If you’ve ever downloaded a sample library for a Piano, or the Samples From Mars library, or Native Instruments Komplete – you’ve probably noticed a reduction in your available solid state drive (SSD) space immediately after installation. This is because sample libraries take up a sizable fraction of our storage real estate.

When I purchased my 2015 MBP way back when, I went “all out” and got a 1TB SSD. I did this because even though there is external storage options for our sample libraries, in practice i.e. on a gig, I’ve not had good luck with it. In my experience, externally stored sample libraries don’t reconnect as well as USB keyboards do when they momentarily glitch, and that’s been catastrophic for me. I’d love to hear stories from anyone who gigs with external storage, but I prefer to rely on internal storage for both the reliability and the performance.

Well, it turns out the drive that I thought was so big on my 2015 machine, filled up pretty quickly, which meant that when I recently upgraded my 2015 MBP to an M1 PRO, I went one bigger, to a 2TB SSD. This decision led me to realize there is actually a sample library tax, one that is based upon the fraction of hardware our sample libraries live on, that should be added to the purchase price of each sample library, to determine The True Cost of a Sample Library.

This Excel table I created and posted below calculates this sample library tax.

Down the left hand side you will see various MBP specs with their associated purchase price (cost in US $s). Across the top you will find a range of library sizes in GBs to represent the size of the sample library we are considering. This table calculates the fraction of hardware a given sample library will occupy based on that MBPs SSD size, multiplied by the purchase price of that MBP.

So, suppose you were interested in picking up the latest deal going on at Samples From Mars: all their samples – $2,000 worth of products – for just $50. First locate the machine with the same specs as yours down the left hand size. If the purchase price is off a little don’t worry about it. If you find one with a closer cost and the same SSD size as yours, you can use that one. Then look across to the column with 60 GB and find the intersection of that row and column. That cell is the sample library tax you should add to the purchase price of the Sample Library to determine the True Cost of the Sample Library.

So for my 16″ 32GB, 2TB machine (row 9) – I would need to dedicate 60 GB (columns k) which is 60/2048ths of my machine for this library times the cost of my machine at $3,899, which means the sample library tax (cell K9) is $114. Please note, that is more than the $50 sale price of the sample library! So the True Cost of this sample library for me would actually be $50 + $114 = $164 which is still a really really good price. But it’s something to keep in mind when choosing your sample libraries.

Download this spreadsheet to customize it for your currency, and confirm the math yourself!

Does this make sense? Has this helped you think through the problem space? Have you noticed yourself making hardware decisions because of your commitment to sample libraries you know you will need? Does this influence you to perhaps value synth engines over sample libraries when possible? Does this help focus you on the quality of sample libraries that you invest in?

Leave us a comment and let us know how you think about The True Cost of Sample Libraries!

MainStage version 3.6 has a cleaner look with more space around controls – but I’ve experience a lot of pinwheel, and occasional crashes when making a “new patch from selected patches”.

Hopefully your app folder looks like this so you can open your template in whichever version of MainStage you like (using right-click!)

If your App folder doesn’t look like this – find out how to get there by visiting our “updating MainStage” link.

We’re super excited to share that MainStage v3.5.2 fully supports the functionality of IntuitiveKeys once again.

The third release note, address the issues that impacted our templates in Version 3.5.1:

Our great big thanks to APPLE for taking this bug seriously, replicating it, AND pushing a fix out in just about a months time!!!

Note: If you’re not running a recent OS, MainStage v3.4.4 performs as reliably as 3.5.2! Please follow our “Best Practices for Updating MainStage” when updating.

If you have a new machine and run IK, you’ll want to check this video out. In it we

• describe a MainStage 3.5.1 bug that appears in aliases that were created in earlier versions of MainStage
• suggest a new best practice for maintaining past versions of MainStage that you won’t want to miss
• demonstrate how this bug affects IntuitiveKeys Templates and Expansion Packs

Ultimately if you’ve been doing a lot of development work in earlier versions of MainStage (as we have creating Intuitive Keys), and you use Aliases (as we do without exception), you may not want to upgrade until a fix is issued (hopefully in 3.5.2).

