In Kaki King’s brand-new, free course for Soundfly, Digital Pedalboards, she takes us through why she decided to make the switch to a digital pedalboard, how she makes use of this new, more compact electronics setup, and some helpful tips for how to customize the tech for our own use.
Kaki’s setup involves only five pieces of gear. She has her guitar, a laptop with a copy of Apple’s MainStage 3, an audio interface like the Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 to get the guitar signal into the computer, and two pedals.
The pedals Kaki uses are a Logidy UMI3 USB Foot Controller and a Roland EV-5 Expression Pedal. These are both more affordable than roughly 90% of pedals out there, so if you wind up enjoying this setup, they’re not a massive investment. For now, if you have a MIDI controller or keyboard lying around, that will make a perfect substitute for you to try this out without having to buy any new equipment. She uses the foot controller simply to toggle up and down between songs, and the expression pedal to alter the effects for each song.
In the video below (also culled from the course), Kaki walks us through her MainStage project for her current tour. Check it out, and maybe it will help you imagine some ways you could use the software in your own gigs.
If that moved a little too quickly for you, don’t worry. Throughout the course, she takes a step-by-step look at how to set up a project of your own in Apple MainStage starting from scratch. Sign up to see more of how Kaki King uses a digital pedalboard to transform her live performance into something magical with the tap of her foot!
