Hi I am just starting to use stagetraxx. My question is around playing live using both audio and midi files . I today use midi files for live performance directly from my Yamaha PSR SX 900 for my cover songs I have collected and edited over the years. However my original compoisitions are all audio files with individual stems and wavy files .

I am looking to use stage tract for these audio files but plan to continue to use my keyboard for midi but would like to use stagetraxx to have the lyrics for all songs and one start stop controller that can control the midi start play of the keyboard and lyrics from stagetraxx ..

Is this scenario possible ? That way I keep the midi of the songs to date and slowly transition to audio backing tracks for the future songs and my original songs whilst using the keyboard midi files for the past but have the lyrics for those come up from stagetraxx 3

Thanks for your inputs

    rdmusiccreation

    rdmusiccreation Hi, I was using Yamaha Tyros 2 for years with midi mainly as it had 4 loop points and I could easily manipulate audio levels of all 16 midi tracks and mutes, but now I only use Stage traxx3 , why?
    Because I have 24 loop points in a song , full foot control , easy programming of sync lyrics/chords , ok I don’t have full control of individual tracks as it’s not worth the effort because I can’t easily control each tracks volume and mutes anyway on screen of the iPad, but as a sound engineer and years of live performance experience I mix everything so it does not need tweaking , if I had easy level/mute control live on stage I would go multitrack , at the moment it’s not worth the effort, having an iPad on stage instead of a large keyboard is visually much better and less to lug around, not having complexity on stage is a much more enjoyable performing experience and the audience does not care, there are many more reasons why I got rid of midi altogether, so I say to you keep it simple , just put all your midi stuff in to ST3 as audio and simplify your life you won’t look back .
    I now mainly use LOGIC PRO as my editor and IPad Pro as my performance backing tool and life is much simpler and faster to end up with great on stage experience.
    Hope this helps cheers Damir

          rdmusiccreation Stage Traxx can not play midi files but it is possible to send midi commands to your Yamaha to start and stop playback. But keep in mind that automatic scrolling in lyrics will only work if you have a fixed song structure. If you loop and jump around on the Yamaha, ST3 will just continue linear scrolling.

              Damir Thanks for your input - I have been thinking about the same thing - ie should I just move to all audio files . I am not very tech savvy with usin a DAW although I use cubase and can basically convert midi to audio . Do you then mix and master the song after that ? Could you throw some light on the process you adopt ? There's a side of me that does not want to work on all my previous midi files again but I see your point on making the switch - just need to understand the process to develop the final backing track . Thanks for your input .

                  peter Thanks Peter - My initial first 2-3days of placing around with StageTrxx and Im loving it

                    rdmusiccreation Thanks for your input - I have been thinking about the same thing - ie should I just move to all audio files . I am not very tech savvy with usin a DAW although I use cubase and can basically convert midi to audio . Do you then mix and master the song after that ? Could you throw some light on the process you adopt ? There's a side of me that does not want to work on all my previous midi files again but I see your point on making the switch - just need to understand the process to develop the final backing track . Thanks for your input .

                    I started with Cubase when it was born as it was great for midi, but have moved on to LOGIC PRO on a Mac Studio, I f you don't run on a Mac i strongly recommend to change to it as it has a fantastic STEM feature to break down any complete audio music file in to drums, bass, vocal and other tracks, and the quality is very reasonable, you can then create a bass midi file out of the bass audio track and use any sampled virtual bass instrument to complete a very good bass backing, this can also be done with drums, and the great thing is, some backing vocals can also be used to compliment your singing with ease.
                    You can then record all your own tracks you want then arrange the whole song, mix it, add on effects use the mastering plug-in and export it either as multitracks or stereo file and just save it to ST3, where you then add on the synced lyrics/chords , go to the audio editor and create the audio segments you need, tick which playlists you need this backing in, and create or choose the KEYWORDS for this song for easy searching, colour code the song to group it to your meaningful operation, and you are done for ever more.
                    So basically you need a good DAW and ST3, once you learn the power of these two packages you will love the process and its versatility to create a very entertaining performance, you can keep it as simple and fast as possible or go crazy and tweak and fiddle till you turn 100 years old and still be asking questions at the end.
                    Its all part of the fun 🎸🕺🎤❤️🤪

                      peter Hi Peter -is there a video or stepwise process available to to configure your recommendation ?

                        10 days later

                        peter Hi Peter having watched your video I had a few questions for this setup . If I plan to simply play my Yamaha arranger keyboard using midi files directly from the keyboard to PA and the lyrics are on ST3. I saw that I in lyric settings I need to add a midi command and then assign action to start-stop . Given I am not looping or changing the song flow but following the lyrics from start to end In this case, once I press start on ST3 if my keyboard is blue tooth with ST3 it should autostart my keyboard same time with lyrics scrolling is that correct ?

                        I saw your video which says Prefix / Value / Sub value / Channel . I am still new to understanding this . Where can I learn more about this - to set up a simple midi command like above to simply start playing the midi file from the keyboard and lyrics together and be able to stop at the end of the song .

                        Appreciate your inputs or any other place I could learn more about this .

                        Thanks

                          Why don't you record/convert your midi files into audio and thus solving the issue of needing
                          your keyboard for live ever again?