The great news is that Apple has replicated this bug, and are working on a fix for it!!

You may download the test MS concert as featured in this video: dropbox link

Intuitive Keys doesn’t support drone pads, and most likely won’t any time soon.

This is for a number of reasons, but chief among those are: we don’t think this is an unsolved problem, and we can’t think of a way to substantially contribute to this conversation.

Our take is, a dedicated iPad app is the superior solution to this problem.

So, if your’e interested in using drone pads, please allow us to suggest Ryan Robinson’s AutoPad, paired with Jason Schoepfer’s FREE Ambience MP3 collections!

You’re welcome!

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Three months later, we continue to be extremely pleased with the reception our PRO template has evoked. Because of it’s strong reputation, the number one request we have received, is for a fully stock version of the PRO template. So, without knowing if this were actually possible, we set out to find stock replacements for the Valhalla DSP effects (a high bar indeed, Valhalla stuff sounds really good!). When we stopped being able to tell exactly which effect was which (stock or Valhalla) we knew we were there.

So today, if you re-download PRO, you’ll find the stock replacements for each Valhalla DSP effect turned off, but available to you. These can be activated any time one or more Valhalla plugins are unavailable. At the concert level, simply scroll across the effects send channels to make sure each send has an active effect. Feel free to compare the two options as well!

So indeed, standalone template PRO STOCK now exists as both a nK2 and tOSC version. You’ll find them in a separate folder along with your PRO download. Simply re-download your PRO template to locate it. Like our LEGACY and LIVE templates, PRO STOCK comes with two stock pianos, and a hardware input! Using the Stage Piano PROSTOCK menu matrix has never been more enjoyable!

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With all the excitement around PRO, you may be wondering if we would ever return to our original templates? Well…

Today is your day! Three months after the release of our PRO template, we’re releasing updated LIVE and LEGACY versions.

While LIVE and LEGACY are our first templates, our latest release significantly improves both, based on a complete architectural rebuild (codename: GrayStar) and the full year of work that went into creating PRO.  

While the GrayStar architecture does generate more CPU demands than our earlier architecture (codename: DarkStar) we wanted to retain as much of the PRO capability as possible. If you find this new architecture to be too taxing on your system, the GrayStar version is still there (in the goodies folder), but also, we want to hear about it!!! There may be a better compromise that better suites LIVE and LEGACY users.

Our LEGACY template retains every stock MainStage patch we’ve developed for PRO, as well as all the amazing sets of combinations. The Piano engine retains it’s original simplicity, but all the functionality of PRO is actually still there under the hood. 

Our LIVE template sounds just as good. The only difference is the tempo-dependent patches are removed in order to support the typical live-playing scenario where tempo is not held-to closely via a click track. We also provide more reverb options for the piano engine, in place of the 8th and dotted 8th delays. 

If you’re already a paid license-holder of LIVE or LEGACY, download the new version today and let us know what you think!

We began with Legacy, and the idea of getting the most out of stock MainStage. Intuitive Keys Pro builds from that and leverages our favorite VSTs as well! This is our best template yet and has taken a thousand hours of work and three years to get here.

REQUIRES: Valhalla DSP VintageVerb, Delay, SuperMassive

USES: Native Instruments Grandeur, Alecia’s, Giant, Maverick

IK PRO is designed of function with the above 3d party VSTs. If you don’t have any or all of the Native Instruments Pianos, IK PRO will still work and the stock pianos will sound better than ever! I even have tutorials on how to replace these pianos with your favorite 3d Party VSTs (e.g. Ravenscroft 275). However, if you don’t have the Valhalla DSP effects, you will want to purchase those first. I am working on a version of PRO that replaces the Valhalla effects with stock MainStage, but I’m not there yet. It’s better to re-examine our home page, because I really want you to have the product that is right for you.

