Mainstage Tips: Getting a Trance Synth Sound for Worship

So many modern worship songs are now using trance–based synth patches, and Mainstage 3 has some of the best synthesizers plug-ins on the market to get that sound in your rig. Here's how: 

1. Open Mainstage.  click the "+" button to add a new software instrument.

2. In the instrument view, select ES2 synthesizer as your software  synthesizer plugin in your channel strip. 

3. open the ES2 window, and find a sound that you like. 

4. Select the ES2 channel strip, copy, then paste it into the channel strip window.

5. In the oscillator section of the duplicated ES2 channel strip, switch all of the oscillator waveforms to white noise. Adjust the filter cutoff so the sound isn't quite as bright.

6. Play both channel strips with your keyboard. Blend the white noise channel strip in until it sounds beefy, but not overpowering. 

Violà! Instant trance lead. This patch will work great for the lead sound on "This is Amazing Grace", "God's Great Dance Floor", and many others. 

Have questions? Leave a comment below.