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2004
began with more time spent down under the racks and in the
machine room, installing our new HD3/Accel system, along
with Mac OS 10.3.2, and Pro Tools 6.2.3. (Hard to keep track
of all those numbers, isn’t it!) The new system gives
us more DSP power, much better hardware, 48 inputs (up from
40 in the old system), and great new plugins. Installation
went especially well, with lots of help from Spunky Brunone
and James Martin at Brook Mays Professional in Dallas.
While
the system was being installed, I took off to Birmingham,
Alabama with my portable RADAR based system for a recording
project with Shades Mountain Baptist Church. The
music director and worship leader there is Michael Adler,
who has been a friend for many years. They have a control
room built in between the choir room and orchestra rehearsal
room, much like the setup at Prestonwood.
Jim
Morris, the all-around technical guru for the church helped
me set up, and we worked with a great bunch of musicians
and singers to produce a really nice project. There is a
great original song by Michael entitled “An Audience
of One”, and several contemporary versions of hymns,
including a pennywhistle/accordion version of “My Jesus
I Love Thee”, and a great jazz version of “He
Lives”. 
Steve
Gunn and Michael arranged the tracks for choir and orchestra,
and the final product is really great. For more information
on this project, log on to the church site at www.shades.org.
In
the middle of the Shades Mountain project, I took a little
break to drive down to Mobile to visit several friends at
Integrity Music. It was a great opportunity to see their
studio, visit friends, and meet several new people. I even
enjoyed the drive through the Alabama countryside, since
the heat and humidity of summer were several months away.
From
the balmy winter weather of Alabama, we headed straight
to the frozen north; to Indianapolis, where there was already
lots of snow on the ground, and more expected. This was
my first visit in several years to Indiana Bible College,
and their music program, under the direction of Lindel
Anderson, has really come a long way in that time. 
The
band, choir, and soloists were all students, and they were
all excellent. The live event played to a packed house at
Calvary Tabernacle, in spite of the snow, and the
recording process went off without a hitch, with thanks
due to Vinny Di Nome and his crew. Vinny is a student at
IBC, but also a professional sound mixer, and he put together
a great team of students to handle the sound, lights, and
video.
There
are several original songs on this project, a great choir,
and some really great soloists. The real highlight of my
time in Indianapolis was a visit from my wife, Audrey. She
braved the frozen landscape to visit while we were working
on overdubs in our temporary studio setup in the church,
then left for a couple of days to visit a friend in a nearby
town in Kentucky. We were also visited by Barry Pike, a
friend who operates the Crouse-Kimzey Mid-America location
in nearby Lynn, Indiana. His visit prompted one of our many
trips to Shapiro’s Delicatessen, which is located about
6 blocks from the church. Shapiro’s alone is a good
enough reason to visit Indianapolis, snow or not, but there
is much more to enjoy in this great city. Even in the dead
of winter, Indianapolis is a great place to be.
From
Indianapolis, we returned to Dallas to start mixing. Since
the live event and overdubs went so well, mixing was a lot
easier, and we got to use our new system for the first time.
I especially like the new Renaissance Channel by Waves,
Analog Channel by McDsp, Reverb One, and Impact, a new mix
buss compressor that is similar to the stereo buss compressor
on an SSL console. I used Impact at a 2:1 ratio to compact
the sound just a bit, then hit Master X to finalize for
the CD master. The result is an incredibly punchy, yet dynamic
mix. For more information on this project, log onto www.indianabiblecollege.org.
We
finished the IBC mix just in time to get ready for the new
Christ for the Nations project, the first under the
direction of new worship leader Klaus Kuehn. I have
been working with CFNI for about 12 years now, and this
may be their best project yet. We have done many projects
with a great anointing, and many with great songs, but this
may be the best combination of great songwriting, and a
wonderful, Holy Spirit filled live event.
From
the first notes of “Make Our Praise Glorious”,
this project is special. All of the musicians and singers
are students, faculty, and a few alumni, and they all came
together to be a part of a wonderful worship experience.
This year we recorded during the regular Night of Worship,
which is held on the second Friday of each month on the
campus in Dallas. The CFNI School of Worship and Technical
Arts, which has a studio next door, is beginning to
record every Night of Worship, with the intention of releasing
several projects of the best moments from those times, with
a particular emphasis on prophetic songs and original compositions
by the students. Almost all of the songs on this project
were written by students and staff, and the final product
will be available around the first of May in CD, VHS, and
DVD formats. For more info, log onto www.cfnmusic.com,
call 1-800-GODSONG, or check your local Christian
music store later in the summer.
While
everyone else left campus for spring break, I shifted gears
to go back to the Shades Mountain project for the
mix. This gave me a chance to test the limits of my new
Pro Tools system, since the project had almost 90 tracks
of audio! I also used Altiverb for the first time, which
is a new reverb plugin that was purchased at the same time
as the new system. They call it an HTDM plugin, but I was
very surprised to learn that this is basically a native
plugin, drawing on your CPU for its DSP power, which doesn’t
work when your system is up against its limits. I like the
sound of the reverbs fairly well, but this limitation makes
the plugin pretty impractical for me. Oh well, it’s
only money!
During
most of March, I was working in the daytime, and Marco
Barrientos was recording a new project at night. We
had a 24 hour schedule going, with me working from 6 AM
until 6 PM, when Armando and Julian, Marco’s engineer
and producer, would come in and take over. It is really
fulfilling for me to have the studio busy all the time,
but having to wake up at 5 AM to go to work is for the birds!
Of course, I actually came home while it was still daylight
on some of those days, so that was a good thing.
Marco
and I go way back. My first project with him was an Integrity
recording, produced by Steven V. Taylor, and recorded at
Amistad Cristiana, Marco’s church in Mexico City. It
was there that I met Marco and his brother, Luis. The project
was memorable for several reasons, including my day long
fight with Mexican customs, which finally cost me $300.00.
I thought it best not to tell them that if they had just
asked for the $300.00 at 8 AM, I would have gladly paid
it, since losing the day cost me a lot more than $300.00!
This
new project is a lot like a live recording, only recorded
in the studio. Everyone set up and played together, with
a definite atmosphere of spontaneous worship and creativity,
and the resulting project is a very intimate worship experience,
although not recorded live. I’m no expert at identifying
trends in music or anything else, but I think this might
be an example of one. Many
of my favorite worship projects of recent years are not
live recordings, but still have a great connection with
the audience; that audience being the listener at home.
For more information on this project and Marco’s ministry,
log onto aliento.org.
We
also had a visit from Roger Hodges and his band to
record the first tracks for a new project benefitting Youth
for the Nations, a summer outreach program sponsored
by CFNI. Roger, Josh Franklin, Josh Muraia, and Dragan,
the guitarist from the band “Radiant” spent two
fun-filled days making some great music happen. All of these
guys are CFNI graduates, and it was great to see them again,
and to record two songs to start the project off in a good
way. You can find out more about Roger’s ministry at
rogerhodges.com, and find out more about YFN at www.youthforthenations.com.
As
we finish the first quarter, we are working on another project
with Hear the Word Church from Zimbabwe. The first one remains
one of my favorite projects ever, so I can’t wait to
get into the next one.
As
we post this update, which we are now trying to do at the
end of each quarter, we are off to Brasil again, to record
at the Diante do Trono worship conference. More about
this and other interesting projects in our next update,
which will be posted at the end of June.
