Well, it’s 4pm and I’m done for the day.  I worked through lunch so I’m hanging it up just an hour early or so.  I’m heading out to the gym for stress-free workout.  But I did have a busy day so I thought I would give you a glimpse (whether you asked for one or not) into my day.  Note: If you’re not a musician, worship leader, or in full-time ministry this will probably bore you to death.  Be warned. 

9:00am - dropped my daughter off at school.  Staff meeting for today was cancelled so I drove home, had a quick breakfast and checked my e-mails.  Corresponded with a worship leader in Australia regarding a sound manual, retrieved my phone messages and made a couple calls.  One call to Jason, the video guy at our church and arranged to meet him down in Orlando to pick up the video camera that he borrowed.

9:30 - driving to Kirkland exit to meet Jason.  Made a few more phone calls - one to a worship leader friend, Joey, to talk about his service yesterday.  Turns out it went really well.  If you don’t remember Joey you can check out his podcast interview here.

10:15 - met Jason at Universal theme park to get camera.  Stopped in the middle of the road, almost got killed (j/k) exchanging the camera - must’ve looked like a drug deal going down to everyone around us.

10:30 - shot additional video footage for a video that I’m editing on the SlingShot fun-ride that my pastor and I went on last week.  It’s a creative element that I’m doing in support of a message series that we are in called, “The Ride of Your Life.”

11:00 - lunch at Wendy’s (chicken sandwich, no mayo & a Diet Coke) now driving to Sam Ash to get some supplies for the band and tech ministry.

11:30ish - Arrive as Sam Ash, need to get the following items: Single pole speaker stands (didn’t have them in stock), drum-mount mic clips, Shure 57 replacement clips, 14-gauge speaker cable with Speakon attachment, headphone amp (for Loopstation), 2 instrument cables (20ft), 2 pack Elixir Polyweb string packs in custom light gauge.  The whole trip takes about 1 hour or so as the guy is looking around for all this stuff for me.

12:30 - driving back to my home office.

1:30 - answer several new e-mails, return a couple phone calls.  Then I spent some time working on my way overdue financial reimbursement reports,  drew up my set list for this week, researched some drama possibilities for upcoming services, re-wrote a drama idea handed to me by someone from the church.  I also imported video from the shoot in the afternoon, imported the audio message from last Sunday, edited it, bounced it (rendered it), though I have yet to upload it.

That about bring me to now.  Not a bad day…busy but I suppose busy is good.  Tonight I have youth band practice from 6:30-8:00.  After that I’m out to my friend Steve’s for a night of HALO.  HALO is, of course, not work-related but it’s a blast.  We get about 8-10 people networked together for the game and we’re usually there until midnight or so.

Well, that’s all for today.  Don’t forget to check out yesterday’s PODCAST if you’re interested in compression techniques for live worship sound. 

Peace to you all,

Phil

Ever heard someone say, “that vocalist was just way too loud!”  Or, “I couldn’t even hear the guitar…” Or, ”the mix was fine but everytime the chorus came around the singers were drowned out by that electric guitar!”  Well…welcome to the world of the worship leader.  I’m joking but only somewhat.  Clearly it is the responsibility of most worship leaders, whether volunteer, part-time, or full-time, to manage the overall sound of the worship band during each service.  In most cases, this means managing a group of volunteers who will run the sound board and control the level of each musician or vocalist on the stage.  Given the wide range of styles and range of abilities that exist within such a group of volunteers this can seem like an almost impossible task.  One of the tools available to the worship leader and sound team is the use of compression on specific channels to control the dynamic range of sound that may occur during any given performance. 

Most of this podcast is an interview with a great friend of mine named, Greg Martin.  Greg is an unbelievable guitar player but he also has an extensive background in music, music production, and mastering.  He attended Berkley School of Music in the 90’s and then spent 4 years working in a full-fledged mastering facility, working with music full-time.  While this interview really just scratches the surface of what there is to know about a compressor it is a good introduction to the device and should serve to give you an idea of how it can be used within the worship setting. 

 DOWNLOAD BWL EPISODE 4 PODCAST- CLICK HERE NOW!

Here are some of the resources mentioned in the podcast.  These links track to Amazon in case you’re interested in purchasing.  The link to the dbx Compression 101 PDF is free, of course!

• dbx Compression 101 PDF Document
• Live Sound Reinforcement by Mixbooks
• Sound Reinforcement Handbook by Yamaha
• Basic Mixing Techniques by Paul White
• DBX Compressors
• Greg Martin’s Email address - richard.martin@nextel.com

I hope this podcast is helpful to you.  Like I mention during the recording, please feel free to drop me a line anytime, whether you have a question or a comment or if you would like to share your own experience with compressors and mixing.

Stay tuned for next Thursday’s podcast on the use of EQ within the live worship setting.  Until then, peace to you all.

-Phil

For anyone who was hoping for a new podcast today I must ask you to wait just one more day.  I had my friend, Greg Martin, booked in the studio this week to record a two part series on using EQ and compression within the context of the live worship setting.  We originally scheduled for a Tuesday night taping so I could make my Thursday deadline but Greg had to take off to Nashville for a couple of days so we delayed until Thursday night.  Then his plane was delayed last night so that session was scrapped as well.  However, we are scheduled to record the podcast tonight and hopefully I’ll have part one ready for the Internet by Saturday afternoon.  Our plan is to stay fairly technical and practical with the discussion.  My hope is that you’ll be ready to take some information with you to your next practice or worship service that you can put into play right away.

In the meantime I’ve decided to play around with some video ideas.  I’ve had some plans to shoot some video helps for a while now but found myself trying to get the podcasting thing down first.  While digging around on my computer yesterday I found some old videos that I actually shot about two years ago with another friend of mine, Dave Sims.  At the time of the filming, Dave was just finishing school in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  An accomplish bassist, song writer, arranger and performer, I hired him to play bass for a yearly worship gig that I play each year in Michigan.  It’s kinda funny but this video was filmed long before http://www.baldworshipleader.com/ but even then I had this desire to do something in the way of a worship “help site” or whatever you want to call it.  After that weekend gig I convinced Dave to come and work with me in Orlando as an intern in the worship ministry at LifePoint Christian Church and a few months later he and his wife packed their bags and moved down to Florida.  Last year Dave attended FullSail, a highly specialized school for recording arts, and graduated with a degree in Sound Recording.  Just a few weeks ago he moved out to Tennessee to work at Dark Horse Studios, one of the top studios in Nashville.  To all you bass players out there - listen to what he has to say ’cause he’s really one of the best bass players that I’ve ever had the opportunity to jam with and no doubt he is going places career-wise.  God has blessed him big-time.  Just in case you’re interested in contacting him for some reason, you can reach him at dasims@gmail.com.

Due to some limitations in video editing gear I’m only able to post the videos in WMV format (sorry Mac people!) but hopefully I’ll be able to expand and make these available for all you cool people with iPod Videos.  If you have any problems receiving the videos please contact me at phil@baldworshipleader.com.

God Bless,

Phil