Auto-Tune The Testimony
June 15, 2010
When we preached on Psalm 40, we illustrated the topic with a video of people sharing their testimonies. But, we noted that the psalmist says God put a new song in his heart. We couldn’t get anyone to sing a testimony, so we forced them to sing with a little help from Auto-Tune!
Canon EOS 5D Gets New Features
March 6, 2010
Awesome! I just got this in my email:
Looks like my favorite camera just got… favoriter. I’ve loved the EOS 5D Mark II since it first came out, even if it was released a little half-baked. At first, there was no way to manually control anything when recording a video. People came up with hacks, such as setting the aperture and then unscrewing the lens so that it could not go back into auto mode. Eventually, Canon released a firmware update that gave us manual control over shutter and aperture (without having to risk our lenses’ lives). You can check out what I’ve been able to do with that in this post.
This week, Canon announced another step forward — 24fps recording. In addition, the 30fps mode will be modified to 29.97fps to be compliant with NTSC standards. They’ve also added a live histogram to aid in manual exposure. But wait, there’s more! Manual audio controls! Documentary filmmakers who shoot with the 5D have come up with some clever techniques to circumvent the camera’s auto gain control, but nothing worked perfectly. So the new manual control will be a great addition. And last but not least, the Av and Tv modes will work as expected in video mode, allowing me to, for instance, pick a wide aperture and set-it-and-forget-it!
Getting all this is like an unexpected Christmas gift. I’ve always heard that firmware upgrades fix bugs. You shouldn’t expect new features from firmware upgrades, and so I was just expecting these much-needed features to come with a hefty price-tag — buying a new Canon EOS 5D Mark III. Thank God Canon didn’t do that. Some companies (Adobe, are you listening?) abandon development on their products as soon as they come out and force you to buy new stuff. All that makes for is angry customers who switch to more considerate competitors.
Creating good relationships with loyal customers is way better than making a quick buck. And Canon just won a lot of goodwill from me!
My 2009 Music Awards
December 12, 2009
It’s that time of year again! Time to look back and remember this year in music!
MOST ANTICIPATED ALBUM AWARD
- OneRepublic’s “Waking Up.” I love it that these guys are bringing piano-driven pop back in a cool way. The textures of the programming in their sophomore release really hit the sweet spot.
- John Mayer’s “Battle Studies.” Runner up is John Mayer, who has been on my radar ever since he released his live album, “Where The Light Is.” He’s a massively talented dude, as you can tell from seeing him perform live, but his pop efforts sometimes fail to show his full potential.
BEST DRESSED AWARD
- Lady Gaga. OK, just kidding. She gives me nightmares. But I will give her this: Her music is infectiously catchy, and she knows how to turn a performance into a spectacle people talk about for days.
BEST SONG WRITING AWARD
- Taylor Swift. Taylor’s songs tell a story — an engaging, memorable story that connects with your experience. That level of creativity is rare these days. I only wish her singing matched her mad songwriting skillz.
WORST STAGE PRESENCE AWARD
- Kanye West. I think President Obama said all that needs to be said about this jackhole… We need to install a seatbelt on his chair at the awards shows.
- Miley Cyrus. Miley is proof that even I could have a successful recording career. I’m a big fan of her hit singles, “The Climb” and “Party In The U.S.A.” She’s proven she can do country ballads and teen pop hits and everything in-between. But to hear her attempt those songs live on stage reveals that a lot of magic has gone on to make her studio recordings sound as solid as they do.
BEST ACCORDION SOLO AWARD
- Green Day. At MTV’s Europe Music Awards, this punk band proved once again that nothing goes together better than pyrotechnics and accordions. From one accordion player to another: props, dude, props.
WORST CAREER MOVE OF 2009
- Switchfoot leaving Columbia Records. Everybody is hailing Switchfoot’s latest album, “Hello Hurricane,” as their return to greatness. They regained complete creative control of their sound after leaving Columbia Records. But I kinda liked their sound better when it was record executives who molded the final product into what they knew the public liked. Say whatever you want, but “Nothing Is Sound” will always be the gold standard for me, and this new album is very, very rough in comparison.
STUPIDEST NAME AWARD
- Souljah Boy Tell ‘Em. Really? Can your name be a whole sentence with a verb and everything?
OBVIOUS AUTO-TUNING AWARD
- The Glee Cast. They’re tuning these poor kids to death. And that’s a shame since some of them, like Lea Michele, have awesome voices without turning them into T-Pain.
