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Kidz Praise
At my church, the kids under 5th grade have their own service (under 3 in the nursery). I’m the music coordinator for the rugrats, and what we do is project the lyrics of praise songs on a screen with...
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Beyond the Horizon
(click to launch video) My buddy Will has published again, and this time it’s his most ambitious song yet. It’s a 10+ minute prog rock epic with changing time signatures, face-blistering guitar solos,...
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Simple Gifts
Simple Gifts is a Shaker song from the mid-1800′s, with a lively melody. Set to new lyrics as Lord of the Dance it has been a popular song in Catholic and other liturgical congregations for the last 30...
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Interlude: Peaceful
My first mix to come out of my Steinway recording session is an Interlude, subtitled Peaceful. I have a number of back issues of Keyboard magazine from the 90′s that my mother picked up for a song at...
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Strings and Stereo Widening
Back when I recorded and mixed This is My Father’s World, I mentioned that I used a stereo widener on the string section. I also panned the strings differently from a real orchestra. I’ve been wanting...
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Stereo Widening VST Shootout
In my last post, I wrote about the use of a stereo widener and my panning decisions concerning the string section in My Father’s World. At the end of that post I mentioned some other options for...
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Going Home
I remember lying in bed in a hotel room in Rochester, Minnesota, back in 2007. We were visiting my in-laws, and that was the week that I arranged the strings for Father’s World. It must have been 5-ish...
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Mix Stories
Image credit: http://www.uniquesquared.com/blog/ I don’t know about you, but I love the stories that go with the creation of classic songs. We’re so lucky that not one, but two music and recording...
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Best of the Web – How to Use Subtractive EQ
EQ is one of the fundamental tools in the mixer’s arsenal. When asked if he couldn’t live without compression or EQ, recording and mixing educator Joe Gilder replied “unequivocally it would be EQ.”...
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How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, man, practice! We all know that if we want to get better at playing an instrument (or a sport, for that matter) we need to practice. Malcom Gladwell, in his book Outliers, promotes the idea...
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Happy Day
Happy Day is a song that I wrote for a songwriting competition in 2014. While I didn’t win anything, it was remarkable fun to write, record and mix. To make it better I was able to bring on a few new...
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I Adore You Part 2 – Mixing and Video
If you are here from yesterday’s post about recording this song, I will warn you that today’s post is going to get a bit technical and geeky. That’s because today I’m going to talk about the mixing...
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HOFA Mix Contest
I have long advocated that the best, nay, only way to become a better music mixer is to practice. I have also privately lamented that I don’t myself take the time to practice more – see, I’m always too...
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Bethlehem Suite 1. Handmaid Published
After much blood, sweat, tears, consternation, anger, begging, and finally acceptance, I have published the first completed track for Moments of Comfort and Joy. As mentioned in an earlier post, this...
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Recording and Mixing Amazing Grace
My ongoing relationship with the delightful Shedd family is continuing. After recording their recital, they approached me with this request. One of the daughters participates in pageants. Part of the...
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The Wexford Carol – Recording and Mixing
The Wexford Carol medley with The Holly and the Ivy is complete. I described the writing and arranging in my previous post. See that post for a description of how and why I put the music together the...
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Redeemed
Over a year ago I felt like I needed to stop being a solo songwriter. I knew several people from church who felt the same way, and I invited them to join together to actually accomplish something....
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The Amazing Love of God
Despite my traditional church upbringing, I was unfamiliar with the hymn The Love of God, by Frederick Lehman, when my dear friend Dena mentioned to me last summer that she had breathed new life into...
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How Can I Keep From Singing
Background Last Fall I was at my Grandmother’s 95th birthday party. Two of my father’s cousins, who are also sisters, had come from Ohio to join in the festivities. My grandmother, their Aunt Jean, is...
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