Production Musings

As things are now back on for the Feb. 17th DTV transision, we’re now 100% legal!  I’m not sure when the FCC first iniated the 700mHz bandwidth auction but I remember being at a vendor training seminar at the Electro Voice facility in Minneapolis about three and a half years ago when I first heard about it.  It’s been the buzz of blogs and the media and frankly, I’ll be glad to see all the commercials go!  I sincerely doubt that there’s anyone left who does not know whats going on.  However, in case there are check out Mike’s blog – I think he’s done a fantastic job staying on top of the whole thing!

We had 5 systems operating in the 700mHz range.  Yesterday when I left, we had none.  Perhaps there are some churches in Canada looking for a good deal on some great Sennheiser EW300 IEM systems!!

Along the way, we added one more system to expand the number of IEM mixes by 2.  Rehearsal Thursday was smooth as ever!

Colin Harman, my graphic design co-worker/room mate, and I decided to see how many automotive terms we could create that didn’t really exist. Our friend, Janelle, had some car concerns according to her Facebook status.  It was late last night….so give us a break.  This doesn’t have anything to do with production unless you consider it an exercise in creative thinking…outside of that it doesn’t offer much! Here’s to a post for originality! (Never ask us for car help….we can fill your gas tank, cap off your washer fluid, replace your wiper blades, change your tire…..you know — the basics…but if you have a problem with your inline spectrum rotary gurder….well….that’s another story.)

Judson, our music director, recently made the move towards better quality piano samples and a better way to manage the samples. He chose Synthology’s Ivory Samples in combination with Muse Research’s Receptor. The samples are significantly larger (data wise) than what you’d normally find in a professional electric keyboard. When we finally got to hear them through the audio system I was very impressed. All of the detailed nuances of a grand piano were distinguishable…down to an individual hammer making contact with the string. Perhaps later I’ll write more on the quality of the samples as we have more time to sit down with them and just listen.

For now, I want to share how this will all tie together and the brilliant idea that Todd came up with. Jud will be using Yamaha’s KX8 as a midi controller for the Receptor loaded with some of the best samples available. All that was missing was the piano…until Todd found the 100 year old special on Craigslist.

A WORD OF CAUTION: for those hardcore vintage piano enthusiasts out there…stop reading here!

We purchased the baby grand for several hundred bucks and needless to say, it needed some work (and by work, I mean tuning!) if its ivories were ever to be tickled again. However, that wasn’t the thing we set out for. We’re gutting it!  It’s going to be the new home for the KX8. Todd began systematically dismantling the piano to make room for the midi controller. He’s about halfway finished with the dismantle and I thought I’d share a few photos I took of it in process.

I’ll reveal the final product in a later post. There is a bit more woodworking to be done.  By then it should be re-finished, the midi controller should be installed and we will have installed audio jacks and perhaps a stereo DI inside the piano casing so it’s wired for sound! We’re not sure how to handle the sustain pedal issue just yet….so more will come on that! If you have any ideas, feel free to share!

Teams.  We all have them under the umbrella of “Technical Arts” or “Production Arts” or whatever we may call it in our local churches.  We have media teams, audio teams (and within that team we have a FOH team and a Monitor team), lighting teams, video teams, podcast teams, and stage teams among others.  As the team at large grows I find that it becomes increasingly difficult for all of us to know those we’re serving beside.  The media team, for example, just doesn’t interface very often with the monitor team…not to the fault of anyone but that it’s geographically very difficult.  They’re in two completely different worlds but yet all the teams are working together towards a common goal – to enable and support communication to large groups of people.

While there is no substitute for being connected with one another outside of Sunday mornings and rehearsals, I had an idea that I thought might be helpful as a first step in knowing one another…especially as the team grows!  About a week ago, with the gracious help of a very cute photojournalist who I happen to be dating, we decided to go oldschool and snap some Polaroids of everyone serving on the team for our main service.  Why Polaroids?  No reason other than they’re cool looking…and going out of production…and if you wait long enough anything will come back in style!  I hung some cheap Ikea hangers, connected those with picture wire and clipped each photo to the wire. The wire runs parallel with the handrail in the hall that leads up to tech offices and loft. Each volunteer signed their photo and wrote what area they served in. This little project ended up costing about $60 after the hangers, wire, and film. As the team grows so does the Polaroid wall!