WORST MASTERING AWARD
- Kristian Stanfill’s “Attention.” Great collection of songs. Hard to listen to. Man, I wish I had the opportunity to re-master these so the crash cymbals wouldn’t eat the entire mix alive!
BIGGEST DISAPPOINTMENT AWARD
- U2′s “No Line On The Horizon.” Although their newest CD contains my favorite U2 song of all time, “Magnificent,” the rest of the tracks completely miss the mark. They’re one of my favorite bands, but “weird” is the only word I have to describe the strange style they’ve adopted for this effort.
- David Crowder Band’s “Church Music.” Given how much I love programmed music and the DC*B, this album should have been a shoe-in as my favorite of 2009 But, it’s dark. Dreary. Strange, even. And rather than taking us through the history of church music (starting with the Phos Hilaron and moving forward), it remains in one gear the whole way through. Big disappointment from one of my favorite bands.
- Christy Nockels’ “Life Light Up.” This Watermark and Passion Conferences veteran has always been one of my favorites. Unfortunately, her solo debut on sixsteps records doesn’t capture her awesomeness at all.
PLEASANT SURPRISE AWARDS
- Owl City’s “Ocean Eyes.” The polar opposite of David Crowder’s dreary CD, Owl City’s unique brand of feel-good programming rocks! The newest album inspires me to greater levels of creativity when using Propellerhead Reason for programming my own music.
- Derek Webb’s “Stockholm Syndrome.” Super original programming. Tight lyrics. Killer album from a guy who turned his career around by ditching the acoustic guitar for some hip hop beats.
- Fee’s “Hope Rising.” Unexpectedly, Fee has become one of my very favorite Christian artists. Unlike some albums that take a few listens to grown on you, this stuff hooks you from the first listen. (Mad props to Eddie Kirkland for co-writing a bunch of these awesome, original, God-honoring songs.)
HONORABLE MENTIONS
- Chris Tomlin, for making a Christmas worship album. Awesome!
- Casey Darnell and James David Carter, for being my new favorite indie artists! Hey, I predicted Fee and Kristian Stanfill. Will I be right again? Somebody give them a record deal, already, so I can be right (and we all can get some good music)!!!
DISHONORABLE MENTIONS
- Matt Redman, for a bland new album that doesn’t represent what he’s capable of.
- Avalon, for not breaking up. It’s over, guys. It’s over.
Who were your favorites from 2009?
My Halloween Costume!
November 1, 2009
What were you for Halloween?
A lot of children go as what they’d like to be when they grow up. (For adults, we often go as what we wish we’d become when we grew up.) I got to thinking about that and came up with several possibilities:
- A tennis star. But I already dress like that every time I play tennis. I have several Nike outfits and shoes from the Federer collection. In fact, I use the same exact racquet, strung with the same guage strings at the same tension as my tennis hero (Wilson natural gut and Luxilon Power Rough hybrid). I get to live out my dream of being a tennis star about twice a week. No halloween needed!
- A musical artist. But I already dress like that at concerts. For example, when I go to the Dove Awards, I dress like the rest of the guys there… I have to tone it down a little bit for Sunday morning worship, but I still get to live out my dream of playing and singing in front of folks every week! No Halloween needed!
Most of the things I wanted to be in life are actually part of my life. That’s a great feeling. No need to pretend. No need to long for a better future someday. No discontentment. Many of my goals and dreams became reality.
But there is still one thing I still lack: I never became a doctor… and I never grew an afro.
I guess I’ll be content to keep pretending on that front for a while!
What do you want to be when you grow up?
Magical Nighttime Photography at Disney
August 10, 2009
We recently went on a trip to Disney World with my wife’s family, and I brought along my 5D for the ride. That’s the Canon EOS 5D Mark II DSLR, to be precise.
It turned out that the 5D was a perfect fit for Disney. For instance, its fast lenses with image stabilization, 4 fps burst rate and 21 megapixel sensor allowed me the shutter speeds and resolution I needed to take some killer photos on our very bumpy Animal Kingdom Safari. (Bad choice of words, there…)
Its full-frame sensor allowed for depth of field control that yielded some wicked cool portraits on a nature hike in the Animal Kingdom.
Finally, its excellent low light capabilities yielded some stunning photos in Epcot at dusk.
All in all, we took almost 4,000 pictures over seven days. Of those, I saved 750. Of those, I posted a small sampling to Flickr.
