Sound Design for Worship Keys Players with Daniel Dauwe

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Join Daniel Dauwe on the Worship Keys Podcast as we sit down and talk about something every worship musician needs to hear. Daniel is the founder of Soundshop.co and has played alongside some of the biggest names in worship music. In this episode, he opens up about his journey, shares some incredible sounds live, and drops wisdom that will challenge the way you think about your role in the band. Don't miss out on this episode.

Aerospace Audio
Soundshop

Transcript

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Welcome to the Worship Keys podcast. My name is Carson Bruce. We talk all things music theory, gear, industry, and ministry for your worship keys playing. I'd like to thank Aerospace Audio for being a sponsor of this episode. They create unique, incredible, high-quality atmospheric drone pads to be used for your worship services, productions, songwriting sessions, whatever it may be. They have an analog physical drone pedal that they call Atmosphere. There's actually a version 3 out. They also have a midi in capability, so you can work in tandem with Ableton Live or any other daw that you have to be able con- to control everything through that ecosystem. Or if not, the physical analog pedal, they also have an iOS app that you can run the pad straight from your iPhone or iPad. It's called Aero Pads. Definitely check them out, aerospaceaudio.com, and let's get into today's episode. Guys, welcome back to the Worship Keys podcast. Today, I'm so excited to be talking with Daniel Dauwe. Daniel, welcome to the podcast, man. Yeah, thanks man. Excited about this. You used to live in Nashville, and now you live in good old Leeds, Alabama. Yeah. Good old Alabama. Yeah. And I used to live in Alabama, and now I live in Nashville. Yeah. So we just kinda like swapped places there. It's so crazy. And guys, we're so excited to talk, um, all about sound design today. If you're curious on how to actually really level up your sound, there's some great resources that we're gonna talk about today, and here on the podcast, man, we always... My goal is to be a great resource for keys players, like just- Yeah ... whatever that looks like. Music theory, sound design, um, ministry encouragement, industry encouragement, and shout out to Church of the Highlands, Tyler Wester, Andrew Sharp. Oh, yeah. I know- Great guys ... you know, you came in contact with this podcast because of those connections and- Yeah um, guys, we're gonna l- learn all about Daniel today, all about Soundshop. Who is Soundshop? What is Soundshop? Sh- sh- I'm gonna get like tongue-tied- ... saying Soundshop. That's cool. That's cool. Soundshop. Saying it so fast. So Daniel, you're the owner and founder of Soundshop, right? Yeah. Tell us a little bit, what, what is Soundshop? Yeah. It's a really cool, um, platform. Y- kind of started when I was here in Nashville. Had moved here, stopped touring, did everything you're not supposed to do. I stopped... Moved to Nashville- ... deleted my social media accounts. And stopped touring and, uh, started working at this great company called Worship Online, was doing their guitar tutorials. Oh, man. I love Worship Online. And so fun. Such a great resource. It was like a dream job for me to kinda get to still do music. But uh, long story short, uh, I came here, and then not long after, COVID happened. Yeah. All my buddies lost their jobs, and my wife and I just had our first baby, it was like two weeks before, like, everything shut down. It w- Oh, man. Wow. It was, it was, it was insane. How crazy. Went from that to like, I was just so, like, bummed. I was like, man, I was, I was up late one night thinking like, man, that could've totally been me on tour, out of a job- Mm-hmm ... and then having a wife and a kid to provide for. Sure. So I was, I was up late. I was thinking like, man, what could we do, like- Being a creative and an artist, like we were talking about earlier, like you have to have so many streams of income. It's like- Yeah ... you're touring, you're teaching lessons, you're doing sync projects. Sure. You're maybe doing solo music. You're Sure, sure ... you're teaching lessons. You're, uh, some guys are selling presets, some aren't. So I was like, what if we made this cool site where it's really collaborative, where it's like everybody's c- it's not like us versus them. It's like, "Hey, let's all come together, sell our spot, stuff in one spot." Yeah. Yeah, and kinda giving guys like the highest quality, like resources we can. Absolutely. Where it's like, hey, instead of buying a copy, you can buy like the tones, like from the actual artist that was playing on the, your favorite record or whatever. Yeah. Um, so yeah, so we started that and started off with just five guys, and I think we have like close to 30. Another like 15 or 20 like in queue to come on. So it's just been cool seeing it grow and seeing it just be like a, a really cool resource for the church. Um- That's incredible. Yeah. And you have people from Bethel. Yeah. You have people from Passion City Connections. Yep. You have people from Church of the Highlands. Yeah, it's all over. So we have Lauren Daigle, Needtobreathe, uh, Brandon Lake, Phil Wickham, Bethel, Elevation, like Yeah. All, all the big names. Yeah, yeah. Yes. Um, so it's, it's been really cool and a fun way to kind of, uh, yeah, just kinda get to- Yeah, help. I just remember, like, that feeling when you're playing and, like, the tone just feels so good, and you're- Yeah ... at church and you're playing, and you don't have to, like, think about if it's gonna sound good or if it's gonna sound... It's like you can just confidently know. It's like, "Hey, I'm gonna sound great in the mix, and I've practiced my parts. I've done my diligence. Uh, and I can just, like, focus on worshiping the Lord." Yes. And it's like, it's such a, I don't know, it's- it's a hard feeling to describe if you're not a musician, but, like- Right ... it's, it's such, like, a fun feeling. Totally, man. Yeah. And you're primarily a guitarist, is that right? Yeah. Yeah, I am. Talk about your music journey. Yeah. Just a brief, brief history for us. Yeah, yeah. So I, I grew up playing guitar, um, in church, a small church of, like, 50 people, uh, in Kentucky, and I was not good enough to play guitar at that church. So I played, uh, I played bass and, I started off playing piano as a kid. Our bass player moved to college. Like, "Hey, you've played, you know something about music. Play the bass." Yeah, yeah. So I played bass, but I always wanted to be a guitar player, and then, um, um, went to college to play football, blew out my ACL, had surgery. Oh, man. Didn't heal right, so I was like, I was kind of going sports route and then went fully just, like, into music. Wow. And started playing a ton, and then, um, transferred colleges and went to Oral Roberts University in Tulsa. Yeah. And then started doing, like, a ton of, of, uh, worship stuff there, which was so fun. So did that and toured with them and did some different things. Um, and then my wife and I m- got married in college and moved to Wisconsin, and which was so fun. We, uh, had some friends that were starting a church plant up there. Okay. So we went to be the youth pastors, and then I met this guy, um, named Jason Upton, who's a worship leader. Oh my goodness. And, uh- Come on now ... yeah, so great guy. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there

is freedom. Oh, yeah. Come on. So it was so fun. Well, they, they became like family to us. We were, like, their kids' youth pastors. We had youth group, like, at their house. You know Jason Upton? Yeah, yeah. So these- Man, get out of here, bro ... he's great. So I toured with him for a couple years. I think it was, like, three years, and it's so fun. It's just, like- No way so cool seeing a guy like that. I didn't really know a lot about him before we moved up there, but met him and just saw, like, man, like, who he is, like, on stage when he's ministering or singing or preaching is, like, who he is at 4: 6:00

00 AM when we're driving to the airport. Wow. I'm, like, barely awake, and he's like, "Oh, Daniel, let me just tell you about, like, what the Lord's doing." Like, this dude is the real deal. Yeah. He, like, just loves Jesus. Yeah, come on. Um, so yeah, so w- love them. Wonderful family. How long were you connected with Jason Upton in person there in Wisconsin? Yeah. Uh, so we, we, I toured with him for three years. And it was probably like a ye- I probably met him like a year before I started touring with him. And you play guitar with him? Play guitar with him, yeah. Nice. So it was so fun. I would, we would do like a bunch of songs, but he would also like preach while, so- Oh, yeah ... I was essentially just like playing, and you never knew what the set was, 'cause he has 100 albums. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so we, uh, you, I would practice, I mean, all of his records, and it was just like the day of you don't know what songs we're doing, what the set list is. Mm-hmm. So it's a lot of just like- y- yeah, like, I'm so thankful that I've had lots of practice with ear training, so it's just like- Right ... "Hey, I've actually never even heard this song before, but I'm gonna like..." Me playing it live right now is the first time I'm playing it. Yes, yes. But then, like, when he was preaching, he would hop off keys and he would go out and speak, and I would just, like, play, like, ambient stuff behind him the whole time, so kinda creating- Yeah textures and sound beds, and then he would hop back in and kinda go back and forth. Um, so fun, yes. That's incredible. I didn't know that about you. Yeah, yeah. So- This is exciting. Okay. Um, so yeah, love them. We're actually going for, uh, back to, uh, Milwaukee this summer for his daughter's, uh, wedding. She's... Which is so cool- Amazing ... 