First Full Length CD Done!

As most of you (who follow my blog) know I've been working on a project for a good friend of mine.  This is the first full length album that I've recorded and so I'm very excited.  Not only because it's my first one but also for the reason behind the album. 

Shane and his family are adopting a baby girl (Madeline) from China.  He is using the proceeds of this album to help offset the cost of the adoption. Here is a link to his website if you would like to purchase it and download it!  The physical CD's should be in any day now so if you like a physical CD email him and he can get you all the info on it.  

It has truly been a blessing to be able to work on this project and I pray that God will bless it!  Shane is planning on doing a CD release concert sometime at the end of January.  I'll let you know more when things are confirmed!

Serving Him,

Jimmy

What's Up?

So I realize I haven't blogged in a couple of months :(  Things have been a bit crazy around here.  I've been in the middle of working on a friend's project and haven't had a chance to blog.  Things are going well!  We have been laying down tracks slowly but surely and I've been learning a ton!!!  


God has blessed me in so many ways.  A great godly wife, beautiful children, a wonderful home where I can record and create new music, etc!  God has also opened the door for us to upgrade certain things in the studio too! 

The first thing is a second monitor.  If you work with Pro Tools or any other DAW software than you know how valuable a second monitor is!  Most recording software has two main windows a "Mix" window and and "Edit" window.   With two monitors you can seamlessly run between both of these windows and see exactly what's going on simultaneously. A huge thanks to my in-laws for allowing me to use it!  This is a great addition!

Another thing that has helped tremendously is an external hard drive dedicated for recording.  I picked up a great deal at tigerdirect.com.  They have a ton of these and nowadays; they have become a must in recording for a few reasons.  One reason is that it frees up a lot of processing power.  Recording software and plug-ins take up a lot of processing power so the more you have the better your session is going to run.  When you run an external hard drive your computer's processor doesn't have to run it and that frees up processing power. Another reason is that you have more space to record on.  You don't have to worry about filling up your computer's internal hard drive.  Also, it allows you to take your sessions with you to other studios easily.


The next thing that we've been able to upgrade is a new studio desk.  I still can't believe the deal I got on this!  This desk sells normally for $199.99 all the time, and it's well worth it. I just happened to see it on Craigslist for $30.00!!!  I am so thankful for this thing!  My old desk was great but this allows me to have both my keyboard and computer on it at the same time (if you need a studio desk my old one is for sale).  It also has space for the new monitor and more!  

Lastly I was able to get the updated version of Pro Tools (Pro Tools 9).  I have been running Pro Tools 7.4.2 for the last 4 years and its been great.  However there have been two updates since then (Pro Tools 8 and now 9).  Well, I must say WOW!  What a difference!  PT9 has made it so much easier to record and edit.  The plug-in package alone is well worth the upgrade.  I love the way you can comp in PT9.  You can see all of your playlists at the same time.  That's huge!!!!  I also love the way you can have the color of the tracks bleed through the whole track.  You can navigate so much easier (see pic).


All these things have helped me tremendously in my recordings these past few weeks.  What a blessing!  So that's what I've been up to the last couple of months.  What's up with you?


Serving Him,


Jimmy!

Spring Cleaning!

I know we're getting very close to summer but I thought this would be a good time to blog about keeping up with your guitar and equipment!  This week I was with a good friend of mine and I picked up his guitar.  I couldn't help but notice that it needed some attention.  The fretboard was dirty and the strings hadn't been changed in a while.  I offered to take it and clean it up!

First I took a piece of plastic with a sharp edge and scrapped off all the grime and gunk on the fretboard.  Next I took some lemon oil and started cleaning the frets and fretboard.  I went over them several times to insure that they were free from any dirt or build up.

Finally I polished the body and changed the strings.  It's very important to keep up with your strings and to change them regularly.  Changing your strings will help your guitar stay in tune consistently.  Old strings can greatly impact your guitars intonation in a negative way.  

It's like the old adage, "Take care of your tools and your tools will take care of you"!


Serving Him,


Jimmy




P.S.  Here's what my cleaning cloth (an old t-shirt) looked like after cleaning the fretboard!

The $10, 10 Minute Home Studio Tip!

Have you ever been in the middle of a recording session and think, "It would be nice to have another room to track in?"  Well a couple of weeks ago I got this idea to drill* a few holes in my walls to expand my studio!  Take a look at this video and see how you too can expand your studio into the next room, hallway, or even a closet.


*Be sure to check and see if there are any studs, beams, or pipes in your walls before you start to drill into your walls!

Investing!

