If you’re a keyboardist at your church who also happens to be the music director in charge of cueing the band and triggering click and tracks, you know the struggle. You’re juggling multiple responsibilities, managing software on your laptop, dealing with cable chaos, and trying to keep everything running smoothly while actually playing keys.
What if there was a way to simplify all of this into a clean, powerful rig that just works?
In this article, we’ll walk through a keyboard and tracks setup that combines the best of modern software and hardware to create a system that’s both incredibly capable and remarkably simple. This is the kind of setup that makes Sunday mornings less stressful and gives you the flexibility to focus on leading worship instead of troubleshooting technology.
The Foundation: MacBook Pro and Dante Networking
At the heart of this system is a MacBook Pro with an M4 Pro chip, 24GB of RAM, and a terabyte of storage. Now, here’s the thing: this setup doesn’t push the computer anywhere near its limits. You could absolutely accomplish this with a less powerful MacBook Pro or even a well-spec’ed MacBook Air. The key isn’t raw computing power—it’s how you integrate the computer into your church’s audio infrastructure.
That integration happens through Dante audio networking. Instead of dealing with physical audio interfaces like Scarletts or track rigs that plug in over USB, this setup uses a single USB-C to Ethernet connection. That’s it. One cable for all your audio routing.
The adapter matters, though. Dante is particular about network interface cards, so using something like the StarTech USB-C to Ethernet adapter that’s been tested extensively with Dante is essential. You don’t want to discover compatibility issues during Sunday morning setup.
Why Dante Changes Everything for Keys Players
Here’s where Dante becomes transformative for a keyboard and tracks rig: with Dante Virtual Sound Card, your MacBook essentially becomes a 16-output audio interface. Think about what that means. You can send separate outputs for:
- Keys 1 (stereo)
- Keys 2 (stereo)
- Click (mono)
- Guide track (mono)
- Tracks melody mix (stereo)
- Tracks rhythm mix (stereo)
- Tracks pad mix (stereo)
All of this routing happens over a single network cable. When you arrive for rehearsal or service, you plug in three things: network, USB for your keyboard, and power. That’s it. You’re ready to go.
The setup does require proper network infrastructure on the backend. Dante works best with dedicated VLANs and quality network switches. But once that infrastructure is in place, the day-to-day experience for musicians becomes incredibly simple.
Creating Keyboard Sounds with Sunday Keys
For generating keyboard sounds, this rig uses the Sunday Keys app running on the MacBook. Sunday Keys has become popular in worship environments because it strikes the perfect balance between simplicity and power.
If you’re not a professional keys player—maybe you took a few keyboard classes in college and can hold down basic worship parts—Sunday Keys is perfect for you. You can load up a great-sounding grand piano patch and just play. The S-Key Grand V2 sounds fantastic, and for many church contexts, that’s all you need.
But if you want to layer in pads, synth leads, or other textures, Sunday Keys has extensive patch libraries to choose from. The software is designed to grow with your skill level and needs.
The integration with Dante is seamless. In Sunday Keys settings, you select Dante Virtual Sound Card as your audio interface. Then in the Flex Routing page, you can assign different sounds to different outputs. Want your piano sound on outputs 1-2 and pad sounds on outputs 3-4? Easy. For this particular setup, the piano stays on 1-2, and pad sounds actually come from the Playback app (we’ll get to that in a moment).
Sunday Keys offers different subscription tiers, with the standard version around $120 annually. If you need more than 10 outputs, you can upgrade to a pro license that gives you 16 outputs, though for most church applications, that’s overkill.
Managing Tracks with Playback
For backing tracks, click, and guide tracks, the Playback app by MultiTracks is the standard in church environments for good reason. It’s designed specifically for worship contexts, giving music directors the flexibility they need to be slightly spontaneous while still running with tracks.
The power of Playback in this setup comes from how it integrates with Dante routing. In Playback’s settings, you select Dante Virtual Sound Card as your audio device. Then you can assign different buses to specific Dante outputs:
- Click → Output 5
- Guide → Output 6
- Tracks Melody (guitars, synths, horns) → Outputs 7-8
- Tracks Rhythm (percussion) → Outputs 9-10
- Tracks Pad → Outputs 11-12
This level of routing control means your front-of-house engineer can mix these elements independently. Perhaps you want to use the background vocal track but would like to keep it relatively soft, but tracks melody needs to be prominent. No problem—they’re on separate channels at the console.