'cause like we've known her since she was, like, she was, like, in our youth group as a kid. Now she's getting married. She went, um, to school here in Nashville, so. Incredible. Yeah, great family. Um, but yeah, did that for a while and just loved it. I mean, it's so fun. Uh- Do you know Brian Zan then? I don't. I've never met Brian- Okay ... but J- Jason talks about him, like, every day. I know they're connected. So I've, I've read a lot of his books. I, I love, um, Brian Zan, like Brad Jurzak, and, um- Yeah, yeah ... John Ma- John Mark Comer. I mean, those, all those great guys. Yes. But, um- Well, Br- because Brian really challenges a lot of theolo- a deep theological things- He does, yeah that, uh, and you don't h- I mean, you know, people, you can read however many books you want to. Oh, yeah. And just 'cause we mention, um, one artist or- Yes ... one book or one thing doesn't mean we fully endorse everything- Yes, yes. ... on the podcast here. But I'm just curious if you knew Brian Zan- Yeah ... 'cause man, he has a great heart for the Lord, too, so. He does, yeah. Yeah. I, I've read a lot of his books and yeah, it's a cool, cool perspective. Absolutely. Um, but yeah, so did that, and then, um, I actually had a really cool opportunity in, to go back to ORU and play, uh, guitar for Bethel for, like, a Bethel music event, which was- Awesome ... super fun. So I was like- Yeah had been in Wisconsin for maybe, like, a year and a half, um, or maybe a little bit long- I can't remember. I was playing for Jason for a little bit, and my friend I went to college with and played music with, and we did worship at ORU, was now, like, the assistant worship director for the college, and they had Bethel coming in to do, um, a big, like, worship night, and they brought, like, most of their band, but they needed a guitar player. So he, like, he's like, he called me and he's like, "Hey, dude, can you, like, fly back to, to play for this?" And I was so nervous. I was, like, just out of college. I have, like, at this time it was, like, kind of like the Michael Pope/Bobby Strand era of guit- guitar players. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I had learned all of their guitar parts and loved them. So- Sure ... it was this really cool thing where, um, I had, like, two weeks to practice, so I was, like, learning, I mean, I had learned, like, all their songs, but I was, like, going through and just, like, making sure I was, like, super prepared. Sure, sure. And I came across, uh, Michael Pope's website. At the time it was like saintpope, I think, .com or something, and bought, I bought all of his presets. So I was like- Yeah, yeah, yeah ... I was like, "I'm gonna be, like, so prepared." So this was kinda like my dive into preset world. But- Long story short, I, uh, go, I fly out to Tulsa, we're doing soundcheck, and I was so nervous. I was like, "I've seen all of you guys in so many videos and listened to your stuff, and now, like, I'm getting to play with them." And, uh, the worship leader, like one of the worship leaders like stopped during soundcheck and turned around to me, and I was like, "Oh, God." And I was like, "What's about to happen?" He's like, "Where did we find this guy?" And I was like, "Oh, no." I was like, "What have I done, Lord?" And they're like, "He sounds exactly like our guitarist." He's like, "I would have thought we, like, had, like we brought our guy with us because, like, it's, it's like the part's the same, the tone's, like, identical." So I was like, "Whoa, this is cr-" I didn't tell them, but I was like- ... "I sound the same 'cause I bought all of Philip's presets." So that was, like, a, a really fun, uh, thing for me. I, I mean, I practiced so much, and it was, like, a awesome time, but it was like, I went from being- Come to find out you weren't actually playing, it's just all the tracks. Yeah, it was all AI. AI, yeah. No, but I r- I just remember I was so nervous, and then that kind of, like, disarmed everything, where I was like, "Oh, man, like, I have been playing guitar for forever. Um, I, and like the tone is, like, locked in." And it was that thing where it's like everything was kind of in place, and I was able just to, like... It was like a two, two and a half hour set, and just, like, was able just to, like, enjoy and worship the Lord, and then we did songs that weren't on the set list that we just did. And it, it worked out great. Yeah. And had a, had a fun time, and then, um, they ended up doing another one, like, a year later. And one of the worship leaders that was there was there for this one, and, like, they, like, requested me to come out again to do it, so I got to fly back and play with them a second time. Amazing. And which was so fun, and I mean, it was great, great crew. Like, they were like, um, after we was over went, um, like, back to the hotel, and they, like, they, like, prayed over, um... It was, like, me and one other guy that were playing with them. And, like, prayed over us and, like, prophesied over us and just, like, encouraged us. And it was like- It was like a midnight. We had like just got out to eat and, uh- Mm-hmm ... came back, and it was like cool seeing people who, um, yeah, who like ha- like you can easily, like when you're on tour and doing stuff, like it's, you're tired. Yeah, totally. Talking to people all the time. You just like wanna go to sleep. But it was like, man, it's, it's midnight and you're like taking time to like, to still pour into others. Mm-hmm. And I thought that was just like a really cool, um, just representation of like, and reminder of like why we're doing all of this. Like- Absolutely ... it's all about like the Lord and about people. Um, but yeah, so funny. Like, so going back to full circle, so like now like on Soundshop, we have those same presets that I bought from Pope, like on the site- That's awesome ... which is hilarious. So I reached out to Pope, and so we have, um, like, yeah, so, uh, his like go-to kind of like delay and reverb presets, which I was using, and then like his exact presets for like seven Bethel records we're giving away for free. Man. So it was this hilarious thing where it's like, that's like what got me like really passionate about sound design. And like, I used that to kinda study how he was creating stuff to learn like how to use a lot of gear when I was, um- Nice ... just young and fresh outta school. And then like coming back to full circle now, he, I think he has like 14 preset packs on our site. Man. Like for so- Loaded ... s- yeah, so stuff that he's doing, like stuff that he's used in the past or like stuff that he's doing with like Taya. Yeah, yeah. Um, or diff- different bands. So it was like a cool, like such a cool God moment, like looking back at like little young, insecure Daniel and who was so nervous and- Mm so scared and looking back it's like, oh man, like that was such a, such a cool, yeah, such a cool time. I love that. Talk about that because let, let's go back, let's go back to that insecure part- Yeah ... of your, of your life. I think a lot of people who tune in to this podcast, whether on YouTube, Apple, Spotify, they might find this episode and might be in that place right now- Yeah of being insecure. Um, or maybe you're a proficient musician, you're watching this, you just, you know, wanna get some more tips and advice for sound design. But take us a little bit into the insecurity spots, um, and into the world of sound design. When you started using other people's sounds, other people's presets, and maybe even adjusting your own- Yeah what was the thing that really brought you from being more of an insecure player to- Mm ... a more confident player? Yeah. Man, that's a great question. Um, I think a big thing was, like, just growing up, um, yeah, such as, I grew up in a town of 1,000 people in the middle of nowhere in Kentucky. Yeah. And my church was 50 people, and it was so small, and I was like... I mean, whi- which is crazy. Like, to this day, like, the band at our church of 50 people is one of the best bands I've ever played with my whole life. I didn't know it when I was a kid- Wow ... but they were, like, savant musicians. Just, it was three brothers, and they were all insane. They locked, right? Yeah. Could just, like, shred all, I mean, just, like, crazy. So I was, I was like, "I'll never be as good as them." Um, so I always played bass, but I wanted to be a guitar player. So it was this thing of, like, this feeling, which I feel like a lot of creatives have y- 'cause we, uh, oftentimes we attach our, our worth and our value to, like, what we can do. Mm. And which is, like, the opposite of the kingdom. It's like the kingdom is like, "Hey, there's a seat for you at the table." Totally. "Come as you are." Yeah. Like, you matter as a person, not because of what you can do to help me climb the ladder or to help- True ... all, all these things that we think about, uh, and that the world, like, really prioritizes. Um, so it's this really cool thing of Of, um, yeah, of, of having that insecurity and then, and just kind of like the Lord, like helping reshape my heart to see like, oh man, like who I am and like what I bring to the table. Um, like I'm okay with the things that I'm not good at, and I'm okay with the things that I'm really good at. Mm-hmm. And but at the same time, like knowing that you're still like loved by Christ regardless of how fast you can play guitar- Right, right ... or how, or all the, all these different things. Um, but the sound, the sound design part was really cool because it, uh, I mean, I don't know, it's different for everybody, but for, especially for like worship guitar, it's like at s- at certain stages in worship guitar history, there's like, hey, to play worship guitar, and this is a little bit in the keys world too, you have to have like this gear. I mean- Yeah ... bass players, you'll see like everybody has like these, this one certain DI, this one certain compressor, like- Yep ... this one