Ben's Blog

The Church

2012-01-18T10:27:00.002-06:00

I've finished a loop for Elevation Worship's "The Church" and it has been posted over at Loop Community.

Find it here.

I loved making this loop. We're using this tune for a weekend where our entire church offering will be for church clothes for some recent Haitian friends through Northwest Haiti Christian Mission. In the Haitian culture, you cannot (repeat, cannot...) attend church unless you have church clothes (for guys, slacks, button-down shirt, nice shoes, etc.). It's a stigma that keeps many from experience the Gospel in Haiti. So in lieu of accepting our regular offering, we're asking all of our people to bring clothes to allow many Haitians to experience church regularly.

UCC Worship Axioms #2

2011-09-14T10:50:00.004-05:00

Here's our second installment. Remember, these are out of order and/or don't create a coherent order. I'm ok with that--I hope you are, too.

UCC Worship Axiom #2

It's not about you.

There are two angles on this, but let's deal with the obvious one first.

The focus of worship is simple. It is a time to attribute value ("worth-ship") to God. In this way, it's not about you. More importantly, it's not about me.

The book of Ephesians is typically viewed as an ecclesiastical letter. It's a note from Paul about what the church is and what is God's aim for the church. This speaks to our worship as well. The key verse is 1:10 where we learn that God's aim is to "bring all things in heaven and on earth under one head, even Christ."

Christ's work (and ours) is designed to bring us to God. All of our efforts, all of our toils, all of our lives are to be in the business of bringing ourselves and others to God. Our worship services must reflect that.

Now for the second angle. Because the focus is God, the focus will never be what we want. The services are not for us. They are designed to bring us (as Christians) and others to God. The "others" are important. They are more important than we are.

Our worship services are designed with two foci:

1) Bring Christians closer to God.

2) Illustrate/teach God to others so that we might bring them closer to God.

UCC Worship Axioms #1

2011-09-12T17:31:00.006-05:00

I'm starting a series of posts today. The purpose of these posts is to deliver the "axioms" by which the Contemporary Worship services of University Christian Church operate. These are things under which we will not budge. These are "truths" that I have established that we will continue to uphold at the heart of our ministry. (They're out of order and/or don't create a coherent order. I'm ok with that and I hope you are, too.)

UCC Worship Axiom #1:

God deserves our excellence.

With everything that we offer to God, we strive for it to be excellent. This is the core of worship and it is a priority that is as old as recorded history.

In Genesis 4:3-5 we read about an offering that Cain brings before God and an offering that his brother Abel brings before God. In the first instance, Cain brought "some" of the fruit of his labor. Abel on the other hand brought forth the "fat portions" of his labor.

There are many ways to interpret this. A clear difference in these offerings is that Abel offered his best. He gave that which represented his very finest work. Abel delivered to God that which was the most meaningful and bore the greatest value.

We are compelled to bring that which represents the best of our work--that which clearly shows the value of the offering. With everything we offer to God--art, music, poetry, time, effort, energy, money (and many others)--must carry a value that represents the best we have to offer. The sounds (all our offerings unto God) we make must be as sweet of a sound as the grace offered to us in return.

We will continue to toil so that we may offer to God the full excellence that he deserves.

Sharyn

2011-08-30T16:26:00.003-05:00

I was inspired by Carlos's blog today. I cried writing about Sharyn. I thought I'd post her story. Here are two of her facebook notes from the whole ordeal.

What Happened To Sharyn?

by Sharyn 'Schafer' Worcester on Friday, December 19, 2008 at 12:56pm

Let the long story short begin...

Once upon a time, well, on October 21 to be exact, I woke up with numb feet. I thought nothing of it and went to work. Throughout the day, the numbness progressed up my legs. That evening, Ben took me to the ER where, after a series of tests, I was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre Syndrome. Basically, my immune system attacked my nervous system. Google it if you want details. I was admitted to the hospital that night. The next morning, I was paralyzed from the neck down and on parts of my face. I stayed in bed like that for two weeks. Then I moved to In-Patient Rehab for over a month. I relearned how to eat, walk, etc. I can walk about 40 feet with my granny walker before needing my wheelchair. I look fairly awkward whenever I do things. But! I will have a full recovery!

