Electro-Harmonix makes the absolute best analog effects pedals in the biz and the Memory Man is of course one of the all time great pedals that’s in nearly everyone’s arsenal, including mine. The one problem with it has always been no tap tempo. Even the Edge was bothered by this and would have to start a lot of U2’s songs because the tempo would be set by his delay settings. Well EHX went ahead and solved this and introduced a heck of a lot more(expression pedal, tap divide, …) with their new Deluxe Memory Boy pedal. I want it and I want it badly. Check it out:

Well this looks really cool. The new tuner from TC Electronics says it will tune all your strings at the same time, you just strum and it shows which strings are out of tune. If this works as advertised I want one. Selling for only $99, that seems almost too cheap to me. What you think, you gonna buy? Anybody already used it?

UPDATE: Congrats to our winner Chris Burke!

I’ve compiled the finalists from all the entries submitted for the Home Studio Contest. It was pretty easy because I just took every submission and put them here for a vote….ummm yeahhhh all 4 of you. So one of these lucky people gets the Amazon Gift Certificate for $21.84 and mad props for the home studio setup.

So please browse through the submissions below and at the end of the post you’ll see a place to vote for each contestant. After a week I’ll announce the winner. Feel free to pass along and tell your friends to vote for yourself, bribe people, do whatever is needed. As long as you encourage them to subscribe to the site

1. Alistair McDonald

Alistair gets points for humility and keepin it real. This is what my desk usually looks like. So I appreciate this. Here’s the details:

• Mackie 1202-VLZ Pro Mixer
• M-Audio Audiophile Firewire Interface
• Behringer MS40 Monitors
• Pod XT Live (under desk)
• Ibanez Roadstar II Series RS2000
• Line 6 Variax 100
• Freshman 12-string cutaway acoustic
• Custom guitar made for me from daughter (on top of left monitor)
• Huge pile of “todo” paperwork

2. Derek Necessary

Certainly the coolest name in the group, not to be confused with Derek Smalls. I have absolute sinful mac lust over his studio.

• iMac 24″ 4GB ram 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo
• M-Audio Studiophile BX8a
• M-Audio Firewire 410
• M-Audio Axiom 25
• Reason 4 + Refills
• Abelton Live 7
• 15″ Macbook Pro
• 13″ Macbook
• Westone Es3X in-ear monitors
• Acoustic panels (Owens Corning 703)
• External HD for loops

3. Chris Burke

The Jesus bobblehead has to count for something.

• 13″ Macbook 1.83 Ghz
• 19″ Dell monitor
• M-Audio Studio Pro 3 monitors
• Line 6 Toneport UX 8 audio interface
• 250gb external HD
• LG DVD burner (2 of them)
• 2 portable external HDs
• Blue Snowball USB mic
• M-Audio Keystation 88es Keyboard
• Rocketfish Bluetooth Mouse
• Bobble Head Jesus

4. Mark Collins

Mark has to take it for home decor, digging the art and furniture. Everyone has something to offer.

• 13″ Macbook Pro
• Mac Pro
• 24″ LCD for Mac Pro
• tablet
• sound board
• Samson R5A Monitors
• AKG k601 Headphones
• Not pictured: drums, guitars, 61 key keyboard, vocal booth in the walk in closet (nice!), line 6 pod 2.0)

Note: You must vote for all 4 contestants below for your vote to be saved. RSS readers must click through to vote.

Pretend I gave you $1,000 but you had to spend it on music gear. What would you get?

I’d get the new Abelton Suite and have a few hundred left over to buy a decent condenser mic, like a Shure KSM27 or Rode NT-1. What’s next on your list of music goodies?

Record is Propellerhead’s latest software release that finally addresses the much requested feature of audio recording inside of Reason. But instead of adding it to Reason they created a new product. The price sounds right at $299 for all the features they’ve thrown in. Create Digital Music has a wonderful in depth review of Record and this video below gives a nice intro to the product as well. You can sign up for beta testing at www.record-you.com

Here’s what caught my attention this past week.

• Video: How to make a baby – it’s not what it sounds like. Really cool and creative way of tracking and capturing pregnancy. One of those, wish I would have thought of that videos.
• Ragamuffin Video: Top gospel choir in the US – mad sangin skillz.
• Photo essay of a beautiful bride – This photo essay shows the story of a woman dying of cancer who married her high school sweetheart days before she passed away. Moving, beautiful and sad.
• Guitar amp recording techniques – This article discusses best guitar amp mics and mic placement strategies. Older article but still just as valuable.
• A little swine flu humor – Uncircumcison fever nearly made me spit up.
• Resurgence: Qualifications of a Worship Pastor Parts 1 and 2 – Wonderful article and invaluable points made. For those considering bring on worship pastors this is a must read to identify the qualifications needed.
• Pastor Steven Furtick interviews Ted and Gayle Haggard – loved the way Steven opened the interview.

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.

Here’s what caught my attention over this week:

• John Piper’s 4 part interview with Matt Chandler. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again, Matt Chandler has the highest CWPM(Convicting Words Per Minute) rating out of anyone I’ve heard.
• ChurchCrunch’s 3 tips for not sucking at ‘Christian’ blogging. I can’t say the post is entirely insightful, but there are some good portions. The problem is it makes some big assumptions and oversights, namely assuming that every Christian blogger wants to become a large blog with diverse readership. That overlooks the very nature of niche blogging. You aren’t going to have diverse readership because your content is very narrow. I do talk a lot about non-christian music and topics but it’s always how it relates to or impacts worship.
• Church Soundguy posts on Dynamics 101: Compressor Application Notes. This details compression settings for the most common instruments coming into your board. This blog has some incredibly useful information, I highly recommend checking it out, especially for you sound men.
• TwiTip’s 11 useful twittor tools that don’t require your password. Good list of useful and safe Twitter tools.
• Joel Brown, worship leader and deacon at Mars Hill Church, talks about his decision to get baptized this Easter. Great story.
• Randy Elrod unleashes on Perry Noble’s Unleashed rant. I understand where Randy is coming from and do agree there was a general irreverence present in Perry’s rant. But I don’t necessarily disagree with Perry’s ultimate conclusions, just in how he presented them, the language he used and the audience they were spoken to.