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!

Gideon Recorded, Naaman Mixed!

I was able to lay down the voice tracks for the story of Gideon in both the NIV and the KJV! In the sections where I "blew the trumpets", my voice remained strong and they came out very well. Sonny, the engineer, who had not heard the story before, commented after I read the first version with something like, "Wow, that was an exciting story!"

After doing some editing, we decided to mix the story of Naaman the Leper. I had recorded the voice tracks for that story when I was in the studio a couple of months ago when we mixed David & Goliath. We listened to some possible music selections and decided on one that we thought would work. It was great for the very beginning, but lacked any kind of spark as it continued. So, we went back to the music library.

We were able to locate a couple of selections that were excellent! Sonny edited the music so that certain flourishes hit at just the right spots. We added some sound effects that worked very well, and had about 2/3 of the story mixed. Then, we hit a wall.

There's a major change in the story about 2/3 of the way through, and we couldn't find any appropriate music for that section. We use a music service on the web that is composed of 10 different music libraries and has thousands of selections available for licensing. There is a search engine that allows you to put in very specific guidelines for the kinds of music you need. We spent over an hour looking and listening, but we couldn't find anything that was "just right."

We prayed, and I asked God to encourage those who were on the Ezra Team to pray harder! The Ezra Team is a group of people that I contacted who committed to praying at a certain time of day. They are named after Ezra, who was a great prayer warrior in the Old Testament.

Then, we found a piece that we thought "might" work. We kept listening, with no success, and decided to download that one piece and actually try it. It was perfect!

The feel was just right for the beginning of the section, and there were changes within the music that fit perfectly for the subsequent sections. We were very excited! The story has a completely different feel from David & Goliath, and will fit wonderfully well on a new story CD. God answered your prayers in a marvelous way.

You can hear a sample on my website!

Please pray that God will lead me to the next several stories that are needed to round out the new CD. I have several ideas, but I am not sure which is best.

If you have a thought, I'd love to hear it! The title of the CD is "Defeating Giants", so think along those lines! You can post your ideas in the comments.

Recording New Story!

Well, today I am in MA. to record my next story! I will be recording the story of Gideon, and mixing the story of Naaman the Leper and hopefully getting to mixing Gideon as well.

Please pray that these stories come together in a wonderful way and will impact the people who listen.

I hope to have these stories on a CD by the fall. We are also persuing the option of getting them online for download to iPod's and other players, so please pray for that!