Major Breakthrough

by Sharyn 'Schafer' Worcester on Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 8:03pm

So, today marks my first day performing on my horn in public for the first time since Sunday, October 19, 2008. If you're reading this and don't know me very well, let me tell you how meaningful this morning was for me.

I've always been a musical person. When my sister was in sixth grade, she joined beginning band and started to play the French horn. I was in third grade then, and of course, I wanted to be just like my big sister. When we came home from school every day, I would ask her to teach me what she learned in band that day. I was destined to be a horn player. Needless to say, I chose the horn once I joined beginning band in the sixth grade. That's when my love of music really blossomed. Throughout middle school, junior high, and high school, I never realized that I was meant to have a career in music or teaching. I was definitely going to follow my dad's footsteps and join the Air Force. Once I started planning for K-State, I joined Air Force ROTC. That was my chosen career, however, I needed a major. I enjoyed teaching and music, and decided to put those two together for my major. In the beginning, I never truly intended to be a music educator. Throughout my first two years at K-State, music slowly started taking over my life, and music education started to really sound good to me! Obviously, the Air Force thing didn't work out, and I was able to completely immerse myself in music. Whoa, what a ride! When I was happy, I played my horn. When I was sad, I played my horn. When I was pissed off, I played my horn. Music has taken me to amazing places: New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Greece, England, Scotland, and all over the U.S. And more importantly, I've made the closest friends that I will probably ever have (you know who you are!). I love all of you guys. Once I was offered and accepted my first job at Junction City High School, I was excited to FINALLY do what I was trained to do. It was amazing. I have great mentors, made more friends, and was having the time of my life.

Then, on October 21, 2008, I lost almost everything. Now, I'm not going to get emotional and go through everything I experienced during my fifty-five days in two hospitals and one in-patient rehab center. But, man, it was difficult. I clearly remember one night when I made my peace with God and was ready to go to my permanent home. I was almost there. But when I woke up the next morning, I realized a lot of things. God made me wake up that day because I still had things to do on this earth. I still had students to teach, another dog to adopt from the animal shelter (sorry, Ben!), friends to make, and music to play.

Moving on to the events of this morning, I cannot stress enough how much I cherish my performance this morning. If you know me well enough, you know that I have a comment for everything. But, for this, I cannot find the words I need. But I guess that's where music comes in handy! I usually try to be humble with everything I do. But I cannot be humble about this. I am a damn fine horn player. And today was my day. By all means, it wasn't perfect, but Jesus didn't care (and He's all that truly matters!). To everyone that played with me at University Cristian Church this morning, thank you for being a part of this with me. Some of you may not realize what it means, but I assure you, it was a big deal. So, a big thank you to my husband Ben, and the other great musicians on stage with me: Karyn Schafer (had to put my big sister first!), Storm Davis, Michael Sturd, Jessa Myer, Gabe Reed, Alex Bency, Brian Walton, Tanner Bott, Eric Starnes, Brian Williams, Eric Grusenmeyer, and Peter Weinart. And, of course, I cannot leave out our tech guys, Kyle Reynolds, Donald Green, Jerry Hutchinson, and Greg Olney. It was an honor to finally make music with you guys.

And a another big thank you to Guillain-Barre Syndrome. You taught me not to take anything for granted. You took a lot away from me and forced me to fight hard to get them back. But, needless to say, I still hate you. You will lose this battle. I will not apologize for my language here, but I'm going to kick your ass.

----------

Edit: want to hear her? Here's "Our God" from that morning:

God Is Able

2011-07-28T22:57:00.002-05:00

Hey, folks, this week I worked on a loop for God Is Able from Hillsong's newest live album by the same name. I really enjoyed working on it, and I hope you like it too.

You can find it over at Loop Community at this link here.

Listen to the preview here!

Loop Community

2011-06-16T15:05:00.002-05:00

Hey, folks,

Here's an update for you. I'm going to begin moving a lot of this content over to Loop Community for several reasons.

