The Best MIDI Foot Controllers for MainStage

If you’re using MainStage in a live performance setting, chances are you’re interested in assigning hardware MIDI foot controllers to control various functions inside MainStage. There are many foot controller models on the market, so we’ve done the work and compiled the best ones for you. Below are our recommendations for the best MIDI foot controllers for MainStage.

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How to Use Your Mobile Phone in Japan

If you’re wondering how you’ll be able to upload all your amazing photos to Instagram during your next visit to Japan, you’ve come to the right place! In this post, you’ll learn how to use your mobile phone in Japan. We’ll talk about the pros and cons of prepaid SIM cards, international plans, portable WiFi hotspots, and more. By the end of this post, you’ll be able to make an informed decision about your data needs in Japan.

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Life in Japan — April 6, 2018

Time is weird. Colin and I used to hang out every day when we were at Northeastern University. After graduation, we somehow lost touch for four years until this past week. He was in town with his girlfriend Abbie, so we made sure to schedule a very much overdue reunion. Four years. That’s like 1/5 of my life.

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Visiting J.S. Bach in Leipzig

Mike and I are both musicians, so we decided to make a stop in Leipzig before heading up to Berlin. Leipzig has a rich musical history. In addition to being home to the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra — one of the oldest orchestras in the world, the city was also home to Johann Sebastian Bach and Felix Mendelssohn — two of the most famous composers to walk this Earth. Our plan for the afternoon was to visit the St. Thomas Church and the Bach Museum.

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Shiraito Falls, Mt. Fuji, and Shizuoka

Today’s adventure started at Shinagawa Station in Tokyo. Our plan involved taking the Tokaido Shinkansen to Shin-Fuji Station in Shizuoka Prefecture and spending the day exploring and getting lost. After purchasing tickets for the Shinkansen, we picked up a few bento boxes to eat during the train ride. The journey south to Shizuoka is only an hour and fifteen minutes long, but we were hungry.

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Introduction to MainStage Keyboard Programming

Keyboard programming is definitely on the top ten list of the world’s most misunderstood trades. Most theatergoers have no clue it even exists, yet it’s one of the most important aspects of modern musical theatre productions.

Over the years, keyboard programming has evolved from primitive hardware synthesizers to complex software counterparts with infinite routing capabilities. Recently, Apple MainStage has become the most popular software solution for keyboard programming.

In this series, we’ll be taking an in-depth look at all the possibilities that MainStage offers, and how to integrate these concepts into your own keyboard programming.

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How to Use Reverb in MainStage

Using reverb is a great way to add ambience and atmosphere to your patches, and in most cases you’ll want to use what’s called a global reverb. This just means instead of having an individual reverb instance for each of your channel strips, you can set up one concert-wide reverb that you can send all your sounds to.

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