M-Audio is a pretty cool company.  I've owned/used a number of their products over the years, and I've always been very impressed.  This one takes the cake, though:

Usually, these posts are about gear I've recently acquired or hope to own in the future.  This one's different, as today I want to take a moment to talk about a piece of gear that I've had for quite a while and have found to be absolutely indispensable.  Presenting...

...the Soundcraft Gigrac!

Now I'll admit that I'm normally not a fan of these all-in-one powered mixer deals.  Having said that, this thing is a sound tech's swiss army knife, and it's one of the most valuable pieces of gear I've got!  8 channels (4 phantom powered, 2 with RCA inputs, 2 with stereo 1/4" inputs), two independent 300W amplifiers which can drive mains, monitors, or both (line outputs are available for both mixes, as well),  A 7 band graphic EQ that can be assigned to either bus, and a really decent integrated effects unit, all for less than $400!

I mentioned in my last post that we had designed a separate sound system for our Maunday Thursday service tomorrow night.  What I didn't mention is that my lil' ol' Gigrac is serving as our entire front of house and amp rack in that system.  Now granted, it's a small system, and we're only using it for one night, but nevertheless, this little 40 pound box is handling every audio input and output that we need by itself.  For those geeky enough to have read this far, allow me to elaborate:

8 inputs - 2 vocals, keys, acoustic guitar, violin, a wireless system for our pastor, an input for an MP3 player, and a room mic for the in-ears.

5 outputs - 2 speaker outs, each driving two cabs, a dedicated RCA recording output, a line-level monitor feed to the stage driving our in-ear monitor distro (admittedly, this would be much more complicated if we were using more than one monitor mix for this service), a headphone out at the board, and an output for our live video feed in the lobby (from the line level main out).

Now I'm not going to pretend that this setup sounds as good as our normal system, but for a one off gig that only requires a few inputs and outputs, you'd be hard pressed to find a better piece of gear.  I should point out that it's also performed flawlessly at outdoor services on generator power, as a standalone mixer for a choir concert that a teched in December (bypassing the amps), and as an extra power amp when we needed a couple of extra monitors last year.  All of my sound techs swear by it, and so do I!  Worth every penny!

We're having a Maunday Thursday service this year at Centerpoint.  As we talked in our Creative Worship meeting, we realized that we were going to need to really rethink our worship area to accomplish the concept that we had.  As a reference... here's a picture from a "normal" Sunday:

We decided to try church "in the round" for Thursday's service... a great idea, but one that required entirely different staging, sound, and lighting from what we normally have.  A lot of people have put a lot of work in the last couple of days to make this happen, and I'm couldn't be happier with what we've come up with.

We ended up building two platforms.  One is a 12'x12' square in the middle of the room with the communion table on it.  Dave will be preaching from this platform.  The other is a 12'x8' set directly in front of our regular stage.  The band will be set up there (our band for this service is small - only four people, so that's plenty of space).  You can see a little bit more of what I'm talking about below...

Chairs are set on three sides of the center platform, with the band stage completing the circle.  This presented some interesting challenges in sound and lighting.  The goal was always to use minimal lighting, but we had to cover two distinct areas, and have separate control over both.  We also had to have sound covering three directions.  We wanted everything to be low profile, so that there wouldn't be any visual distractions for folks... in the end, we decided not to use our ordinary sound and lights at all.  We used four small par cans on each platform, each on their own switch.  For sound, we surrounded the center platform with several floor wedges.  We only had to cover three sides, since the band is using in-ear monitors.  I'm actually really pleasantly surprised with the clarity we're getting with that setup.

The end result is really nice - I think we were definitely able to create the atmosphere we wanted to.  It was great to try it all out tonight at rehearsal, and I'm looking forward to using this setup on Thursday!  To close, here's a close up of the band stage:

I'm a big fan of technology.  Anybody who knows me will tell you that.  I love playing with new gadgets, even if I don't really need them.  But this is ridiculous:

That's the brand stinking new iPod shuffle from Apple.  It's only $79!  It has 4GB of storage!  It has... no buttons?  What!?  "But wait!", the those oh-so-clever Mac folks say.  "We've moved the buttons to the headphone chord to make them more convenient for you!"  Oh, of course!  The headphone cord!  That's great, right?  Wrong.  See, here's the problem - anybody who's serious about their music and the way it sounds knows that the stock iPod headphones are, well... horrible.  The headphones that come with any other MP3 player aren't any better.  They don't stay in your ears, and their frequency response leaves something major to be desired.  Which is why I don't use them.  I've never used any stock earbuds with any player I've ever owned.  Neither have most of the people I know.  So now we've got a $79, 4GB player that sounds great through our Koss or Shure buds, but we've got no volume control or track skip.  Brilliant job, Apple.  Not to mention the fact that I use my player in the car, through the stero at home, and on the sound system at church - no control there either.

I was starting to change my tune on Apple.  Their stuff was cool.  It was trendy.  It was incredibly expensive, but I was getting past that.  Maybe my next computer should be a MacBook, I thought.  Maybe I need an iPhone.  Maybe it's time to break down and buy one of those nifty little iPod shuffles.  And then this.  Just stupid.

