About SoulPedal®
SoulPedal® started out over a decade ago as a hack for a burnt out bulb on an old Morley Wah Pedal by wiring a pressure sensor in my shoe for modulation. In 2015, I pulled together a team of Engineers and attempted a crowd-funding launch. But without a gyroscope, even a simple toe kick was not reliable enough to be fully trusted live, so there were no true users. The team gave up (but later paid back in full - just how I am and still my friends.)
Still up for the challenge, I added a new motion chip and seriously got into making stuff. After multiple iterations, maybe a few hundred or so, the pedal became more comfortable, under 3.5 oz, and was eventually made to fit practically any shoe. But without an FCC licence, it was still a costly venture and was just a Wah and Expression Pedal that took forever to make by hand - even the enclosure.
Later with a new motion sensor, and a wooden Makerbot 3D printer, it made way for a more custom pedal and a better fit. But then I started noticing cracks in the plastic with battery contact issues. So I pulled in contractors from UpWork to start over. It needed to be manufacture-able. "Prototypes are easy, Production is hard." To quote Elon Musk. My code was re-written in C by one amazing programmer in Vietnam. The CAD was pulled together from a young rising star still in college. Other EE's have taken on parts of it to make it what it is today while I focused more on Design, Manufacturing, and the Human Interface.
Meanwhile, Converse showed us they could make a prototype Chuck Allstar shoe. They never went commercial for some reason - the curse of Marketing I'm sure. They used a familiar control method that I had already seen out of MIT years earlier. Meanwhile, I still preferred pressure control and kept on that track and mission. A breakthrough in switching led to the current method - more on that later.
In 2022, T Scot (Early Beta tester) from SlingShot Band, along my rock solid wife Maria (in pic with Bandit) did a reveal at NAMM '22. Again, I thought I'd be ready, but underestimated the build and could only provide demonstrations. After the show, Jake from Alabama purchase one. His is still the only SoulPedal and App ever sold. He was up and running right away - still loves it and is currently designing a new show around it today. He went with the no-audio version to save a little - so pure MIDI/Expression controls.
After the NAMM ‘23 show, sales picked up some, but the price is a bit steep for most, I get it. Maybe that changes in the future as this evolves, we’ll see.
Several updates have been pushed through the App since the summer show. The first prototype Left Pedal is working well - just in time for Left Handed Day (8/13/23)! Dual pedals are also possible as multi-channel is now available (along with a dozen other goodies).
I'm on a mission to make the best pedal on earth and having a blast figuring out exactly how. In the process, I've created a new Human-Machine Interface and it's fully functional and easy to setup and use. I'm open to technology partnerships for a more integrated solution, we'll see what happens if/when the right player comes along.