Hey Gang,

I started playing the drums in high school marching band after we no longer needed my piano skills on the bass line for “Bird Land”.  (remember those big ole’ keyboards on the roller cart w/ the amp attached?).

Ever since, I was hooked on drums and percussion and found myself marching quints on the drum line at Georgia Southern University for three great years.  Few things ring me up like the sound of an intense drum line banging out a sweet cadence full of dynamic and flare.

Enter the new sample package “Rumble” from SampleLogic.Com (configured to work with Native Instrument’s Kontakt player)

I’ve seen drum line used occasionally as a feature in a worship setting.  It was creative and inspiring.

How this can be used in every-day composing, I’m not sure – but I’ll give you this:
Listening to this clip got me FIRED UP.
RUMBLE by Sample Logic

What are some ways you’ve used drums/percussion creatively?

A huge thanks to my good friend McKendree Augustas for sharing this loop with me and giving me permission to share it with you.  Make sure and stop by his site and checkout his awesome music.

Song:   Christ Is Risen
Key:  F

Click and Vocal Guide:  Left
Track:  Right

*note:  this loop will fade in slowly prior to click starting.  You won’t start hearing the intro/click until around 12 seconds in.  That is by design, so don’t freak out!

Enjoy!
[See post to listen to audio at www.fredmckinnon.com]
Download

Hey Gang,

Monday I posted on our “Worship Confessional” video that we’d introduced the new song by Chris Tomlin, Nathan and Christy Nockels & Company from the Passion 2011 CD, “All My Fountains”.

Although I wasn’t there for the live recording of Passion 2011, I was present at the “Lift” event last month and experienced this song for the first time and loved it.

Our debut of this song at SSCC was extremely well-received.  I’d like to share the click-track and loop that I made for this song with you.  Enjoy!

Details:
Our Arrangement in Key of D.

*acapella Chorus intro – then start loop
*Segue, VS1, Chorus, Segue, VS2, Chorus, Segue, Bridge (4x), Chorus, Acapella Chorus, Tag

Instruments we used “LIVE” that are NOT on the click:  Acoustic (open tuned to D), 2nd Acoustic, Mandolin and Hammer Dulcimer, Bass, and Live Drums.

Instruments in the Loop:
Click
Spoken Guide
Stylus RMX Loops
Tambourine Loops
Clap Track
Organ Track
Piano Pad Guide Track

CLICK and SPOKEN GUIDE:  Panned Left
INSTRUMENTS:  Panned Right

[See post to listen to audio at www.fredmckinnon.com]
Download the loop.

If you use it, let me know how you like it!

Hey Gang,

I mentioned a couple of days ago in this post that we were going to be debuting Christy Nockel’s “A Mighty Fortress” this Sunday at SSCC.  It has some huge stuff happening and I didn’t want the sound to be anything less than “epic” so I decided to create a loop that we can use in Ableton Live.

Of course in Live, I will use individual audio files and can choose what I will and will not have playing.

Many of you asked, so here’s the .mp3 version of the mixed loop.
This loop assumes:
4-bar intro
Click in Right
Assumes live drummer to supplement loops, guitarist, and bass player.
(those instruments not included)

[See post to listen to audio at www.fredmckinnon.com]
(download)

Let me know what you think.  I’m still pretty new at this whole loop-creation process.

I’m a faithful die-hard. I don’t like change. I didn’t like change years ago when Gibson bought out Opcode and StudioVision Pro was “no more”. That’s when I made the change to the big-time industry standard recording platform, “ProTools“.

Now that I’m not sitting in my studio all day, ProTools isn’t very practical. I find myself getting more and more portable. I have a M-Audio Keystation Pro 88 in my office … with no sounds. GarageBand isn’t really as versatile as I need, although it worked last week for a 4:30 instrumental solo. Launching Protools would require hardware – I could borrow Chris’ MBox, but that’s a pain.

One of my good friends, and an incredible artist/songwriter/worship leader, McKendree Tucker, keeps telling me I should make the switch to Apple’s Logic Studio … and I’m very tempted. He uses both – Logic for tracking, recording, looping, creative … and ProTools for some tough editing and transfers when needing a ProTools studio.

