Monday Morning Recap for Sunday – March 28, 2010 – our Palm Sunday Spectacular

We finished our 7th Palm Sunday Spectacular yesterday – the 14th spectacular in all since coming to Oak Mountain in 2003.

The title of our program was “ALL.”

The program consisted of music, narrative, and video – testimony-type videos asking people to share 1.what lies Evil whispers in their ears, 2. What it means to them that “Jesus Paid it All” and 3. What it means to them that all the old is washed away.

I started planning the service last April – after last year’s Easter season. I get some initial prep and planning done, and then put it aside as I prepare for each season’s Christmas program. I resume the planning about half-way through the fall – honing in on a final song list, thematic material, scripture, and other creative elements (videos, production ideas, etc)

I start charting immediately after the christmas spectacular – taking about a week off for Christmas holidays – and come back right after the first of the year to finish.

The choir resumed rehearsals on January 13 – with only 11 rehearsals until our dress rehearsal week. they work hard – and we walk a fine line in balancing the hour of rehearsal between preparation for our seasonal programs and preparation for the few times each semester that the choir leads in worship.

This year – I really wanted people to dwell a little bit more on the subtle, subversive sin-nature that we have and how it manifests itself in the LIES that we hear, and choose to believe. Will and I put together 3 different videos, as well as a line-drawing video for which I had my good friend Curt Cloninger narrate a piece written by one of our church members – Jenn Hale.

Our band this spring consisted of the exact same band as Christmas:
Jon Harvill on drums, Raymond Butler on bass, Jack Swaim on electric guitar and synth, Josh Vigneulle on electric guitar, Justin Hale and Patrick Bush on acoustic guitar, and Matt Minor on percussion.

My tech team is one of the finest volunteer tech teams in the city – Dean Tanner on Sound, David Meadows on lighting, and Vicki Carleton running all the slides. Will Giuliani is the fearless Technical Director – and also did all of our video production -which I’ll post here later. My assistant Natalie Valentine did all our of graphic design.

For you tech nerds . . .

12 Crown 700’s on the choir (6 configured in an x/y pattern at choir front – another 6 in single config in the back to boost guys’ presence).
7 Wireless Beta 87 Handhelds for solos
1 Neumann KMS105 for my vocals
I play a yamaha P200, and run midi through Apple’s mainstage for additional synth patches
Our other synth is a Korg Triton
1 D112 and two vintage neumann KM184’s for percussion toys (and there were a lot of toys)
Drums – DW kit with Paiste Signature series cymbals
kik – Beta 91
snare – SM57
Toms – Beta 98
OH’s – AT 4051’s

Our electric guitarists use a variety of pedals, and run through a VOX amp modeler for their amp (no live amps on stage).
Bass – Avalon D5, instrument DI, after hitting a DIGItech pedal board
Acoustics run direct

Monitoring for the band is done through Aviom headphone mixers.

at FOH, we use an Innovason SY80 console, GrandMA ultralight lighting console, and SongShowPlus presentation software (incredible software. If you’re using anything else, you’re wasting valuable setup time and volunteer resources!)

We process FX through 3 Lexicon MPX-1 processors, and multitrack to 2 Mackie SDR hard disc recorders. The project is mixed and mastered through Protools.