by Apple ("third-party"), check the support area on the manufacturer's website to be sure that you're using the latest version of the relevant driver or other software for your product. This might apply to an audio interface, MIDI interface, storage system, control surface, or plug-ins. For information on troubleshooting possible issues with Audio Unit plug-ins, click here.

Test using the computer's built-in audio hardware

If you use external audio hardware, try setting MainStage to use the built-in audio hardware on your computer. Choose MainStage > Preferences > Audio from the menu bar and click the Audio pane. Choose Built-in Input and Built-in Output from the Audio Input and Output pop-up menus. If the issue is resolved using built-in audio, refer to the manufacturer of your audio interface.

Test a new Concert

Sometimes Concert files can become unusable causing unexpected behavior in MainStage. To create a completely fresh Concert, choose File > New and select a template in the template selector window. Test to see if the issue is resolved in the new Concert.

Delete the User Preferences

You can resolve many issues by restoring MainStage back to its original settings. This will not impact your Concert files. To reset your MainStage user preference settings to their original state, do the following:

1. In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
2. Type: ~/Library/Preferences
3. Press the Go button.
4. Remove the com.apple.mainstage.plist file from the Preferences folder.

Reinstall MainStage

Another approach you might consider is reinstalling MainStage. Follow the steps below to completely reinstall a fresh copy of MainStage. 

1. Delete the MainStage application from /Applications on your hard drive.
2. Open the App Store application and redownload MainStage from the Purchases section on the Mac App Store. 

For further information on settings or installation refer to the MainStage documentation available from the Help menu.

MainStage 2.1 or earlier

Confirm requirements and versions

1. Check system requirements
   Make sure that you haven't overlooked any hardware aspect that's required to use MainStage 2. You can view system requirements on the Logic Studio Technical Specifications page.
2. Update to the latest software version
   Choose Apple () menu > Software Update and make sure that you have the most recent updates for MainStage and other important system files. Installing the latest updates ensures that your software has the latest improvements and enhancements.
   Note: Be sure MainStage is in the /Applications folder and is named MainStage before running Software Update. Check by choosing Applications from the Go menu in the Finder.
3. Check compatibility and driver versions for third-party devices
   If you're using a third-party audio interface, MIDI interface, storage system, control surface, or plug-in, check the support area on the manufacturer's website to be sure that you're using the latest version of the relevant driver or other software for your product. For information on troubleshooting possible issues with Audio Unit plug-ins, click here.

Test using the computer's built-in audio hardware

If you use external audio hardware, try setting MainStage to use the built-in audio hardware on your computer. Choose MainStage > Preferences > Audio from the menu bar and click the Audio pane. Choose Built-in Input and Built-in Output from the Audio Input and Output pop-up menus. If the issue is resolved using built-in audio, refer to the manufacturer of your audio interface.

Test a new Concert

Sometimes Concert files can become unusable causing unexpected behavior in MainStage. To create a completely fresh Concert choose File > New and select a template in the Template Selector window. Test to see if the issue is resolved in the new Concert.

Delete the User Preferences

You can resolve many issues by restoring MainStage back to its original settings. This will not impact your Concert files. To reset your MainStage user preference settings to their original state, do the following:

1. In the Finder, choose Go > Go to Folder from the menu.
2. Type: ~/Library/Preferences
3. Press the Go button.
4. Remove the com.apple.mainstage.plist file from the Preferences folder.

Reinstall MainStage

Another approach you might consider is reinstalling MainStage. Follow the steps below to completely reinstall a fresh copy of MainStage. Note: Make sure that you have your installation discs handy before starting this.

On Mac OS X v10.5 Leopard:

1. In the Finder, choose Go > Applications. Drag the MainStage application to the Trash.
2. Go to /Library/Receipts.
3. In the Receipts folder, select the MainStage.pkg file.
4. Choose View > As List to view the contents in a list.
5. Click the Date Modified column header so you can easily see all of the receipts that were installed at the same time as Mainstage.
6. Drag the MainStage.pkg receipt to the Trash, as well as any other items that have the same modification date within three minutes of the MainStage.pkg file's modification date.
7. Click the Name column header to sort the list alphabetically.
8. Drag any other receipts with names that begin with MainStage to the Trash.
9. Insert your Logic Studio installation disc and install MainStage.
10. When finished, choose Apple () > Software Update to update your software to the latest version.

