Hear Sojourn Work On Our Upcoming Worship CD, Straight From The Studio: Practicing “Refuge”

Last week on sojournmusic.com we gave you the first inside peek at the production of our next worship CD, from the mix room in producer Neil Robins’ studio.  This week, a little more:

I recorded the first video below in the mix room as well, using my little Flip Mino palm-sized recorder (so the sound is rough).  You’ll see Worship Arts Pastor Mike Cosper on bass guitar and David Weir on lead guitar, practicing their parts for “Refuge,” written by Neil and his wife Kate (together, they are the rock duo “Dirt Poor Robins”).    Neil gives tips from the producer’s chair as they play. 

Off camera (because he’s downstairs in the orchestra room) drummer Smitty Smith plays along as he listens to the band, the click track and Neil’s remarks through a headset.  You’ll hear the song for a bit, and then Neil stops to offer comments to each of them.  It’s quite instructive if you’re a musician, arranger, or just someone curious about the recording process.  It’s also humorous to learn “Neil-speak,” a language wherein he can simply tell Smitty to play the drums “Viking Tribal” and Smitty, having learned the language, knows just what to do:

In the second video, I recorded Smitty playing drums downstairs in the orchestra room (didn’t want him to feel left out).  As I said above, he’s listening to the band and the click track through headphones.  The click track is the thing you’ll hear periodically that sounds like computer blips.  It’s used to teach the song’s tempo to the musicians and keep them in perfect timing.  Neil will remember to remove the sound of the click track before the final mix for this CD.  We hope:

Also, the vocals you hear belong to Neil himself, from his demo.  A singer will overdub the official vocals later, and musicians will add other parts (such as keyboards).

You can download the first of these two videos from our free podcast, Sojournmusic.com Radio, if you wish.  It’s available at iTunes and other podcast directories.  Next week here at sojournmusic.com, we’ll give you a peek at the recording session for another song from this upcoming record, “We Are Changed.”