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I finally got to the song suggestions. Sorry it took so long. I only used 2 of them – one from each comment left in the blog posted a couple weeks back. The songs are “El Shaddai” and “You Raise Me Up”. It was fun working these two songs into this week’s podcast. Thank you Micah and Cindy for your suggestions – I will try to use the other songs you mentioned in future podcasts.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:39 — 30.3MB)
I have some tech stuff to blog about:
First, as some of you know, I’ve been studying very hard for the past few months for the CISSP examination, which turned out to be a big waste of time since most of what I studied was material NOT on the exam. I woke up early this morning, drove to San Antonio, sat down to take the test at 8:45 AM and didn’t leave till 2:30 PM. It is by far the hardest written exam I’ve ever taken. Also, they must have recently changed the structure of the exam because I was expecting to see a lot more technical questions, and there were around 5 out of 250. At least I know I got 5 of the questions right! I won’t find out what my score is for a while. They told me up to 6 weeks, but I’m sure I’ll blog or twit about it as soon as the results come in.
Secondly, I have to apologize for the most recent podcast. I forgot that my R-09 was set to record to MP3 instead of WAV. This got changed when I used it to record a practice for the upcoming Austin Jazz Music Festival gig next weekend and I needed extra recording time. Of course, an R-09HR with a 32GB SD Card would fix this. Okay, I pledge to use any donations minus 10% for tithe towards the purchase of one! 
I’ve been listening to the podcast as I write this post and I’ve noticed that it has a darker sound than my previous podcasts. I had the R-09 positioned like I always do. It either had to be converting MP3 to WAV while importing the audio into Logic Pro, then back to MP3 for the post, or the way the R-09 handles recording to MP3. There may have been some stuff I could have done with EQ, but initially I didn’t really hear any difference on my studio monitors. I should have done a comparison with previous podcast audio prior to bouncing… Lesson learned.
Lastly, as you may have heard, the iPhone 3G signal problem has been narrowed down to the Infineon chipset used in the manufacturing of the new iPhone. Apple has been very quiet about this whole thing, but Steve Jobs wrote a letter to some complaining customers that this issue affects approximately 2% of iPhone 3G owners which comes out to around 60,000 iPhones. Personally, I believe it’s much more than that since I haven’t seen an iPhone 3G that didn’t have the same issue as mine, plus like I mentioned before, I’m on my 3rd one. On a positive note, Jobs assured the customers in the letter that this issue can be resolved with a firmware update. Unfortunately, the recent 2.0.2 update didn’t resolve it, although it did fix some problems I was having with software hanging and GPS seems to come up faster. I really want my 3G though! Come on Apple – help out a loyal fan!
This was another full week for me so I didn’t get to incorporate last week’s requests in this week’s podcast. This is just me playing a new song to the LORD. I feel that the past two weeks may have suffered a little bit due to my crazy schedule. Studying for the CISSP has consumed every ounce of free time I’ve had the past week or so. My test is in less than 48 hours and I still have a ways to go on my study. I wasn’t going to let this exam keep me from doing a podcast though. The tempo is a little faster than what I normally play which somewhat reflects what’s been happening in my life lately. I hope you enjoy it – if not, there’s the other podcasts and the old album Till next week!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 32:11 — 33.9MB)
I enjoyed service so much this morning I just had to blog about it! It is truly amazing what can happen when a few people who are serious about their faith get together and worship. My former pastor in Okinawa used to say that you can have all the talent in the world, but without commitment, your talent is worthless. I also belive this is true in part when it comes to your heart and your attitude. EVERYBODY that was part of worship this morning has a good heart and a GREAT attitude, and I honestly believe that this morning’s service was probably the best we’ve ever had at The Connection Church because of this very reason. Renee, our drummer, has grown into an amazing player. The beat this morning was rock steady, and the tempos were not too fast or too slow – they were just right! It is also so wonderful to have our new bass player – Shel on board. He has a true heart for God and worship has just been awesome with him playing. And… Chris… oh man… That dude is amazing. It is truly an honor to have him as part of the team. He has to be one of the best sax players I know. I am continually blown away how God provides for The Connection Church musicians with bucket loads of talent. God gives us the talent, but it is up to us as individuals to make the commitment and keep our attitudes in check. It is really nice to see the beginnings of that within the worship team. I am just so excited to see where God takes us from here! If you live in the Kyle/Buda area and aren’t in a church, you have NO idea what you’re missing out on! Oh, and I have to give Micah a shoutout. He sung his heart out this morning. Dude – you rock! Bryan and Pam were singing their hearts out as well. I LOVE IT! On a side note – it totally stinks that I have to miss next Sunday because of an exam I have to take… My week just won’t be the same without TCC service on Sunday morning…
Tags: live, The Connection Church, worship
I wasn’t able to incorporate any of the song suggestions from last week – I am very sorry. This week was one of the busiest for me so far this year. So much stuff is going on right now in my life. Lots of really big changes potentially. I’ll have to blog about it sometime after the dust has settled. Well, I didn’t really have time to select any songs to play. I just sat down and started playing, and aside from a few distractions here and there, it was really nice to slow down, relax, and offer up some worship to my LORD.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 31:57 — 31.5MB)
Just in case anybody would like to submit a request this week – here is the blog to use. Just so you know – I’m not holding my breath since we’re 0 for 2 now 
. The same disclaimer applies this week as the previous weeks. Because of the way this week is shaping up, I probably won’t be able to record this week’s podcast till Saturday around noon so there is some time to post a request or suggestion if you’d like, and I’ll do my best to work it in.
