-Wow, I miss blogging!
-It’s been a while now since I’ve posted a SNT. I did post a couple small things this past week.
-Here I go, wish me luck:
-Great day today. Shannon is on vacation, so I was the dude in charge today.
-Everything went smoothly, and people were excited to be at Foothills this morning.
-Great set, short, but great: All B/c of Jesus-Fee/All We Need-Hall/Oh You Bring-Hillsong United
-Oh You Bring is my new favorite song to lead, worship to, study to, listen to in the shower… ANYTHING! It just sets a mood and gets you thinking on who God is and what He does for us. Amazing song and people loved it this morning. This will be in our arsenal for a long time to come.
-My buddy Podge was supposed to play guitar this morning… instead, he was playing flu and ear infection. Boo. He’s on his way to recovery now that he’s seen the doctor today. Because of that, we went with a 3-piece today. Me, Bass, Drums. I had a BLAST… it may have sounded a bit thin, but Ron did a great job of fattening our sound up. It was cool, I’d do it again.
-Speaking of instruments, I got my new Strat this week. I traded my Gretsch G6120 for a PRS Goldtop (the story on that is coming) and a G&L S-500 Stratocaster. Daddy likey! It sounded HUGE this morning, and plays like a dream. I can see myself keeping this thing for a LONG time. And all that said… IT’S BEAUTIFUL! Click here for a pic.
-Ok, the PRS. First off, the guy shipped the PRS to the wrong zip code accidentally. Address was right, zip code wrong. So I’ve been calling to get it rerouted. It got rerouted. Everything was cool. I called Saturday (supposedly the delivery date) and the lady confirmed my address and said it would be there by 1p. Didn’t get the package by 1p. Called the FedEx people. Said everything was fine. Called back because I didn’t like that person’s answer. The second person called the actual driver and let me speak to him. The driver said everything was fine until that morning, when a lady (first employee I spoke with) called and said it was on the wrong truck and to have it changed. Long story short: It was on the truck, headed for my house on Saturday. The lady called and screwed it up. They stopped the truck and took my guitar off and sent it to Laurens, SC (about 2hrs away). Fedex doesn’t deliver on Mondays, so now I have to wait until Tuesday. Boo
-Long story huh?
-It’s gonna be good once it gets here though
-I’ve been thinking a LOT about leadership today, had these couple thoughts: 1. The best gauge of your leadership ability is the morale and effectiveness of those who directly report to you. 2.if everyone you’re in charge of is burned out… you’re doing something wrong.
-Things are going well in Toccoa… good things happening all around!
-I love it when people stick in because the work they do is too important to not do it. That gets me FIRED UP!
-I can’t wait for the Baptism & Lake Party this Sunday at 3:30p. Click here for details!
-Going to hang with the wifey… later.

We are having a big baptism party Sunday, July 5th starting @ 3:30pm. It is going to be at Josh Schaeffers lakehouse. Come ready to eat, swim, boat….bring tailgate games…..etc….it’s going to be a blast!!!

Here are the details:

Location: 538 Imperial, Martin, GA (map to follow)
Time: 3:30pm – ?
Food: Grilled chicken, ribs, sausage, and hotdogs will be provided. Bring a side dish or a dessert to share.
Drinks: Drinks will be provided.
What else: Bring lawnchairs, swimming stuff, boat, tailgate games.

If you don’t feel confident that you can find the location….we will have groups leaving from Toccoa Campus and the Walmart parking lot @ about 3:15.

Also…if you want to be baptized, please let me know!

See you there!
Shannon

Are you a worship leader?
Are you a worship pastor?
Do you lead the choir at your church?

Do you have something good to share?
Do you want some new ideas?
Do you wanna get better at what you do while also helping others get better?

Join the three worship leaders at Foothills Community Church on Thursday August 6th from 10a-3p!
Email me at jonathantbryant@gmail.com for more details!!

– Post From My iPod Touch

Just realized that I haven’t made a post here in over 2 1/2 weeks.

My bad. I’ll get on that soon. Be looking for my next Using Tracks/Samples in a Worship Environment post and this week’s Sunday Night Thoughts.

