Recently I had the good pleasure of interviewing James Duke (guitar player for John Mark McMillan) as well as review his new release from his new project called “All the Bright Lights.” That record is largely instrumental and is a collection of incredible guitar tones and textures. So when I saw a blog post from James discussing how he gets his tones, it got my attention.

James gives a lot of great advice in his post and I encourage you to read the entire post, but he opens up the post with some great general advice to guitar players.

“I have gotten a lot of emails lately asking for advice about how to get good guitar sounds. A lot of times I get asked something like “I have all the same stuff as you but i’m not getting the same sound for some reason”. I try to tell them , nicely, that they can buy everything I have, but it’s not going to make them sound like me. If that was the case I would have all of The Edge’s gear.  And all of Jimmy Page’s gear. and I would have bought the same microphone as Bono…

I can play through anything and still sound like me.  I can play through a line 6 spyder amp and still sound like me.  I don’t enjoy that, mainly because a modeling amp just doesn’t respond the way a nice tube amp does. But I can make it work.”

Recently I received this very good question from a reader:

“I was wondering what your process was in taking an existing worship song, and making a loop to go with it? I enjoy creating loops from scratch, but have a hard time making them for existing worship songs.”

First off I try to only do loops for songs that I feel inspiration to do and to re-arrange in some way. So before I start programming I usually have some concept or vibe already planned for that song. The exception to this rule is when I’m doing a custom loop, many times I go into those dry and that can be more of a struggle. But either way here’s what my process generally looks like.

1. Start with the main melodic hook and build out

I usually just keep looping over the main melodic hook and work with it until I find the instrumentation and rhythm that feels right. This is where I experiment and try and go wild creatively. If I have any bit of advise to give it’s chase your crazy idea. My best loops are all due to me chasing a creative idea that I thought might end up being a waste of time. There’s a fork in the road where I think, “Is this just going to be too crazy? Is it worth the time working on this when I might just throw it all away and start over?” And the answer is YES it’s worth the time! Don’t be safe, chase the idea, see it through and see where it takes you.

2. Peel back the main hook for an interesting intro

So now I’ll have a main hook section that has rich instrumentation and probably a good number of tracks. Now I want to see how I can build into that through the introduction. Sometimes that may mean opening with a distant pad, or right into the drum loop with big kick, or some keys or whatever. I usually try to layer slowly and really pace the buildup of the arrangement. You may have noticed a lot of my loops have extended intro sections(I know that’s a CCM sin), I like to take my time there and not rush that. Many times I’ll build the intro so I get to the main hook section before Verse 1 then cut it out. A good example of this is my loop for New Creation, verse 1 doesn’t come until 1:27.

3. Change up the verses on repeats

Typically the verses in my loops are pretty sparse, I try and leave space there. But I do like to build/change the instrumentation on repeats. So verse 2 may have an added element from verse 1, and verse 3 may have another or change completely. In my opinion this can be the difference between a good arrangement and a great arrangement. How you build your verses instrumentally can really move the arrangement along and make it less formulaic.

4. Contrast in the bridge

Bridges for me are the moments you contrast the rest of your instrumentation and you mix it up rhythmically. Of course that isn’t true for every song but typically that’s what I’m thinking when I get to the bridge section. You’ll see that clearly in loops like True Love. I love to introduce new sounds at this point and then mix them into the last chorus & outro. This sets up a nice crescendo instrumentally.

5. Now that you know, forget it…rigid formulas suck

The good thing about formulas is you build off previous experience and improve. The bad thing about formulas is if they never evolve and change with you then they become calculated and unauthentic. So now that you know some of the processes and strategies that I employ, you can throw them in your tool belt and choose to employ them or you can just throw them all away. Everyone has their own process, everyone has there own music sensibility, so what works for me may not work for others and what I think works for me maybe others think really doesn’t work for me either.

I hope this has helped but at the very least, I tried to answer the question honestly. Well there is one more thing. I usually loop late at night, in a dimly lit room with candles and a cold Pacifico. If you’re offended by that please pretend I’m pretending.

As always you can browse all my released loops at http://loops.ourrisingsound.com/ and download for your usage.

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.

This is a cool tutorial on some techniques to slice up drum patterns in interesting ways. Great because it’s tool agnostic, meaning you can use the same technique in whatever application you are using, Abelton, Login, Reason, etc… Click through to his vimeo account to see more tutorials.

Trifonic: Editing Beats – Part 1 from Next Step Audio on Vimeo.

[via CreateDigitalMusic]

There aren’t too many more touchy issues than volume when it comes to worship in the church. Usually the chain of events goes something like, lady in church complains to pastor it’s too loud, pastor tells the sound man to turn it down, sound man gets defensive and says he can’t control the mix with how loud the amps are on stage, sound man yells at the guitar player and guitar player says he can’t get the tone he wants with the amp turned to 1. Then more and more barriers are placed around the drummer for good measure.

Sound familiar? This is where a good SPL dB meter comes into play. It gives you a reading of how loud you are and gives you something consistent to set the mix to. They can range in price from $40 to $250, and for many churches it’s just not worth the money. Well in comes the iPhone and a nice, accurate SPL dB meter for $0.99. You can’t really beat that.

I used it at my church and we got a reading that the pastor was happy with and now we know from week to week what to set to. I’d highly encourage you to get some kind of dB meter, but this iPhone SPL dB meter certainly gets the job done. It even has some configuration options for using external mics, but comes pre-configured for the iPhone internal mic.

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.