certain, um, synth pedal, like e- and the keys player have like, you have your certain stuff for keys, some for, sort of for synth- Mm-hmm ... and guitar. So you just, I bought all this stuff- Right because like that's what you're supposed to do. Sure. Had no clue how to use it. And you can't say that to anybody. Yeah. No, right, right, right. You can't say like, they're like, "Whoa, you got like a mothership of a pedal board." And you're like, "Yeah, I, I saved up my money like waiting tables and bought all this. Like, it costs more than my car does." Right, right. I'm like in school. But I was like, yeah. And, um, so I think it was really cool, like when I got Pope's presets, I went through, and I'm like a very like nerdy, analytical person where I like to, I don't, um, for me, like I would never like buy presets, load 'em up, and then just like never look at them. I, I, like it's cool you can do that and it's very inspiring, but like for me, like I wanna understand, like a peek into their brain of like- Right ... oh man, this, this one reverb pedal has a billion knobs and sub parameters and sub parameters. Right. And they tweaked everything. Yes. So I was like, okay, let me see, let me go in here and see like, oh wow, he has his tone so bright for this certain verb, for this type of, when you're doing this type of thing. But for this type of thing, it's crazy dark, and this one has a long tail and this one has a short tail, a higher mix, lower mix. Sure. This one has a lot of modulation, this one has none. So you're kind of seeing like, um, a peek in beside like a, inside of like a pro's brain that's been doing this forever and been doing this like at like the highest level. Wow. And you're able to see like, oh wow, I, I get it. Like, when you're doing this like more, um, chordal like rhythm stuff, you're, you're doing this because if you use this other preset it would be too much for the mix or- Yeah ... or for your delays, like there's a wa- I'm, there's so many things. So I started like really learning and diving into that. Sure. And, and then just getting like really inspired of like, oh my gosh, which, um, was so cool. So I, I started doing that, and then when I got to Worship online I mean, I was recording guitars every day, all day. So it was like, I would get, um, uh, like the song I was doing for the day, never heard it before. So it's like, "All right, today we're doing House of the Lord by Phil Wickham." And sometimes, like, we, like, I, I was like, "Oh, yeah, I've definitely heard that song. I listened to it." Yeah, yeah. But sometimes it's like, hey, I've, I'm going, coming into a brand-new song that was just released today. I've never heard it. I have to learn all the guitar parts, figure out their tones exactly, and then teach it, like, note for note, and play it through without making any mistakes. Right. Right. Um, and so I was really thankful that I had been... Honest, it's cool, like, when you get, when you're going through life, you kind of see, like, how, like, the Lord prepares you for seasons, like, before you get there. Totally. So it's like I had done a lot of ear training before I played for Jason, and that was, like, so helpful. And then I had done a lot of sound design, um, at home, and I had done some stuff with a buddy at, um, a company called That Worship Sound. Yeah. Yeah. That's a great company. Yeah. Great, great buddy of Bell, um, who owns that. So I did some guitar sound design for him, and then got to Worship Online, where I was having to do, like, creating sounds every single day. Wow. And, like, recreating tones. It's like you're, like, listening to, like, the guitar parts for this song and, like, trying to figure out, oh, man, that's, like, a really unique thing. Like, let me try to recreate that. So it, it was a different ear training of not just Making sure the parts are right, but also getting the, the sounds right. Totally. Yeah. Man, it's incredible. You've done a ton of work with incredible companies. That Worship Sound, Worship Online, making a lot of presets yourself. Um- Yeah, thanks man. I didn't know you played with Jason Uftja. Yeah, dude. That's amazing. So fun. Did you ever see him at The Ramp? Oh, yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah, 'cause you were talking about that. When I was, like, 9 or 10 years old. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, when he used to, uh, lead there all the time, man. And it's great. And, a- and he always leads pretty m- I, I don't think I've ever seen him lead not fr- where, when he's playing. He likes to play. He, yeah, he's always playing. He likes to lead from the, the keys. From the keys, yeah. And I love that. And I've, I love s- following his, following him on social media, too, especially when he goes to his own piano. Oh, yeah. Just songs from his own piano. Mm-hmm. But the recent albums that were more, um, subdued, just more ambient- Yeah ... I, I would put those on during prayer meetings- Yeah ... in college days and stuff like that. Yeah. And speaking of sound design, I want, I wanna speak to, into this more because I think some people, some keys players are, are not as passionate about sound design- Yeah as guitarists are. Yeah, yeah. I, I don't know if you probably see that, right? Yeah, yeah. It's like guitarists, worship guitarists, they're the one... It's like they have, they have, uh, trademarked and copyrighted- ... all of the sound designs up. Like, we own this. We own this. We own this phrase. Like- Don't say it. Do not... You know. But I, so along these lines, I do want from a guitarist p- you are a guitarist perspective- Yeah ... and you, you do play some other instruments and some keys, too, but you're, you're primarily guitar world. Mm-hmm. And, um, you know, from that perspective, I want, I want you to help us keys players- Yeah ... to talk about how important, why is sound design important in general? Yeah. And I'll say this again, I'll preface this again. Yeah. I think sound design is a ministry. I think that if you are taking the time to make sure you're sounding as high as quality you can- Yeah ... that's being intentional. That's stewarding what God's gifted you with. Yeah. And I think just, like, learning your skills- Mm-hmm learning the chord voicings- Yeah ... all those things, that's, that's gotta be fundamental. Yeah. That's gotta be basic. Yep, that's your foundation. Like, you can't sound good if you can't play good. Yep. So- That is very true. We're not disregarding that at all. You should play good before you... Like, you should play good on this upright piano- Yeah before you try to, you know- So true ... download Andrew Sharp's patches- Yep ... or whatever else. Yeah. But, you know, with that, one of my past, and I'm gonna get you to talk some more. I don't want to take up all the- No, no, no ... time here. But one of my past podcast guests, Dewan Hill of The Choir Room, says CCM does with sound design what, what gospel does in chord progressions. Hmm. And I think that's so important. When we- That's really interesting ... we talk about sound design, like, we fill up the s- there's something that's gonna fill up the space. Yeah. Whatever it is. Mm-hmm. Whether that is just an ambient, there's delay- Yeah ... and there's pads, and there's just this thickness to it. Yep. Like in the, in the, in the modern more CCM- Mm-hmm ... world. We have such thickness to, and layers Yes, yes Layers upon layers So many layers. So much reverb. Way, so much reverb, yes. Whereas maybe in the, um, Southern gospel like Gaither Vocal Band or the- Yeah. Yep ... or, or the other, um, you know, church gospel with the organ b- you know- Yep going crazy, it is more about those fast chord changes. Mm-hmm. And talk about some fundamental stuff with sound design. Educate us a little bit, Daniel- Yeah ... into sound design. Like, what, how do we know what's good quality, what's not? Yeah. And once you define that, and this is a load, this is just a bunch of stuff- Yeah, yeah I'm throwing at you. After you deci- like, uh, define a little bit of why, why it's important, and then, um About how... Well, actually just talk about that. Okay. Why is, why is, why is it- Yeah, yeah ... important in general? Why do we even need to care about it, man? Let's just start there. Yeah. Man, that's a great question. For me, it's just, it's part of the, um, of the artistic expression. It's like, like you're saying, like you have to learn your scales, you have to learn your, your chords and your inversions, and you have to learn how to play in all the keys. Those- Right. Yes. Yes. But thank God for the transpose button- That's right. That's right ... on your synth sometimes. But, uh, no, those are, those are such important things, but I'm just imagining like if you wanted to be like, if you, if, if Jesus was here and you wanted to paint like a picture for Jesus, but you're like, "I only have one type of brush and I'm only using the primary colors, and that's it," you can make something really cool. And, and the Lord would love it, but it's like, man, I would love to... I'm kind of going back into like the nerding out like stuff. Like I want to, I want to make like really creative and really unique sounds and really just like beautiful art. Yeah. Yeah. And, and I feel like sound design, um, my... It's so funny. Like that, that was like one of my securities, insecurities when I was young, is I can never like shred or play super fast, like especially when I was like younger. Um, but I would, uh, get compliments like on my sound all the time, so I would play more simple stuff, like more, I'd play like very melodically. Yeah. But I would make it like really, really pretty. So it's like whatever, if I'm gonna play this eighth note line, I'm gonna make that eighth note line sound like the, the, really cool. Like as- Yeah ... best as I can. And, uh, but also like for me, like sound design is so fun because it, um, I'm, I, g- like I said, I'm mostly a guitar