Recording the Band LIVE!

Let me be up-front on this. You aren't going to like this article.  I'm not going to give you the key to making an album you can sell from some random concert or Sunday that is going to sound awesome. This is not an article for audiophiles. In fact, it's going to tell you how to do this in a way that will alienate you from audiophiles.

If you want to record something that sounds like you recorded in a studio, record in a studio.

If you want to have something that you can listen to you band and say, "That sounded pretty good," and you're not going to care that it doesn't sound the same as it did in the room, keep reading.

First, I'm going to tell you what you're up against:

• Without a significant investment, you won't capture what you hear in the room. You just don't have the mics. So much of what you listen to depends on the room.
• There is no such thing as a really good live rock band sound.  It's just hard to get right in the room. To take that same equipment to make a signal that sounds good anywhere is just nearly impossible.
• Monitor speakers interfere with isolation.
• And you won't have any real isolation.

Since the FOH (Front of House) mixer's job is to provide sound to the room, the secondary task of recording will almost always take a backseat. 

That said, here's some advice I can give about recording a live band into something that will be tollerable.

• You need to have a person dedicated to recording during set-up and sound check.  You can't use someone in the band, and you can't use the FOH engineer - they're too busy.  I've tried it.
• Using just the FOH mix will not give you what you want.  It will likely be overly vocal heavy, not in stereo, and mixed for the room.
• Record each channel individually if you can. I used my MOTU Traveler and a Berhinger AD/DA box, though there are better options out there.  This gave me 16 channels at 48khz. This takes a LOT of time to set-up.  You need inserts on the main mixer that are not taken up by things like compressors and ample cabling to make it happen. Other options include newer firewire mixers like the Mackie ONYX or... almost anything else on the market. The hard thing is going to be setting your levels to something nominal since the FOH mixer will be set for something.
• Other options: M-Audio and other companies make small stereo, portable recorders that can record the room and give you a good idea of your sound in the room without the need for going to the lengths I describe above.

Ideas for Sunday, April 27th, 2008

"If you love me, you will keep my commandments."

This Sunday, Jesus speaks to us about the Holy Spirit, the Advocate. He speaks to loving Him through keeping His commandments.

Opening: Shout to the North

Psalm: Let All the Earth Cry Out (Angrisano)

Offertory: Alive In You (Maher)

Communion: Jesus, Wine of Peace (Haas)

Closing: Send Your Spirit Down

I wrote a song last year specifically for this weekend, next weekend, and Pentecost called "Send Your Spirit Down". (Available at http://www.myspace.com/artleonard). Check it out. Sheet music is available via email - just leave a comment.

My Cheap In-Ear Monitoring Solution

You've all seen these great systems for in-ear monitors. They're fantastic and the even cooler thing is that they WORK. They reduce the overall volume and allow you to focus on making music.

Systems run at around $300 - 2000 per transmitter / receiver / headphone set depending on wireless needs (2 - 8 channels), mixing capability built into the base unit, and interference handling. I have heard mixed things about baseline units, basically that if more than two people are using them, there are issues with interference and reliability.

When I was having trouble hearing myself, I figured it was time to invest in a better way to hear myself.

But problems I've had with in-ear solutions are:

• They are too expensive for most Catholic bands
• Are dedicated to individuals, so when you have higher turnover in your band, it can be problematic
• If you add someone to the band at the last minute and they don't have the monitors, they can't participate
• A drummer isolated from the room doesn't know how loud they are in the room.
• They can be a mixing nightmare as the sound-man needs to tend o individual mixes.

So, I actually come up with a solution that is inexpensive, and simple to use. It doesn't solve all of the above problems, but it does drop the cost.

I had to give up on wireless to keep the cost down. I sit at a piano. It's not a problem for me to be tethered. Same with the drums. I can even do it on guitar and have had great results.

So, what do I use?

I have a Rolls PM351 Personal Monitoring Station (~$99), Shure e2c in-ear headphones (~$99), and a headphone extension cord (~$8). This is probably the cheapest set-up I have seen yet.

