Echoes of Mercy

“Blessed Assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a fore-taste of Glory Devine!

Heir of Salvation

Purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit

Washed in His Blood.”

That song by Fanny Crosby was composed in 1873 which is, along with It is Well With My Soul a close second, my favorite hymn. It is based on Hebrews 10:22, “Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.”

In 1873, blind hymn composer Fanny Crosby, was visiting her friend Phoebe Knapp. Mrs. Knapp was having a large pipe organ installed in her home. Thrilled with a melody she had written, Mrs. Knapp asked her friend’s opinion of the tune played on the piano for Crosby. (The pipe organ’s installation was incomplete.) Said Knapp, “What do you think the tune says?” Crosby replied, “Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine.” The rest is history.

I first truly noticed this gem in 1986 while attending the funeral services of my favorite great-uncle Wilbur Gene known as “Billy” to all of us. Blessed Assurance resounded from the Hammond organ via two large Leslie speaker cabinets in the immense, reverberant hall. Had I not been trying to keep my composure that day I would have immediately fell to my knees in reverent awe of God’s inspiration. Out of the tragedy of a life cut shot was the realization that Uncle Bill had met Jesus personally having just accepted Christ prior to his fatal heart attack. My dad had led Billy to his knees in prayer at our apartment home one evening. Only now in retrospect do I begin to feel the gravity of that moment.

Those Echoes of Mercy still resound within me. It is a tune on a loop in my head and often I find myself humming it. Thanks to you, Mrs. Crosby.

Stay tuned

©2010 Neal Rhoden and Gospel Aircheck

 

 

Home Where I Belong

It's been crazy around here for a while. Blogging had to take the back burner and simmer a little. I've been transitioning back to my home church from the new work that had directed my energies a few weeks. I felt the mission would continue for at least a year; but, I could not get the rest of the family on board. It turns out that my wife and I both missed the old church but neither knew until I blurted out that the novelty had wore off. We agreed that we'd return home. And we did, not looking back. I worked to 100% of my abilities for the short time I was there building my skill set.

While we didn't regret our decision to return I did question why we left in the first place. As "luck" would have it on Sunday night the music pastor invited me to join the media team and introduced me to the person in charge; guess what? The new skills I learned at my most recent short time excursion I was able to intelligently  discuss with her. In fact, she observed that I could possibly teach their team the Pro Presenter software I had just experienced first hand. A mystery solved: the purpose for our diversion was learning a wholly new way of integrating sound, video and scheduling logistics for worship and bringing back those highly effective methods to our church. For the last decade I have craved some sort of synergy of my hobbies and talents. I realize how vague this all seems; but, I assure you, long suffering reader, it is coming together.

Stay tuned

©2010 Gospel Aircheck. All rights reserved.

Freebies

If you are as cheap as I am then you are probably looking for good deals all the time.

To be even more similar to me you like to find free software on the Internet. Two very useful programs that I have found are 100% free to use forever, no strings attached. They are free of ads as well. I give my personal recommendation.

If you need an awesome free word processor nearly equal to Microsoft Word ® try Open Office. Download at http://www.openoffice.org

If you like to tinker with digital audio then get the beta version of Audacity for multi-track recording and editing. I find it very reliable and easy to use, weather you're a beginner or an experienced pro. I have been using Audacity for about five years. There was a slight learning curve in the beginning. With the on-line users manual, all features are comprehensively explained. I am not a beginner; audio has been a serious hobby of mine for 30 years: in radio production for a dozen years and church sound since I was 14. Devices and fads have come and gone, but I can truly say that Audacity is the most useful tool ever. It does things impossible for even state-of-the-art analog production studios when I began in radio. The only criticism: there is no real time preview of plug-in effects. Hey, it is free after all. You may download at http://audacity.sourceforge.net

Stay tuned

Celebration Sunday

Before I get into today's post allow me to direct you to one of the new pages of this site. About a year ago I put together a small glossary of common terms used in the radio industry. Click on  the Gospel Aircheck Glossary in the side column should you need clarification on any technical word I sometimes slip into a post.

Sunday was a blast. I returned to my first audio love -- doing live church sound -- for the first time in a few months. I will chronicle my new journey here.

My day started around 7:30 AM Sunday with sound check and practice that paid off tremendously. Very talented singers and musicians made my job easy. Having the service planned out with a software program called Planning Center Online that delivers a detailed run down of all the songs, transitions and order of service via my e-mail in box. (Something I never dreamed of 30 years ago.)

One of my favorite things about working live sound in this modern age is the lack of feedback and noise in the audio. The church's Yamaha GA32/12 mixer is an intuitive design with loads of headroom and noise free operation. Additionally their DBX Driverack-PA+ is a device I have fell in love with for its unique ability to eliminate all unwanted squeals. This is one of the better equipment setups I've worked with. One thing I would like to introduce to the audio chain is a little light reverb on vocals; the space needs a some help to liven it up. Overall, audio coverage is excellent with Electro-Voice and JBL monitors flying above with massive Yamaha 3-way speakers and subs on the floor. I have a feeling we could rattle the walls with the sounds of praise.

DBX Driverack-PA+

Yamaha GA32/12

Stay Tuned

©2010 The Peanut Whistle. All rights reserved.

New Roots

I have found that blogging about church life is generally a very slippery slope. What I mean is that last week was both good and bad for the companion blog, the Peanut Whistle. I wrote a couple of posts that I felt were necessary. My family is transitioning to a new church home that we are very excited about; I wanted to chronicle the thought process that went into making the decision to leave a congregation and denomination where my wife and I shared deep roots. We met there, fell in love and had two of our babies dedicated there. Change is a process. This one is for the better.

Watch for new posts on what I continue to learn in church sound beginning my venture volunteering in an audio department that is now fully integrated with digital technology. When I began nearly thirty years ago the state of the art was analog; trending to using tracks on cassette, letting the piano collect dust. By the mid 90’s CD’s were used for soundtrack accompaniment. Note here that I always felt that live musicians were superior to canned music in worship. Tracks seemed too karaoke. I don’t want to offend an entire industry built on producing these recordings but they kill spontaneity. Not to mention the poor audio quality of the cassettes in the eighties; tape hiss was my constant nemesis. Although CD’s sounded better than tapes, the instruments needed playing again. Good news is that this new church has some talented musicians and singers playing 100% live.

Houses of worship are now using digital technology for visual presentation very effectively. That’s uncharted territory for me and quite an opportunity to learn something new. Running a board and mixing I can do, but lighting and video presentation are my weak points. I am nothing if not flexible, so please teach an old dog new tricks.

Stay tuned