StageBox

The ultimate live-performance tool for keyboard players.

Tutorial Series

Your Rig
Your Way

StageBox™ is a standalone plugin host and setlist manager for live keyboard players, designed to simplify performance and provide studio-quality sound on stage with no compromises.

With StageBox, you can take your favourite software instruments and effects plugins on stage, and create dream keyboard rigs not possible with traditional stage pianos.

StageBox is the brain child of Matt Robertson, a 3x Grammy-nominated composer & musical director. Frustrated with using overly complicated or compromised stage solutions like Mainstage, Gig Performer and Ableton Live he decided to team up with the legendary Jules Storer (JUCE/Tracktion Engine) to develop his own hosting software which focuses on ease of use and efficiency. Welcome to StageBox!

Adapt Your Set On the Go

StageBox lets you design custom instrument and effect setups using any VST3 or Audio Units plugins, then build them seamlessly into Songs and Sets. When you want to tweak the setlist, simply drag and drop songs into place using the straightforward at-a-glance UI.

Key Features

Host VST3 and Audio Units software instruments and effects
Tailored for live performance: create, adapt, manage and rearrange setlists
Build songs from layers or splits of software instruments
Share instruments between songs for quick set preparation
Apply effects per sound, or per song
Clutter-free layout only shows you what you need to see
Simple MIDI Controller management and support for multiple devices
Send sound layers to different hardware audio outputs

Outperform Traditional Stage Pianos

StageBox software frees you from the limitations of traditional hardware keyboards by unlocking the processing, storage and playback power of modern laptops, which greatly outperform stage keyboards. It also lets you access a huge range of sounds and processing using any VST3 or Audio Units plugin — not just the presets available on your hardware.

Carry Dream Rigs for Every Occasion

StageBox works with MIDI Controllers and multi-output audio interfaces so you can create custom control configurations and audio routing setups for all your live performance scenarios, however large or small.

Why use StageBox

StageBox vs. DAW

Many people have used DAWs for hosting AUs and VST3s in a Live performance environment, but quickly realise that they are not really designed for the task.

Quick navigation: DAWs lack a good way to quickly navigate between Sounds and Songs, particularly if those Sounds are made from complex layers of different instruments.
Flexible setlists: DAWs don't have a way to organise / change a Setlist made up of Songs and Sounds you have created.
MIDI mappings: DAWs usually have MIDI mappings that are based on the whole session, rather than just the active selected Song.
External MIDI: DAWs don't allow a Song selection to be made via an external MIDI pgm change command, which can be really useful in a Live environment.
Optimized performance: DAWs don't allow you to share instrument resources between Sounds / Songs, which can allow for RAM saving when using large sample sets.
On-the-fly transitions: DAWs usually don't have any way to make a seamless transition between two different sounds / songs, unless workarounds are made which compromise other areas of performance.

Creative Team

StageBox is the brain child of Matt Robertson, a 3x Grammy-nominated composer, musical director and software developer. He has contributed to records by The Prodigy, Lamb, Dido, Emiliana Torrini and Anoushka Shankar, and has Musically Directed live shows for artists like Björk, Anohni, Arca, The Cinematic Orchestra, and Ellie Goulding. Matt developed StageBox with the legendary Jules Storer, creator of the JUCE framework, Tracktion engine and CMajor language to name just a few. The combination of Matt's professional experience and Jules extensive development expertise has allowed for a uniquely elegant, efficient and powerful piece of live plug-in hosting software.