Tech Rant - complete.

There's been a great debate in the worship community for years about acoustic vs. electronic drums in worship.  I won't lie, as a drummer, I've always been partial to acoustic kits (most drummer are, I've found), but as a worship leader and (especially!) as a sound tech, I can definitely see the benefits of electronic kits as well.  This is a question we've dealt with at Centerpoint as of late, and I thought I'd share a little bit of our story and our results.

For the first 4 years of it's existence, Centerpoint was a portable church that met in an office building.  Obviously, acoustic drums weren't really an option in there, so they bought an electronic kit (long before I came to the church).  A Yamaha DTXpressII, I believe.  Pretty decent for the time (almost 6 years ago), but nothing anybody would really consider to be an adequate replacement for a good acoustic kit, soundwise.

Fast forward to this past October.  5 years of constant set up and tear down (not to mention 250+ services!) have taken their toll on the old drum kit, and it's in pretty bad shape.  We've moved into a new facility that seems as if it might be able to handle an acoustic kit (if we baffled it well).  And, the piece de resistance: these guys started using our building on Sunday nights and offered us the use of their kit and baffling.  Hard to turn down.  Well... three months in we've realized something - you can muffle and baffle the kit all you want, but in our warehouse worship space, it just doesn't work.  It's too loud.  Putting my drummer hat (and even my worship leader hat) back on, that breaks my heart.  The acoustic kit was a nice kick for our live energy on stage, and I like the sounds.  Eventually, though, we all agree that it makes sense to go back to electronics.  Except that we can't really go back to our old electronics... which brings me to today.

An hour and a half at Columbus Percussion and several rounds of playing on the various options currently available later, I and two of my drummers unanimously (and overwhelmingly) settled on the Yamaha DTXTREME IIIS, and I couldn't be happier.  This kit really blew me away.  It looks like this:

Simply put, this is the best experience I've ever had with an electronic kit.  I went in thinking V-Drums and mesh heads, but they don't hold a candle to Yamaha's new stuff.  Two things really made this kit stand out:

1.) The cymbal pads.  Not only do they have some of the most realistic cymbal sounds I've heard, the cymbals themselves are great.  The ride is a 3-trigger (edge, body, bell), and the ride and crash both choke very realistically.  On top of that, this is hands down the best electronic hi-hat mechanism I've seen.  Moves and feels more like the real thing than anything else out there.

2.) The drums are actually tunable.  No more digging through menus to adjust sounds.  If you want your snare to pop a little more, you turn a knob on the pad, and the drum tunes up.  If you want a little more depth out of your floor tom, you can take it down the same way.  This was the feature that put me over the top on this kit.

On top of that... the sounds are great.  All of the essential Yamaha kits are there (The Birch Custom Absolute and Beech Custom Absolute impressed us the most).  On top of that, we were able to buy a floor model that was used by a Yamaha rep for a clinic at the store and has some extra presets and songs loaded.  Very cool.

This morning I knew that we needed a new electronic kit for Centerpoint.  This afternoon I reluctantly went downtown to see what they had.  Tonight, I'm extremely excited about what we came home with.  So are my drummers, which is the most important thing!  I can't wait to hear these rocking on Sunday!

Ok, so I haven't done one of these in a while, and I figured it was definitely time.  Usually these things are pining over items that I want, but will never have.  Today, I want to talk about two things that I actually have (if only fairly recently).  Awesome stuff.  First of all:

1. Custom Molded In-Ear Monitors from hearyourself.com!

First off, I'm all about the in-ears.  Just about anybody who's played a gig or a service with me in the last 6 or so years knows that.  I'm totally sold out to them, and I'm excited to see them really becoming the standard for churches as well as other gigs that I play.  After years of being the only guy on the team using them at several different churches, I was finally able to switch Centerpoint's entire monitor system to IEMs last March, a decision that has proven to have been a good one over and over again in the months that have followed.  Two years ago I finally broke down and bought my own Shure wireless setup, and I've been using the included E-2s since that time.  They're decent earpieces, but I was still longing for custom molds (who isn't?)  That's when I found out about hearyourself.com.

I'm not going to get into all the details here (you can check those out on the website for yourself), but suffice it to say that hearyourself sells custom molded single, dual and triple driver earpieces in fixed and removable cord models, as well as retrofit molds for other manufacturer's models.  And oh yeah, the prices are RIDICULOUSLY low!  The single drivers start at $150.  Custom Molded IEMs for $150!  I was able to use a couple of eBay/Paypal discounts and get dual drivers for less than $200.  Incredible value, and frankly, they rock.  I've used them for four services now at Centerpoint, and couldn't be happier.  Not only that, but the company is completely dedicated to making a truly customized product that's exactly what the customer wants.  They worked through all my options with me until we arrived at what I really wanted.  If you're looking for custom earpieces, you owe it to yourself to check this company out.  I'm sure glad I did!

