Really cool to watch the process. I could throw way too much money at vinyl, have to resist. Also interesting to hear the up tic in how many records are pressed nowadays, definitely a big resurgence in vinyl. How many of you are collecting vinyl right now? Any prized albums to share with us?

[via StudioDog]

The loop in this video is a custom loop for Misty Edward’s “You Won’t Relent” and can be purchased/downloaded here.

The loop in the video can be downloaded here.

I ran a recent poll here on ORS that asked where your team was at with looping. 25% of you said you’d like to start using loops but don’t know how to get started. This post is intended to address that and hopefully get you some detailed information on how to get going. First here are some articles to help you decide whether you should even consider using loops:

• Why should I consider using loops in my worship service?
• Won’t using loops cause a congregation to get bored?
• Do loops leave any room for spontaneity in worship?

If you’re wanting to get started looping here are some articles helping you with that process:

• 8 steps to configure Ableton with loop and vocal cue tracks
• Configuring Ableton Live to run your click tracks – The link above showed you a more comprehensive loop setup that runs your loops and click. But if you wanted to just use Ableton for running your clicks, this is a great tutorial for that, as well as just general Ableton Live info.
• How to send click tracks to monitors and not mains
• How to transpose a loop in Reason
• How to create your own click track in Garage Band

Some sites where you can download loops:

• www.OurRisingSound.com – here of course
• www.themonobox.com – Matt hasn’t been posting for a long time, but he does have some good loops and tutorials still available.
• www.sacredloops.org – Again, not much content here, but hey there aren’t many people doing this kind of thing.
• Bwacks Forums – good place to ask questions on loops

If you have questions that none of these articles and tutorials address please don’t hesitate to ask. If you have any suggestions for loop links above let me know and I’ll add to the list.

I’m always on the search for music gear that I want/need/lust after. I also have nowhere close to the amount of money I need to get the gear I thirst after. Craigslist is an obvious place to start when looking for local gear that people are trying to part with. The problem is so are thousands of other people in your area so the chances of you searching just at the right time to score the right gear at the right price aren’t all that great. Enter Craigslist RSS feeds.

1. Search in Craigslist for whatever specific gear you’re looking for

2. Copy RSS feed for search criteria

3. Add it to your RSS reader of choice

You can see that I have a few saved searches and I check everyday to see if any new items come up. I’m usually first to respond when they do. Although now maybe a few more Phoenix people are hip to Craigslist RSS feeds and I have some competition on my hands.

In any case this is a great way to score good deals. Happy shopping.

A vocal cue track is an audio track set to a click, and usually ran along side of a loop, that is sent to your in ear monitors only and serves as a helper track, guiding you inside your arrangement. The primary purpose is to keep the band in sync with the arrangement and is especially important when using loops. If you get off the loop disaster can come quick and hard.

You can create a vocal cue track in your audio recording software of choice. What I do is just import my loop to GarageBand, create a new vocal cue track and record along side the loop, then just export the vocal cue track by itself. If you are running integrated clicks inside your loop, that is panning a click in the left channel with the loop in the right, then you’d just add the vocal cue track to the left click channel as well. I don’t do this because I use Ableton and it handles my click track dynamically which gives me more flexibility. Once you have a loop track and/or vocal cue track here’s what you do in Ableton, this is a complete tutorial of running loops and vocal cue tracks in Ableton.

1. In Session View add your loop track to the Audio channel

2. Add additional Audio Channel for vocal cue track

3. Add vocal cue track to accompanying loop “scene”

Read the rest of this entry »

Bryan Nelson at Vertical Resonator recently did a post showing how his church actually syncs two live bands in 2 different rooms for their worship service. He leads worship at Topeka Bible Church and is really doing some great creative stuff. The two bands play the same set, at the exact same time in 2 different rooms and are forced to do this due to the bleed through in the rooms they are in. It’s a really awesome and interesting setup. Here’s the full diagram showing the setup.

I receive a lot of questions and requests for transposing my loops so I thought I might as well give a tutorial on how it’s done. It’s really quite simple to do in Reason, so let’s get started. This tutorial assumes you have Reason and have opened some project.

1. Select pitched midi notes

You want to select all the pitched midi notes, you do not need or want to select non-pitched midi notes like drum kits or percussion instruments. For those changing the midi note actually changes the instrument. So usually what I’ll do is organize my project so that non-pitched instruments are all at the bottom or top to make selecting all the others quite easy.

After drawing a box around all your midi notes it should look something like this:

2. Set the semi-tones in Tool Window

In the Tool Window click the “Tools” menu item. Then set the semi-tone adjustment you want to make. A semi-tone is a half step. So if you want to raise the key a full step you’d set the semi-tones to 2, if you want to lower the key 2 full steps you’d set the semi-tones to -4. A semi-tone level of 0 would be no adjustment, it’s where you are currently.

3. Click apply

Now all that’s left is clicking Apply and you’re all set.