player. I play some keys and bass, but, um, would, uh, yeah. Could not, do not hire me for your keys gig. Uh, but, um, but I love like, I love finding a new sound, and it will, it will change how I play. So like if I find like for, um, when I'm producing or doing stuff at home, like if I find, like I, um, one time I was using like Chris Worley's like keys presets from, from Soundshop and- Yeah he had some really cool like Omnisphere synth stuff and some Keyscape stuff, and, um, it was just so inspiring. Like every patch I loaded up, you play, you play differently. You don't wanna, you're not gonna hit your like one, three, five- Yeah ... and hit it. You're gonna like, for once, like you would only wanna do something like melodically like- Sure with something else, you're like wanting to play more like heavier inversions and move around more. Yeah. And so for me it's like, man, like it w- the, the sound you use will like bring so many new creative ideas when you're, especially when you're writing, when you're working on original music for your church or for your, um, or for, or for bands, or when you're playing live, like- Yes um, when you have the same, if I'm just using like a piano and pad, a- after a while everything kinda starts to sound the same for you, but also like for the audience. Totally. Where it's like people are there, and then you'll kick on some kind of like Some kind of modulated synth lead texture thing and you're adding that with something else and you're layering stuff and then it creates this whole new moment where it almost like, um, it- I don't know, it's just, it's something fresh and something new. Yeah. And, uh, it's easy to kind of get caught in the, the monotonous of like, I'm just gonna play this, which there's nothing wrong. Like, I've met amazing keys players that will have, "Hey, this is my go-to piano, this is my go-to pad," and they will make it sound crazy good. Right, right, right. But even with those guys, a lot of them you'll see like, hey, I'm not leaving my... If you're just using like a Nord or something, I'm not leaving my reverb like maxed out the whole time. Sure. Or I'm not leaving my compressor on the whole time, or I'm gonna be changing, um, some different things or adding something, um, adding something else in. So even like- Yeah ... that in between songs, they're dialing back things- Totally depending on what you're playing. So for me, it's such like, um, it's such an integral part to being a musician is the, you have to have the foundations like we talked about. Mm-hmm. But if you like, if you have this like beautiful house and all you build is a foundation, you don't add anything else to it, it's just, it's just a foundation. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like- Right, right, right ... I can have all the technical knowledge in the world, but if I'm playing an out of tune piano, it's not gonna sound very inspiring, but- No. And distrac- very distracting too. The worst. Very distracting. But, but for me it's like the sound design is kinda like the icing on the cake. Like it's not- Um, like it's not, it's, it's not like a, I don't know. We have the foundation of your house, but like you start... Then you start adding cool furniture or you start adding like your mood lighting- Sure ... or you start adding like your centerpiece piano, all these different things. Yeah. And together, like you have to have all of that to make a home. Yeah. And it's similar in sound design, like where you have, as a musician, like you have to work on ear training, you have to work on the fundamentals. But the, the creating sounds, trying new sounds, um, is like, I don't know, it feels like next level- Absolutely ... where it's like that is like a crucial part of being, uh, like a well-rounded musician. 100%. Yeah. 100%. And we do have, if you're new here, this is your first episode, welcome to the Worship Keys Podcast. Uh, but maybe you, you know this already or m- again, this is your first time, we do have some episodes that feature David O'Ramirez, who is incredible sound designer from Keys World. Oh, phenomenal. Yeah. So good. And we have three episodes with him, by the way. So just scroll down if you want to after this episode and find those on YouTube. He goes over his go-to, his, his whole template. He shows us. So cool. We see a screen, and we didn't have time to just like go, you know, channel strip by channel strip to know what he did. But he's just going over some go-to sounds that he uses. Um, he's made his own, you know, sounds out of those. Like, he- he'll buy presets, and then he'll shift it and, uh- Yeah ... save as and make his own patches. He talks about creativity. He talked about how when he grew up, he got one piece of gear, learned it- Yeah would sell it so that he could buy another piece of gear. Oh, wow. Learn that. And then so like, you know, you'd buy, uh, a Prophet- Mm ... learn all that. Yep. And then buy a Juno. Yeah. Learn all that. And then once you have all that and that experience with all these different hardware synths or software synths- Yeah then as a producer, when you go to create something, you know, oh, that reminds me of something on the Juno. Yes. That reminds me of something on the Prophet. Mm-hmm. Oh my goodness, that, that, that f- we need a felt piano like the Nord has to offer. Like, we need whatever you have to, you know- And some of it is, oh my goodness, there's a piano in Nashville that sounds like this- Yes at whatever studio. Yes. You know, like I need to go physically play that in that room for it to s- Yeah ... you know, there's just certain things that once with more experience and more time, you can- Mm-hmm ... kind of... But I love that the presets, like on Soundshop, you can literally download someone, someone else's sounds that they've worked really hard- Yeah to get and study those- Yeah ... and then make your own. Talk about the importance of, although people can buy- Yeah ... Andrew Sharp's, uh, sound packs on here, by the way. Yeah. Which on Soundshop, you guys can go. There are presets that are for sale for keys players. There's 16 available right now. There might be more- Yeah I guess, coming. And they're anywhere from $30 to 100 bucks. But Daniel is offering a discount, uh, code today. Yeah. And we will put that here on the show notes and description on YouTube so you guys can use that promo code, 50% off for just this week only, by the way. So if you're watching this, this episode late, I'm so sorry, it's no longer working. But after then, it will be 20% off. 20%, yep. So tw- it's still 20% off even if you don't get it this week. But any of those sound packs that you like, maybe you like the way that, uh, Andrew's sounds, maybe the way, you like the way that Todd Lock's sounds, um, whatever it may be, 50% off this week, which is insane. Yeah, yeah. You- Go get 'em. You said that you haven't given that off since, like, Black Friday or something. Yeah, yeah, since Black Friday. I, uh, that is insane, man. So very generous of you, Daniel. Yeah. Go grab those. But talk about the, the importance of having an original sound. Like, we- Yeah ... I feel like in the worship world, we're s- so often copying so many people. Yep. What's your opinion on this? Man, it's so good. Yeah. So I think it's so important. That's one of the things about being a creative and musician is learning the fundamentals of not just playing, but also sound design. Oh, yeah. Like you're saying, like learn how to... Learn, like, the sounds you can get out of a Juno, out of, out of a, a Prophet, out of, out of your Nord, like all these things. Yeah. That is so... You have to learn, like, those base things. Yeah. Um, but then, like, start experimenting- Totally ... and start trying new things and start finding which is, um... I don't know. Some of, like, my favorite records is when somebody will do some- I can think of, like, um, uh, like Golden Hour by Kacey Musgraves. Mm-hmm. Phenomenal record. Yeah. But she's, like, mixing, like, disco stuff with, like, this kinda folky thing, and it's kinda making something new. Totally. And so it's, like, kind of crossing over genres, creating some new sounds. Um, and I think that's just, like, a really cool part of being a musician. Yeah. And, um- Yeah, it's just such, like, yeah, such an integral part of doing that. Totally just lost my train of thought. No, you're totally good, man. You're totally good. You're totally good. Um... And talk, let's transition- Yeah ... to church world for a minute. Yeah. Because that's where a lot of us live. Yeah. This is t- 'cause we, being in Nashville, where we're recording right now, and you've lived in Nashville for a lot of time- Yeah before moving to, uh, Alabama. You said your wife's from Alabama. Yeah, yeah. Uh, so hey, there we go. Sweet home Alabama. Sweet home Alabama. But, you know, Nashville's so creative, and there are so many producer p- you know, mindsets- Mm-hmm ... and musicians in general. Yeah. So, like, sound design is at the forefront. Oh, yeah. You almost lead with your sound- Mm-hmm ... and, and that makes you feel certain things. Yeah. And creatively, when you go to make a single or make an album- Yeah ... or make even multi-track stems for your churches- Mm-hmm ... you go to creative. But in the church world, we do play it safe a little bit. We do. Talk about that. Now, you're on staff at a church- I am, yeah ... in Birmingham, right? Yep. Yeah. Tell us a little bit about your role, and then talk about sound design within the church, uh, maybe some pet peeves that you have- Yeah ... with church keys players- Okay. Yeah, yeah ... and... No, that's really good. Yeah, I... So I was on staff at our church as, like, production and creative director, so doing all, all the livestream stuff and design, website- Important all kinds of great stuff. Yes. And I just, uh, just in January, switched over to, like, director of operations, so essentially like an executive pastor role where I'm kind of