On Mac OS X v10.6 Snow Leopard or OS X Lion:

1. In the Finder, choose Go > Applications. Drag the MainStage application to the Trash.
2. Insert your Logic Studio installation disc and install MainStage.
3. When finished, choose Software Update from the Apple () menu to update your software to the latest version.

For further information on settings or installation, please refer to the MainStage documentation available on your installation discs or from the Help menu.

Logic Remote 1.2.1

Logic Remote for iPad is available for download from the App Store. Logic Remote works with Logic Pro X v10.1, MainStage v3.1, and GarageBand v10 or later on your Mac.

New features

• Logic remote no longer shows an unneeded Solo button on External MIDI channel strips.
• Editing graphs in the the Graphic EQ is more responsive.
• You can now dismiss pop-up menus brought up from a channel strip by tapping anywhere on the same channel strip.

Minimizing latency in MainStage 3

MainStage offers three settings that influence the amount of latency for the system.

• I/O Buffer Size
• I/O Safety Buffer
• Driver Latency Slider

To access the settings, choose MainStage > Preferences and click the Audio button along the top of the preferences panel. Then, click the Advanced Settings button.

I/O Buffer Size

The first and most important of the settings is the I/O Buffer Size drop-down menu.

For audio channel strips, this sets both an input buffer and an output buffer. For software instrument channel strips, it sets only an output buffer as there is no audio input for these channel strips. The buffer size may range from 16 to 1024 samples. 

As you make changes to the I/O Buffer Size, you will see a large change in the Current Roundtrip Latency as displayed in milliseconds along the bottom of the Advanced Audio Settings panel. The output latency is also shown in parenthesis. This is useful for determining the latency when you play through software instrument channel strips.

Smaller settings result in a shorter latency, but may mean you can use fewer channel strips and plug-ins simultaneously before you notice unwanted artifacts as you play. Set the I/O Buffer Size based on your particular usage of channel strips and plug-ins, and the processing power offered by your computer. If you use lots of power hungry plug-ins, you may have to use a larger buffer size than if you stick to less processing intensive plug-ins, or fewer simultaneous channel strips.

I/O Safety Buffer

The next setting is the I/O Safety Buffer. When you enable this setting, MainStage adds an additional output buffer to protect against overloads due to unexpected CPU spikes. Its size is equal to the I/O Buffer Size setting but only affects the output buffer. For example, if you find there is too much latency with an I/O Buffer Size of 256 samples but you hear dropouts or other audio glitches with an I/O Buffer Size of 128 samples, try setting I/O Buffer Size to 128 and enable the I/O Safety Buffer. This will yield somewhat more latency than 128 samples without the Safety Buffer, but less than 256 samples without it.

Driver Latency Slider

Next is the Driver Latency slider. By default, the slider is set to the maximum possible value, equal to the current I/O Buffer Size. In the illustration below, MainStage is set to a 128 Sample Buffer Size. Each buffer is represented by a white block. As MainStage finishes processing a 128 sample buffer, the buffer (represented by the gray blocks) is passed to the Core Audio driver which passes it to the audio hardware output.

If you move the Driver Latency slider one notch to the left, to 64 samples, the latency for the system goes down by several milliseconds:

The diagram below shows what is happening:

MainStage is still processing audio in 128 sample sized buffers, but rather than waiting the full 128 samples to pass each buffer to the Core Audio driver, it now only waits 64 samples before it begins to pass the buffer to the driver.

As with the I/O Buffer Size, lower Driver Latency settings may lead to dropouts or other audio glitches. The minimum setting possible for a particular system is primarily determined by the audio driver. The Driver Latency setting has no effect on the number of plug-ins or channel strips you can run. 