Merriam-Webster defines the word invest: "To make use of for future benefits or advantages."  When I graduated from seminary and started at my first church, they had a small matching retirement program.  I decided to take full advantage of it and start saving for my retirement right away.  It's not a big program by any means however it's something.  The idea is to simply save a small amount of money each week and put it away into a fund where it would grow over time!  It has grown over the years.  Sometimes it grows fast and sometimes it grows slow.  Nevertheless it's the constant small deposits that will reap benefits in the future!

Ministry is similar in that we are investing in people.  The coolest part about this kind of investing is that the benefits are eternal.  The reward is so much better than anything we could possibly achieve here on earth!  So many times we get this backwards!  We think we need to invest in all kinds of material things, but seldom do we hear about investing our lives into others!  When we invest in someones life we are doing kingdom work.  There is no amount of money (or material possessions) that could replace this type of investing!

Think about the people who have invested into your life.  Think about the people that made an impact on your life.  Who is it that has mentored you or has helped shape you?  Can you put a monetary value on that?   I don't know about you but I know I can't!

I say all this because I had the opportunity to see a friend that I haven't seen in a long time this past week.  It was great getting the chance to catch up and see how he and his family are doing!  He is someone who invested his life into mine and I am thankful.  God has place so many people in my life who have blessed me and shaped me into the person I am today.  I could write a book on all those who have!  My friend (David) that I got to see had an impact on me in the area of music.  And since this blog is all about music I thought it would be appropriate to say thanks and to challenge us all to think about who we might could invest our lives into!

Serving Him,

Jimmy

Update!

Hey Everyone,


I realize I haven't blogged in over a month (I usually try to blog at least once a month).  I know that's not all that often but that's usually all that I have time for.  I just wanted to update you on some of the things I've been working on and why it is I haven't blogged lately.


First off I have been working on my home studio and learning as much as I can about recording.  I will be recording a CD for a good friend of mine.  He will be using the proceeds of his CD to help offset the cost of adopting a baby girl from China!  I am so excited to be involved in this project!


Second I have also started working on an instrumental CD of my own.  I have two / three songs started and I will be writing more.  I am also very excited about this because it's something I've always wanted to do!  So that's just a quick glance into my world right now.  I will continue to blog and do videos in the future it just might be a in a couple of months!


Serving Him,


Jimmy!

Loops, Clicks, And Tricks!

This year I started implementing some loops and click tracks into our worship sets, and they have been great!  I know some of you out there might be thinking, "I like everything to be live and not pre-recorded,"  which I totally understand, however there are a lot of benefits to playing with a click or a loop! 

1.  They Keep It All Together!

When you're all playing to a click the band naturally gets tighter!  Because there is a constant click throughout the song, the band all moves to the same beat and never changes!  This is not as easy as it sounds!  Your drummer has to be on his toes because its easy to lose the beat.  

2.  They Fill In The Gaps!

Loops can fill in the gaps of a song.  Right now I have a bass player that has a class and can't play with us for this semester.  I moved my rhythm guitarist over to the bass to cover the low end of things, but now the band is not as full.  My loop helps me fill in that gap to make the song full again!  If you're missing a band member or don't have someone to play a certain instrument loops can help fill the song out and provide more dynamics!

OK so now you're convinced that you're desperately in need of adding loops and clicks into your worship set, (or maybe your just curious enough to give it a try :)  and you're wondering how to do it.  Well first you must either create the loops / click tracks or buy them.  There are quite a few software companies out there that can help you create loops (Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton Live, Reason, ETC).  You can also simply buy pre-made loops.  One company that I use a lot is Praise Charts.  They have a good selection and are very reasonable.  

So now that you've created or bought your loops you might be wondering, "How do we play with a click without the congregation actually hearing the click?"  Great question!  The click track is in the left side of a stereo track and the loop is in  the right side.  You simply separate them out so that the congregation only hears the right side and not the constant click.  Then you send both the right and left signals to the band.  There are two ways to send it to the band / drummer!

1.  In Ear Monitors!

If you have a in ear monitor system like the Aviom or Hear Back system, simply send both channels to the in ear system and send only the right channel to the mains.  Everyone with the in ear system hears everything and the congregation only hears the loop!

2.  Buy A Small Mixer!

If you don't have an in ear monitor system that's ok.  Buy a small little audio mixer for the drummer.  He can control the clicks from a mp3 player or an ipod.  Again you will want to separate both the right and left channels from the mp3 player and plug them both into the little mixer.  You will send both channels to the headphone out of the mixer so that the drummer hears both channels in his headphones.  And send only the right channel to the mains so that only the loop plays for everyone else to hear.  The down side of this is that only the drummer hears the click, however he is the beat keeper and this still works great!

All in all I must admit I have enjoyed playing with loops!  It has added to our worship and has made our team sound better!  Hope this helps.

Serving Him,

Jimmy!