Tutorial | cornerstonecreativeca

The Rundown: Pt. 2

Posted on October 14, 2015 by cornerstonecreativeca

Now for the fun stuff. Here’s what lies within my side rack:

From top to bottom:

Furman Power Conditioner
1U Pull-out Rack Shelf
1. M-Audio AIR 32 MIDI controller (Used for synth leads)
2. Novation Launchpad Mini (Used to fire and manage loops/ sequences)
3. Powered USB Hub

Shure In Ear Monitor System (This allows me to have a wireless mix (No cable hassle… YAY!)
Furman Power Conditioner
Focusrite 18i20 interface (Sends out a variety of sounds like click, voice countoffs, synths, pads, pianos, etc.)
(2) Radial Pro D8 Passive Rackmount DIs (Used to take signal from 18i20 and send it to the main house board

2U Rack Drawer (Used to store replacement sustain pedals and whatever else I may need to fix things on the fly)

Each power conditioner controls a specific set of tools to make sure no hum or buzz is generated. Anything connected to the first power conditioner is anything not musical equipment (Computer, USB hub fan, pedalboard power, power to separate pedals, wireless IEM, etc.

The second power conditioner powers things anything that is a musical instrument. So anything like my Prophet 08, or Moog Sub 37, audio interface, power for Radial SGI Boxes, and any other goodie I decide to run that weekend will be powered through this conditioner.

The reason why I mentioned a pedalboard and its need for power is because there is a back side to the rack:

This little pedalboard and its power is managed through the rack. It’s got two Shure guitar tuners that double as a wireless unit so there are no messy cables to deal with. The acoustic tuner goes out to a Radial J48 and the Electric Guitar setup goes to a Radial SGI Box that gets wired into a Morgan DAG 15. There’s also a JHS Morning Glory for some grit and a Strymon Bluesky for a shimmery reverb.

The Strymon Timeline is the special part of the board because it’s the one thing that is controlled by Ableton via the audio interface. To make things easier for our WL, we made it to where Ableton controls the delay as well as its programming. For example, for a fast song our WL would want a quick dotted eighth delay with a short trail, Ableton will switch to that setting once I trigger the song. When we go to a slower song, he may want a quarter note delay with a longer shimmery trail. Ableton makes these kinds of changes so he doesn’t have to think twice. The best part is Ableton will constantly make sure that the tempo doesn’t fluxate on the delay. The wonders of MIDI.

White- Hot Why Pt. 1

Posted on August 7, 2015 by cornerstonecreativeca

So here’s a serious question I get asked:

“What exactly do you do back there?”

Fair point. One of the Pastors at my church once joked that I control the air conditioning. If only that was true… It’d be an icebox in there! But seriously, to answer this question once and for all, this is exactly what I do:

On stage, I lead the band. From chord changes, to hits/ breaks all the way down to road mapping and loop control, that is my job. I essentially take that responsibility from the Worship Leader so they can focus solely on leading the congregation in worship. This allows the WL to really focus on the needs of the congregation and create any necessary moments to deepen the worship experience.

Off stage, I’m responsible for managing our volunteer and stipend players database. From scheduling to recruiting, I work with the WL to set up set lists, band arrangements as well as conduct any auditions. Everything is done through Planning Center Online (a great resource I cannot recommend enough), so things like chord chart creation and set list/ band planning is super easy and well organized.

Aside from all the administrative duties, I also have the blessing of creating all of our loops. To have in- house loops is important to me because it really allows us to create/ modify/ cue tracks and sequences that are unique to our house of worship.

A question less commonly asked is “Why?”

To answer this plain and simply, it takes a team at our church (any church really) to create the weekend worship experience for the congregation.

Like any good company or organization, you have to function as a team in order to get where you want to be. If the work load was put solely on one person to make the weekend worship experience happen, that person would be stretched so thin to the point of resignation (unless you’re crazy… then I wanna meet you).

All in all, when it comes to being a musical director, it’s about establishing trust with your WL to the point where they trust your call (at least 85-90% of the time) and don’t have to think twice about whether or not you have things taken care of.

If you have any further questions, feel free to comment below or contact me!