Live rig setup choices?

To be brief, my needs:

• trigger backing tracks, 1 track per song, so complicated clip manipulation not needed
• host VSTs to trigger sounds from with a keyboard controller and a Launchpad
• Volume manipulation of synths independent of backing tracks

Currently I have Ableton Live with RapturePro and a Live Drum Rack loaded in. Each scene is a track I trigger and I doodle on the synths. The problem: patch changing independent of the backing track is not very straight-forward. I don't need the extra things Live enables so I'm wondering if I should use Mainstage (never used it) or some other VST host to do this? Since I also sing and jump around I'm looking for something pretty simple. :-)