The PM351 allows me to plug my mic and an instrument in as well as a monitor. My mic then has a THROUGH port to go to the sound system, as well as the instrument (which comes out as balanced, so I don't need a separate DI box!). The sound engineer then builds a mix like he normally would, and I take my monitor mix from the same mix as the singers. I can then blend my own voice and instrument with theirs, adjusting it up or down. My mixer some something interesting with phase inversion that allows me to adjust my own voice independent, even if my voice is there in the monitor mix!

The end result is for $207 + tax, I have a personal in-ear monitor system that works for my voice as well as my instrument. I have also used the Rolls PM51 which is the same as the PM351, but without the instrument input for about $59. That means you can do this for a singer for only $167 + tax.

There are tons of expensive systems out there that will run circles around the proposal I have here, like the AVIOM system.

I'm talking about a cheap solution.

I suppose it might be cheaper just to tell the drummer what I think about his volume control... ;-)

Warm-Ups!

We all hate that cacophony that preludes a rehearsal or performance the warm-up. The incoherent din that precedes a all that we do - that gobbledygook of noise is actually all NECESSARY.

This morning, I got to play along with St. Jude's again on the song, "Don't Wait 'Till the Battle Is Over". It was tons of fun. I was just playing the one song at the ned of mass. The problem is I haven't been playing piano every week, and while it hasn't made me rusty per-se, it has made it so my muscles are not always ready to go on notice.

I got a 2 minute warm-up with the choir before mass. I then sat out for the rest of mass to sit with my family. When the choir came to the final song, I came up and played. It's an energetic setting made buy the Total Experience Gospel Choir in Seattle. It was awesome and it rocked (can a song" Gospel"?).

The issue I had was that over the course of this 5+ minute song, my forearms began to hurt something fierce. I've hit this more and more recently where my arms just aren't getting the exercise they used to. When we got to the end of the song, I was just in pain. I made it, but if I had had to go on to play something else, it would have been very difficult and would have affected my playing.

So, what am I getting at?

Before you start rehearsal or mass, take a few minutes to warm up. We all like the silence and want to communicate, but we as musicians need time to warm up our muscles. This is no replacement for rehearsal during the week, but it's still important to get the blood flowing to those places where we need it before we actually need it. This is not an opportunity to launch into the most daring work of the day.

• Drums - practice a couple rudiments
• Bass & Guitar - Work on a couple scales together
• Piano / Keys - Warm up the singers
• Singers - Warm up with a few scales and vocal exercises.

Each one of these deserves an article in an of itself.

Sing That Song in Your Heart

This is as much for me as it is for anyone else.

My daughter has been bugging me that she needs to use the piano to "write a song". I keep telling her to sing it to herself first, and then we can work on the music.

So often I get this wrong myself! I'll pick up the guitar or piano first, let my hands fall into their typical shapes and after about 15 minutes wonder if there is any originality left in me. I get bummed and go do something else.

Recently, I picked up a demo of MasterWriter, a song writing tool. I used it for the first time the other night and after a while, started writing lyrics. It was again frustrating, but it got me thinking about themes and stuff to sing about. When I net got down to the keyboard and guitar, I had an idea in my head about what I wanted to say - and started playing things that I hadn't played before because I had new ideas!

The thing I can say is before you start to write, try figuring out what's in your heart and head... do something crazy like hum it out loud. Don't play a chord until you get an idea of where your head wants to go!

This got me thinking in new ways again. I like thinking in new ways - it gets the creative juices flowing!

Voc-robatics

Voc-robatics - My abbreviation for VOCal aCROBATICS. This is the time-honored tradition embraced by gospel choirs for a soloist to ad-lib. I've used this term is a bit negatively, but done sparingly and well, it can be a good method to take your group "to the next level" of performance.

Getting your ministry "to the next level" shouldn't be your goal - not if it is in conflict with obtaining the universal cohesion of praise with your congregation. What I'm saying is, "Beware." Self indulgence hides behind the door - be careful when opening. Our first job is to get everyone in the congregation to sing with their hearts.

First of all, the melody must be solid. Someone in the group must since what the congregation is singing, and it has got to be the strongest sound in the group.

With that, there's a couple guide points to pay attention to:

• CHOIR: Keep on the melody and what you want the people to sing. Make sure the melody stands out above all else.
• SOLO: Add color, but do not thwart the balance of getting the people to sing. Wow... how to not distract here... I'm not sure how...

