Iced Tea Forever

Brett Manning is my future vocal instructor.  I haven’t taken his program yet (Singing Success), but I will.  I’ve researched it in depth, and it’s right in line with my vocal philosophy.   His approach makes perfect sense to me, I believe it’s what I’ve been looking for ever since I started seriously studying voice.

Anyway, even though I’m not enrolled yet, I keep up with him and what he’s doing with his program.  A while ago he put a video on Youtube of him running up and down some scales, all over the keyboard.  There was some doubt on the internet about his supposed range, so this was his response.

Brett and his goofy hat.  Anyway, some genius put together this hilarious parody, and Brett’s video editor saw it and posted about it on one of their websites.   I laughed until I cried.

Here at RipChord Studios, I’ve always used n-Track for my recording software. It’s a multi-track recording program that will record as many tracks as your computer will handle. It works great and is one of the cheapest programs available.

It was created by a guy in Italy, Flavio Antonioli. He does a great job of supporting it, fixing bugs, and implementing feedback from users.

Years ago, I think it was when we went from version 2 to version 3, I had a problem. The new version wouldn’t open files created with the previous version. I sent him an email about the problem, not sure if anything would come of it or not. Not only did I get a reply very soon, but attached to the email was a new build of the program that fixed the problem!

We’re on version 5 by now. I’ve recorded several albums with it: “Purpose” from AHQ, “A Heart Like Yours” from Heartbeat, an upcoming release from my buddy Pete, and of course the stuff from Acoustic Persecution. I’ve also done quite a bit of live stuff using it on my laptop.

I recently emailed Flavio again, requesting a small feature. He emailed me back saying he would add it.

> A small thing I would find helpful is the option to add a button to the toolbar which would toggle the “Song Comments” window. I use it fairly frequently and it’s kind of a pain to have to always go through the edit menu.
>
> Thanks, keep up the great work!
> Tom

Thanks for the suggestion. I’ll add the button in the next version of the program.

Best regards,
Flavio Antonioli.

The big guns in the multi-track recording field are ridiculously high-priced. n-Track is cheap, it does what I need to do, and it does it well.

I was going through some stuff on my computer the other day and came across this audio file. It’s an outtake from AHQ’s Purpose recording when we were trying to lay down “Jonah.”

Jonah Outtake (1 MB, 0:50)

It consists of me forgetting the words (my patented move) and random comments and noise-making.

We were a goofy quartet in the studio. Put some mics in front of us and we would go nuts. Yelling, shouting, screeching, rumbling, miscellaneous racket, dumb comments, you name it. One time I asked Gordon Kuryluk (who recorded our first four projects) if he ever had anybody else in the studio do the things we did. Nope, he said, he sure didn’t.

Mannheim Steamroller is one thing I just don’t get. Now Kon agrees with me on this, it sounds like somebody playing with an $80 Casio keyboard. What’s so special about that?

Talk about overrated.

One very interesting thing, though, about Chip Davis (the man who started MS back in the seventies). He wrote the music for C.W. McCall, including “Convoy!”

One time long ago I posted about a CD I had received in the mail. I really liked it, and said

I would love to produce/record their next album! I’m definitely going to bid on it and pester them mercilessly.

Well, I did, and they consented to let me assist on their next project.

And now it’s here, available, and you need a copy.

Heartbeat is an a cappella trio of sisters.

I think this is a great album. Once again they pull off a varied selection of material and do a great job of arranging it and making it their own. Very nice.

That’s one of the things I really like about Heartbeat, and what caught my ear in the first place. They aren’t afraid to put their own unique stamp on their material, and they aren’t afraid to try something new. Their approach is refreshing.

They also have some guests on this recording! Their own Mountain Anthems Chorus backs them up on the last track, “Peace Speaker.” The chorus is from their church, and they’ve all been members for a while.

They also invited AHQ to record a song with them, and we were honored to accept. We did “Fallen Walls, Open Doors” by Keith Lancaster (The Acappella Company). A year and a half ago all of AHQ was back home in OR for Christmas, and we recorded our part of the song then. Heartbeat later added their part, and I think it turned out pretty well. It’s a unique collaboration that I think people will like.