You can see more of my Disney photos here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bdubrecords/sets/72157621982167632/
As you know, the 5D Mark II is not only famous for its low light capabilities and its depth of field control. It also shoots stunning HD video. Check out this video on YouTube to see what I’m talking about. The fireworks are my favorite parts.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7Pbm_R26u0&fmt=22
For another example of my Canon DSLR videos, see this post.
Infomercial Spoof
June 8, 2009
Wade showed this video to introduce the sermon last week:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8prWAC-XEu4&fmt=22
The chroma key turned out pretty good (considering the key wall was a just a bright blue bed sheet, the camcorder was an EOS 5D Mark II and the keying software was just what was included with Premiere Pro CS4). The acoustics that led to audio problems were probably the chief shortfall of this video…
Anyway, look for the complete sermon to post by next week and bloopers from the infomercial shoot to post soon too!
Magazine Cover Designed on iPhone
May 28, 2009
I use my iPhone for lots of things — email, Twitter, Facebook, games, notes… oh, and phone calls. But I’ve never done this with it:
http://www.newyorker.com/video?videoID=24055494001
Jorge Colombo created a cover for the prestigious magazine, the New Yorker, using nothing but the $5 iPhone application, Brushes. Cool!
Set Design on a Dime
May 24, 2009
This weekend, we constructed our new set for the summer sermon series. We decided to go with something more fun than usual. Justin Mahood, our resident lighting and staging guru, came up with a great idea that came to reality for just a little over $100.
We mounted conduit at 2-foot intervals from the floor to the ceiling. We then attached diffusion panels (like the ones you see used with fluorescent lights in drop ceilings). We created a checkerboard pattern by attaching the squares with Velcro.
We added some basic lighting to the top and bottom which will allow for some really cool color effects and motion effects. We’re also going to be using a video projector for some really cool effects later on. I’m going to create a Photoshop template that will allow us to color each square within the grid individually. It will appear as if each panel is individually lit. Even more than that, we can project arrows, letters, words, symbols, etc. onto the panels. We’re going to unveil that “functionality” of our new background later in the summer with a sweet music and light show. (Don’t give away the surprise!)
All this for a little over $100 and a short weekend of work! It’s amazing what you can do if you’re creative!
Weekly Jam Sessions
March 20, 2009
Have you ever wanted to be more creative? If so, you’re not alone. In fact, I’m pretty sure that part of being created in God’s image is longing to be creative like Him. In order to better minister to creative people in our congregation and to push for greater levels of creativity in my own career, I’ve started hosting weekly jam sessions in my office.
This week, we focused on programming. We delved into some acid jazz, funk, electronica and other styles. Here’s a little preview of something we came up with:
http://www.wadecenter.com/jam1.mp3
A few more layers of instruments (especially some electric guitar), and this will be a killer loop we can use as a song intro, a Scripture video or something else!
I can’t wait to see what we come up with next week!
Textured Graphic Design
January 18, 2009
Check out these recent banners I’ve designed. They appear over at wadecenter.com, where I work. I’ve been using a lot of textures in my design backgrounds lately. Apparently, I’m not alone. Smashing Magazine says it’s a huge trend right now!
Even the design for this blog features lots of different background textures. (I can’t take credit for most of them, as they were part of the template I modified. But I did play around with Photoshop a lot to modify them to match my personality!)
What are you using to spice up your designs?
Creative Chaos – Digital Stained Glass
September 11, 2008
Some of the most frequent criticisms of modern church services are:
- I miss the stained glass.
- Why don’t you use traditional church art?
- Where’s the cross?
- Why are there no windows so we can see God’s creation?
If people in your congregation express those concerns, they can be addressed easily enough. Check out this demonstration from a recent sermon of mine:
This sermon was part of “Vision Sunday,” a week we devoted to explaining why we do what we do. I went on to explain that worship is less about the style of song or architecture and more about what we serve with our hearts when we leave the church building.
This post is part of Creative Chaos, an effort by Buckhead Church’s Service Programming Director to create a community of creative people sharing ideas they’ve recently used in churches!
Creative Chaos – One Man Band
July 24, 2008
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VSvHACWrU4
This is a recent title package I created to illustrate a sermon about how none of us should be a “one man band” and try to do it all by ourselves. I recorded the multi-track one piece at a time (obviously) on a Roland VS-2480, all the while recording in HD video. I then composited the video together, synced up the recording, panned and scanned, and viola! Pretty cool! I’ve always wanted to play all four parts of a four-part band at once!
This post is part of Creative Chaos, an effort by Buckhead Church’s Service Programming Director to create a community of creative people sharing ideas they’ve recently used in churches!