1) They are able to manage the legal issues with posting these loops.
2) They are able to deliver these loops in a wider spectrum than I can with just one blog.
3) They can help me to monetize them (which helps me continue to provide high-quality loops for a reasonable fee).

When I create new ones, you'll be able to access them here first, then over on Loop Community a little while later.

Thanks for following, and I hope to see you over at Loop Community sometime soon!

Like a Lion

2011-01-12T14:11:00.002-06:00

Well, I heard Kristian Stanfill's new album, and loved the dance party version of Like a Lion. So I made a loop for it - just a little different than his. The loop goes for 8 bars, then the band comes in on top of it. Other than that, it's just like the album version! Hope y'all like it and can use it!

RNS - Stereo
MP3 - Stereo

King of All Days

2010-11-03T16:32:00.005-05:00

(Edited 6-17-11)

I have moved this content over to Loop Community. Check out why here.

If you are looking for this content, check out the following link!

------

This is one of my favorite loops I've made yet. I really hope you get to enjoy it! It is set up in stereo, and I can't imagine it used any other way. So, here's the stereo MP3 to preview it, and the complete Reason file. The singing of verse 1 starts 8 measures after the beat. Also, the Reason version has more imaging than the MP3 mix-down can deal with, so it sounds more refined in its intended form!

King of All Days - Preview

How He Loves

2010-07-13T11:28:00.003-05:00

I have moved this content over to Loop Community. To read more about why, see this post.

If you're looking for the content, check it out here.

Hey, all...

We used this loop for How He Loves this last weekend... Hope you can use it. Watch our arrangement here:

How He Loves - preview

Outloud EP - Josh Collesano

2009-10-20T15:30:00.008-05:00

Ok, so, a friend of mine (whom I've met via internet, twitter, and a shared occupation) released an album titled Outloud, an EP of four original songs and hymn re-write. I was looking forward to its iTunes release, which happened today. Here's my review of his album:

When reviewing Christian albums, especially those of worship leaders, I think theology is probably the most important aspect to review. Likely because I'm constantly thinking "Do the people I'm trying to reach need to hear this?" I can say without a doubt, that Josh's album qualifies in that respect. The people we're trying to reach need to hear his message. Lyrics that capture these thoughts include:

"Jesus, You're the answer to the world."
"We will stand to share Your hope with all the world, yeah, they will know that You are God."
"I was bound by all my sin when Your love came and set me free."
"You died in place of me."
"After all we've done, can we say we lived for You?"
"No name is like Your love."

"Come Arise" foreshadows what Josh and his band plan to do with the rest of the EP. Tasteful guitars with plenty of presence, good delay sounds with full rhythm underneath. A strong, yet tactful vocal with a solid message. I think that the music between chorus one and verse two is just a bit too long, although it's pulled off really well. Another big instrumental section connects the bridge to a dropout chorus. Again, this is a bit on long-ish side. This is followed by THE biggest drum fill I've heard in a worship album leading to the final chorus.

As a person who has grown up in Oklahoma, I appreciate the country roots Josh uses in "Come Thou Fount." Lyrically, he takes the first traditional verse, then expands upon it with an additional chorus section or tag. Familiar lyrics intertwine with new proclamations of Christ's victory.

"Holding On" speaks well. The guitar work is clean, gutty, and quite prominent ( - I'm not a guitarist, more a keys/piano guy). I think the guitar tone works really well underneath Josh's vocals. This is the strongest song on the album. "Can we say we lived for You" hit me really hard today. Great message and thoughts there.

I love the way "Outloud" (the title track) opens with synth elements. Creative guitar riffs and effects in the verses move the motion forward to Lifehouse-like chorus with full chords and a big vocal delivery. I think the vocal effects in the bridge are particularly effective in bringing the thoughts back to the chorus to end the song. It's a great message. I love the melody at the chorus, over the words "I want to scream Your name outloud." It's particularly striking.

The acoustic guitar sounds absolutely amazing in the opening of "A Sinners Choir." I personally, think this song could have been stronger. I felt just slightly unsatisfied at the end, as though there was going to be more. I do like it, though I felt just on the side of uneasy. I will listen to it more, and hopefully come back with a different conclusion.