leading the staff and doing more strategy and operations, which is fun. Like, I, it's another side that I like to do. Mm-hmm. Um, but I also, like, MD and play guitar and- Awesome and do a lot of things. So, um, yeah, that's a, that's a great question. Um, I... I mean, there's, there's m- there's two sides to every story, and there's multiple sides of this fence, and some people will just die on one hill, and it's like, man, there's so much, so much more to life than just picking one thing or the other. So- Yeah ... the way I kind of always done things is when I'm playing, uh, a song, I will learn the guitar parts verbatim every time And that's like, again, that's kinda like my foundation. So I start off like with like, "Hey, I'm gonna learn every guitar part and I'm gonna match their tones exactly." Sure. But then, uh, like from doing that for so many years, you build up this huge vocabulary of these cool parts and ways you can play, and then these cool sounds that you can make, and you can take that as a artist and use that as well. Yeah. So when I'm playing at church, I will try to get the tones as close as I can to the records, and then, but I also will do new sounds and do new creative things- Yeah ... and do like, um, like our church is doing some original music, and I am like just making stuff from the ground that's just unique and creative and that sounds different. So I th- I think there's a place for both. I think that you, uh, like my heart is like you always have to serve the song, and you have to serve like your worship leader- Right ... and your church. Totally. So like if you are at, um, at a church and you guys are playing What a Beautiful Name, and you pull out like your '80s hair metal- No electric guitar and just start like ripping, you will end up on a TikTok somewhere like- Yes. Yeah ... don't do that. Uh, but like there are ways to, um, inc- so, so for me it's like I would not use that sound, that sound as a guitarist in that song. Um, like I'm not going rock and roll for s- some beautiful thing. Like you have to- Yeah ... kinda match what… But not saying that there's not a place for that or like that you can't worship the Lord, um, that to worship the Lord you have to have a 10-second reverb and this one amp and this one guitar, or for, for keys guys, like you have to use this certain type of pad and this one, and this one piano, or you have to have a Nord. Right. It's like there is so much you can do, but a lotta times it's, it's, um, yeah, it's kind of just being honoring of your leadership to say like, "Hey, like- And I, I love trying stuff in practice. Like, we'll, we'll be doing stuff and- Yeah ... and I'll, you'll, you'll try something, and, and you can ki- that's like, at least for, like in our church and our context, like we have like a Thursday night rehearsal, and that's where we kind of like have working through transitions, and we'll also like work like with creatively or making the arrangements our own or doing different things. So we'll try stuff, and sometimes like we'll do something creative or unique, and sometimes it's like, "Oh, that's awesome. Let's, let's do that." Sometimes it's like, "Oh, that didn't land super well. Like let's-" Yeah ..."like let's pocket that for later." Yeah, yeah. So it's this balance of like honoring, uh, the leadership and kind of like saying like, "Hey, like I'm here to serve and here to help, like you and the song." So like at the el- end of the day, I'm gonna kind of like come in and, and be a blessing if... And I also like, um, it's really important, which I'm sure you've had guys talk about, but just listening to other people in the band. Like if everybody else- Oh ... is hitting, uh, eighth notes or 16th notes, I'm gonna just, like gonna play diamonds and hit whole notes. Absolutely. Or like if everybody else is doing something busy, if the piano player could just like hold out a chord. Yes. And, and so, and that, a- and what sound you use for that is really important, too. Yes. Like if you're doing the gospel stuff and doing lots of chord changes- Yeah ... you don't want a huge reverb. Right. Um, and that's, yeah, so, so kind of playing, it's, it's so much of just listening, and I feel like- Yeah ... the, the older you get and the more mature you get as a musician, the less you actually play. Mm-hmm. And the more you listen to the rest of the band. Wow. So it's like, man, the, some of the best guys I know They are, are playing at 20% of what they can actually do technically to serve the song or the band, or like, "Hey, I'm playing with this bass player, and he's more inexperienced, and he's doing all this crazy stuff, so even though I can do fast stuff on guitar, I'm gonna play a little bit more simple so that it's not clashing with him." Totally. 'Cause we can't talk about it. Like, we're in the middle of the song, I can't go say like, "Hey, bro, like, let's, let's figure something out." Yeah. So it's kind of backing off. But yeah, with going back to the sound design part, um, I think, I think it's so important to create your own sounds. And, and what happens is, is usually that we are, we are... It takes more work to create your own sounds- Mm-hmm ... and it's, um, it's vulnerable. Yes. Um, so, like, we'll wait for elevation to, to do the new sounds- Sure ... or do something creative, and then it's okay, and then we'll all copy it. Absolutely. So it's like, well, because, like, I mean, a lot of guys playing at churches, you are working during the week, you have a family, you have a full-time job, and you're just coming in to, like, try to serve and help. Yes. So sometimes, sometimes guys don't have time to, to make new creative things, um- Right, right ... but I think it's so important that we do. Like, it's, it's impor- Like, what, what would the church look like if every church in the world was, was using their musicians and was writing, like, original worship music for their congregation- Mm like, not trying to force, um... Like, if you're in the middle of nowhere in Ken- in Kentucky, small town- Yeah ... everybody's listening to country music, and you're trying to do, like, this really hyper synth pop. It's like, dude, that is, like, not your community. Like Yeah, it's totally- Not, not saying, like, that song's wrong, but, like, what if... Like, how cool would it be if you guys did, like, a folk rendition of this cool song, or even, like, this popular- Yes ... um, Bethel song or Upper Room song or whatever- Yeah, yeah ... but you kind of put your own creative twist on it, and, like, that is so honoring to the Lord and honoring to your congregation. Yes. But so many times, like, we feel pressure, um, especially in today's world, where we're like- Every live stream that you see has Auto-Tune. Every, every, um, concert that you go to is using tracks. Yeah. And they're using drum replacement, so there's, everything's got triggers. Yeah, yeah. They're... I mean, it's just like we live in such a polished world where everything's perfect. Mm-hmm. Um, there is, um... I mean, everything from video to audio to everything is- Everything, bro ... so a lot of especially smaller churches feel this pressure of like, "Oh, man. I have to get our live stream sounding like Bethel's." And it's like Bethel has, one, world-class musicians. Yeah. Right. Yes. And then, and then they also have, like, so much great gear and guys who knows how to use the gear. Yes, yes. And, um, like recently, it was so funny, we had a, um, a, a ministry was using our church, like just our building k- like, kind of for their conference, and, uh, Upper Room came and played, uh, for the worship, which was really cool. And they had, they brought in their own sound guy, and a couple of our guys from our teams like me, uh, and then we had, we actually had Wesley Winford from Highlands and a- another Highlands guy- Awesome come and play with us. And then, so it's kind of like hodgepodged, some Birmingham guys hodgepodged, some Upper Room guys- Yeah, yeah ... and played. And people at our church were like, "Oh, my God," like, "Our w- like, like, it has never sounded this good ever in this room. Like, what did you guys do different?" And it's like, well, like, we're playing with, like, world-class musicians, and they brought in a sound guy who has been running sound for professionally for forever. Yeah. And, and it's like when you have that combination, like, things will sound drastically different. Yeah. Totally. And it's like it doesn't matter how much, like we talked about earlier, it doesn't matter, like, how much gear you buy and stuff. Yes. Um, h- like, even for, like, piano, like how you hit the keys, how hard you're hitting, everything, all those little nuances, like, those matter. Mm-hmm. And they, it affects your tone. For guitarists, like, I mean, guitarists freak out about, like, what pick are you using and like- ... what string gauge and what- Sure ... all the things. Um, what, what, what hand soap did you use? Not quite. Hand soap. But, um, it's like that stuff- Yeah, it really plays a part. Um, but, but kinda going back to it, it's like, it, you, that, that pressure is, is unrealistic. Mm-hmm. It's- Totally ... the pressure of trying to copy, uh, it's like I'm driving my little Honda Civic trying to race a Ferrari and wondering, like, why I can't be as fast. It's like- Right ... man, just be thankful that you're getting some good gas mileage. Yeah, exactly. Um, so- Especially, yes. Especially now ... so it's kinda like what, what works in the context of your community at your church. Totally. How can you serve your church? How can you serve your worship leader? And then like, man, get together with your worship team, and don't just worship on Sundays- Right ... or practice. Yep. Like, get together at somebody's house, and like w- write stuff together. Come up with like- Yes ... say, "Hey, like, let's, we love this, doing this song in our church. Let's come up with a new arrangement that we've never done before." Love