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Permalink to Gear

Gear

by Brian|on April 8, 2011 |in Blog, Gear |Leave a comment

This page serves as a current inventory of all my stuff. Hit the links for a more in-depth look including reviews, photos, and how I use the gear I use.

Guitars

  • Martin D35 – with K&K Pure Western Mini pickups installed – Review and photos
  • Takamine FD-360sc – Review and photos
  • Custom built blue Telecaster
  • Custom built pink Telecaster

Previously owned:

  • Samick Acoustic Guitar
  • Paul Reed Smith SE Soapbar II
  • Fender  72 Thinline Telecaster RI
  • Fender Jimmie Vaughan Stratocaster
  • Epiphone Les Paul Standard
  • Ibanez Bass

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Permalink to Are Their Eyes Shining?

Are Their Eyes Shining?

by Brian|on April 6, 2011 |in Blog, Worship |2 Comments

I just finished watching this TED talk by Benjamin Zander about passion and music. He made two powerful statements that I believe are directly correlated to worship.

1. Everybody loves classical music, they just don’t know it yet.

Let me rephrase – “Everybody loves worship, they just don’t know it yet.

2. If their eyes are shining, you know you’re doing it.

He then goes on to say this…

“If the eyes are not shining, you get to ask a question. And this is the question: Who am I being that my player’s eyes are not shining?”

What does this have to do with worship?

Two things:

  1. Everybody loves worship. Literally, we were made to worship God. We just don’t all know it yet.
  2. It’s our job as worship leaders to bring people into worship.

I think as worship leaders, we’ve all looked out into a congregation before and seen people who appear to be bored, or at least not into what’s going on. Maybe they’re truly worshipping, but maybe they’ve had a bad day/week/year/life, and they just don’t feel like engaging As Benjamin says, “their eyes aren’t shining”. So, I’m asking the question

Who am I being that their eyes aren’t shining?

Are my eyes shining? Am I worshipping? Are the members of my band or team worshipping?

I believe that to lead, we have to first do.

I’ve embedded the video below -it’s about 20 minutes, and it will inspire you.

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Permalink to Some Photos of Chris Tomlin from the LIFT Conference

Some Photos of Chris Tomlin from the LIFT Conference

by Brian|on April 1, 2011 |in Blog, Worship |Leave a comment

I attended the LIFT Worship Collective back in February in Atlanta. The conference was led by Chris Tomlin, Matt Redman, and Louie Giglio. Check out these photos I took of Chris Tomlin leading worship:

It was a good conference. I’m still planning to post up some notes about it. Here are some shots of Matt Redman.

Permalink to Basics of Recording: Interfaces

Basics of Recording: Interfaces

by Brian|on March 27, 2011 |in Blog, Recording |Leave a comment
Presonus Firepod

Once you have something creating sound and a way to capture it (like a microphone), you have to get that sound into your computer for editing. I will refer to these kinds of devices as “interfaces”. In a nutshell, they capture your source (either analog or digital), convert analog sources to digital, and then feed those sources to your computer. Some interfaces are all-in-one setups and don’t require a computer.

Basic components of interfaces

  • A/D Conversion (analog to digital conversion). Almost all interfaces will have some kind of A/D conversion. This takes a signal from a microphone and converts it into nice little ones and zeros so your computer will understand your audio.
  • Microphone Pre-amps. Many (certainly not all) interfaces will have a mic preamp or two (or eight) built in. If you are recording with microphones, you need a preamp, and having a decent preamp built into your interface is nice. Many of these preamps will also have some kind of instrument DI capability built in as well.
  • Basic computer connectivity. Most interfaces hook up to your computer with either USB or firewire.

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Permalink to Basics of Recording: Microphones

Basics of Recording: Microphones

by Brian|on March 26, 2011 |in Blog, Recording |Leave a comment

A good recording starts with a good source. Next, you have to capture that source, which is where microphones come in. The bottom line is this: you need at least one good microphone. The built-in mic on your computer just won’t get you the results you want. Thankfully, we live in a time when you can get a good microphone on a serious budget.

In this post, we’ll cover the basic typs of microphones, the kinds and specific mic’s that I use, and what I would recommend for the DIY Musici who’s just starting out. See the other posts in the “Basics of Recording Series” here.