                            Sharonzaz Id like to play live - usually use midi and play piano or some guitar parts . I hear what you saying - Its just that I am not very confortable mixing and mastering the audio track after conversion from midi. Additionally I have my old midis that if I am able to use - it just reduces the rework of my earlier songs that have been worked upon . That way I can still keep those formats and use audio going forward from Karaoke version . Just trying to see if I can work around it - If not I guess I just have to rework all songs or simply change to Karaoke version and adapt to newer versions .

                                rdmusiccreation Its just that I am not very confortable mixing and mastering the audio track after conversion from midi. Additionally I have my old midis that if I am able to use - it just reduces the rework of my earlier songs that have been worked upon .

                                I had this dilemma a few years ago, as i was using midi on Yamaha Tyros 2 which also had synced lyrics capability and 4 looping points that actually worked perfectly as you could change to different sections of a song at end of any BAR it was not time based like ST3 also i dragged 2 computer rgb monitors for my band members so they can see the lyrics and chords, this was way before ST3 came along.
                                BUT if you can manipulate midi you can certainly record the midi performance and start using ST3 as intended, because in the long run it is much simpler to use and gives you more freedom and peace of mind when performing
                                What convinced me was just doing a few songs on ST3 and using its full power of 24 looping points,
                                Easy Lyrics sync programming , easy and reliable stage setup, midi capabilities for simple use, no more number crunching and boring time consuming midi commands to just get a sound out of the keyboard, once you have easy backing your keyboard/guitar is just there to play, the list just goes on and on to why its more beneficial to use ST3 as the master tool.
                                I was nervous to fully change to audio till ST2 and then 3 came along and i am a sound engineer so i know how you feel but believe me just bite the bullet and save yourself a lot of wasted time , and make your life on stage simpler and enjoy your performance with the crowd instead of always thinking about the technicalities of your performance, my TYROS is now still sitting in a corner collecting dust just in case i need it but its been years and i still never had to use it as a backup and now when i fire it up sometimes i realised my midi tracks weren't all that great anyway.
                                I hope this saves you a lot of time in the future.

                                    Damir Hi Damir - Thanks for sharing your lessons learnt and perspective . I guess I will just try and move to audio . Do you recommend I just render my midi songs to audio and just master it . I currently use e-mastered - as its simple to just upload an audio track and spits out a mastered output in Mp3 or wav - I am not very good at mixing- mastering in cubase . . Does that sound appropriate from an approach perspective - Any specific approach that you used when making the transition ? I can then use the old midis from keeping past consistency and transition to karaoke version for new song additions. Appreciate any inputs you may have here

                                        rdmusiccreation Hi Damir - Thanks for sharing your lessons learnt and perspective . I guess I will just try and move to audio . Do you recommend I just render my midi songs to audio and just master it . I currently use e-mastered - as its simple to just upload an audio track and spits out a mastered output in Mp3 or wav - I am not very good at mixing- mastering in cubase . . Does that sound appropriate from an approach perspective - Any specific approach that you used when making the transition ? I can then use the old midis from keeping past consistency and transition to karaoke version for new song additions. Appreciate any inputs you may have here

                                        There are many ways to do this, i used this opportunity to really make all my midi files to suit my PA system for a more perfect sound.
                                        I actually used my sound system as my mastering of my final sound mixes, because the backing tracks were going to be used by the system so why not perfect the mix.
                                        A lot of people use studio monitors , then the actual files get played on another PA system which might be totally different characteristics , this is a great advantage you have now.
                                        Once you create a number of backing tracks to suit your PA, you can use other speakers now and playing these mixed songs on the studio monitors , once your ears get use to what those songs sound like you can then use those speaker monitors to do all other songs, this will make sure the end results will always sound good on your PA, with minimal tonal changes required.
                                        This is one trick to consider for a good end result.
                                        I normally used a daw to load in my midi file Cubase or Logic pro is very much the same i use to use Cubase but now i do everything in logic, if you like your keyboard sounds, and only want to use them , then its as easy as plug your audio out from keyboard to the DAW , you will need to do your mix on the keyboard in midi world .
                                        But if you want more options then load in the midi file to the DAW and choose which midi channels will control the external keyboard and which will control the DAWs sound modules, sometimes you can get really good sound modules in the DAW , i use Easy drummer 3 and Easy Bass by Toontracks which give me very high quality sounds, but i also mix it in with my external Tyros sounds to give me a great result, thats the beauty of redoing your midi songs you can really make themsound much better. Once you have got everything how you like just do a bounce down to a complete file , i normally go direct to highest possible quality M4a as its ST3 preferred and saves space.
                                        Keep your dynamic range as large as possible as this will sound more like a live band , using to much compression/ Limiting sounds less realistic to the audience.
                                        I do use a mastering tool in logic which seems to work well , i then play this file through the PA and compare it to my other reference file that i created first , i always use the same reference song to check My new songs and i use the same speakers , this way all my backing tracks will need hardly any tweaking, if i am not happy with a file i go back to the DAW and correct the mix and repeat the final steps till I'm happy to move on to my next song, after a while you will get a routine going which will be much faster, you will find your backing tracks will sound much better and you will have a much easier time on stage with lots of power to manipulate the audience by using loops , Mix feature, permanent loops etc , with foot pedals , most songs will not need to be pitch shifted as this would be done in your editing process.
                                        You need to think way ahead of what you need to do to create a great backing track so you don't have to stuff around later possibly on stage , this takes time to perfect and develop, but if you have been fiddling with midi you obviously have the capability to edit audio , in some ways its simpler and easier than midi .
                                        So good luck, if you have any specific questions just let us know and i am sure we have plenty of people with great valuable knowledge here to help.