I know firsthand that they worked very hard on this album, and it shows.

Buy this CD now. Contact Heartbeat at the following email address: heartbeat at gcnetmail dot net.

Oh yeah, and Heartbeat gave my wife her first album credit!

Here’s a sampler: Heartbeat - A Heart Like Yours (2:45, 1.9MB)

On Wednesday of last week me and my family drove to Plain City, OH (4 hours, 200 mi. one way), to hear Voice of Praise on their Reunion tour.

It was good to see my buddies Glen, Ben, and Josh, and the others. In fact, I also met Paul for the first time, it turns out he’s an ITF constituent from way back!

All their former members were with them on tour, save one. Joshua B. Good (Paul’s brother) couldn’t make it, so there were nine men on stage.

It was a great program. They had a fantastic blend, you’d have to look far and wide to find a men’s ensemble that could match it.

I was surprised and pleased to hear them sing Walt Harrah’s arrangement of “God be With You Till We Meet Again.” Very sweet, and they knocked the tag out of the park. (Hopefully they don’t mind me using the term “tag!”)

AHQ did this song many years ago, and we could never pull it off live because the last chord called for five (as I recall) different notes. But they sounded great.

Seeing that this is yet another song they covered that AHQ has recorded, AHQ’s influence on them is more apparent all the time.

Ok, since probably only about 5% of my constituents got that terrible joke, I’ll just come out and say, that was a really lame joke! But it was funny to me and probably Konrad, so I put it in.

They recorded an album to go along with the tour, and it’s well worth buying. You really should get yourself a copy. Remind me to do a separate post on it.

When you’re the emcee or moderator of a church service or a concert, never mention a low turnout or how disappointed you are that more people didn’t come.

It serves no purpose. After all, the people you’re telling are the ones who came! All it does it create an aura of negativity.

It doesn’t chastise someone who should have come but didn’t, it just makes the one who did come feel bad that those in charge are so disappointed.

I’m a huge fan of the Gaither Vocal Band, and was very sorry to see David Phelps leave. I had been slightly skeptical to see him come, but I was sorry to see him go. I came to like him a lot.

So he left God’s perfect will for his life as tenor of GVB, and went to CCM as a soloist. Tragic. But as far as CCM goes, he’s one of the best they’ve got. Which really isn’t saying much, I guess, but I mean it as a compliment!

And of course my wife thinks he’s the greatest that’s ever been. So we went to see him last Friday night.

As with nearly every non-a cappella concert I ever attended, the band was too loud and the vocals were too quiet. But wow, what an incredible singer. Vocally, he’s nothing but dynamite.

If you can look past the hair! His wife probably holds him up by his feet and uses him to mop the floor.

The encore was really strange. First thing, they didn’t come back for ages! I was starting to wonder if they were going to come back at all or not.

They finally did, and were bombarded with calls from all over the crowd, “Revelation!!” Everybody wanted him to sing “Revelation,” because he hadn’t done it yet. And why not, it’s one of his best songs.

But then he does “Life is a Church.” I don’t understand that, it’s a terrible encore song. And that was the first I’d heard it, but I don’t think it’s that great of a song anyway! Bizarre.

The only thing I can figure, “Life is a Church” is his latest album, and “Revelation” was the one before that. Trying to promote the new stuff? I don’t know, but it was the wrong choice for an encore.

So anyway, the concert wasn’t bad. But I’d sure like to stick him back in GVB, that voice is too good to waste on CCM.

I was listening to an old radio clip of the Golden Gate Quartet, and I thought, man this tune sounds familiar!

I finally placed it, it’s sounded like the great classic Larry sings on Lyle the Kindly Viking, “Larry’s High Silk Hat.”

Sure enough.

After a little research, I find it is the same song, Funiculi, Funicula. It’s some Italian ditty from 1880. Great tune.

I like Larry’s lyrics better than the original. Speaking of the lyrics, the Golden Gate Quartet sang different lyrics than the original also.