All the details:

STAGE PIANO PRO:
★ Modwheel carefully mapped to piano color
★ Every piano instantly available to layer
★ Easy to use menu of piano options

Including:
★ Six reverb settings
★ Six EQ curves
★ Six delay configurations
★ Three compressors
★ Three specialty functions

OUR BEST from Stock MainStage:
★ Highly efficient sounds
★ Everything built with aliases
★ Curated parameters mapped to modwheel and aftertouch

Including:
★ Ten Electric Pianos
★ Four B3 Organs
★ Twelve Orchestral
★ Sixteens Analog Pads
★ Ten Digital Pads
★ Sixteen Synths
★ Thirty-two Movements (tempo-dependent)

IK PRO comes configured with the following combinations (of the above patches):
★ Twelve Transient/Tones ideal for layering with Piano
★ Thirty-six pads: analog / digital / orchestral
★ Twenty movement (tempo-dependent) combinations
★ Sixteen EDM (tempo-dependent) combinations

FEATURING our favorite 3rd party plugins:
★ Valhalla: VintageVerb, Delay, SuperMassive
★ NI: Grandeur, Alecia’s, Giant, Maverick

Leverages existing sound libraries, requires just 40MB of disk space!!

EDIT: PADinator has been replaced and upgraded with 8INATOR.

PADinator takes our most-loved, best-layering pads from stock MainStage, and makes them instantly available for blending, moving up an octave, mono-izing, and dialing in shimmer, then lets you save those settings as a user preset. It is built on just 8 instrument instances and has an unlimited number of presets efficiently configured using aliases. Owners of the nanoKONTROL2 will notice that PADinator controls map one-to-one to the faders, three buttons and one knob for each of the 8 channels. The eight instruments lifted directly from our Legacy and Light products are:

• Purify, a simple clear calm analog pad
• Vintage, a thicker more animated warm old school pad
• Deep Blue, a modern energetic analog synth pad
• Warm Blast, a bright modern pad
• Highlander, a soaring pad that adds sheen
• Wonder, a pad infused with orchestral overtones
• Nitrogen, adds modern cloudy harmonics
• Look East, a slow, complex and evolving pad

PADinator comes preconfigured with 20 presets, and, and an example Song Starter Set so PADinator can be applied to any song right out of the box. As your confidence grows, this set can be duplicated and tuned to other songs, and you can substitute other pad sounds from the included presets or the Users Set as you develop your own voice.

If you’re typically using just one pad sound, download PADinator today and quickly and easily learn the components of what makes a great pad, and then find out how dynamic and responsive your MainStage sound pad arsenal can be! It’s fun, powerful, and completely intuitive. Furthermore, all eight instruments respond to the mod-wheel and aftertouch, just like the original IK concept, and XY-Pad location can be saved as part of the preset sound as well.

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In this video I’m on the Akai MPK88, and this is a great example of how IK sounds live. All these patches come with Intuitive Keys, and this Patch Set is available for FREE in the IK Users Group to paid owners of IK. You’ll notice that these sounds are not designed to “cut”, they’re designed to sound great in a mix, and in this case provide lots of atmosphere. The Nord Controller in a piano shell is triggering Alecia’s Keys.

On the verses I’m playing on the backbeat using “IK Simple Roades” with an additional verb send cranked up, split at C4 with one of my new favorite chill pads called “Still Soft Voice” a layer of “Vintage Pad” and “Purify” (IK owners will recognize all these sound names). On the first Chorus I’m playing just the “Still Soft Voice” pad below the split point. [MultiTracks calls this part “Keys 4”]

On the 2nd Chorus I’m playing “DynaStrings” (from the orchestral set). The attack and sustain rates are modulated by the mod-wheel, so the thematic line is played with mod-wheel all the way up, but then the last note is played, the mod-wheel is all the way down so it’s got a nice slow attack and release. When we revisit the chorus after the bridge, I layer “Fantastic Synth” (first patch in the synth set) with “DynaStrings” for more bite on the string line, and then move back to just “DynaStrings” near the end. [Multitracks calls this “Aux Strings” and the synth “Keys 2”]

The other thing is, because the Church runs digital out to their board, they ask I use their hardware. So I really only bring three things: a NanoKontrol2 for some familiar buttons to go to the next patch, my in-ears, and a jump drive with my concert file. Bottom line: I’m not playing on the machine I rehearsed or prepared with, I run my concert file from the desktop, and everything just works.

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