With that... um, for those that have wondered why we didn't do more of this back at St. Vinnie's - this is why.  It's not the talent in the group, it's how to do the trick of balancing performance with relevance and leadership.

Virtual Instruments - I'm Gloating

Easter Sunday. St. Jude's Gospel Choir. I offered to bring some fat B3 sounds to the sound for Easter. I brought:

• My trusty Korg Triton Pro
• My M-Audio 49-key controller
• My Apple MacBook Pro with Logic Studio 8 and a MOTU Traveler.

The sound was great - at least from where I was.  The Triton was up and running great, but I had weird problems with the FireWire until the second song of mass and things started...working.  (Word to the wise, having the Triton was a great backup plan!) Here's the breakdown on what I did:

Anything that required drawbar control went from the M-Audio Oxygen49 through the Mac.  I did this for light stuff or stuff that needed to stick out dynamically using Logic Studio 8's new Main Stage plug-in host and the EVB3 Hammond simulator.  I re-assigned my controllers on the M-Audio to control the drawbars in the plug-in.

Everything else that needed to be subtle, dirty, or very predictable from my perspective was the Triton because I needed only one control - volume.

In the end, things worked out well.  The only thing that would have been odd would be that the sounds of the TWO organs would not coincide really with the amp or the rotation speeds, but people listening to the choir weren't really any the wiser, I don't think. 

Get the Vocals Together

A couple things to remember when putting voices together. Any group of more than one vocalist must:

• Agree on the rhythm
• Agree on the diction
• Agree on the pitch
• Agree on the style
• Agree on the balance

Harmonies are great. Nail all of these and then multiply by harmonies.

Random Thoughts on Drumming

Nothing more controversial than drums in church. I'm going to keep this brief and just cause a riot. There are lots of things to try if you had forgotten these. It's all good.

• Brushes
• Hot Rods(tm)
• Deadening Rings / materials
• Sound booth
• Carpet or heavy material BEHIND the drummer
• Shield in front of the drummer
• Mics for overheads / snare / Kick at least
• Jazz (7a) sticks
• Just play quieter
• Don't play on everything.  Be willing to just sit out a song.
• Put the hi-hat everyone else's in the monitor so they can hear subdivisions
• Leave space
• Use in-ear monitors so the drum monitor isn't loud
• Light cymbals
• Play with a drum machine or a loop in your ear monitors (Boss Dr. Rhythm or another drum machine)
• Research linear patterns for new, simple challenges
• Make sure you pray
• Check with other people and be open to balance issues
• Make sure that prayer is not second to the emotion of drumming.  It should be first.
• Listen.

Checklist for Music Planning

Before I like to call a mass plan done, I like to run over the following check-list:

• Do the selections reinforce the readings?
• Is our Psalm selection true to the reading?
• Do our selections coincide with the presider's homily?
• Do we have the proper instrumentation this particular week?
• Can we engage the people to worship musically?
• Do we have the proper licenses?
• Are we repeating material too much / not enough?
• Are we trying to branch out to new music, bringing people to experience Christ in new and relevant perspectives?
• Does the liturgy flow properly?

Most importantly, will we be able to make it out of the parking lot without being excommunicated or stoned for our choices?

God bless you in your ministry. Wear comfy running shoes.

Foods for Singers to Avoid on Sundays

• Dairy
• Pop
• Caffeine
• Heavy oils
• Spicy food

Examples:

• Pizza
• Coffee - including soy lattes (I sob)
• Anything fizzy
• Sundaes
• ANYTHING ELSE WITH CHEESE
• Really good Chinese food
• Yogurt
• All you can eat Indian buffets between the hours of 11 and 2pm (no doggie bags) with the really good Chicken Tikka Masala.

Why? Respetively:

• Dairy causes mucus
• Fizzy stuff causes burping
• Caffeine tightens the vocal chords which should be loose
• Oils give ME more mucus
• Spicy food brings more risk of hoarseness and throat irritation

You might also want to consider garlic and onions on that list as well if you actually like the people you worship with. (Thank you for this one, Kristi!)

Bass - Ghost Notes

When I get to play bass, it's easy to play on every note of every song.

