[WM] Worship Influencer Buyer's Guide 2023 | Page 59

[ WM ] Tell us how this journey all began for you . How did the course of your life lead you to

where you are now ?

[ David Pfaltzgraff ] I went to school planning on being a worship leader , but from the time I was a kid I was always drawn to the gear and sounds kind of thing , from noticing the detail of my Mom ’ s upright piano , to building elaborate pedalboards , and learning how to use early computer software to record EPs of my teenage music .

Once I got out of school , I had some wonderful chances to lead worship for churches and eventually landed at my childhood church as a worship leader and tech director . It was there , while leading worship for the student ministry band , that I rediscovered my love for piano and began to really explore how software could be used to modernize old equipment .

[ WM ] When did you see a need for what you are offering right now ? Tell us about the resource ( s ) you provide others in the worship community ?

[ David ] Embedded in that student ministry it was hard for me to ignore all the walls I was hitting . We had a very limited budget , but the kids wanted to sound like Hillsong Young & Free . I had a feeling that using software on my computer could be the solution , but truly struggled to figure out how to get software like MainStage and Ableton Live to both sound good and be easy for my teenage volunteers to wrap their heads around and feel confident in .

Our first products at Sunday Sounds were quite literally developed for that youth band , they were my guinea pigs . Eventually that led to our core product , Sunday Keys , initially designed as a simple template for MainStage , then expanded to Ableton Live .

More recently , after years of effort we released a standalone version of Sunday Keys for both iPad and Mac that takes everything we ’ ve learned about live worship keys , bundling simple features , incredible sounds , and reliable live performance into an all-in-one solution .

It ’ s our definitive statement on what we think live worship keys players will find inspiring , and the great thing is that since we built it from the ground up , we ’ re able to continue to add new and requested features to make the App even more useful .

[ WM ] Let ’ s talk gear . What is your primary instrument for the stage and songwriting ?

[ David ] Well these days anytime I have the chance to play keys I just toss my iPad Pro in my backpack and I ’ m ready to go with the Sunday Keys App . It ’ s pretty incredible to have a touchscreen surface for real-time tweaking and the App has some pretty powerful tools for seamless transitioning , not just between songs but even for subtle or sudden transitions within a song .

So it really is just an iPad , a basic USB Hub , and an audio interface for me these days at church . I don ’ t even take a keyboard with me

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