Gideon is mixed!

Well, last Thursday I went up to MA to mix the story of Gideon!

Gideon is a longer and somewhat more complicated story than either David & Goliath or Naaman the Leper. Sonny (my sound engineer) and I usually listen through a great number of different music selections before we find what is "just right." I was hoping we would be able to complete the mix for the story in the time allowed, but wasn't sure that would happen. Interestingly, the very first CD of production music we looked at had all the selections we ended up using! It was really quite surprising. The general tone of the music was right, and the variety within the individual selections fit what we were looking for wonderfully well.

The first "problem" we encountered came shortly after we began. We laid down the first piece of music, and it fit pretty well. It just needed some slight editing to make the flourishes hit at the right place. Uncharacteristically, Sonny didn't seem to notice the need for editing the piece. I made some suggestions that he agreed to, but he didn't seem engaged in the process. Then, suddenly, he said he thought he might be having an insulin reaction. He checked his blood sugar level (Sonny is a diabetic), and, sure enough, it was definitely low. He excused himself in order to get something to correct the problem, came back and explained that he would be fine in about 5 or 10 minutes. Several minutes later, he said, "Okay, my mind is clear again."

Some time later, the power in the studio suddenly dipped. There was a thunder storm outside, and we quickly "saved" what we were working on. A few other storms came through during the rest of the day, but the power stayed on throughout our time.

The greatest difficulty we faced was finding the right sound effects. Sonny had located a ram's horn sound effect before I arrived, so that was in place, but what does "threshing in a winepress" sound like? We listened carefully through many sounds to find the right campfire when the Midianite soldier was telling his friend his dream. We edited several effects together to get the right sound for smashing jars when Gideon's 300 men blew their trumpets. And, we found just the perfect whoosh and combined it with the right fire sound when Gideon offered meat and unleavened bread to the angel of the LORD.

All in all, it was a great day. God was clearly guiding us. You can hear a short sample of the story on my website!