it. "Let's figure out how to, like, mash these two songs up in a way that could be really creative. Let's find a new, um, some, some new melodies to play instead of like," uh, I think of like What a Beautiful Name. Uh, there's always like that Twinkle Twinkle Little Star melody- Yeah. Da, da, da- ... on the bridge. ... da, da, da, da. Yes. So it's like, great melody, but it's like, man, what if we tried something new there? Mm-hmm. And, um, so I, yeah, I think it's just so important that we allow ourselves to try new things and allow ourselves to break out of the box. Yeah. And allow ourselves to just kind of be like childlike again. Yes. Where it's like, man, as a, I feel like as an adult, you're so scared of, most adults don't learn new skills- Mm ... or new things. Yeah. Because I think we're uncomfortable with the feeling of being a beginner again. Mm-hmm. And there's that vulnerability of like, oh man, I am a, like for me personally, just being vulnerable, like I'm a phenomenal guitar player. I love playing guitar. I played for a long time. Yes. I've got so many opportunities to do great things, and I'm so thankful for that. I would love to become a, a good singer. It's like, but I'm like, that's something I've been struggling with is like when I was a kid, somebody told me that like, "Oh, you suck at this," and I was like, I stopped doing it. But I've started picking it up again, and it's like, man, it's okay that I wanna do this. Yeah. And I'm like, um, I don't have the best tone in the world, or I don't have the best, like, whatever pitch, or I can't do these runs or different things. Yeah. But like, I, I wanna do this, and I'm gonna- Totally ... allow myself to suck at something and, and to work through that- Yes and to persevere even when it's hard, even though like I'm really good at other things in music. Sure. It's like allowing yourself to be a beginner again. Man, that's good. And that kind of applies to your church, too, of like Everybody's trying to be the next Elevation. Elevation's wonderful. They have great people. They're putting out some great music. But it's like, man, like what, what can you do with your church- Absolutely ... to make... 'Cause at the end of the day, this is, like, all about the Lord. You know what I mean? Yeah. And we're worshiping the Lord, and, but we get- it's so easy to get caught up in the comparison game, especially with social media. 100%. Um, and the Lord doesn't care about all that. Totally. He just wants your heart. 100%. I think what, the biggest things that you've said right now to me has been when you said, "The older y- the older you get, the less you s- you tend to play- Yeah ... in a service, in a full band context." I think that's, um, that's interesting, and it's a good revelation I think a lot of people are making. Mr. Ralph Lofton, who's been on the podcast before- Yeah ... who's in his 70s, who has played organ for Aretha Franklin- Yeah, everybody ... Whitney Houston. The list goes on. Forever. Um, what a great musician he is. Mm-hmm. And he is always preaching about placement and- Yeah ... intentionality. And man, he's got some great chops. But I feel like when you're younger, I feel like you, you almost feel like you have something to prove. You do, yeah. So you're like, "Yeah, I can play this. Yeah, I can do this." Mm-hmm. "Yeah, I can play this." And then when, the older you get, you're like,"Yeah, I could do that, but also so can thousands of others." Yeah. And it's about that placement, and really the restraint and the control is where You start leveling up- Mm-hmm ... and then your sound design- Yeah ... start leveling up. So I think that's crucial. I do- I, I, I lied at the beginning. I said I was gonna start with these sound designs. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I, and I didn't start with playing these. But we are gonna get to the section of actually, um, letting, letting you guys hear some incredible sounds, all right, guys. If, uh... I've got, I've got Logic pulled up here. I'm not gonna share my screen. Um, I know some of you guys wanna see the screen for whatever reason. Um, but... And now Nisbet, my, my cat just jumped in my lap. She said it's time for... time to come on your lap. Um, but anyway, I got Logic sh- pulled up here. You don't g- you guys don't need to see this screen because there's really nothing to see in the channel strips or anything. I'm just gonna play these, the demos of, uh, Todd Lock's- Yeah ... presets on MainStage. Tell us a little bit of th- is there a story with this with Todd Lock- Yeah ... and his sounds? Man, Todd is a great buddy that I met at church when we were living here in Nashville. Okay. He was the, um, the music director for Lauren Daigle and keys player, and then music director for Passion for years. Years and years and years. Yes. Um, he also does like, um... He has a project called The Future Reality where he does, like, ambient music. Yeah. S- so pretty. Like, beautiful stuff. Incredible. Um, so these sounds, um, when he's playing with Daigle, he's doing all kinds of stuff. Oh, yeah. Um, this collection is really cool 'cause this is stuff that he used, some stuff for Daigle, some stuff for, like, just his own music. But, uh, it was just like the dude's got all the gear, all the stuff, but he's like, "Man, you can get some really great sounds out of Logic and MainStage." So he, like, challenged himself to, like, make the best stuff he could. But the funny part is, like, he has all the gear, but he still uses these stock presets- Yes on some of, like, the biggest stages around the world, so. That's incredible. So he's proof that you really don't have to- No, like it's, it's- ... spend the high dollar stuff ... you don't. You just have to, like, just dig in there and, like... But the cool thing about Todd and some of these guys is, like, they're, they're not just, like, making it and saying like, "Oh, yeah. That's good." They're, they're getting it- Yes ... and then they are testing it in studios and venues around the world, and they're constantly tweaking. Yes. And they're like, "Oh, wow. Like, this-" Felt great in my bedroom but then once it got in the context of band there was too much low end or there was too much this or there wasn't- Sure enough of this. Yes. So it's been so cool like, um, seeing these guys like how much they will tweak their sounds and they're constantly tweaking, um, to get them to where they can sound good in, in like just about any venue. Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you go- ... if you guys go to soundshop.co, um, slash category slash keys but you just go to soundshop.co you'll find the keys presets on here. I'm just gonna kinda walk through these a little bit. Um, our, our, our guy Andrew Sharp he's been on the podcast. Um, there's some presets of his of, I mean, lots of different sounds. You got kontakt stuff, omnisphere 3, you got keyscape. Um, lot of other... Oh, Zach Han on here. Come on now. Yeah. Michael Encavo played for Forrest Frank. Oh, m- amazing. Uh, super great guy. Got some of his presets. Amazing. Got Eric Barfield. Yeah, he played for Matthew West and a ton of different artists. Great. Um, Chris Ridley. Dude, I have a funny story about Chris, uh, Chris' presets that I'll have- Tell us ... to share with you later. Okay. Or we, we can do it now if you want to. But quick, the quick version is, um- ... he was on tour, uh, they were doing the Bethel Music run and he was out with Josh Baldwin. Okay. And, um, their bus got broken into. Oh, no. And everything, everything got stolen. Oh, no. So his c- his laptop, his hard drives, midi controller. I mean- Dang ... it was, it was horrible. And, uh, he called me. He's like, "Bro, like I don't have a backup of my... Like all my backs up- backups of my Ableton session with all my keys stuff was on my hard drives. I don't have a backup." Oh, man. We had just launched his stuff on Soundshop like- A month before Oh, wow And he called me. He's like, "Dude, I am so thankful that we did this," because- 'Cause he had a backup 'cause like, 'cause like I- he's like, "Literally, we went and got a MacBook. We went and got a midi controller for the worship night that night," and he's like, "And I went to Sound Shop and I downloaded my own sounds." And it's like... Yeah, so it's really cool 'cause it's like this is not like a recreation or like a fake copy. It's like it's the exact stuff he uses. So it's like- That's incredible ... he's like, "I downloaded my own presets," and I loaded them up to his computer, and I had my exact, like, Ableton template with all my plugin set, uh, everything- That's amazing ... for the worst. So it was like a funny thing where he's like, "Bro, like this saved, this saved my butt." That's cra- that's convenient But I was like- That's, that's so funny ... I was like... But they ended up getting like, um, they... I think they ended up finding the gear, and they got everything back. That's good. But it was, it was just a cool thing where I was like- That saved him, man ... it saved him. Yeah That, that's crazy. Well, that's pretty cool. I mean, you can literally have access to these incredible sounds here. Um, yeah. And then you even got John from Red Rocks Worship- Oh, yeah, from Red Rocks... where- Yeah, he's got some, uh, some synth-based stuff I know he loves synth stuff. He does. Yeah. Yeah. He's a great, great guy, great musician. He is great. So the reason why I wanna go through Todd's... I do want to specifically play Todd's sounds here that he's made because, for one, um, a lot of these stuff, a lot of these presets are in Omnisphere- Yeah ... and Keyscape Omnisphere, Keyscape Which a lot of us keys players, we do have Omnisphere and Keyscape, but maybe you don't, and maybe you're more beginner, and maybe you only have MainStage, which is more- Yeah affordable. Like, you just- Totally ... have the stock MainStage or L- or Logic that came with your MacBook. So Todd just has like stock presets from, like you said, from Logic and MainStage. Yeah Who... Playing with Lauren Daigle- Yeah ... and just played with Passion City. Yep. Funny story about this, Daniel, though. Um, so I've, I've met Todd. In fact- No way ... I don't only... Not only have I met him, he gave me three piano lessons- No way ... when I was literally 19 years old And I'm 29 now Dude, that is incredible. 