MAINSTAGE
3 TIMES TO STOP IMPROVING YOUR KEYS RIG | David Pfaltzgraff
Have you ever heard the saying ‘Always be in early October brought lots of long-requested
improving’? This altruism gets applied to every functionality and speed optimizations.
aspect of people’s lives whether it be diet plans,
WHEN THE TIME IS RIGHT
For most worship bands there’s an ebb and
work goals, or an ill-fated, January 1st inspired So if you want to improve your keys rig updating flow throughout the year of learning new songs,
‘this year I’m going to do things differently’ to the latest and greatest operating system is a trying new things and growing faster or slower
pledge. no-brainer, right? Well if you haven’t figured it as a team.
out by now I would say ‘no’. Updating to new
As worship musicians ‘always be improving’ operating systems as soon as they’re available The two biggest events of the year for most
sounds like the right idea. After all, hopefully is more likely to cause you headaches and churches are Easter and Christmastime. If your
we’re serving at our churches from a desire to problems, than to save you time right away with band is like the one at my church you likely
make an impact, encourage our congregations new and innovative features. invest more time, effort and resources into
and bring our best every time we play in the
these services than you do any other weekend
band. The problem is that always ‘improving’ Why? Because while software developers do can get twisted in some unhealthy ways that what they can to test out these updates, it’s can actually impede your progress as a worship just not possible for every single bug to be It’s a good thing to acknowledge the unique
musician and as a band. ironed out before a public release. These days opportunities that these more highly-attended
the community of users often bears the brunt weekends present to our churches, but there’s
Today I want to share three times when you of the burden to identify and report problems in a dangerous tendency to take the ‘always be
would be wise to stop ‘improving’ your keys rig. new software and operating system updates. improving’ mentality and push it too far into
of the year.
untested waters.
WHEN THE IRON IS HOT
For those of us who rely on our computers to
deliver reliable performance week in and week Unfortunately, I’ve heard a large number of
If you’re using a MainStage keys rig (or any out, early adoption stands in direct opposition horror stories from folks who chose to deploy
other software based keys setup for that to our success in achieving that reliable a new MainStage, Ableton, or other software-
matter) then you’re reliant upon the operating performance. So, the next time you see that based keys rig for the very first time on a big
system on your computer as a key component little annoying pop-up on screen that says, weekend like Easter Sunday or Christmas. And
of your worship keys setup. Every Fall Apple ‘Updates Available’, grit your teeth and click then had to scramble to work out unexpected
releases a new update to the MacOS operating ‘Not Now’. Wait a good while and once the new last-minute problems in a high stress and high
system. Each yearly update includes new OS has received the necessary responsive fixes stakes environment.
quality of life optimizations and features. This from the developers, you can hit that button year’s update, OS Catalina which was released without worrying about the repercussions.
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November 2019
I’m not saying that you shouldn’t introduce new
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