Organ Swells

MainStage Version Manual

Installation

Fortunately, MainStage makes installation very simple. Just load up either of the concerts to start!

Included Files

There are two concerts. A main one for general use named “Organ Swells” and one specifically designed for layering with other instruments named “Organ Swells (w extras)”. For more info on the latter, see the “Layering Chords” section below.

MainStage Interface

The interface has a number of preset options, including one in the Notes section, which triggers individual notes like most traditional sample libraries, and Chord options which we’ll go over in the “Using Chords” section below.

It also has a number of envelope and EQ options at your fingertips. Attack is recommended to stay at the lowest setting as there’s already a slow attack. Release is set to around 5 seconds by default, but depending how fast moving a chord progression is, may need to be shifted accordingly. Tone (LPF) is, by default, wide open, but if you want to kick the swells back in the mix a bit and mellow them out, this is a great place to start!

Using Chords

Unlike most other sample libraries, the chords side is key-specific. It has every chord (major, minor, inversions) sampled with a two-octave span and, as the desired key is loaded, it allows the appropriate chords to be triggered within that key. For instance, if you select the key of C, this is what would play when you hit the following notes:

Layering Chords

One of the advantages of the versions with key-specific chords is the ability to layer them with other instruments in a live context. Because layering in MainStage is harder to do on the fly, we’ve created a separate concert for this called “Organ Swells (w extras).” By default, the key range of the swells is limited to C1 to B1 so if someone is playing octaves in the left hand, they’re triggering the proper chords on the chord changes.

To add other instruments to the concert, Click “Instrument” on the input section of the channels in Edit Mode. Because all the pianos and pads are linked across the key-specific presets using aliases, you can change the instrument within any key and the pianos and pads will carry over to the other keys as well.

Using Custom Chords

Normal key selection works for the majority of songs in normal major and Mixolydian modes. When playing songs outside of those modes or where there are chords outside the traditional chords of those modes, Custom Chords is great to have around! With this setting, the keyboard is divided into three octaves of chords. C1 through B1 are all the major chords, C2 through B2 are all the minor chords and C3 through B3 are all the inversions (1/3, 5/7). This lets you trigger whichever chord you want at any time.

NOTE: Layering really can’t be done with the Custom Chords setting.

Tech Specs

  • Sample Rate: 44.1 kHz 24 bit

  • Download Size: 681.8 MB

  • Library Size: 752.8 MB

Requirements

  • Mainstage 3.6.6 (or higher)

  • 4GB RAM required, 8 GB recommended

Questions?

For any additional questions you have on Organ Swells or any other library, please contact us.