Overall, this is a good EP. I would have loved to have hear some Steve Fee style harmonies in some key places in some key choruses. Josh's vocals speak well, in almost all places. I believe this to be an excellent work from someone that really understands worship leading and the current genre of worship music. Thanks so much for your work.

Song of Hope

2009-08-17T14:20:00.003-05:00

I've moved this content over to Loop Community. To read about why, visit this post.

To find this content, click this link.

-------------------

So, we did this Robbie Seay Band song yesterday and Saturday, and it worked out really well. Here's the mastered and complete loop. It follows the album version, and ends after the three choruses after the bridge. Hope you can use it!

Preview

Glory to God Forever

2009-07-26T20:47:00.002-05:00

Ok, so we did this tune this Sunday with a choir, and it was a lot of fun. Though it's simple, it's constant message is amazing. So, I'm posting the loop we used.

The beginning of the song is different than the way Fee plays it. We replaced the one measure of acoustic guitar with synth, and the click signal is where the whole band comes in. I think it cleaned it up for live use, but it wouldn't take much to change it back. Other than that, the arrangement is exactly like the single (looking forward to the full album by the way!).

Glory to God Forever - RNS
Glory to God Forever - split - MP3
Glory to God Forever - MP3

Jesus Saves

2009-05-15T10:04:00.002-05:00

We've done Tim Hughes's "Jesus Saves" several times around Easter, and it is a great opener. If you haven't heard it, try it out, it's a really cool high-energy opener.

I made this loop for it, and had my friend Jake (@jake_eyler for the tweeters out there) play the guitar track. I looped it in ReCycle, so you need this rex file. When it asks you for it, point it to the right location and you're good to go. However, Kyle Campos (@kcampos) has pointed out on his blog that Reason has developed a cool new product called Record that will make using pre-recorded sound in the live setting way cooler. Look for new developments on that front to come.

Jesus Saves RNS
Jesus Saves Guitar Riff
Jesus Saves MP3
Jesus Saves split MP3

Jesus Paid It All - Remix

2009-04-13T08:48:00.002-05:00

So, I remade the intro to Jesus Paid It All so it flowed from True Love a little better. There's something about deep low-end piano sounds that has a triumphant feel to it. Worked like a charm on Easter Sunday and Saturday.

Jesus Paid It All - RNS
Jesus Paid It All - split - MP3
Jesus Paid It All - MP3

True Love

2009-03-03T22:29:00.002-06:00

So, here's a good example of simplicity. Often, simple is better than complex. Phil Wickham's song True Love is amazing, but there doesn't need to be much in the loop to carry it. Just a little bit of bass and some synth to complement the band is enough to add without distracting. Hope you can use it, we've used this loop for about a year or so. It almost follows Phil's version exactly, but it's more like this one from Fellowship Church:

True Love from Pace Hartfield on Vimeo.

True Love - RNS
True Love - MP3
True Love - Split MP3

Using These Loops?

2009-02-23T23:12:00.001-06:00

I've gotten a few emails/comments from folks using my loops, and I love seeing them in action. That's why I'm posting - so people will actually use them. If you're using them, just post a vid, like Chris did at Church at Viera. Thanks, dude.

Thoughts Immediately After Service

2009-02-22T12:18:00.002-06:00

Today is one of those days where I'm particularly struck by something in our worship sets. Today, it was for our ender, David Crowder's Wholly Yours. A while back I posted the loop I used, but that's not the topic for today.

Every now and then, lyrics finally make sense. The bridge lyrics are deep, meaningful, and extremely well-put. I can't really elaborate on them, so I'll just post them here. It's only too bad that you only sing them once in the song.

"But the harder I try, the more clearly can I
Feel the depth of our fall
And the weight of it all
And so this might could be
The most impossible thing:
Your grandness in me making me clean

"Glory, hallelujah,
Glory, glory hallelujah"

I just hope that whoever makes the musical decisions in heaven, on that glorious day picks this tune. In fact, now thinking about it, I'm sure this is one we'll all sing.

