I’ve moved!

Okay, not just to Virginia, I’ve now moved my blog to my own website. From now on all new content will be published at www.allthingsnewministries.org/blog. Existing content will still be at both sites for a while, but eventually I will disable this site so as not to diffuse my search engine results.

See you there!

Rob

2011 in review

Crazy thing is I only posted once every other month in 2011 and still averaged 1000 hits per month. Hopefully this year will be more prolific.

 

Happy New Year,  Rob

 

The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog.

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 12,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Project Studio Upgrades, Pt. 3 – Keyboards

This is the third installment of my studio upgrade series.

Part 1: Microphones

Part 2: Preamps and Channel Strips

Part 4: Mixers and Audio Interfaces

Part 5: Computers, DAW’s and Control Surfaces

Part 6: Monitoring and Acoustic Treatment

Now on to my favorite part of this list and the one I have probably the most experience with: keyboards! I’m talking synths and MIDI controllers and digital pianos and even more.

Project Studio Upgrades, Pt. 2 – Preamps and Channel Strips

This is the second installment of my studio upgrade series.

Part 1: Microphones

Part 3: Keyboards, Synths and Controllers

Part 4: Mixers and Audio Interfaces

Part 5: Computers, DAW’s and Control Surfaces

Part 6: Monitoring and Acoustic Treatment

In the first installment we changed acoustic signals in the air into electric signals in a wire. There’s still a step to take before we can record this signal.

Prelude:From the Rising

When I first started the concept that would become Moments with Him, I knew that I wanted to include interspersed instrumental interludes (which is somewhat ironic since almost the entire project is instrumental – these just aren’t hymns.)

Anyway, I knew that these interludes would all be called “Interlude:” and then the name, such as Majestic. The exception would be this opening track, which would be called Prelude: From the Rising, and be characterized by an upward-moving motif on the piano, and that’s what I started writing.

Give A Little Bit

Hey, my buddy Will has begun posting live videos from a recent concert. Here’s a cover of a classic Supertramp song, Give a Little Bit.

Check it out:
http://www.willsongs.com/live/GiveALittleBit/

Project Studio Upgrades, Pt. 1 – Microphones

I’m baaack. My life has been in transition for the last several months, but I’m now at a point where I have some free time on my hands. Yes, I’ve been laid off.  So, being laid off with no immediate income, it seemed a perfect time to fantasize about spending a large load of cash on a dream project studio. Why not, eh? This post has gone through several revisions, so let’s see what we’ve got.

Home Recording Podcasts Redux

Since my first post on Podcasts that concentrate on aspects of home recording, I’ve discovered a few more that are worth passing on.

Every Day

My wife celebrated her birthday a few weeks ago. It also happened to be the 20th anniversary of our engagement. I’ve been wanting to write for her a song for some time, and this seemed the right occasion.

So, how does one sum up 20 years in a 3 1/2 minute song? Not easily, I can tell you. This is also the first time I sat down to write a song about something not starting with a melody, or phrase, or hook to begin the process.

This Is My Father’s World

Skip to the end if you don’t like the technical details…

The lyrics to this hymn were written in 1901 by Pastor Maltbie Babcock who would hike in upstate New York seeing “his Father’s World.” The melody was added in 1915 by Franklin Sheppard. I love this sweet English melody – it reminds me of Vaughn Williams.

Some months ago when I was paging through a hymnal looking for hymns that took my fancy for this project, My Father’s World jumped out at me not only as appealing, but I immediately knew what instrumentation I wanted to use – recorder lead and hammered dulcimer accompaniment. Of course, I cannot do anything simply, so the arrangement built. First came a flute harmony, then a solo violin countermelody, doubled by a glockenspiel to help it sing nicely. Then I added a string section and piano (gotta have a piano).