First step into my new Edon TS515 training scull. Following instructions from Charlotte Hollings' calmwatersrowing videos (great resource). I have one of the training pontoons resting on the dock so the boat is relatively stable. Grabbing hold of both oar handles and expecting to get wet very soon!

In looking at the available video on the internet it seemed that getting into a scull from a regular fixed dock might be somewhat tricky. We live on a canal with a gently shelving "ramp" so we decided to float a 8'x5' Accudock module and construct a simple ramp (I'm actually using a ladder and a bit of plywood right now) to reach it. The spud poles aren't hammered into the bottom, they are just resting on it. I plan to add stabilising bits of tubing so that I can easily re-position the dock further out when the winter lower tides are with us. More later. 

I used to covet bands with Avioms. No longer - the amazing Presonus StudioLive mixers, their FW connect, the Universal Control program coupled with an ad-hoc wireless n/w and iPads and iPods let everyone control their own aux monitor mix (when permitted). The 16:4:2 has 6 auxes (+2 EFX at a pinch). That mean 6(8) individual monitor mixes.

We added a $180 Samson S-Phone 4 channel headphone amp for the static band members and a couple of wireless IEMs for the leaders.

After running this system for 2 weeks now I'm amazed what a difference it makes. No more running back to the mixer when George can't hear enough of himself.. get yer iPod/iPhone out yerself...

The PC/Mac Virtual Studio Live app - I don't touch it mostly - the iPad does it all. Oooh.. sometimes I really like starting at a new church :-)

The Problem - when leading worship yourself and at the same time controlling Live's stems (or loops or tracks or whatever), its not easy to be confident of Live's lingering on a say a chorus or talky bit. Until now I've done the usual tap-dance within the last few bars to set a section repeat, then furtively looked down to make sure it's taken. Sometimes I've unknowingly hit it twice or not at all with the ensuing confusion. Live's loop facilities help a lot but what I really want is to be able to tell Live, at any time before I get there, that I want to linger in the upcoming chorus or instrumental part or whatever.

My solution - insert a MIDI "control track" that contains "skip to last locator" commands. Have this track's on/off (mute) status controlled by a footswitch (I have this footswitch bracketed by some aluminium angle so I can reach for it without stopping the song). I use Bome's MIDI translator to achieve this. I insert simple, bright green, MIDI clips into the set where I might want to linger.

Result - if I want to linger a bit, it's easy to hit the pedal to tell Live to keep repeating a section until I say move on.

To remind the band there's a section we might want to repeat, I've already highlighted that bit in the band's leadsheets and added an audio cue fro those on IEMs. As they can also see if the mute button is on or off they know whether I'm going to repeat or not.

Here's a quick video to illustrate. More detail to follow - feel free to comment or email me with any questions meanwhile.