It's something else to play one or two notes per measure - not letting them ring, but choking them off and play NOTHING for the rest of the time.

I learned this trick playing out with Craig Curran of Isabelle years ago back at Victor's Coffee in Redmond. He had this great, tight sound with the drummer, Doug Finefrock, and I asked him what his secret was.  He said, "I hardly play at all." He'd seriously play like one or two notes and then nothing... a couple more.. nothing.  It was just tight sounding.

He's right.  Listen to pop radio, or some Nashville-produced bands. I personally like Sarah Bareilles' "Love Song" (which has the incomparable Matt Chamberlain on drums, but I digress).  The bass line during the verses is sparse, playing only a pickup note and a root here and there, regularly in time with the kick drum. When the song comes round to the chorus, the bass kicks in big time, thumping on every eighth note, creating a big difference between the parts of the song. Additionally on the bridge again, the bass does this masterful eighth node walk up-down in perfect contradiction to the work in the other parts of the song. And at the end of the bridge, nothing! Just space for the piano and vocal to re-establish the chorus.

It's just slick.

No gizmos, gimicks, slap techniques or 6-string bass licks.

Just simplicity that drives home a song.

Try it. Just play less notes.

Solos Should Have a Point

Okay, I'm not a big soloist. I like playing, but I don't have a big need to solo on much. In worship music, it's not needed often, but when it's called for, I have some opinions on the subject.

A pet peve of mine that got solved along with the issue of the existence of 80's hair bands was the fruitless efforts of flying fingers against setting of an otherwise harmless and unsuspecting melody. To me, it quickly turns into a demonstration of skill rather than a musical movement propelling the composer's melody to heights unattainable by the lyricist.

Which brings me right to my point - if you have a solo, see if you can sing it first. If you haven't done this, slow down and take the time to really sing it to yourself. You'll find a big difference in what you can capture emotionally with your voice at a pace much slower than your fingers could muster, and it will have a greater emotional impact as a result. I like to improvise, but if I can't sing it in some way, I ask if it really belongs to the song or if it's just too much me in the worship movement showing off. That's not how I should be glorifying God.

Here are a few points I like to think before diving into a solo or writing a new instrumental part:

• Keep it simple. Try something as simple just walking up the scale every half-note from the 3rd above the root!
• Keep it stylistically relevant to the rest of the song
• Make it carry the melody first and take it to new places second
• Do not use the opportunity to just exercise my fingers
• Stay focused and (if improvising) have a clear, pre-planned exist strategy to get back to the song

Seriously, Leave More Space

We all want to play.  We all want to praise.  We all want to praise and pray.

Good.

We all want to praise and play together. That's great, but not always at once.

As musicians, being professional means leaving LOTS of space. My high school orchestra conductor at Padua Franciscan H.S. in Parma, OH, Mr. Wayne F. Miller, put it best: "Never, never, ever play a rest."

This is more easily done with thorough composed music, especially on my bass clarinet with only the random whole-note to add.  When faced with chords charts and a band full of ideas and improvisational chops, our ingenuity quickly turns into noise every week on every song. 

Be the big, brave one and sit out until the final refrain, or the bridge.  Let the piano or the acoustic guitar do all the heavy lifting for the entire first verse. Let only the drums and bass play on the second verse of "Let the River Flow".

You'll hear the vocals better.

You'll sound more like the CD.

People will hear themselves better.

You'll be able to praise better.

You'll be able to clap your hands and lead by example!

And when you come back in, the professional difference you make by both playing and not playing will be obvious!

Tip - Go Old Sk3wl

Got a Glory and Praise 1 or 2 hymnal? Ever heard of SLJ? Foley? Schutte? Haugen? Haas?

Well... a lot of these resources are still around now and are still relevant NOW. I DARE you to get one of these now "classics" out and see who sings! My guess is it'll be everyone! Mind you, 20 years ago, these were cutting edge liturgy.

• Sing a New Song
• Sing to the Mountains
• One Bread, One Body
• You Are Near
• Though the Mountains May Fall
• City of God
• On Eagle's Wings
• Abba, Father
• Hosea
• You Are Mine
• Come to the Water
• Canticle of the Sun (Son?)

