Tour of Israel Drone Footage with My Father in Heaven

At some point I do believe I will enter another season of producing the next Music To Pray By album, “Your Kingdom Come”. I already have more than enough original content to create an album and likely 1-2 podcasts as a preview. Its just a matter of exiting this current season I’m in where I have trouble finding the time to dedicate to this. Please be in prayer for me on this front as this is my passion and I do feel guilty about how much time has passed since my last post.

Around Easter, I dedicated a weekend to editing all of the drone footage I collected while on my trip to Israel in 2017 and put it with the album, “My Father in Heaven”. I think it turned out pretty well. Here it is:

You Hold it All – Ron and Micah version

Since the album, I’ve been trying to come up with new ways of publishing Music To Pray By content and thought of recording run-throughs of some of the songs on our church set list so I got a hold of some video recording and editing gear and began work on it back in July. When I shared this idea with my good friend Micah, he suggested singing to it so that’s what we did and here are the results. Currently, it’s “unlisted” on YouTube till we can secure the rights to publish the song by Travis Ryan. Micah is also getting it listed on iTunes so the audio track should be available for purchase sometime this week. Please keep in mind this is my first shot at using Final Cut Pro and still have a ton to learn. Hope y’all like it:

The Album “My Father in Heaven” is now LIVE!!!

“Music To Pray By – My Father in Heaven” is officially available at most digital media outlets:

iTunes – If you have Apple Music subscription – this is the best way because it’s included!

Amazon – a digital copy is available here

CD Baby  you can also listen here for free or order a physical copy

There are many other digital media outlets where it can be found by searching for “Music To Pray By My Father in Heaven”

I’ve also been randomly selecting churches and sending free copies out. If you’re part of a church and would like to share with the leadership, please message me and let me know.

Thank you for all your prayers and support! Next album is “Hallowed be YOUR NAME!” Shooting for this time next year…

Podcast Seventy

This podcast is made up of the songs left out of the Music To Pray By album “My Father in Heaven”, which is coming very soon. This is the first podcast recorded on the new Yamaha DC7XE3 Grand Piano talked about here as well as all new mics and pre-amps. I believe it is the best sounding piano audio I’ve ever captured. I hope and pray it inspires you to spend time in the Presence of our Truly Amazing and Awesome God. Please forgive me for taking so long – almost 2 years to post new music. I hope it was worth the wait, and I am absolutely thrilled about the new album and excited to see what God is going to do through this. Please continue to pray for me and my family. God bless.

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Podcast Sixty-nine

The last podcast to be recorded on my Yamaha DC3M4. It goes away tomorrow, and though it’s only been 4 years, I feel as though I have a tremendous amount of history with that wonderful piano. I actually had to pick and choose from about 2 hours worth of recordings since I’m not sure if the old format will be supported on the new piano. I’m truly excited about the capabilities and the sound of the new Yamaha DC7XE3Pro, but it’s also sad to see my old piano leave the studio. I’m sure it will end up in good hands!

About the podcast – it’s all original except the last song. I had to choose between two really good covers and ended up going with “Oceans” by Hillsong United. It is one of my favorite songs, and though I feel like I barely did the original justice, I hope to do another rendition in a future podcast.  I did a lot of playing with this mix, which will likely change noticeably with the new piano. I wanted to make sure the last podcast from the DC3M4 was as good as it could possibly sound, and I think I accomplished that.

I have a number of things to share with you so I apologize in advance for all the non-music posts that are to come over the next week or so. I pray this podcast is a blessing to you.

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Podcast Sixty-eight

Yet another all-original podcast. I did use some pretty familiar chord progressions, but I also tried out some new styles. I’m definitely looking forward to trying this podcast out tomorrow morning during my devotional.

Sorry this came a little late. I spent way more time editing than I have in the past largely due to Logic Pro X, the new version of pro audio software I use. Some of the editing techniques I use don’t work the same way unfortunately so I spent bit of time finding workarounds.

May the Joy and Peace of our LORD overwhelm you as you listen and stay your mind on Him!

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Soundwave concert tonight in Buda, TX!

Our last full-blown concert put on by the band was over a year ago, and we are doing a full set of originals and a ton of worship that’s bound to be familiar to most everyone – especially those who go to The Connection Church.  See the flyer below for details. We were working till after midnight last night preparing, and this is one concert you DO NOT want to miss! It’s gonna be awesome!