-Ok, first of all, I’m BLOWN AWAY by what God is doing at Foothills right now.
-Here’s a little story… I’m (as we speak) on RagamuffinSoul.com listening to Hillsong United’s new album, that drops on Tuesday. Los is signed with Integrity, so they let him preview albums on his sight, COOL STUFF! What’s even cooler is he asked where everyone was from in the live chat… I saw a person that said, “Toccoa, GA.” I connected with her and she’s coming to FCC on Sunday! WOW!!! God is working… and it’s bigger than any of us.
-People sang their faces off this morning!
-The set was: Awesome is the Lord Most High/Tomlin – How Can I Keep From Singing/Tomlin – Mighty to Save/Hillsong – Let Her Cry/Hootie & The Blowfish
-I had more comments about the Hootie song than I have in a LONG time about any of our worship tunes.
-Feature songs work…! People connect and it brings a connection that opens them up to hear/respond to the Word.
-Greg brought it this week. Can I Christian Drink Alcohol will be up on Foothills.cc early this week… listen to it. Everyone needs to. It will CHANGE YOU.
-I loved having a week off last week, but I LOVE WHAT I DO! Seeing everyone this morning was a relief, it had been far too long.
-That being said, I can’t wait to move to Toccoa… I need that connection.
-I’m pre-ordering Hillsong United’s new album Tear Down the Walls right now. I’ve gotta have it. We’re gonna start doing some of these songs VERY soon. VERY soon.
-Saw some people at church today I haven’t seen in a few weeks. That was awesome.
-I had a band made up of all Seneca players this week. They’re awesome musicians and great guys!
-I’m already missing the TFC students that have left us for the summer. I hope they’re having a great break, and I can’t wait ’til they get back.
-I’ll post pics from today’s service on the Foothills Toccoa Blog tomorrow when I get them from Ron. He does an amazing job, and we’re lucky to have him on board to FCC.
-We had lunch with Eric Peters and his family this afternoon… good times. Then a long nap and quality time with my family.
-I’m out.
-Did you see the first two installments of “Using Track/Samples in a Worship Environment” from this past week? The first one was on the Equipment we use. This last one is on Tracking is the program Reason. Check them out and let me know what you think. Post #3 (Tracking in Garageband/Pro Tools) is coming early this week, be on the lookout!

Here’s a simple tutorial on Reason. Make sure you check out my post 1 of 6 on Equipment.

First off in Reason you’ll open an empty rack (automatically when you click New in the File menu)

Next we’ll select an Instrument to use. You can do this a couple of ways:
1 – Click Create in the top menu and Click on Create Instrument.
2 – Drag an instrument from the menu bar on the right
3 – Click Create Instrument in the Menu bar on the right.

Any of those three ways will bring up this screen…

In this screen, find the instrument you want by navigating the menus and selecting the sound that best suits your application.

A side note, if your MIDI controller is plugged in you can sample the sounds as you click through this menu. VERY HELPFUL!

Next, it’s simple, you’re gonna hit the record button on the bottom and play your sound as the track records your notes.
Here is what it will look like after you add two instruments and record different parts:

A couple tips:
1 – if you arm the CLICK button (bottom lefthand corner of the main window) it will give you an audible metronome so you can play in time
2 – The time can be adjusted with the tempo input right next to the click button.
3 – If you arm the PRE button, it will give you a 4count before it starts recording… this good for coming in on the down beat
4 – The Click Level can be adjusted right beneath the click and pre buttons.
5 – Notice in the last picture there is a Reverb module attached to the last instrument. To achieve this, after you add an instrument simply add (from the Create menu) Reverb, Delay, Distortion, Flange, Phase, etc. Try combining these effects also… it’s a BLAST!

Now to the mixdown process.
Once you’re recorded a bunch of tracks, your rack should look like this…

Notice that every instrument you added to the rack has also been added to mixer at the top. As you play your tracks, you can pull the faders up or down as needed to mix the song… just like a live mixer. Need more keys? Just pull the fader up. Less pad? Pull the fader down. Your synth sound needs to cut through the mix? Change the EQ on the mixer to compensate. SIMPLE!!

Like I said, this is a basic tutorial. I post 4 we’ll talk about how to bounce this into Ableton Live for live use. Also, in more advanced posts, we’ll discuss Automation (mixing different parts of the song differently by making faders move on their own), different instruments and effects, etc.

Stay tuned for the next post on tracking in Garageband and/or Protools. This will be helpful in compensating for a missing player, as you can record live parts and attach them to your tracks.

Again if you have any questions, email me at JonathanTBryant@gmail.com or comment on the blog. Thanks and have a great day!

Sorry about the meltdown earlier. All is well in JonathanBryant.info-land!