Today Is the Day

2009-01-28T23:30:00.003-06:00

So, we've done this tune twice now, and we're going to do it again this weekend! Our folks have loved it, and there's plenty of video online showing lead players how to play the solo in the middle that Lincoln plays. It's a great, fun tune, and hope you can use the loop, which uses some of my favorite patches.

Today Is the Day - RNS
Today Is the Day - AAC
Today Is the Day - split - AAC

Lifechurch voicemail

2009-01-21T19:21:00.002-06:00

Voice Mail Message by lifechurchtv

Bobby Gruenwald, the pastor of innovations at lifechurch.tv posted this interesting voice mail they received. Instant classic.

Beautiful the Blood

2009-01-16T13:27:00.002-06:00

Ok, Caleb tried it out, and he liked it, so I'm putting it up. I don't have much in the chorsues, but the band will play out there anyway. Let me know what you think, and hope you can use it.

It follows the Fee version, but we do it in B.

Beautiful the Blood - RNS
Beautiful the Blood - AAC
Beautiful the Blood - split - AAC

O Come Emmanuel

2008-12-05T20:41:00.002-06:00

Well, Merry Christmas. Last year we did O Come Emmanuel, and I forgot I had this loop. Have the band rock through verses 2 and 3, and stay out for the choruses...just rock where the loop comes in strong. I'm putting the chart up that we use, too.

O Come Emmanuel - DOC

O Come Emmanuel - RNS

O Come Emmanuel - MP3

O Come Emmanuel - split - MP3

All Because of Jesus

2008-10-31T21:32:00.003-05:00

Here's one of the oldest loops we've done... I played the synth parts, but most of the sequencing is John's work. I'll post it because some folks were asking for one on bwack's...hope you don't mind, John...

It's a little different than the album version, but if you have the reason file you can adjust it. Mostly, it's just the intro that's a little different. When our click comes in, the band should come in full, then back it off for the verse.

I also have the version 3 file (I saved them all when we updated) so I'm sending that on, too.

All Because of Jesus - RNS v3

All Because of Jesus - RNS

All Because of Jesus - split - MP3

All Because of Jesus - MP3

Happy Day

2008-10-09T09:56:00.003-05:00

Also thought I'd post this one (I know, two in a day), but here's a loop I made while the power was out in last year's ice storm. Laptop batteries and generators ftw!

Happy Day - C - RNS

Happy Day - C - MP3

Happy Day - C - split MP3

Love Is Here

2008-10-09T09:43:00.003-05:00

This song from Tenth Avenue North is really killer, and we're trying it out this weekend. Here's the loop I made a few days ago for it, hope you can use it. It's in A, not their key of B.

Cheers

Love Is Here - A - RNS

Love Is Here - A - MP3

Love Is Here - A - split - MP3

Set List, Aug. 9-10, 2008

2008-08-08T17:01:00.000-05:00

I thought I'd post our set list. We don't do the songs all in order, but 2 before the message, 1 before communion, 2 after, then a final one after announcements. So, that said, here's our set:

Awesome Is the Lord Most High (Chris Tomlin)
Cannons (Phil Wickham)
Lead Me to the Cross (Hillsong)
Beautiful Jesus (Kristian Stanfill)
Lord of All (Kristian Stanfill)
Faithful (Steve Fee)

Hope you all have great weekends...

Cannons

2008-08-07T11:22:00.004-05:00

I've moved this content over to Loop Community. To read why, visit this post.

To find this content, click here.

----------------------

I thought I'd post this one I've worked on a little. It's pretty simple, just strings, and a lo-fi rhodes. Our group loves this song, and we're going to make it one of our regular tunes (thanks, Alex for the recommendation).

Preview

Edit: PS, we do it in G, not Phil's key of A.

Recording

2008-07-29T01:30:00.002-05:00

Yep. I'm up at 1:30am working on our recording. We're making our first EP. After we installed the new sound system, we were all excited that we'd be able to make live recordings. I didn't realize at the time both how much fun it would be to work on an EP and how time consuming it would be. I guess I'll go another hour...