Soundwave Concert Flyer

 

Marked 4 Life Introduction

M4LEarlier this year, the band, Marked 4 Life asked if I would record them. Normally, I would say “no” to these types of requests due to the fact that I’m pretty over-committed as it is, but I made an exception since I’ve known most of the band members for a decade and most of them are still in High School, yet they’ve been together as a band for over 5 years I believe. They are also very important to my home church, TCC as they serve as the youth band, and do occasional gigs for the kids. Work and Soundwave have consumed most of my time over the past couple of months so I’m just now finishing up one of the three songs we recorded and I figured I would share it with you. This is the pre-master version, and won’t be downloadable, but the EP will hopefully be available sometime this year.

 

I did want to let you know I’m running a little behind on Podcast 68, but my goal is to have it posted by mid-June. I’ve got everything tracked and have begun editing so I may have it done sooner – stay tuned!

Podcast Sixty-seven

You may not hear any familiar melodies as this podcast is mostly original. I’ve adopted a fairly new process to recording the podcast. Rather than attempting to record all 30+ minutes in one sitting, I’ve just sat at the piano and pressed “record” as the Holy Spirit has led throughout the past quarter. It has been working out okay so far. It also gives me an opportunity to select the best recordings out of many, and there was a really bad 15 minutes of recording I was happy not to have included in this podcast. You may notice that it may have a slightly different sound than previous podcasts. I’m still perfecting the audio recording and mixing aspect of the podcast even after almost 5 years. I pray this podcast encourages you to spend some quality time with our Maker.

A quick update – Yoko’s sister, Eiko is doing so well now that the hospice where she was sent to spend her remaining time here on earth is preparing to discharge her since her condition has improved so dramatically. This is truly an inspiring testimony in development! Our God is an Awesome God! Please keep her and her family in your prayers.

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Porta Fidei – Soundwave – DCYC 2013 Theme Song

The band site, www.soundwave.cc is still down for maintenance, but we wanted to get Porta Fidei, the theme song we recorded for DCYC 2013 available to everyone. We’ve worked tirelessly in the studio to get this recorded in time for the event and want to present it as our gift to everyone who is a part of this ministry that has done so much to impact the lives of youth in the Austin area for Jesus Christ! We hope you enjoy the song.

 

Podcast Sixty-six

I think this might end up being my favorite podcast to date. What God has brought me through over the past 7 months is expressed in this music since even today I fail to grasp the words to properly convey what God has done in me.

Even the technical part of getting this recorded was met with enormous opposition. I had hoped to post this on Wednesday, but two completely separate devices in my studio  failed – one of them is still dead. Praise the LORD it is finally done as I silently hope my computer doesn’t crash before I  click “Publish”.  🙂 The two familiar songs I used go way back. The titles are “Holy, Holy, Holy LORD”, and “I Love You LORD”. I also wrote song with the primary lyrics being, “I stay my mind on You God”. I hope to someday make it into a full blown song with verses and a bridge, but I’m not really a lyricist, nor was Moses a speaker so we’ll see where it goes. I pray this podcast blesses you as much as it has blessed me and thank you for your patience. I’ll post an update within the next couple of weeks regarding some of my future plans for this ministry and life in general though His Kingdom will I seek first.

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Podcast Sixty-five

In this podcast, I used songs Soundwave prepared for DCYC – they are “Strong Enough to Save”, “Your Name High”, “Forever Reign”, “Always”, “Your Great Name”, and “Our God”.  I think this is probably the first podcast ever to be original-free, although, it does contain some originality. Those who like consistently quite and peaceful podcasts may not enjoy this one as much since I get a bit loud in some parts. It may be a few months before the next podcast is posted, but I’ll try to make it softer. I thank all of you who continue to use this ministry to enhance your prayer time. I’m blown away at the number of downloads that happen on a daily basis.

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Podcast update and Soundwave video…

It has been too long since the last podcast. For this I apologize. Podcast 65 is almost ready to track. My goal is to have it posted by the end of the week. I’ve also scheduled a week off from work this month to spend time on the album. I haven’t made much traction on either front the past few months, but I do believe one day there will be much more time to devote to this ministry. Great things are coming – I will trust in You oh LORD!

Soundwave had the CD release concert last month, and some friends of the band put together a really nice “official” video of one of my favorite songs. Here it is:

“The Start” tour is here!

I cannot believe it has been almost 2 months since I last posted any updates. For that I am sorry, but there is good reason. Now that Soundwave’s new album, “The Start” is about to be released, we have been intensely preparing for what God has in store for this ministry. Since my last podcast, we’ve done a weekend-long camp for some little ones, we’ve had a number of practices, and I’ve spent many many hours preparing some new technologies that should help us in a major way when playing live. We’ve also done four in-home pre-release concerts the past 2 weeks. Here’s a song from one of them requested by the host called “How He Loves” by John Mark McMillan:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

This weekend is DCYC, an event we’ve been a part of the past 2 years, and it continues to grow. So far, there are over 2,100 young people signed up to attend, and we are stoked! After this, I’m headed off to Canada for a week (work related), and the weekend I get back is our CD release concert in Lockhart.