Here’s the deal … $499 retail is an AMAZINGLY LOW price for all the stuff you get with Logic Studio. I mean, it comes out of the box with more instruments and plugins than I already have with a big investment in ProTools stuff. Plus, it’s portable – I don’t need hardware to record MIDI, to mix, or to edit. I have major creative recording and editing tools at my fingertips.

Sounds like I’ve made up my mind … I’d like to hear from those of you who have experience with either, both, or who made the switch.

Whatcha say?

PS: I want to stay engaged in the blog comments, but as some may recall, I’ve been unplugging and “fasting” blogs on Wednesdays, and I’ll be traveling most of the day on Thursday, so hopefully I can get back into the discussion by then … but we got all night!

Hey Everyone -

Well today got away from me – it’s 11:10 PM EST, and we leave in the AM for Staff Retreat w/ the church. I’m so excited – this is a large staff and we’ll all be doing some great stuff together. Laptops and Cell Phones aren’t allowed – I’ll have Lappie, but mostly so I can run Ableton Loops for worship.

So, I’ll be checking email in the early morning hours, then I’ll be checking out of the blogosphere until late Thursday evening. Pray for us, and of course – pray for Joy and the other spouses that will be left holding down the forts.

For the Kingdom,
Fred

with Ableton …. Live 6 that is.

I did it. After years of downloading the free trial of Ableton Live, messing around for a few minutes or hours, and then moving on and neglecting it .. I finally did it. I made the commitment. I took the plunge. I purchased Ableton Live 6.

I’ve been spending the latter part of this week checking it out, reading up, studying, practicing, looping, etc. (which is the main reason I’ve been blogless for a few days, among other reasons like fighting hackers again).

Well, I can truly say I now understand the hype and fuss over this software – especially as applied in live worship. While Shannon (our Associate Worship Director) leads the 3 worship services in our main auditorium over at St. Simons Community Church (eureka! did I actually LINK to my church … does that mean there is FINALLY a website up! .. yes .. although it still has quite a few bugs … we’ll have those worked out soon) … I’m going to be a guest WL in Dublin, GA at a couple of different churches.

First stop tomorrow morning is World Harvest Church in Dublin, GA … the entire worship team there is gone to Forward ’07 so they asked me to come as a guest Worship Leader and minister. I’m excited, but with no band I wondered how it would go. I intended to just do some spontaneous “Worship Interludes” type ministry, but really wanted to break the ice and find common ground by singing some more well-known worship songs. Since I’ve been wanting to use some loops at my church (even in the smaller settings, like staff meeting worship) I’d already been thinking about investing some of my “CT-Creative Time” [see this post] in learning it .. then, when faced with a weekend of leading worship with no band .. .I decided it was time to make the plunge. Now, I’ll do a second PM service in the same town at The Sanctuary in Dublin, GA.

I’ve been practicing this weekend and I think I’m ready .. I’ll play my Yamaha keyboard and will have a fully interactive band with me in Ableton, sporting right out of my beloved Lappie (MacBook Pro).

Big kudos to Greg over at Digital Worship and Phillip, the owner of InteractiveWorshipLive.Com. Greg has a site dedicated to making loops and discussing the use of loops and Ableton, and he’s become a great resource and new friend over email, “IM”, and he’s going to help us with a dedicated forum on loops at TheWorshipCommunity. Phillip has a company where they produce full Ableton Live Sets which include all the multiple tracks to each song, professional recorded by studio musicians … and “covered” just like the album. The songs are very reasonably priced, and I bought 3 songs and cashed in on my 1 free song credit, so I got 4 fully produced songs in Ableton Live complete with click track, keys, bass, electric guitars, acoustic guitars, organs, drums (real, acoustic drums), drum loops, and more. I can mute what tracks I don’t need. I can loop the Chorus again if I need to – Live, on the fly. They even have BGV’s!

So, I have really tight, full sounding, complete interactive band arrangements loaded in Ableton to my first four songs in my setlist .. after those, I’ll break and move into a more intimate, piano/strings type worship, meditation, prayer, ministry.

Albeton Live Set:
1 – Everyday (Lincoln Brewter Arr)
2 – O Praise Him (David Crowder Band Arr)
3 – Everlasting God (Tomin Arr)
4 – Holy is the Lord (Tomlin Arr)

I’ll be blogging more on this resource shortly, but in the meantime, THANKS GUYS!

For the Kingdom,

Fred