Cheers.

Jesus Paid It All

2008-07-22T17:51:00.003-05:00

We're doing Jesus Paid It All this weekend using igniter media's video. It's great work, and I'd recommend it to anyone. However, we wanted to use our click, change the key, and add some synth, so we had to put it into Final Cut, edit out the audio, then recompress it with our audio. It was pretty tricky to match their bpm. Here's the Reason file I made for it, with the whole arrangement ready to go. Watch their video for the arrangement, but it's probably exactly like what you've always done.

Jesus Paid It All - RNS

Jesus Paid It All - MP3

Jesus Paid It All - split - MP3

Also, buy it here on iTunes...

Faithful

2008-07-20T18:09:00.002-05:00

On Fee's We Shine album is a song we've done quite a bit, and this is one of the first I tried using ReCycle to make a sample that I would use in Reason. We were doing Faithful this weekend, and I thought I should post it. The beauty of using ReCycle is that it creates Rex loops that can be processed like any other device in Reason once it is exported. So, for the first part of the verse, the rhythm guitar is panned (listen to the "non-split" mp3) and has a different eq. Then, when the rest of the band comes in, it's deeper and centered.

Our arrangement is in B, and it follows this order:

V1, 1/2 CH, V2, CH, BR, CH, BR, 1/2 CH

To use the Reason file, you'll need the Rex file below.

Faithful - RNS

Faithful - intro guit - RX2

Faithful - MP3

Faithful - split MP3

Also, you can find Fee's song on iTunes here.

New Sound System

2008-07-15T22:09:00.002-05:00

Well, we looked at our funds and budget, so we're comfortable now replacing and adding to our sound system. Now we're running the drums and bass through the system, adding more in-ears, and realigning our whole setup. We're really excited about it, and eventually it'll lead to recording, podcasting, and lot of post-production work.

Cheers, and I hope you're all having a great summer. Stay cool, and have a great time with friends and family.

Glorious One

2008-07-08T18:07:00.004-05:00

This song is incredible. You have to have a couple awesome vocals to pull it off, and a rockin' band to match. Fee is a giant. The vocals on this album are so good. He does it in D on "We Shine", but I think most folks, including us, would do it in C. In fact, they do it in C on the North Point Live album, which is the arrangement I've followed. I originally built this loop in version 3, so I saved that file. I also made a few changes in version 4, so I've included that one too. I hope you can use it...

Glorious One v3 - RNS

Glorious One v4 - RNS

Glorious One - split - MP3

Glorious One - MP3

Buy it on iTunes here, or here. Support the artists!

Tears of the Saints - Video

2008-07-05T22:00:00.003-05:00

When Storm's Dad heard we were doing Leeland's Tears of the Saints, he said he'd be there. So, since he has a fairly active youtube profile, he has of course, uploaded what his home video camera caught. It's a pretty cool angle because it catches the video from the side screen. We're using MediaShout to synchronize the audio and video using a split audio signal (click left, track right). Anyway, I thought I'd post it, and hope you enjoy. You can find the loop down a few posts. If you want the video, email me. Cheers.

Edit: you can find the loop I used below on an earlier post.

Wholly Yours

2008-07-03T21:04:00.003-05:00

This is a little loop we're using this weekend. When Reason 4.0 came out, I was very excited to be able to change the tempo and the time signature in the middle of a loop. That makes it very easy to deal with time changes. In the previous version, you had to just move everything over, then ignore your measure numbers at the top of the sequencer (because they would be off by 2 beats, or whatever). So, for songs like Wholly Yours that have 2/4 measures in them, the measure numbers now line up. Well, I'm probably too analytical to be practical, but little things like that make me happy...

Anyway, here's the loop we're using this weekend.

Wholly Yours - RNS

Wholly Yours - MP3

Wholly Yours - split - MP3

Tears of the Saints

2008-06-29T13:41:00.003-05:00

If you haven't done this song, you should do it, and make a special spot for it, because it is amazing. Leeland's Tears of the Saints is an incredible tune with such poetic lyrics. We made a video that we synchronized with the loop using Media Shout to project it. The loop works, but the string part are not quoted exactly as the album. I'm sure we'll do this song again, and I'll write the string parts out for the quartet at some point, too. We did it in G, not B. Hope you can use the loop.

