Sunday Keys for MainStage 2021: Using the Layered Worship Patches

Sunday Keys for MainStage features two types of sounds- individual instruments that you can combine, and ready to play layered worship patches. In this video and article you'll learn how to browse the over 100 ready to play patches in Sunday Keys.

Be sure to check out all the other video tutorials over on the Sunday Keys Resource Article.

Check out the video or the steps below it to learn more about how to browse the layered worship patches in Sunday Keys:

If you’re new to Sunday Keys, using the layered patches is the fastest way to find amazing sounds you can play live.

In Edit mode you can see a white folder called “Go-to Sunday Keys Patches”. This folder contains our most versatile and performance ready layered patches, so that you start having fun and playing music quickly, but remember, there are over 100 layered patches total.

To start, add a new patch to your patch list by hitting the “+’ arrow in right corner of your patch list. Then click on the newly created patch and choose the “Patch Library” tab of the Inspector at the bottom of the screen.   Then, click “User Patches”, and “Patch Builder-Sunday Keys”.  
You’ll want to become familiar with this folder, because through here you can browse all of the ready to play and individual instruments included in Sunday keys.

How to Browse Sounds

We’re looking for layered worship patches, so I’m going to click that option. From here, you have a few ways to browse all the sounds:

“Go-to Sunday Keys Patches” - this folder contains the same patches that opened in your original Sunday Keys concert, so you can always reference them again from here.
Sort by Song Tempo and Feel - you’ll find a curated list of layered patches in each folder and you’ll find several options there that would work well for that type of song. If you’re not sure what kind of instrumentation you’d like to bring to a song, using the sort by song tempo and feel option is a great way to go. Clicking the name of a patch in the browser will load it straight into Sunday Keys. You can click a different patch name or use the arrow keys while within the browser to auction as many sounds as you’d like until you find the right one.
Sort by Lead Instrument - with a bit of time and practice you can often identify the keys sound or instrument that is most prominently featured in a worship song. Sunday keys includes the ‘Sort by Lead Instrument” filter to make it easy to view only patches that include the lead instrument you designate. Clicking any lead instrument filter will reveal a list of patches that feature that instrument. Again, clicking one of the preset names will load it into your concert and you can audition as many as you’d like. Keep in mind with both sort by options that there is some crossover between the various folders. The patches in Sunday Keys are designed to be as versatile and flexible as possible, so you’ll find that many patches make sense across different tempos and genres.
View All Layered Patches - you'll see a list of all the layered patches included in Sunday Keys.

Shape the sounds in your layered patch

Once you find a patch in the browser that you decide you’d like to use, you can adjust any of onscreen modifiers that you’d like to further dial in and shape the sound.   For example, you might find a patch that you really love, but that starts a little bit too aggressively. You can use the section volume faders to adjust the starting volume of each sound. I’ll also turn off the octave effect for the piano to start.

You can even remove just one of the sounds if you'd like, check out this article for more on that.

Once you’ve got the modifiers set where you’d like, you can save those settings to the patch by hitting ⌘S on your keyboard. or you can click “File” and then choose Save from the menu. Remember to always save after you’ve made the tweaks to the patch that you want, otherwise the next time you switch to that patch it will have returned to the default setting.

Now that this patch is dialed in, let’s name it. To rename a patch, double click on its name in your patch list. Make sure to choose names that will be easy to recognize. Many Sunday Keys users like to choose a patch per song, so they’ll rename each patch the name of the song they plan to use it for.

Remember, you can use tap tempo to dial in the right bpm or type it in the “Attributes” tab of the patch inspector.

Now that we’ve found, dialed in, and renamed this patch let me show you how to save it to the browser, so the next time you need it it’s easy to find.

How to save your patch

To save a patch, highlight it in your Patch List, and hit ⌘E on your keyboard. You can remember “E for Export” if that helps. When you do this a window will open asking where you’d like to save the patch. Navigate to the MainStage folder in your favorites bar. If you don’t have MainStage in your favorites bar, search for it in spotlight, then drag the blue folder into the favorites area and let go when you see a blue line with a dot on the left side.

Once you’re inside the MainStage folder click on “Patch builder- Sunday keys” at the top of the list and then click option 6. “Layered Worship Patches”.

Lastly, you can choose where you’d like to save your patch from here. We’ve included a “User Created Layered Patches” folder here, numbered 5. You can click inside that folder and save your patch there directly, or you can add folders within user created patches if you’d like to have some more organization in place.

You can also save your patches to the “Sort by” folders or even the “Go-to” folder if you’d like. If you want the same patch to appear in more than one place in the browser, repeat the saving process as many times as needed to place the patch in each of your desired locations.

Take some time when you can to explore all the layered patches and take note of some of your favorites. remember, if you’re not sure what a sound is or what an onscreen modifier does, click the text label at the top of the section or below the modifier in question to see a quick description. Also remember, you can always view all help topics and get back to the Sunday Keys Resource Page by clicking the concert name next to the orange folder, then clicking the white “help” button.

Now that you know how to browse the layered patches in Sunday Keys, you can learn about Sunday Keys’ most powerful sound creating tool called Patch Builder. After just a few minutes you’ll learn how you can find the exact individual sounds you’re looking for and combine them to create your own, custom layered patches. Click here to go to that video.

Be sure to check out all the video tutorials over on the Sunday Keys Resource Article!