10 years ago. This is the story and story time. Okay, I'm excited for this story. Story time with me on the Worship Keys Podcast. Um, so I worked Windshape Camps out of Atlanta, Georgia. They're based out of Rome, Georgia. It's, um, kind of affiliated with Chick-fil-A. Okay. They're summer camps. Cool. So I was a, um, summer counselor for one summer, and then I was a production director for two other summers. Nice. So that was me in college days. So when I was a camp counselor, we had staff training in Rome, Georgia, um, Mount Berry, uh, Berry College. And at Berry College for their staff training, um, Passion City Worship came and led worship during staff training. It was incredible. If you've ever been to Berry College, it's just like a dream over there. And so Todd is the one on keys- No way ... to your staff training. So cool. And there's, like, probably 500, 600, 700 of us college students who are there that are... We're getting trained. We're getting ready to do, go, go all around the nation, even some international, to do summer camps, Windshape summer camps. And the, after one of the sessions, it was great, and I just loved the way he, the, like, his pad sound and everything. Oh, yeah. So I came, I just came up to the stage and talked to him. "Hey, how's it going?" And, um, pretty chill guy, you know. Oh, the- And- Like, one of the nicest humans I've ever met. He- So nice ... he's so kind. And I was like, "Man, um, I'd love to know, like, what, what you're using." Yeah. And I mean, literally at the time, I had a, a, a MacBook and my Casio. It was a fully weighted Casio keyboard- Yeah like a Casio Privia that didn't have really great sounds, but I started using MainStage and Logic. Oh, cool. And it was great. And then I would use my computer wherever I went and w- if they had, the church had a com- the keyboard, I'd use that. Well, I asked him, I was like, "You know, what, what are you using? What are you doing?" And he, he briefly said, "Well, I'm, I'm using, you know, MainStage and Logic stuff. Um, nothing s- super fancy and, you know, this for pads, yada, yada, yada. And then I'm using the nanoKONTROLler- Yeah ... um, which a lot of people have used for years." Oh, they're amazing. Yeah. So, a- and we didn't have that much time. Like, we- Mm ... I had to go to the next thing. Yeah. So we had, yeah, like, five minutes. So he's like, "Man, this is what I use, the, the Kontroller." 'Cause I was like, "What are you moving your faders for?" Mm-hmm. He's like, "Oh yeah, it has these eight channels, the eight faders at the knobs." Mm-hmm. And he's like, um... Anyway, he, he, he got me connected. He said, you know... I got his number, and he said, um, "I'd love to, to give you some lessons if you want. Like, I could walk through this a little more." So I did. So on sum- w- I found some brief, um, time off over the summer and drove to his house. I think it was, like, an hour and a half away from wherever I was doing camp. Wow. And, um, he just walked through what he does- Wow ... with his sound design. And fr- just from those three lessons with him, which he probably doesn't even remember this, right? Yeah. But I do because it really shaped- How I approached keys after this Yeah And his sounds were so incredible. And it was incredible because it was attainable for me- Yeah at the moment- Mm-hmm ... too. It's not like, "Hey, go buy, go buy Omnisphere right now." Yes. "Go buy Keyscape right now." It's like a, a g- a great next step. It is a great next step. Yep. So honestly, I bought the Nano Controller. Yes. And I had a good, uh, Logic template, a good MainStage template, and I, I mean, literally as keys players, you could, you could have eight good patches and really do- So much. You can cover so much ground ... so much ground. Yeah. So that's c- that's why I chose to show you guys to... Well, not really show, but to, to, to let you guys hear Todd's, um, presets here. So on Soundshop, you can see there's Logic and MainStage keys presets. It's literally only 30 bucks, which is so affordable. Yeah. But with the promo code, this week you can get it for only 15, half off, or 20% off after that. But that's what I'm gonna play today, is Todd Locke's presets. He probably made these a while back. Um, but I, I'm gonna tell you my favorite ones, too. But there's, there's probably a handfu- probably like a dozen here or so. We're gonna play through them. So this one is the Wonderpad Isn't that beautiful? So good. It's very peaceful. And this is the Emerald Grand Now if someone heard that you might have thought, oh, that's definitely a Nord Stage 4. Oh, yeah, yeah. It's like, nope, stock plugins. Nope, stock plugins, y'all. This is, uh, a Rhodes. Beautiful. Can never go wrong with some good Rhodes. Then we start getting into some, some synth arp pulse world here Fun stuff right there Super fun And you can layer that with a lot of things Oh, yeah That's what I love about midi too. This is ch- uh, cellos staccato Which a lot of keys players will play strings, especially when it comes to Christmas time Oh yeah, Christmas time, producing, like so many cool things you can do with that. Absolutely. Here's a lead line, a synth lead line With the leads, really important to use that mod wheel to open it up- Oh, open it up, close it off ... filter. Yep. It's so important. This is a hybrid, uh, bass string That's a cool brass string. I like that. I like that. Beep City. I think I know what he was using in Logic for that one. Oh, yeah. Oh, even got some percussion stuff in there. Oh, yeah There's so, there are so many things like this in songs of, of worship songs that people don't even realize Oh my gosh. Yeah. When I was working at Worship Online, hearing all the individual stems when we're working on a song, there would be... I mean, for some songs you'd have 11 guitar parts. Crazy. And you're like, "Oh my gosh." And you'd hear five percussion tracks. Right. And they'd have crazy stuff like that- Mm ... that you don't... It's not super hot in the mix, but if you take it out, you feel it leave. You feel it leave. It's, it's really crazy- Totally ... like when you start looking at and studying that stuff, how many, how much layers are in- Oh, yeah are in songs. It's insane, man. Here's a Juno. Speaking of Juno, Juno pulse, which by the way, this is stock Logic sounds, but meant to be s- I guess emulating more of the Juno here. Yeah. That's cool. That's cool Yeah. The cool stuff with that is that you can, like, add more reverb to that and make some really cool pads or- Totally ... different things. Totally. 'Cause some of that, you know, being so dry would remind me of, like, the '90s- Yes ... song- worship songs. Yep Which throwback to s- there's some great songs in the '90s. Some great throwbacks, yeah. Um, but you kinda have that Juno bright- Mm-hmm ... synth string-type sound. But you could, yeah, always mellow it. I feel like it's gone... The tones have mellowed out and- Yeah ... blurred so much. So, so washy. So washy, yeah. You know? Here are some tubular bells, which people... Key players love this, especially in the gospel world. Like at the downbeat of something big. Like at the- Yeah Bridge. I don't hear these a lot with the modern CCM stuff, but- Yep ... uh, there's timpani crescendo. I won't play that. But this was my favorite one of the whole, the whole thing. Which one is this one? The slap. Oh, yes. Crossfades. Bro. This is stock logic. You, you know, you, you would hear that and you wouldn't even necessarily know that was midi. Yeah, yeah. Sounds like a crunchy- ... distorted, uh, bass guitar. That, that was, that was nice. Um, here's a clean B3, which I don't really prefer much of a clean- dirty, but that's in there This is a weird rhodes delay piano, which is cool- Yeah ... in a mix Yeah, you have to, it's, that's very niche I feel like. Oh, yeah. Retro Punch Grand But yeah, yeah I, I could see that being used in a normal like 6-4-1-5 progression- Oh, yeah ... and then you open it up. Open it, open up the mod wheel, yeah. Yeah. And that's the cool thing with a lot of these packs these guys will do is they'll... Every... As- from what I've seen, like whatever instrument they're playing, every guy has like, "Hey, these are my, like stock sounds that I'm using." Like for, so for Todd's, like most of the beginning stuff is like, that's kinda like your worship mus- That- Yeah. Mm-hmm ... and the bottom half of this is like, this is like something weird I did for like a record. And this is something that... It's like, um, the cherry on top of ice cream. It's like you don't wanna eat like that whole jar of cherries. You'll get so sick. Totally. Right. Right. I was like, I was like, just add this like little sprinkle like one time for a whole set or for a whole record. Um, don't like s- some of like the more creative sounds, like don't use... Please don't use that every song. Right. Right. Right. Please do not do that. Please don't. You can definitely overkill that. Yes. Yes. Like too much. Your worship leader will come talk to you and say, "What? What are you doing?" Like maybe, maybe- Yes ... let's not do that. But, uh, let me know... If you're on YouTube and you enjoyed those sounds, let me know which was your favorite. Mine was that crunch bass because that was just golden right there. I love that. You guys can, um, go download that at... What, what's your name? Uh, s- shop? Yeah. Soundshop.co. Soundshop. Soundshop.co. Um, you get lots of presets here. Uh, I might, I might go... I might have to go buy a few more because these are all, um, pretty cool. I definitely wanna check out Zach Hannah's