– Post From My iPod Touch

-First off, did you see my post this week on Using Tracks/Samples in a Worship Environment? It was post 1 of 6… it covered all the equipment we use to build and use tracks live. Check it out and let me know what you think. Also, stay tuned this week for post 2 on Tracking in Reason.
-Second, did you see Today’s Live Blog on Greg’s message? The message was part of our Questions Uncensored series and had to do with “Can a Christian Drink Alcohol?” Check out my notes here and check back midweek on the Foothills Website for the full service audio.
-Alright, so I had the day off today!
-Scott Hamilton is one of the TFC that I have been working with closely for the last few months. He’s an amazing musician and his passion really shows when he’s leading worship. I felt 100% about putting him on the stage today.
-I’m watching the Survivor Finale… hoping JT wins. He made the move of the century by keeping the harder opponent to go with him to the final… even though it is gonna be harder to overcome him. The reason he did that? He said he was going to.
-I made it to the 11:15 service in Seneca this morning. Great energy, excellence, and tons of fun! The concourse was electric and people LOVE being at Foothills. I love my church!!
-Greg handled that message today. Go to the website, listen, and learn. He HANDLED it!
-I’m gonna watch the end of Survivor and chill out. Make sure to check back for part 2 of Using Tracks/Sample in a Worship Environment coming in the next couple days.

• 11:48 AM JTB - If the Bible meant “grape juice” it wouldve said GRAPE JUICE!
• 11:49 AM JTB - A lot of verses say that alcohol is permitted, but with conditions.
• 11:51 AM JTB - Jesus turned between 120-180 gallons of water into wine.
• 11:52 AM JTB - 1 timothy 5:23 Paul tells Timothy to drink a little for his stomach. Wine was a cure for dysentary.
• 11:53 AM JTB - Leaders must not be given to much wine.
• 11:54 AM JTB - Psalm 104 : “wine to make them glad”
• 11:55 AM JTB - The Bible doesn’t condemn or recommend having a drink.
• 11:55 AM JTB - Drinking is WRONG when you’re underage… no questions asked.
• 11:56 AM JTB - Drunkennes is prohibited.
• 11:57 AM JTB - Alcohol is nuetral and not dangerous in and of itself. It’s the way you choose to use it.
• 11:58 AM JTB - Ephesians 5:18 don’t be drunk with wine… Some people are saying “whew, I drink beer!”
• 11:58 AM JTB - Drunkenness with ruin your life.
• 11:59 AM JTB - The goal of a Christ follower is to yield yourself to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit. When you’re given to drunkenness, you can’t do that.
• 12:00 PM JTB - When we choose to drink too much, we hurt people.
• 12:01 PM JTB - If you do something when you’re drinking, that you wouldn’t when not drinking… You’re drunk.
• 12:02 PM JTB - If your judgement I impared, you’re drunk. If you’re drunk, that’s sin.
• 12:02 PM JTB - Proverbs 23:29-32 alcohol stings like a viper
• 12:04 PM JTB - Dude, I only met you five minutes ago!
• 12:06 PM JTB - Does your husband always speak to you like that ma’am?
  No sir, only when he’s drunk.
• 12:06 PM JTB - The honest truth is most people don’t know the line between sober and drunk.
• 12:07 PM JTB - Greg: I don’t drink because of personal conviction… and let m say it again, it’s PERSONAL.
• 12:07 PM JTB - Just because something is permissable doesn’t mean it’s beneficial.
• 12:08 PM JTB - It’s permissable for me to where a speedo to the beach, but hell will have a snowstorm before that happens!
• 12:09 PM JTB - I will not be mastered by anything.
• 12:09 PM JTB - Many of you have been mastered by alcohol.
• 12:10 PM JTB - Some people are mastered by alcohol. Some by pornography. Some by money. Some by Starbucks.
• 12:11 PM JTB - If anything owns you and you don’t own it… If anything controls you and you do t control it… you’re mastered by it.
• 12:12 PM JTB - Over 15million Americans have an alcohol problem.
• 12:12 PM JTB - The potential for addiction is there.
• 12:13 PM JTB - Paul writes that you must be careful that your actions do not cause other people to stumble.
• 12:15 PM JTB - I can eat the meat because I know it’s ok for me… But if it causes you to stumble, I will yield my rights and freedoms.
• 12:16 PM JTB - I could drink if I wanted to, but I don’t. Would you feel different if you saw me at walmart with a case of beer?
• 12:18 PM JTB - I’m not telling you it’s right or wrong… but people who don’t drink, your problem is turning into a Pharisee.
• 12:18 PM JTB - Pride is worse than anything else… don’t judge based on personal convictions.
• 12:19 PM JTB - Communion will still be grape juice.
• 12:19 PM JTB - You’ve gotta know where you stand, period.
• 12:21 PM JTB - By the way, Greg is slamming this message… Amazing!!
• 12:21 PM JTB - You make up your own list, pros and cons, and decide for yourself.
• 12:22 PM JTB - To the drunk person, repent.
• 12:22 PM JTB - To those who don’t drink but are prideful and judgemental, repent.
• 12:22 PM JTB - To those who choose not to drink but have a good attitude, more power to you.
• 12:23 PM JTB - To those who drink and have a handle, more power to you.
• 12:23 PM JTB - Next week = interracial relationships, right or wrong?
• 12:25 PM JTB - Brian Rhodes and Band is closing.

