Desktop manual
Keys Buddy is a live keys rack: SoundFonts and plugins layered across one keyboard, saved as a rack, recalled in a press. Here is the whole thing, in the order you will need it.
The desktop edition runs on macOS and Windows. Choose your download from the website, then keep the app and its resources together.
Start to finish in about five minutes, assuming you already have a SoundFont on the machine. Everything after this section is reference.
Open Sounds and choose Import SoundFont to copy an .sf2 or .sf3 into the managed library, or Add source folder to index a folder where it already lives. Importing is the safer default: the file stays put and stays findable.
A rack is one saved rig: every track, sound, effect, split and snapshot in one file. Go to Racks and press New, then move to Live and press + Add track.
Click the track’s instrument area to pick a SoundFont preset or a VST3 instrument (Audio Units are also available on macOS). Open MIDI FX for an arpeggiator, step sequencer, octave-up or Easy Chord, and Inserts for effects after the instrument.
In Layers, drag either end of a track’s bar to set its key range, or set the low and high notes from the two dropdowns. Track Transpose shifts one track in semitones; the Transpose control in the header moves everything at once.
Back in Live, balance the faders for a section of the song, then press + to capture a new snap. Use Save Snap to update the selected snap. Up to six snaps per rack, each holding volume, pan, mute, solo and sends. Selecting one fades the mixer across instead of jumping.
Racks → Store As names the rack; Save overwrites it from then on. Then press the keyboard icon in the header for MIDI Learn and put the controls you need on the hardware in front of you.
Use Live for the set, Racks and Sounds for your libraries, Layers for the keyboard, Output for the final mix and shared effects, and Settings for your devices and preferences.
Your library of saved rigs, and everything you do to them between sets.
Every SoundFont Keys Buddy knows about, indexed once and remembered.
The mixer, the snapshots and the pads. This is the page you leave open on stage.
Where every track sits on the keyboard, seen all at once.
The output stage, kept separate from the per-track work.
Audio, MIDI, performance preferences and support tools.
The parts of Keys Buddy worth learning before a set rather than during one.
Press the keyboard icon in the header. Mappable controls highlight; click one, then move a knob or press a note. The header tells you what it is waiting for. Track and master levels, mutes, solos, snaps, pads, transpose, tempo and Panic can all be learned. Review or clear mappings under Settings.
Snaps are the fastest thing in the app. Build one per section, map them to buttons, and a verse-to-chorus change is one press instead of four fader moves. Continuous controls fade rather than jump, so the change lands under the music.
Point the pads at a folder of key-named loops and Keys Buddy sorts them by key for you. Name each file with its key: C, Db, F#. Add a number for alternate takes, like C 2. Sharps, flats and the ♯ / ♭ symbols are all understood.
Panic sits in the top right and silences every voice. A dropped MIDI cable or a sustain pedal pulled mid-note is the usual cause. Map it to a footswitch before you need it.
Share writes a .kbpatch. It records which SoundFonts the rack needs by name, size and hash, so the receiving copy of Keys Buddy matches them against sounds already imported and asks only about the ones it cannot find.
Set the audio device and buffer size under Settings, scan plugins there once so a bad plugin cannot take the app down mid-scan, and load your rack early: the status line reports the load time so you know what to expect at soundcheck.
Start with the MIDI indicator and audio output, then work through the signal path.
.kbpreset. Racks shared with other players are .kbpatch. Both can be dragged onto the window or opened from the desktop..sf2 and .sf3. Pads: WAV, AIFF, FLAC, Ogg, MP3 and the other formats the audio engine supports.