Support

Apple offers a range of support options. Visit www.apple.com/support/products/ for more information.

MainStage 3 User Guide

Access the searchable User Guide available either directly in MainStage 3 or online.


	
• In MainStage 3, choose MainStage Help from the Help menu.

	
• To view online, visit https://help.apple.com/mainstage or http://support.apple.com/manuals/#professionalsoftware.



MainStage 3 Support Page

Apple’s MainStage Support Page is filled with the how to and troubleshooting information for MainStage 3. Visit the MainStage Support page.

MainStage Support Community

Join the conversation. Share tips and solutions with fellow MainStage 3 users from all around the world. Visit the MainStage Support Community.

Mac App Store Support Page

Get information about finding your purchased apps, resuming interrupted downloads, backing up your app purchases, troubleshooting the Mac App Store, and more. Visit the Mac App Store Support page.

Backing up the Logic Pro X application




When updating to Logic Pro X via the Mac App Store, the latest version will replace the current version you have installed. As a best practice, before updating (or troubleshooting) Logic Pro X, you should save a copy of the currently installed version as a backup by following these steps.



1. Create a new folder in the Applications folder. Name the folder with the name and version of the application (for example, “Logic Pro X 10.0.6"). To check the version of Logic Pro X you have, open the application and choose Logic Pro X > About Logic Pro X.


2. Select the Logic Pro X application in the Applications folder. Choose File > Compress “Logic Pro X." It may take a few minutes to compress. 


3. Move the resulting “Logic Pro.zip" file into the folder you created in step 1.


4. Now you can move the folder containing the zip file to your preferred location for storing your backup. For example, you could copy it to an external backup drive.



Important: It is recommended that you complete any active projects before updating to a new version of Logic Pro.

You can access the Processing Threads setting by choosing Logic Pro X > Preferences > Audio.

This setting allows you to specify the maximum number of audio rendering threads Logic will open at any given time. The options available depend on the number of physical cores your computer has and whether it supports Hyper-Threading. The default setting is Automatic. This setting selects the option that should provide a good balance of performance and reliability for your computer.

To see the maximum number of audio rendering threads the Automatic setting has selected, open the expanded Load Meters window by double-clicking the Load Meters in Logic's LCD. You may need to customize the LCD to enable the Load Meters. The number of vertical bars displayed in the Audio column matches the maximum number of processing threads available with the current setting.

It is also possible to manually select a particular value for the processing threads. To do so, click the Processing Threads drop-down menu and select the maximum number of threads Logic will create. The first setting below Automatic represents the largest number of threads Logic can create on your computer. This corresponds to the maximum number of cores that your computer offers (the combined total of physical and virtual cores), with a limit of 24. You can reduce this number in multiples of two. After you make a change to the setting, click the Apply Changes button to activate it.

There are many factors which influence how the OS distributes the workload to the cores on your Mac. The optimal value for the Processing Threads may vary not only for different configurations but for different types of Projects. Selecting the highest value may not always be the best choice. You will need to experiment to determine which setting provides the best balance of performance and reliability with your setup and particular Logic Project.

Backing up the MainStage 3 application




When updating to MainStage 3 via the Mac App Store, the latest version will replace the current version you have installed. As a best practice, before updating (or troubleshooting) MainStage 3, you should save a copy of the currently installed version as a backup by following these steps.



1. Create a new folder in the Applications folder. Name the folder with the name and version of the application (for example, “MainStage 3.0.1"). To check the version of MainStage 3 you have, open the application and choose MainStage 3 > About MainStage 3.


2. Select the MainStage 3 application in the Applications folder. Choose File > Compress “MainStage 3." It may take a few minutes to compress. 


3. Move the resulting “MainStage 3.zip" file into the folder you created in step 1.


4. Now you can move the folder containing the zip file to your preferred location for storing your backup. For example, you could copy it to an external backup drive.



Important: It is recommended that you complete any active projects before updating to a new version of MainStage 3.