It's January 4th and a bit of the 5th (I couldn't fit the dates in today's title.)
Practice: 1hr of original music - guitar and song training in my kitchen while slurping on tea.
Set Lists
Sets: My thoughts go to Tom Jacksons Live Music Method book. (Tom Jackson is the guy who created and directed Taylor Swift's early concerts' choreography.) I am beginning to think that I had better make it standard to practice in sets - one for a house concert and one for a worship night because that is what I want to do in the future. Doing each set every other day.
Btw: Here's a little tip from Tom for you - why stepping aside is greater than stepping back away from the mike.
A "set" makeup is a well thought through playlist with the order you intend to play your songs at a show where you take into consideration their energy levels. It is import to practice not only each song in the list, but also the transitions between those songs and the things you intend to say to introduce songs when needed. You have to be intentional in all this so that the audience gets pulled into your world and ignited with your passion for the music you are performing.You need to over practice everything. You can never excuse poor musicianship on stage. Work to eradicate it by practising regularly - not just each song but the whole show.
Practicing according to song lists is something I want to develop even more - both house concert set lists and worship set lists.
Concert set list vs Worship set list: "Whoah! Wait a minute!", you say. "A Worship Night isn't a show." Correct! Leading a worship night is not like doing a normal gig, because you are being led by the Holy Spirit to bring praise to God together with others. You are not entertaining. There is a derogatory phrase for the style of leading worship songs that integrates an entertainment mindset and praise music - "praisetainment". It is, unfortunately, commonplace today which is truly disconcerting. In my opinion, music that is perfectly delivered but not bearing any spiritual fruit belongs in other venues than our churches/home groups.
It's much more complicated to be a worship leader than a musician only. As a worship leader you need to be overpracticed as any good musician would, and your character has to be pure and your Holy Spirit antenna needs to be in tune. You have to keep your heart pure and your mind free from the burdens of this world. You need character and proficiency. That is a big haul. So you start of finding some great music, practice and do a set list but then He takes over. All of the sudden you have to play a song that the Holy Spirit brings to mind, (that is not on your setlist) or drag out an outro for longer periods of time than you'd planned and flow in the prophetic. That means you have to practice the songs within a set list, along with transitions, and practice being led by the Spirit in your music daily. I can't emphasise this enough. Being a great worship leader is tough work on a consistent basis and is always a matter of laying down your priorities for His.
No one should lead a time of worship, a worship service or worship night simply on the basis of their musical ability or their credentials. Having a worship night and being good at it requires both being adept and flexible musically and being a laid down lover of the Lord, constantly worshiping in His presence. Worship is a lifestyle not a calling. Being a worship leader is something i get called out of people's needs to do. I don't see myself as a worship leader, just a worshiper. Still, I lead worship at a local home church because we need it.
Organise: Cleaned up my phone. I use my phone for a lot of things. I have recordings of music I am making that need to be renamed and sent to backups in the cloud. Every time I write a new song I record it in my cell phone immediately. That way I don't lose it. After a while, my phone gets full and going through it every now and then helps.
Mastering education: using the Renaissance plugin during mastering
I listened to two videos in the Prosoundformula.com's course on mastering,
"Compress it - Intro and Overview", while I did weightlifting with kettle bells, push-ups and sit-ups. I learned the difference between compression and limiting; the dangers and advantages of multiband compressors and its applications; single band sound more natural and unified but are less powerful. A newbie like me needs to start with the single band until I get used to compression. I'll have less control but it will be more natural. If I run into a need for a multiband compressor, I can take that when it pops up. His main warning was that multiband compression can really destroy a track. Newbies beware! That is why I don't want to use it yet.
In the "Compress it - How to Use A Compressor for mastering" video, I learned how to use my Renaissance plugin for compression correctly. I have had some difficulty understanding how it works (been trying to use it on my bass track in the Change My Mind song with unclear results). What I learn about a plugin in the mastering video can also help me use it in my mixing phase so this is one of those things that will propel me forward.
So, I went back and forth between my mix and the video applying what I learned as I went through the video. This is how I learn just about everything I adapt from videos...hands on application makes it permanent knowledge in my blonde brain.
The renaissance plugin from Waves
Using the renaissance plugin during mastering try 1.5 -3:1 ratio not more. Generally speaking, you don't want the compression to be obvious during the mastering stage. You don't want to crush the dynamics, just raise the power. Here's a pic from when he is playing around with the plugin explaining why more than a 3:1 ratio is not advantageous. I went in and switched the compression plugin I had had on the bass in Logic to this one and noticed immediate results.
Check out www.prosoundformula.com: I am not endorsing him at all. I'm just saying that I really have learned a lot from his courses. He has three free courses btw.: mixing vocals and a quick intro to mastering that are very informative despite the fact that they are free. All his courses are very structured and he always provides a free pdf download below each video that summarises what he went through in the video for quick reference. He has great cheat sheets too. One on making a Hit Mix, one on how to shape frequencies of the various instruments in a mix and so on. I feel like a got a great deal, but then again I bought his courses on a Black Friday sale a year ago.
Gain Staging
The gain staging video, (on the top of today's diary page), is a video I started looking into and then realised that I need to go to my DAW, Logic and see how it works there. I've got this ominous feeling that I missed this completely on all my mixes and I may have to go and fix this on every single mix before mastering. Sigh! Will I ever get done???
It is about controlling the amount of input volume before adding plugins on a track/or all tracks, in order to reserve headroom for the final mix. Very sad that I didn't get this info earlier. Glad that I got it in time.
Here's another video explaining gain staging. (video below)
He names three reasons for using gain staging
- You get more headroom. Aim for an RMS level of about -18 dB in headroom throughout the mix before mastering.
To do this make sure that none of your tracks peak any louder than around -18dB before you add plugins. (Also, make sure that you are not clipping anywhere along the signal path). If a track is too loud, add a gain plugin or reduce the input level on the channel to fix the volume level using the pre fader volume setting. Then, as you add plugins, check that the signal is always the same volume as before you added it, every step of the way.
Gain staging helps you compensate for the volume added by each plugin.
- You'll be able to A/B comparisons to reference tracks properly. When you add plugins, the volume out should be the same as when the signal went in. Otherwise you can be tricked by your ears that the outcome is better simply because it is louder. If you are careful to see to it that the volume into each plugin is the same as the volume out, you guarantee a better comparison.
- Some plugins work best or have a sweet level at about -18 dBs. It's the way many plugins are created. So go with the industry standard. Why fight it?
Al this is well explained by this Will Darling with a great British accent here:
https://youtu.be/_dbG7EAPMM8