Audio interfaces and MIDI controllers
GEAR is the amp, the cabinet and the pedalboard. Two pieces of hardware turn it into a rig you can play: an audio interface, which gets the guitar in and the sound out, and a MIDI foot controller, which lets you run a set without touching the screen. This page says what each needs to be, what has actually been played through, and what to steer clear of.
The audio interface
Any class-compliant USB audio interface works. Class-compliant means it needs no driver — iPadOS and iOS only support that kind, so if an interface works with an iPad at all, it works with GEAR. On the Mac, the same rule holds and most interfaces also offer a maker's driver; either is fine.
What to look for
- An instrument input. A quarter-inch jack marked Hi-Z, Inst or Guitar. A line or mic input will work at a push but will not load the pickups correctly, and the amp captures will not sound right.
- Enough outputs for how you play. Two outputs cover headphones, a stereo desk feed, or one amp. If you want an amp on stage and a stereo feed to the desk, you need three, which in practice means a four-output interface. GEAR routes each Output block to whichever physical outputs you choose, with its own cabinet, level and phase.
- Power. An iPad can usually bus-power a small interface; an iPhone often cannot, and not reliably. At a gig in September 2026 an iPhone 13 Pro could not keep a MiniFuse 4 running from its own port or with a standard 1 A charger on the adapter; a 2 A-plus pedalboard supply on the adapter's charging socket did it. If the interface has its own DC socket, use it. Otherwise a powered hub, or a strong charger on the adapter.
- Direct monitoring you can turn off. Most proper interfaces have a switch or a mix knob. Some cheap "guitar sound card" dongles mix the raw guitar straight into their headphone jack with no way off, so you hear your dry guitar over GEAR's sound. See what to avoid.
Tested and gigged
| Interface | Outputs | Used with | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arturia MiniFuse 4 | 4 | iPad Pro, iPhone 13 Pro, Mac | The development and gig interface. Amp on one output, stereo desk feed on two more. |
| Zoom AMS-24 | 4 | iPad, iPhone, Mac | Really small, reliable and cost-effective. The second headphone socket doubles as Outputs 3 and 4 in GEAR, so it can feed an amp and a stereo desk mix at once. No MIDI ports. |
| Zoom AMS-22 | 2 | iPad, iPhone, Mac | The two-output version of the same unit: as small, reliable and cost-effective, for headphones or a single amp. No MIDI ports. |
| SSL 2+ (first generation) | 4 | Mac mainly, also iPad and iPhone | A desktop interface rather than a pocket one: outputs 1 and 2 on balanced jacks, 3 and 4 on RCA, two headphone sockets, and DIN MIDI in and out for a wired foot controller. Bus-powered over USB-C, so on an iPad or iPhone give it a powered hub or adapter. |
Other compact four-output, bus-powered, class-compliant units exist — the Zoom AMS-44, the Audient EVO 8 and the MOTU M4 among them — and should behave the same way. They have not been played through GEAR, so treat that as an expectation rather than a promise.
Once you have one: Live sound covers setting it up so a preset sounds the same every night (input level, noise and output level), with the MiniFuse 4 and the AMS-24 compared side by side.
Connecting to an iPad or iPhone
- USB-C iPad or iPhone: a USB-C cable to the interface, or a USB-C hub with power delivery so the tablet charges while it plays.
- Lightning iPhone or iPad: Apple's Lightning to USB 3 Camera Adapter, with a charger on its Lightning socket. The unpowered version works for small interfaces but is the first thing to suspect if audio drops.
- GEAR reads the interface's own port names, so it remembers which outputs you chose per interface. Swap to another interface for an afternoon and your usual one comes back exactly as you left it.
What to avoid
The very cheap "guitar sound card" dongles sold for streaming. One was tested in September 2026: it mixed the raw guitar into its headphone jack with no way to turn that off, its converters added latency no app setting can remove, and its only controls were headphone volume buttons. GEAR ran on it, and it was unusable as a rig. An entry-level recording interface from a known maker has neither problem.
The MIDI foot controller
Any controller that sends MIDI CC or Program Change works, over USB or over Bluetooth. GEAR listens on one MIDI channel, which you set on the MIDI tab, and shows every message it receives there — so if a switch is not doing what you expect, the tab tells you what arrived and why it was ignored.
Tested and gigged
| Controller | Connection | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Morningstar MC8 Pro | Bluetooth MIDI | The development controller. GEAR reconnects to it silently after a power cycle, and its MIDI Controller View draws the eight switches in the MC8's own four-by-two layout. |
| M-VAVE Chocolate | Bluetooth MIDI | A small four-switch, battery-powered controller at a fraction of the price. Tested with GEAR and works fine, and GEAR reconnects to it on its own after it has been switched off and on. Set its switches to send CCs or Program Changes and map them like any other. |
Two controllers can be connected at once, both over Bluetooth if you like; tick each on the MIDI tab. Up to four expression pedals are supported through their controller's CC outputs.
What GEAR answers to out of the box
These CCs are reserved and need no mapping. Everything else — any block's bypass or parameter — is mapped by MIDI Learn on the block.
| CC | Does |
|---|---|
| Program Change | Loads a preset. CC 0 selects the bank first; CC 1 selects a preset within the current bank directly. |
| 23 | Switch page for the MIDI Controller View: 0, 1, 2 select pages 1, 2, 3; 126 is previous page and 127 next, both wrapping. |
| 24 | Snapshot: press captures the whole live rig, release restores it. |
| 25 | Looper transport. |
| 26 | Metronome on and off. |
| 27 | Start and stop the dry-input recorder. |
| 28 | Open or close Performance Mode. |
| 29 | Engage the tuner (mutes the outputs while it is engaged). |
| 30 | Tap tempo. |
| 31 | Scene select, by value. |
Each switch you use can be given a switch tag in GEAR — "A", "3", "B2", whatever is printed on the pedal — one per page of your controller, and the MIDI Controller View then shows the current page's switches in pedal order, lit when active. On the iPhone the cells are also buttons.
Bluetooth MIDI
Pair once through Pair Bluetooth MIDI… on the MIDI tab. From then on GEAR holds the connection itself and re-establishes it when the controller powers up or comes back into range, without you opening the pairing sheet again. The MIDI tab's status lines show what it is doing.