Tears of the Saints - RNS

Tears of the Saints - MP3

Tears of the Saints - split - MP3

Spring of Life

2008-06-26T21:47:00.003-05:00

Here's a quick video I'd like to put up, just to show it. This is Storm Davis, leading at our church, and his Dad put up the video he took from the crowd. There's no audio post-production, just the audio from the camera, so I hope you enjoy...

Also, here's the loop I used. Hope if works for you...

Spring of Life - RNS

Spring of Life - MP3

Spring of Life - split - MP3

Video background music

2008-06-20T20:53:00.004-05:00

So, this week we needed some music for a video background. We're using a video as a transition, and needed some audio that grew dramatically, then tapered off, so, I used a few of my favorite patches, then put this together.

Interesting things, it didn't playback on my hp laptop I usually use for Reason, so I had to move to the MacPro in the office for the faster processor. It contains a lot of involved combinators, so it was processor intensive. I also wanted to add reverb and distortion in different levels for different sounds in a ReDrum kit, so I patched each individual channel output into a channel on a new mixer. It's a bit tedious, but you can really tweak it out that way.

RNS

MP3

Let God Arise

2008-06-14T10:19:00.003-05:00

Here's the loop for Let God Arise that we're using this weekend. The arrangement is like the live version on the newest passion album. We thought we'd take out one of the pre-choruses at the bridge. If you need a different arrangement or key and you don't have Reason, let me know, and I can export more. I'll let you know how using it goes for us after this weekend... If you're looking for interesting things in this loop, I use ReDrum to trigger a clap patch in Subtractor using CV input. It's not overly cool or revolutionary, but new for me to use live...

Let God Arise RNS

Let God Arise - A MP3

Let God Arise - A - split MP3

Tornado Damage

2008-06-12T13:51:00.003-05:00

If you live in the midwest, you know that you have to watch the weather closely. Especially during the spring. Last night, about 11pm, we had a pretty significant tornado roll through the Manhattan area. You hear on the news occasionally about destruction like this, but it's a completely different thing to find yourself coming out from the basement and damage covers your city. Here's some pics:

My Big Fall

2008-06-11T07:51:00.004-05:00

While at Junior High camp, we thought we'd take a nice hike through the mountains... Sounds innocent enough, until my friend Craig made a make-shift bridge with a log over a ravine. Calling it a ravine is a bit of a stretch, because I could have simply walked across it without a log bridge. Anyway, the result was a nearly broken nose, the end of the hike, and really broken pride. This is the video my friend John took of the attempt.

Hope you enjoy...

Center and Beautiful Lord

2008-06-08T16:57:00.003-05:00

This weekend was a lot of fun. We did Charlie Hall's Center and Leeland's Beautiful Lord, in addition to others. Really great and moving tunes; one is powerful in it's simplicity and poignant lyrics, the other in it's passion and emotional poetry.

Here's the loops we used this weekend:

Beautiful Lord - split MP3

Beautiful Lord MP3

Cheers, and I hope you can use them...

Jr High Camp

2008-05-27T22:28:00.003-05:00

Hi all. We're in Westcliffe, CO leading worship at a junior high camp. 2 guitars, bass, drums, keys, and Reason, FireWire 1814, and 2 Sennheiser in-ears. Good times...

Coming out to the mountains is a huge, relaxing, wonderful reminder that God is truly awesome and has created the most amazing, wonderful things for us to enjoy.

Good night from the peaceful, gigantic, triumphant Rocky mountain range.

The Time Has Come for ReCycle

2008-05-22T15:28:00.000-05:00

I had said I would post the loop I made for The Time Has Come, and I will, but I think that title is now more significant... Not only has the time come to "stand for all we believe in," but the time has come for us to use ReCycle. I just found that M-Audio has completed the Leopard driver for our FireWire 1814, so once I get ReCycle in from propellerhead, I'll start putting in more guitar tracks.