Frequently asked questions

: StageBox and Gig Performer are both plugin hosts designed for live performance use. The main differences are in the ease of use and overall feature set. StageBox has been designed to be very easy to use, require virtually no setup time to get going, and allow easy management of Setlists and Songs. Gig Performer has got some features that StageBox doesn't, but it also requires considerably more setup time and programming knowledge to get going.
: Yes, you can use Stagebox to host any VST3 or Audio Units virtual instrument, such as Spectrasonics Keyscape, Modartt Pianoteq, and collections from Spitfire Audio. In fact, with StageBox, you can use multiple instances of all these plugins at once, and build them into your dream keyboard rig.
: StageBox and MainStage are both plugin hosts designed for live performance use. Areas like Setlist management and MIDI mapping are generally easier in StageBox, whereas deeply complicated setups requiring backing tracks and lyric sheets might be better served in MainStage. StageBox has been designed to be very easy to use, require virtually no setup time to get going, and allow easy management of Setlists and Songs. MainStage has got some features that StageBox doesn't, but it also requires more setup time and programming knowledge to get going.
: There are no limitations on the number of plugins you can host with StageBox, though there are practical limitations in the way you build your songs and sets. Eventually, your computer processor speed, hard drive capacity and amount of RAM —plus your choice of which plugins to use — will determine how many plugins you can run. (But it’s a lot!)
: Yes, you can route different sections and songs to different outputs of your connected multi-channel audio interfaces.
: Yes, StageBox has a MIDI Map for creating custom control setups. Click MIDI Map, and link hardware MIDI controls to parameters in StageBox and in the VST3 and AU plugins you’re using.
: Each sound can have a total of 15 different AU/VST3 plugin effects: up to three pre-send AU/VST3 plugin effects; three plugins each for Send 1 and Send 2; three plugins post-send; and another three plugins that effect the whole song. If that’s not enough, let us know!
: There are many DAWs and all of them support VST3 and / or AU plugins. However, their performance is often not optimised for live use, and from an organisational point of view, they are usually not setup to quickly move from one set of sounds to another and be able to have seamless transitions between sounds, let alone organise different setlists. It's not impossible to do this with some DAWS, but the knowledge and setup required is substantial, and that's why StageBox exists!
: StageBox will run on all current Apple and Windows laptops. In general RAM is the most important factor, and then processing speed. But all modem Apple computers have ample processing power to run reasonably complicated setups. The limitations have more to do with the plugins that you choose to host inside StageBox. For example, multiple instances of large sample-based plugins will require more SSD space to store them, and more RAM to run them.
: For a simple setup requiring just a stereo out, you could use the headphone jack of the computer, and not have an audio interface at all. However, for live shows, the noise from a headphone jack can sometimes be a problem, and a dedicated audio interface with balanced outputs is a more reliable choice. For a more complicated setup where multiple Outputs are needed — let's say you want to send a piano sound to one output and an organ sound to another output connected to a rotary speaker — a larger interface with several stereo outputs would be needed. Also consider that some audio interfaces have built-in MIDI ports, which might be useful for a larger setup.
: Yes, MIDI mapping is a very powerful feature of StageBox. You can map hardware MIDI controls to the Stagebox interface, like send levels or volume, and also map parameters within the hosted plugins. To create a MIDI mapping, simply press the MIDI Map button in StageBox to open the MIDI mapping pane. Then turn the knob or fader on the physical controller you want to use, then turn the parameter in StageBox or a plugin that you want to map, and press ‘Add Mapping’. The mapping will appear in the list, and now you have some options to adjust such as the minimum and maximum limits of that controller, and if a particular value for that control is always recalled when the Song is selected.
: Depending on the size of your setup, you may need a USB hub to increase the number of ports available on your computer. Powered hubs are recommended as they tend not to draw additional power from the computer in order to power attached peripherals like MIDI controllers, and this can sometimes help with overall stability of a system.
: Generally speaking, higher-gauge USB cables designed for higher data rates (which are usually the most expensive) will perform better than thin, cheap cables. The best rule of thumb is to use the cable that comes with your equipment, as it will have been specified by the manufacturer to provide suitable performance.
: StageBox is compatible with any and all Audio Units and VST3 plugins, which are the most popular plugin formats. (StageBox does not work with AAX plugins, but most AAX plugins are available in Audio Units and/or VST3 format.)

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Purchase options: Free 30-day trial. Purchase StageBox for $129.
Training guides: Video tutorials
System requirements: macOS 13 or Later
Apple Silicon recommended

Windows 10, 11
64-bit

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