2.  Remo Tubanito

Simply put, this drum rocks!  A few months ago I started looking for a "compact conga" of sorts to use for living room shows and to fit into my existing drum and percussion setups (not to mention my apartment!)  I had looked at the LP compact congas in the past and wasn't impressed, and also has a chance to check out Pearl's new travel conga, but it didn't really do anything for me, either (not to mention that both of those drums are pretty pricey for what they do!).  Then I stumbled upon this baby.  Obviously designed with the same types of applications in mind, but less expensive and a lot more, well... synthetic.  I was skeptical, but I decided to go down to the shop and play one.  I fell in love.  This drum is a little less concerned with replicating exact conga sounds, but it makes up for it by being a really versatile, unique hand drum in it's own right.  In the couple of months I've had it I've played it miked and unmiked in quite a few different rooms.  I've played it (obviously) with my hands, but I've also used brushes and mallets.  I've tuned it high, low, and in between.  No matter what I've thrown at it, it has performed flawlessly.  This is a carload worth of sounds in a 10" drum.  Easily worth the investment.

So there you have it!  That's what I'm all geeked up about right now.  More to come down the road, I'm sure!  Anything new and great in your neck of the woods?

I've been on the road quite a bit the last few weeks.  In fact, I've spent at least one night away from home each week of the last month.  I'll be leaving again on Thursday morning for Christmas with my family.  I've spent a great deal of time traveling these last few years (much of it to camps and camp-related events) and I've grown accustomed to traveling light.  I don't have a lot of stuff anyways, and I don't like to take much of what I do have with me when I go.  That said, there are a few things that are almost ALWAYS with me, especially when I'm on the road.  I've seen a lot of people talking about their Everyday Carry (or "EDC") items lately, so I figured I'd give it a shot... I can think of five things I NEVER travel without:

1.) Bible - I don't read much, but I do try very hard to get into the Word
      every day, no matter where I am.  Right now I'm carrying a small "pocket
      sized" (though I don't think it would fit in any of my pockets) NLT that I've
      had for about 6 years.

2.) Pocket Knife - I have a small Swiss Army Knife that I carry all the time
      (unless I'm in an airport).  It's only got a couple of basic functions (phillips
      and flathead screwdrivers, nailfile, plus the obvious knife), but it has
      proven to be an invaluable tool.  When I travel, I often take a larger SAK
      with several other functions, as well.  Great for gigs as well as "real life".

3.) Flashlight - I've been a bit of a flashlight junkie for some time now.  I
      used to be a die-hard Maglite fan (and the bigger the better, at that!),
      but I recently found the other "flashaholics" (as they call themselves) that
      hang out on CandlePowerForums and had my eyes opened to a whole
      new world of lights.  Through that website, I tracked down a Fenix L0D
      Q4.  This little light is amazingly bright (but has three different brightness
      settings) and only uses one AAA battery.  What a find!  This little wonder
      goes everywhere with me now while the big Mags sit at home.

4.) Cell Phone - This one might seem obvious, but my cell is absolutely my
      lifeline when I'm on the road.  I hate traveling with a laptop, but I'm
      wholly addicted to communication and connection.  I email, Twitter,
      Facebook, read RSS feeds, blog, and do so many other things, all of them
      constantly.  My cell is my way of doing that when I'm not at home with my
      laptop.  Right now I've got a Motorola W385 and a great deal on
      Verizon's MobileWeb service, which in my mind is as good as it gets
      unless you've got an iPhone or one of the other fancy (and way out of my
      price range) new phones out there.  Again, invaluable to me on the road
      (and in everyday life).

5.) MP3 Player - Music is my life (you all know that), and I always have a
      little music with me.  Right now I have a couple little players I sometimes
      carry, none more than 2GB of storage.  Makes me really think about what
      I want to listen to on a trip.

So there you have it.  Not to be cliche, but if I was stranded on a desert island (or just about anywhere else) and could only take a few things - this is what it would be.  90% of the time, all of these items are on my person anyways.  So let me ask you: what are your essential "EDC" items?

Alright, I don't do this very often... but it's time for a nerdy gear post.  Don't say you weren't warned.  Hopefully there's somebody out there who appreciates these.  There are a couple of new products that I've found out about this week that I can't help but be a little curious/excited about...

First, these funny little "nano controllers" from Korg:

These things are all under $100, powered and connected with USB.  The top one is a controller for DAWs, etc. with 9 faders and knobs and a full transport section.  The one in the middle is a little drum controller, and the bottom is (obviously) a tiny MIDI keyboard controller.  I'm not going to lie, these things fascinate me... I'm not sure that I can think of a really practical use that I have for any of them, but I'll probably end up with at least one anyways (the DAW control is pretty cool...)

Product #2 - The Rode M1:

Now anybody who has spent any significant time working with me on musical things knows that I'm a Shure man through and through... but who could resist being seduced by this thing (at least a little bit)?  I mean, Rode puts out a $150 stage dynamic with a lifetime guaranee, I'm going to take a little notice.  Maybe I'll get a chance to try one somewhere... hm...

So there you have it.  Nerdy gear post.  Back to normal, churchy things tomorrow :-P