Soundwave has a few more concerts in February and March, but I hope to record and post another podcast between now and the end of March. I actually recorded a podcast in December, but had technical problems again. I’ve also started work on the “Music to Pray By” album, and I’m torn between putting time and effort into that project and posting podcasts.  Sometimes it’s difficult to find a balance.

With all that said, I am truly blown away at the number of downloads MTPB has had even without new podcasts. The site has just recently hit over 500,000 downloads with an average of over 1,400 downloads a day now. To those who continue to use this resource to enhance your prayer time – thank you. These numbers are truly inspiring to me.

Podcast Sixty-four

What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! I won’t bore you with all the details, but the end result is I finally have a new podcast. You’d think after 3 years of doing this I’d have it down but I don’t. This podcast required a massive amount of editing, but I think it turned out okay. I did find some ways to improve the audio over the previous podcasts. The only issue is there’s too big of a dynamic range so had to go a little overboard on the compression and limiting.

I wish I could commit to doing these more frequently, but with work at AT&T consuming more and more of my time, family, Soundwave, and {hopefully} a Music To Pray By album by early 2013, I’m going to keep it at once a Month for now. God bless all y’all who are listening, and please keep me and my family in your prayers.

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Podcast update and Soundwave’s new album “The Start” preview

The past few weeks have been a bit chaotic for a number of reasons so instead of further neglecting the family and forcing out a podcast today, I decided to take it easy and hang out with the wife and kids. I’ve already got the next podcast recorded and a very small part of it edited so I should have enough time throughout next week to get it posted next Sunday.

However, the new Soundwave album, “The Start” is finished and I have the master. We’re just waiting on album art so we can send everything off for print. The official release date is set for February 4th, but I believe we’ll have the album available for purchase at the beginning of the year. Below is a 5 minute preview of the album, which really doesn’t do it justice – I basically took out parts of what are currently my five favorite songs:

Get the Flash Player to see the wordTube Media Player.

While you listen, here are a few things I’d like to share about the album:

– Soundwave started recording this album almost a year and a half ago
– It was tracked, edited, produced, and mixed from start to finish in my studio
– There was no “outside influence” on any part of it. Every part came out of the hearts and minds of the band and a few very close friends of the band
– I consider this one of the greatest musical achievements I’ve been a part of to date
– I know I speak for the whole band when I say to God be the Glory, and we pray the words and the music contained in this album open up the hearts and minds of all who listen to the wonderful salvation of Jesus Christ!

Podcast Sixty-three

I finished mixing the Soundwave album last week so I’m back at it – thanks for your patience. This podcast, I only used “Hosannah” for a brief period. The rest is original – some from previous podcasts and some that’s fresh and new. An interesting stat about this podcast is it’s the first to be exactly 30 minutes long! I admit, I stretched the end out a little, but it was already pretty close. I added a bit more gain both at the pre amp and in software using a little more compression and gain on the limiter to try to even out the level a bit. There is quite a bit more dynamics in this podcast compared to the previous two or three. This time, I wanted to keep the dynamics as original as possible, especially during the soft parts, and I didn’t change the level on some of the louder midi notes like I have in the past. I think it turned out better this way. I’m sure I’ll get better at holding back more as I record so please bear with me as I continue learn and grow in this ministry.

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Podcast Sixty-two

I used quite a few worship songs during this podcast – “Give Me Faith”, “Our God”, “I Lift My Hands”, and “Mighty To Save”. In a way, a lot of this podcast sounds repetitive to me compared to previous podcasts. It’s becoming a little challenging to keep things unique considering there is already over 30 hours of podcasts. 🙂 If this podcast inspires you to pray, mission accomplished.

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Podcast Sixty-one

Still searching for the best mic placement and mix, but I think its getting there. Most all the tunes are repeat or new originals. You may recognize one or two of them. I pray that every note played will encourage you to seek God’s Kingdom first. Peace.

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Podcast Sixty

This podcast does have familiar melodies from others, but I believe it has some uniqueness. One melody from the chorus of “Pour My Love on You” was used at the end. A couple technical notes – I used a new mic and mic positions, and there was definitely more dynamics than usual, but this was my heart of worship at the time – I hope it’s not too distracting. Happy 4th of July – thank God for the freedom we have. An estimate of 129 billion people have lived throughout the history of the world. Only 5 billion have experienced the freedom we enjoy, and 3 billion are alive today. How rare freedom is.

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