Tips for performing with guitars and other instruments

If you are using one of the Guitar Rigs templates designed for use with electric guitar, you can play your electric guitar and use MainStage as a multi-effects processor. The patches in the template make extensive use of the Amp Designer amp simulation plug-in and the Pedalboard effects plug-ins as well as other effects commonly used with guitars.

Guitar patches with Pedalboard-style screen controls can be assigned to a foot switch, allowing you to bypass different effects in the channel strip. Some patches also allow you to switch between channel strips with different effects using an expression pedal.

When playing guitars and other low-impedance instruments, be sure they are connected to an audio input that matches the impedance of the instrument. Connecting a guitar to a standard line-level audio input may produce a lower volume level for the guitar’s output than intended.

You can also use MainStage with vocals, or any sound captured with a microphone, using an audio interface connected to your computer and choosing the audio input channel in audio channel strips in your patches.

For guitar patches that use multiple channel strips, you can control the overall volume of the patch using a foot pedal. Using the following procedure, you can set the overall volume for the patch (that is, for all channel strips) so it starts playing at the set volume level but still control subsequent volume changes using the foot pedal.