After 10 years in a guitar choir and you think I'd do these more often. I love these songs as they remind me the constancy of His church.

Kudos to John Hudak in Cleveland for the years we served together. Where are you, man?

Running a Sound Check

Sound men (and women) are so very, very important. They are critical to preventing distractions by providing clear sound in a prayerful environment. I've seen sound people looked down on by bands and seen bands looked down on by sound people.  Stoppit. We are all children of God and capable ministers.

Here's how I've learned to run a sound check. My hugest thanks to Kenny of the Matt Maher Band for filling in the gaps!  I'm going to assume 1) your band is using a typical three part system - front of house (FOH), monitor and backline, 2) your mixer (FOH) is probably being used to drive your monitoring system, 3) your drums are miked, and 4) you have a sound person running it all.

If you are blessed to have in-ear monitors and/or some type of personal monitoring system like AVIOM, God bless you, stop reading and go do something else. Otherwise, read on. 

If you don't have "mains", assume your church system is your "mains".  Any speaker pointed at a choir member would be a "monitor".

Start the sound check after you have prayed.

Once everyone is in place and attentive, start with the drums. Have the drummer hit the kick drum with full force going to be used for playing. Do not have any sound in the monitors or in the mains.  Bring the channel used for the kick up to a nominal level well before clipping.  You should strive to average around 0db or "Unity". 

Once you have the kick at a nominal level, set the monitor levels.  With the drummer still hitting the kick, go to each sub mix and set the level for the listener.  And ask the person (or people) who are in front of that monitor to give a thumbs-up or down to increase or decrease the volume of the individual instrument.

As the sound person, be aware of the following fun facts and goals:

• The sound system is for REINFORCEMENT. It's not a radio and sound that is not in the system may in fact be FINE without any additional monitoring.
• The person whose monitor is being set will need to hear themselves more clearly than anything else in the room. 
• The overall volume of all the monitors will ad to the noise in the room. Keep it to what is strictly necessary for the person to hear and not be distracted.

Having completed the above, repeat for the snare, hi-hat, etc.

I like to set-up in the following kind of order:

• Kick
• Snare
• Hi-Hat
• Overheads
• Bass
• Piano
• Electric Guitars
• Vocals.  (This one will take a while). 

To repeat, do the following for each input:

• Bring the signal up to unity.
• Bring the signal into the individual musician's monitor first.
• Bring the signal into everyone else's monitor to their liking.  No signal is great, if not preferred.

Importantly, do not put anything in the main speaker system until you have set all the monitors for all involved. You need to know how loud all your monitors are before you will know what to put in the mains. 

Once you've done all the monitors and the band starts playing, have them all play a song and have it stop part-way through and adjust. 

Repeat just a couple times, but don't dwell on it. Bands that dwell on monitor mixes will have a hard time being satisfied, so band members will often have to deal with imperfect sound.

Once the band is happy, start focusing on the room mix - the subject of a later article.

God bless you in your ministry.

Organic Crawl

So you're playing Hammond. You might have a great B3 yourself, or you might be playing an emulator or a keyboard with some decent sounds. Great. Here's a couple tips that can help your performance blend.

• Make it growl. Turn UP the distortion in the amp section. You'll find it blends rather than sticks out. It doesn't have the same effect as your guitar player.
• Try using just ONE drawbar, especially for softer stuff.
• Turn the rotary speaker sound on for about 5 seconds, then off. Repeat to build intensity.
• Vary your sound by changing octaves. You can CRAWL up from one to the next, but beware of jumping.
• Try playing no more than one or two notes at a time with your right hand.
• Try leaving you left hand off the keyboard to play with the Leslie (rotary speaker) sounds, drawbars and volume controls.

Lastly, don't be afraid to just listen. Being judicious with your playing can make the parts where you do play even more special to the song of praise.

All content copyright (c) 2007 - 2008 by Arthur C. Leonard. All rights reserved. None of the content provided can be used without the expressed written permission of the author.

Simple Tip of the Day

www.spiritandsong.com has a Podcast of weekly song ideas for building a Sunday Liturgy that is relevant, vibrant, and holy.  It's hosted by none other than Ken Candeo, composer.