Pro tip: Take the time to label your outputs clearly in Dante Virtual Sound Card. When you’re looking at transmitters in Dante Controller, seeing “Keys 1,” “Click,” “Tracks Melody” instead of generic output numbers makes everything more intuitive.
Chart Builder Integration
One feature that deserves special mention is the integration between Playback and the Chart Builder app. As Playback progresses through a song, Chart Builder automatically advances the chart on your iPad or laptop screen. You’re not thinking about pages or sections—the chart just moves with the music.
This might seem like a small thing, but it’s transformative for keyboardists who are also music directing. You’re not splitting attention between charts and your keyboard. You’re not fumbling with page turns. You’re just playing and leading, and the technology stays out of your way.
For those of us who remember the days of three-ring binders and manually flipping pages during songs, this feels like science fiction.
The Talkback Mic Solution
As a music director, you need a way to communicate with your band during rehearsal and between songs. This rig includes a talkback mic setup that’s both effective and affordable.
The microphone is an sE V7. But the key component is the D’Addario IR Mic Mute, which uses an infrared sensor to automatically mute and unmute the mic based on proximity.
When you lean into the mic to talk, it turns on. When you move away, it mutes. This keeps your band’s in-ear mixes clean—they’re not getting stage bleed or drum spill when you’re not actively talking to them.
The D’Addario solution is significantly less expensive than alternatives like the Optigate, while still working reliably. The build quality isn’t quite as premium, but for church applications, it’s more than sufficient.
Personal Mixing with Allen & Heath ME1
The in-ear monitor system in this setup uses Allen & Heath’s ME1 personal mixers, which integrate perfectly with the Allen & Heath Avantis console running at this church.
Each band member gets an ME1 unit that connects to the MEU (the main ME system unit) via a single Cat cable that provides both data and power. They can then create their own custom monitor mixes using the intuitive interface on the ME1.
For a keyboard player and music director, you can set up quick access to the channels you need most: your keyboard sounds, your talkback mic, and the click track. Everything else can be organized into groups for easy adjustment on the fly.
The ME system can support up to 10 personal mixers, which covers most church band configurations. At this particular church, they’re running six ME1 units, which handles all their backline musicians.
Cable Management Makes the Difference
Here’s something that often gets overlooked in gear discussions: cable management dramatically affects how you feel about your setup. When cables are everywhere, creating visual clutter and potential trip hazards, it adds stress to your experience as a musician.
This rig uses simple solutions like dual-lock velcro and zip ties to route cables cleanly from the keyboard down to the laptop and then to the various connection points on stage. The result is a workspace that feels organized and professional. As a keys player, you don’t feel like you’re drowning in technology. You have a clean instrument that happens to be incredibly powerful.
Is This Setup Right for Your Church?
This keyboard and tracks rig makes the most sense for churches that:
- Have music directors who are also playing keys
- Use backing tracks and click regularly
- Want to give each band member independent control over their monitor mix
- Have (or are willing to install) Dante networking infrastructure
- Value reliability and simplicity in their music ministry setup
The upfront cost isn’t trivial. Between the computer, Dante networking gear, Sunday Keys and Playback subscriptions, the MIDI keyboard, and personal mixer system, you’re making a real investment. But for churches that are serious about their music ministry, this level of integration pays dividends in reduced setup time, fewer technical issues, and happier musicians.
Channel Count Considerations
One important technical consideration: this setup sends a lot of channels to your mixing console. With keys, tracks, click, guide, and other elements, you could easily be using 16+ input channels just from this one workstation.
Make sure your console can handle the channel count. The Allen & Heath Avantis Solo used in this setup has 64 input channels, and with microphones, instruments, and all these Dante signals, it’s getting close to maxed out. If your console has fewer inputs, you may need to make some choices about what gets sent as separate channels versus what gets submixed.
Watch the Full Walkthrough
To see all of these components working together and get a detailed look at the software configuration, check out the full video walkthrough above. You’ll see the Dante routing in action, watch the Chart Builder auto-advance feature, and get a clear sense of just how clean this rig can be.
For churches working with Churchfront on their production systems, keyboard and tracks integration is part of creating comprehensive worship production solutions. The goal is always to make technology serve musicians and worship leaders rather than the other way around.
To see all the specific gear recommendations for building a rig like this, visit the Churchfront Toolkit. There’s a dedicated page for keyboard and tracks rig components that lists everything you need in one convenient place.
Want deeper training on networking, Dante integration, and worship production systems? Churchfront Premium members get access to comprehensive courses including Networking 101 that walks through setting up these kinds of systems from the ground up. Learn more at churchfront.com.