Alright… a bunch of you guys and gals have been asking me to do a rundown of how I make our clicks/tracks/samples happen. So here I go!

What I’m gonna do is break it up into four parts:
1 – Equipment
2 – Process : Tracking in Reason
3 – Process : Tracking in Garageband/Pro Tools
4 – Process : Outputting to Live and Setting Up Scenes/Outputs
5 – Live Triggering
6 – Extras (Just for kicks!)

Today’s installment will cover EVERYTHING I use on a weekly basis to track, record, test, and trigger.

::EQUIPMENT::

1) The heart and brains of this operation is a computer loaded with a couple of programs. I use a 15″ Macbook Pro (Older generation) with 2.4GHz Processor and 2G of RAM. The computer needs to be able to handle a bunch of stuff, because at maximum usage, it will be: Playing sounds, syncing click/cues/tracks/samples, receiving MIDI information, processing MIDI info into sounds, and then outputting everything via Firewire to the board. (I’ll go over what all that means in parts 2 & 3).
FYI: You can use a PC or Mac, as long as it can handle what you throw at it.

Macbook Pro - 15" - 2.4GHz - 2G Ram

Also, we use 2 programs called Reason (by Propellerhead) and Ableton Live.
Reason is used to track sounds, beats, and clicks… and then we output all that into Ableton for live triggering. (Again, more on this in part 2: Tracking in Reason)
In addition to Reason and Ableton, for tracking guitar parts I use Pro Tools and/or Garageband. I find that Garageband is easier to use for simpler stuff, and Pro Tools is needed for the more complex parts. This won’t be necessary is you don’t ever want to track real instrument parts (More on this in Part 3: Tracking in Garageband/Pro Tools).
I know some people like to use Logic, Sonar, etc… I just prefer Reason to track because it’s the easiest and most powerful… and Ableton to use live because it’s the best and most fail-safe way to trigger and put together songs and sets.

Ableton Live

Reason

2) Now to the interfaces:

First is an M-Audio Axiom 25. This is just a MIDI Controller. It takes on the sound of whatever you tell it to (Strings, Synths, Drums, you name it!) You can use any MIDI keyboard or regular keyboard that has a USB or MIDI output – See Part 2 (Tracking in Reason) for more.

Axiom 25

Next is an M-Audio Firewire 410. It hooks to the computer via Firewire and gives us 4 inputs and 10 outputs from one single connection.
In a nutshell, this takes everything we have – Click, Track, Guitar, Cues, etc – and outputs it to up to 10 channels. Ex. We run Track stereo from 1 & 2, Click and Cues both out to 3, Guitar Track to 4, and Secondary Keyboard to 5. – See Part 4 (Outputting to Live and setting up Scenes/Outputs) for more.
This Firewire 410 also lets us input into the computer to record Guitar sounds, etc. – See Part 3 (Tracking in Garageband/Pro Tools) for more. In the picture, notice all the outputs on the back… that’s what I’m talking about…

M-Audio Firewire 410

Lastly for interfaces, I use a POD X3 Live for Guitar tones. The stock tones with Garageband are OK… but the POD is great, and runs either into the Firewire 410 or hooks up directly via USB.

Line6 Pod X3 Live

I realize all this stuff costs money… so do what you can! Don’t feel bad b/c you can’t get everything right now. Build a rig in pieces like most of us did.
You can find info, prices, etc on all this stuff from Google, Amazon, Musicians Friend, etc.

So there is what I use physically to get the job done… check back soon for the second installment… TRACKING IN REASON! If you have specific questions or ideas for this series, please email me at JonathanTBryant@gmail.com or comment on the blog. Make sure to spread this around on Twitter, Facebook, your blog, etc. Thanks for reading.

-JB