Here are the more common types of microphones and their typical uses :

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Permalink to Basics of Recording Part 2: The Hardware I Use

Basics of Recording Part 2: The Hardware I Use

by Brian|on March 24, 2011 |in Blog, Gear, Recording |1 Comment
Presonus Firepod

A few days ago I covered the basic stuff you’re going to need to start recording, all the way from the source making the noise to the software used to mix it down. I’m often asked what specific camera or microphone (or other gear) I use to for audio recording.

In this post, I’ll highlight what I use to get the job done. You can view the “Gear I use” page (coming soon) to view all the gear I own (and ever have owned), but in this post I’ll just focus on audio stuff.

See all posts in the “Basics of Recording” series here.

So what do I use?

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Permalink to A Few Songwriting Tools Plus A New Song Demo

A Few Songwriting Tools Plus A New Song Demo

by Brian|on March 23, 2011 |in Blog, Songwriting |Leave a comment

My phone (I have an iPhone 4) is one of the most valuable tools I use for songwriting. So is Evernote. Besides my Bible, my brain ,and my guitar, they are probably #4 and #5 on the importance list (I see a “top 5″ post coming soon). Anyway, my songwriting process usually looks like this:

  1. Read a passage from the Bible that stirs something inside of me.
  2. Play a simple chord progression on guitar and try to arrange the words of the passage into something interesting and melodic.
  3. Write it out in Evernote.
  4. Record a rough demo on my phone (typically just using the built-in voice recorder app).

This all typically happens in one sitting.

So, yesterday I wrote out a simple verse and chorus from Psalm 23. I titled it “Though I Walk Through The Valley”. This morning I put in another verse and a bridge and recorded a rough demo with my phone. Here’s what I’ve got:

I’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions on the song itself, as well as your songwriting process.

Permalink to John Claybrook is an Awesome Indie Artist

John Claybrook is an Awesome Indie Artist

by Brian|on March 21, 2011 |in Awesome Indie Artists |2 Comments

Allow me to introduce some great music from John Claybrook. John and I haven’t met in person before, but we’re twitter friends, and I’ve been enjoying his music lately. He is a really cool guy, and he’s a really good musician. Here’s a bit about him from his website:

John Claybrook is from Alexander City, AL and has been playing music since the earliest years of his life. A master of his craft, Claybrook has led worship in his home church and across the nation for years and has garnered attention from major Christian artists such as Michael W. Smith and Third Day.

If you read on, you’ll find that in 2007 he was selected as a finalist and appeared on national television for the Christian Artist Talent Search. That is pretty sweet!

Here’s “Reign Over Me”, one of my favorite songs from John’s album “Masterpiece”. I’d describe John’s music as pretty straight-up Rock and Roll, but with some acoustic influences. He writes a good hook, too – great stuff all around!

You can preview the whole album and buy it for $10 on his website.

Also – visit John’s:

Permalink to Basics of Recording Part 1: What You Need To Get Started

Basics of Recording Part 1: What You Need To Get Started

by Brian|on March 19, 2011 |in Blog, Recording |Leave a comment

See all posts in the “Basics of Recording” series here.

In order to record, there are several things that you absolutely need to make it happen. I’m going to briefly describe the essential ingredients here, but I’ll plan to dig deeper into each one in future posts. They are:

The source (your voice, guitar, etc).

This could be a lot of different things. I’m talking about whatever it is that is making (or triggering) the sound that you’re trying to record. Common examples include your voice, a guitar, etc.

Something to capture the source (microphones).

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Permalink to Basics of Recording: A Few Credentials Before We Get Started

Basics of Recording: A Few Credentials Before We Get Started

by Brian|on March 17, 2011 |in Blog, Recording |Leave a comment

Homer says "Eat More Salad"

Nobody wants to hear fitness advice from a fat guy, so I would suspect that nobody wants to hear audio/video advice from a guy who doesn’t know anything about it. I’ll start with a bit of my background in recording.

Home digital recording really hit its stride as an affordable option for hobby musicians when I was in college as a freshman or sophomore. At first, I bought a microphone and a cheap mixer and went straight into the sound card on my computer. That sounded pretty terrible, so I picked up an M-Audio Delta 44 and dove into home recording.

Ten years later I’m still at it. I’m not a professional sound engineer or video technician, but I’ve learned a ton of things along the way, and the music I create sounds way better now than it did back then. I’ve been into making videos for a while now, too.

I can talk all I want, but I figured it would be better to show you rather than tell you.

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