As far as The Time Has Come, the arrangement is just like the album, and is in A. Our bass player plays the bass part live, so I didn't feel the need to add it (although I might consider it after getting ReCycle up and running).

Cheers, and I hope all of your weekend experiences go wonderfully...

The Time Has Come RNS

The Time Has Come MP3

The Time Has Come MP3 - split

We Shine

2008-05-21T11:39:00.003-05:00

(Edited 06.16.11)

I've moved this content over to Loop Community. Read more about the move on this post.

Use this link to access the We Shine content!

----------

Ok, so I saw a post on bwack's that was asking for a We Shine (Steve Fee) loop, so I decided to export the ones I had done a few months ago. With a few changes, all I did was export, upload, and post them.

I want to give you some options for using them. Playing the song in D (like on the album) may be too high for you or your audience, so I'm going to include the transposed to C version. The arrangement is just like the album, so I hope you enjoy...

We Shine Preview

I also have a Time Has Come loop, so I'll post that tomorrow...

It Just Depends

2008-05-19T13:25:00.000-05:00

What goes in the loop? What is played live? It depends on your situation. Do you want to make it "just like the album" or do you want to enhance the album cut, adding some creativity? Each might be a valid choice.

Here's a loop I made for Beautiful Jesus. The arrangement is just like the album, but I've added some favorite patches that give this the UCC "brand."

Beautiful Jesus MP3

Beautiful Jesus RNS

Also, here's the link to Matt's blog. He sparked my thinking on bwack's forum.

On another note, we did Salvation Is Here this weekend, and used igniter media's video. If you haven't checked them out, they've got some pretty cool stuff. Especially check out their video for Jesus Paid It All.

Split Keyboard

2008-05-16T00:06:00.000-05:00

Last week we did The Stand, but only used the chorus as a build to another section of the service. Before our rehearsal, we weren't sure how many times we would play through the chorus before moving on. I didn't have the luxury of programming every bit of the synth/bass combination I normally would use for the style of The Stand.

Because I intended on playing it live, I split the keyboard using the programmer on the combinator and assigned one portion to the bass and another portion to the synth. I played it live (not with Live, which would be entirely different... ;) ) and we were able to use the sounds which would normally be assigned to the loop and click track. If you want to download and play this patch, make sure you play a very legato style with your left hand to keep the bass from sounding too punchy.

Huge synth RNS

The idea of splitting the keyboard isn't revolutionary, or excellent by itself, but using the resources around you is an important aspect of making your services remarkable.

Hope all of your weekend experiences go well...

Sharing Music Content

2008-05-14T01:15:00.000-05:00

I have a passion to provide musical excellence in worship. Conveying the Gospel message through music requires a high level of excellence to be effective. Creating quality content is an important aspect of maintaining musical excellence.

I hope to provide some of the music content that has been successful at our church. This includes loops, click tracks, orchestral arrangements, and creative ideas.

For our live experiences, we always use the split-signal method using Reason 4. The click is in the left channel, and the loop is in the right channel. To use it, just split the signal to two different channels, then send the click to the in-ear monitors and the loop to the house mix (or to the monitors also as the musicians desire it). The cues we use for the worship leader and band are simple. Start singing or playing after the double-time click comes in. End the song one measure after the click runs out.

Two weeks ago we did Lifehouse's Everything. The arrangement is just like the album, but I hardly ever try to make the loop sound exactly like the album because I have some favorite patches and sounds I like to use. In place of the tremolo guitar on the album, there's an ambient, delayed rhodes patch.

Everything RNS

Everything MP3

Somewhere around 6 months ago, another church, H2Ochurch.tv (my Dad's the Lead Pastor, also involved in LifeChurch.tv's One Prayer initiative) asked me to make a loop for Fee's Happy Day. This loop is also just like the album. For the final chorus, after the drop-out and huge drum fill, repeat back to the top of the chorus (like the album) and end after playing the chorus like you would normally. If you have any questions, email or comment...

Happy Day RNS

Happy Day MP3