I had managed to get some extra hours last month and used some of it to improve my kit (hopefully not enough to make my awesome wife nervous).

So anyway… My logic went something like this:
Hmm. I have been working on limb independence and do not seem have made much progress in a while.  It feels like my feet are always struggling to keep up.  I spent some time tweaking my hi-hat stand (An older Yamaha stand), getting it to feel more responsive.  The bass drum pedal on the other hand was also a Yamaha, but it felt a loose and it squeaked from time to time.  Being a pretty new drummer with no experience with other bass pedals, I did some research to see what others thought.

As it turns out there seem to be about three favorites out there, and there are decisions about wether or not to get double pedals.

1. Pearl Eliminator Demon Drive running around $320 for a single pedal and $650 for doubles.
   1. Absolutely beautiful.
   2. Expensive as….
   3. Lots of great reviews
2. DW 9000PB Single Pedal running around $300
   1. Not as beautiful.
   2. also expensive…
   3. Lots of great reviews
3. Tama Iron Cobra Power Glide Single Pedal.  This one goes for $170
   1. Not as beautiful
   2. a lot cheaper
   3. Some pretty good reviews here, but with more of what seem to be personal preference issues.
4. Mapex Falcon Bass Drum Pedal just a bit more then the Iron Cobra at $197
   1. I actually like the look if this one over the Iron Cobra and the DW9000
   2. still cheaper then the top two
   3. Just out this year.
   4. Amazing reviews, sometimes even compared to the DW9000

So with this information in hand, I went to my favorite drum shop to poke at what they had.  the Pearl Demon Drive felt really smooth but that price was just too much.  the DW9000 felt pretty nice also but still too much for my wallet.  I ended up with the Mapex Falcon since it was compared to the DW9000 and the price was barely within what I had to play with.

Oh, and of course I had to get new drum heads….  I went with the Evans Hydraulic Glass for the toms and an Evans EQ3 for the base drum.  I tuned the drums to around the lower midrange of what the shells are tuned to, and tuned the res heads a bit tighter.  I installed the new bass pedal and started messing around with the settings for a few minutes, settled on the batter location and added the sticker to the drum head to protect it….

Then I got down to business.  I ran through my exercises, noticed how great the new drum heads sounded tuned lower.  It took about 10 minutes to start getting used to the new pedal but I noticed right away that bass drum hits actually felt more solid and on time.  It has to make you wonder if it is psychological or hardware, or a bit of both.  From the very first 20 minutes on, my speed and accuracy on the Bass pedal  has increased.  I now have far less accidental bounces, and I am feeling in the groove much more constantly then before.

Awesome!
We held our first interactive musical prayer meeting last night at Word-A-Live Church in Penn Valley.  I was highly blessed and covered in grace to be allowed to play drums the first night.

This style of prayer and worship is based on the model of IHOP (International House of Prayer) in Kansas City MO, this model utilizes a harp and bowl method of singing the Word of God, singing prayers, corporate worship and more…it really has to be experienced to be understood

We plan for this to be ongoing, starting with twice a month and eventually over time, daily with many teams supporting the vision.

Awesome worship, lessons, and music!

About 6 months ago I got a very nasty drum kit from school for one of my boys to learn, since he expressed an interest in it.  Unfortunately he was interested in the idea of drumming more then the reality.  I on the other hand, started messing around out of curiosity, and soon found myself practicing several times a day.  When it came time to return the kit to the school, I panicked.  What was I going to play on now?  I actually got to the point where I would go play the drums when I needed to work out a coding issue for work.  My muse was about to be taken away from me!  So I went out and found a better kit (Used of course) and I continue to play for at least an hour a day.

So far this is the longest I have stuck with an instrument that I tried to learn and I am showing no signs of loosing interest.  I think I have finally found my instrument at almost 50.  I may never get really good at this later stage in life, but I sure am having fun.  And that is what really matters, right?

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I just bought the $20 AudioTools app for my iPhone and used the Real Time Analyzer “RTA” to help “flatten” the sanctuary in our church.  I have been wanting to get an RTA and other tools for some time, but my church is a small country church and available funds are better used to help others.  After all we already had some pretty decent sound with minimal problems, or so I thought.

After using the RTA, I was simply amazed at how much crisper the sound was.  I was even able to put the lapel mic inches away from the mains without feedback.  The best I was able to do previously was about a foot.   I have no serious training other then what I can glean from others and reading a lot, so this may be no surprise to professionals out there. 

Personally I am very happy that a $20 investment in an iPhone App was able to help me to do a better job without spending hundreds more for professional quality audio tools.

As one of the sound people in my church, I was of course interested in their setup. Ours is a small country church with limited space, and because of this we have not been able enclose and mic the drums. This forces us to bring everything else up to the drums, and prevents the kind of softer worship sound that I heard at IHOP. Don’t get me wrong, we have some of the best musicians I have ever had the privilege to worship with. I would however really like to be able to bring the overall levels down a bit to allow us to do the occasional softer worship styles. In any case if it is Gods will, and not just my own, it will be possible someday.

The worship was simply wonderful at IHOP when I was there. I have been listening to their unique style of prophetic worship for some time now, and I was not disappointed being there in person. They also do a rapid fire prayer line based on the subject that is started by the pastor at the time. This appears to be open to anybody that feels drawn to pray along the current theme. A very powerful way for people to pray in agreement.