Troubleshooting Tips for Mapping your Mod Wheel in MainStage
The easiest way to map your Mod Wheel to a different knob, fader or expression pedal is by mapping it at the concert level. Watch the video below to learn how to set it up:
If you are using MainStage 3.6.0, it's possible that Send to All > Keyboard Destination looks like below instead of as shown in the video above. If you are using MainStage 3.6.0 and have encountered this issue click here for further steps about how to resolve it.
If you are having trouble making a concert mapping to the Mod Wheel for any other reason, you can also do a workaround to set this up differently.
Workaround #1:
First, you should try to alter the data your hardware (ie keyboard or midi controller) sends so that the control (knob or fader) you want to use is actually sending MIDI CC 1 to into MainStage. Then, no concert level mapping is required. Exact process and complexity to do this varies from keyboard to keyboard.
Workaround #2:
This second option is a lot more labor intensive but if Workaround 1 above isn’t workable, it will accomplish the outcome. The downside here is that the action must be repeated for every single channel strip in every single patch where modulation via mod wheel is desired.
- First, Assign your desired control to onscreen mod wheel in layout mode and note the MIDI CC number it is sending into MainStage. Note that you’ll need to inspect the list to actually know the CC number, if you see a name like “knob #” or something.
Also make sure “MIDI Thru” is set to the name of your onscreen keyboard. Most of the time it's “Keyboard 1”.
- Next, in Edit mode, Patch level, per Channel Strip you want Mod Wheel control over, find a blank slot to add a “Modifier” MIDI effect.
- Set it up like below, where “Input event” is the CC number you identified in Step 1, and “Re-Assign to” is set to “1 Mod Wheel”. Make sure “Scale” is set to 100%” and “Add” is set to “0":
- Confirm that hardware control now functions as mod wheel. Repeat Steps 2 and 3 for all other Channel Strips where modulation is required.
Again, this second option is a lot more labor intensive but if Workaround 1 isn’t workable, it will accomplish the outcome. This action must be repeated for every single channel strip in every single patch where modulation via mod wheel is desired.