Ok… So I know what you’re thinking right about now… What in the world does signal problems with the iPhone 3G have to do with Music to Pray by??? Well, I could probably make something up, but I won’t. I hope to use this blog to discuss every day techie stuff too. Please leave a comment if you think this is a horrible idea, and I’ll stop.
For starters, I am on my third iPhone 3G, and I am still having a huge issue with 3G signal even when I’m in the center of Austin, which is supposed to have complete coverage based on AT&T’s 3G coverage map. There have been a couple of articles on CNet News regarding this issue, and have you seen the Apple Discussions thread???? I think there are almost 2,000 responses now. Below are screen captures I did on my iPhone one right after the other as you can see by the time, and I was here in my home office with the iPhone completely stationary. For those of you who don’t know where I live, I’m not even a quarter of a mile from I-35 in Kyle, TX which is well within the 3G coverage area…
Here are my thoughts based on what I have read. If the next version of the iPhone software release does not contain a fix, it is likely a hardware issue. The fact that there wasn’t a fix in the 2.0.1 release, and Apple’s lack of admission that there is a 3G reception issue somewhat makes the case for a hardware problem which would really be a bummer for all of us early adopters… I guess it’s the price we pay unfortunately. Any comments?
Once again, there were no song requests so I picked Mighty to Save, Beautiful the Blood, and Shine. I didn’t really play Shine – maybe the chord progression of the chorus, but I really feel that this podcast is the best so far. There were probably a few more mistakes than the past two weeks, but I really felt the Presence of God while I was playing, and I truly believe that you will experience God’s Presence as well while you listen to this week’s podcast and pray…
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 30:28 — 32.0MB)
I’ve added a calendar of all the events I will be playing at throughout the month. As you can see, August is going to be a very busy month for me – probably one of the busiest with regards to playing piano/keyboard. I’ll do my best to keep this calendar updated. There is one event in particular I wanted to bring to your attention. Soundwave will be playing at The Grove in Southpark Meadows at 12:00 PM next Friday, August 15th for an event hosted by 102.3 “The River”. We will be playing for 45 minutes and there is a small chance that some of our show may be on the air so please be sure to listen in if you can’t make it in person. This is going to be a great show!
Last week, I blogged asking if anyone had any praise and/or worship songs they would like to hear incorporated in the next recording I do. The response was OVERWHELMING! Ok, so I’m exaggerating just a ‘lil bit, but I figured I’d give ya’ll another chance to put in song requests for this week’s posting.
The usual disclaimer: I cannot promise to use every request since there were SO many last week , but if there are any, I will print out a list and place it somewhere I can see while I play.
A lot of you probably already know this because the “podcast” link has been in the side bar for the past few days now, but I just wanted to make an official announcement that the podcast of the weekly the Music to Pray by blog is now available here at the site, the iTunes store, and Podcast Alley. If you enjoy the music, please take the time to leave a review at the iTunes Store, or vote at Podcast Alley. It’d be much appreciated and contribute to spreading the word about this new resource. I honestly believe this could be a tool used to encourage and inspire people to pray so the let’s get the word out! Thanks in advance!
I just wanted to talk about the recent music post and bring a couple of things to your attention. There are a few things that are different between week 1 and week 2′s recording. On the Roland R-09, I used the auto gain control with a low mic gain setting for week 2 whereas with week 1, AGC was off, and I had the mic gain set to high. This resulted in a more balanced recording with much less overhead to work with so a lot of noise was induced when I normalized the track. Thanks to Micah Petrea‘s hookup last night, we were able to reduce the noise a little. I also used 24 bit 48k during week 2 vs. 16 bit 44.1k for week 1. Of course, I compress to mp3 at 192kbps using VBR after touching up a little, but some would argue starting with a higher quality signal can make a difference. Next week, I’ll try AGC with the mic gain up and see what happens. If you’d like, comment here which week sounds better in your opinion.
Since there were no song suggestions, the following were randomly chosen: God in this City, Hosannah, and Undone. It may be a bit challenging to sing along since the songs are barely recognizable within this week’s blog/podcast, but the whole purpose of this is to inspire prayer anyway so I think we’re good. Be blessed, and I hope you enjoy listening to this week’s music. Till next week!
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:28 — 29.4MB)