stuff. Yeah. His stuff for Omnisphere 3 is really cool. It's awesome. Um, Andrew just dropped his recently with, uh, his like full... So Andrew and- His whole bundle here ... his whole bundle. Yeah. So Andrew and Chris Worley are right now the only two guys that have like their full complete keys bundle. And so what we've done is kind of like the bundle's like cheaper pricing, and then you have like... You can just kind of buy like a- if I just want the Omnisphere presets, we have that available too, where you can kinda just piece it together. Um, but those are so cool because like, I mean, when you hear like some of Andrew's stuff, you're like, "Oh, wow, that's like such a cool, such a, such a cool sound." Uh, and then with Chris's stuff, you hear it and you're like, "Oh, wow, like I've heard that on a Bethel record before." It's like, that's like the, um, the sound for some of the stuff he's doing. So it's- It's amazing ... it's cool. Um, yeah. And all the stuff like if you guys like those, um, everything on the site has audio demos for every preset. Um- That's amazing. Yeah, a lot of Juno stuff here. A lot of Juno stuff. A lot of- A Moog Arp. This is Andrew Sharp's stuff. Yeah. This is Andrew's. It's so cool Get that hardware synth stuff, the Prophet Big moment. Big moment Yeah, so good. Let's see. Oh, it's... That's nasty Get that analog warmth to that And that's what, that's what I'm talking about. Like, when you hear, like, that sound, it, like, makes you wanna play a certain thing. Oh, it does. It does Like, that's my favorite part is, like, like, not being a keys player is, like, loading some of this stuff up on my, my midi controller at home. Um, even if I'm playing keys at church, and I will, like, just use so many, like, sounds just to, like- Yes ... mix it up and have that Um, yeah, just those cool, so many cool vibes as... Keys players, you guys are, you guys got it so good. You guys, you guys got so many cool sounds. Right. Well, at least we don't have to go buy, um, hundreds and thousands of, of dollars worth of pedals- to make it happen. What's... I do wanna ask you- Yeah, yeah ... I hope y'all enjoying this episode, guys, just hearing, just talking about sound design. Um, it's s- it's so amazing. And again, it goes back to that whole alm- it's not really a big debate, but that debate of hardware versus software. Oh, yeah. It's like, why would you not, just like you said, that story with Chris. Yeah. I mean, unfortunate event that the gear was stolen, and then he's- Yeah ... able to just re-download this- Oh, yeah ... from your s- from your own si- Yeah ... his own presets from his site. That's so funny. Download his own presets. I was like, "Dude." And he's able to go. Yeah. Uh, there's a story of, um, Marcus Wiles, he was playing with Danny Gokey. Yeah. And they were playing at, uh, Red Rocks Amphitheatre, and something happened to the back line, and he didn't have what was, he thought was gonna be there. Yeah. And so therefore, um, his patches weren't gonna be ready. But, uh, someone commented on, on one of the reels and was like, "Well, that goes to show you, like, if, if it was all just, if you had it all on your software anyway or, anyway, you coulda just plugged into your computer- Yeah you showed up on a backpack, showed up on your computer." Now granted, there's always flaws with, uh- Oh, yeah ... or there could be flaws with certain computers, especially- Yeah ... if you're outside in the summer heat and stuff like that. Yeah. Um, but it goes back to why software is super important. Um, you can r- literally play almost any sound that you could find to play. Yeah. You could emulate that with MIDI. Which is so cool. Which is amazing. Which the n- we love, people love the Nord- Yeah ... and using it as a MIDI controller- Mm-hmm ... which people hate to hear- Yes ... 'cause they're like, "Why would you spend that?" That much money for a MIDI controller. I know. Yeah. But in most cases, sometimes a keys player already is a part of a church that already has a Nord. Yes. And they, and I don't see any, and any r- it's, I don't think there's, it's super wrong to- Mm-hmm ... do the MIDI with the Nord- Oh, yeah ... because, you know, you just, you like the key bed, and there's so many knobs- There's so many ... that you can combine- Mm-hmm ... so many sounds and, um- Yeah ... the faders and- Like when I was playing- incredible ... with Jason, he had a Nord for everything. And he had, like, his, like, Nord piano and his pad that he, like, loved. But he also was using it as a controller. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so he was running, like, several ch- I think he, I wanna say he had 12 channels of keys, which is- Wow ... insane. Yeah. Um, but, and then, um, I know a lot of guys, like, they'll, they'll use it, and they'll... I mean, some guys, like, really love the Nord piano sounds, you can use that. But then also it's like, hey, but I want these really cool things that I have on my computer- Yes ... to use as a controller, too. So you c- I mean, which is so cool. Like- 100% ... what a great world we live in, where you can, um- Yeah. We have access to this. Like, as a kid- Yes ... I never imagined, like... It was all about tube amps for guitar players. Right. It was like, yeah, you could have these certain tube amps and all this stuff. And now, like, I was talking to a buddy, uh, yesterday who's played for every artist under the sun. I mean, wh- when, uh... We've been close friends for a long time, but when I added him to Soundshop, I was like, "Bro, you didn't..." Like, his list was, like, 60 artists. And I was like- Wow ... "I didn't know you've played for everybody that's ever been a Christian and played music." But, uh, he's like, "Dude, I don't use amps at all for recording." He's like, "When I was... I was at a studio, and I had my... these really expensive boutique amps." And he's like,"And there was some... We were having some, like, weird buzzing, so I used my, like, my amp models with my Tonex or my Iridiums." Dude. And, and, like, it sounds awesome. So it's cool that, like- Wow ... we're, we're getting to a world where if you don't have money to buy, like, a Prophet and a Juno and all these different- Yes ... I mean, all these different hardware synths, which are beautiful- Oh, yeah and are so inspiring to play. Absolutely. But especially going on tour, you can't take a million keyboards with you- Right ... unless you're playing for somebody huge who has the, the biggest budget. Of course. Of course, yes. Bringing the... But it's like, man, what a, what a cool world where we can, like, we can have this on our computer, take it anywhere, plug it up to any midi controller- Totally and have world-class sounds in our bedroom- Totally ... with h- in headphones- The- ... at any venue. It's like, man- It's great ... what a time to be alive as a musician. I know, man. It's, like, so cool. It is absolutely incredible. And I see David O. Ramirez on these incredible videos- Yeah ... like with Essential Worship, and he, it's like I'll, I'll try to zoom in, see what he's u- and he's just playing, like, an Arturia KeyLab midi controller- Yep like the 61 keys- Yep ... not even fully weighted. Yep. And he's sounding... It sounds so angelic and amazing. Yeah. And it's like, he's not playing on the Nord. No. Yeah. Now, sometimes, you know, he is playing on the Nord or if the Nord's provided or something. Yeah. But he, he just, he really just needs a good midi controller- Yep and his right sounds. And his right sounds. And that's good for him. Yeah. I mean, and if someone who loves the Nord- Yeah ... they just- Just- ... they'll take their Nord and- Do it. Yeah ... they love it. Yeah. Um, but yeah, it just goes to show you can really do a lot with software or any instrument that you're wanting to with sound design. So I hope this has been encouraging to you guys. And Daniel, thanks for share- sharing. Yeah. Man, thanks for having me on. Your- This was so fun ... man, I, I, I hope you had a good time. Um, and we'll have to have you on again. I mean, who knows, may- maybe play a little bit of guitar- Yeah. ... maybe do some key stuff. But I do wanna, I do wanna ask you this- Yeah, yeah as we wrap this up. What p- what pet peeves do you have? of worship keys players. Ooh, pet peeves. And don't hold back, man. Don't hold back. Don't hold back. Oh, man. Tell us. I love you worship keys players. What is it that- Oh, man ... the worship guitarists are- Oh, that's ... You know, that's a great question ... what, like, what, what, what really... 'Cause you're, you're a pro guy, and- Yeah ... I... You probably play with a lot of pro people, and that's great. Yeah. But imagine a scenario where maybe you haven't always played with- Mm-hmm ... amazing musicians all around. What- Yeah ... what in the keys world has been a pet peeve? Hmm. I would say the biggest thing, I would say for keys players, and again, I love all of you, I- it kind of goes back to that, that maturity thing, is the, uh, serving the song. And I feel like, um, which we, everybody does it, but it's the noodling and the excessive playing, and the- Mm ... Stuff like that. It's like, I mean, guitarist noodles, um- Can you do that again for... No, I'm just kidding. Just like that. Those are the exact notes. You can Melodyne that later. Um, but I mean, guitarists, we noodle all the time. Drummers noodle. So it's like e- everybody does it. But it's, it's the, um, when you're in a song and somebody, a keys player is, stops listening to the band and is playing, like, their own thing, which I mean, as I said, everybody does it. But, um- Which is, yeah, which is always so funny. So- Yeah, that's a hard- Listen, listen to your bandmates listen to your bandmate. I feel like as keys players, a lot of times, not all the time- Mm-hmm ... but the keys player is often the one that is, uh, knows a ton of theory- Yeah ... and they're very proficient, um, whether they grew up playing classically and later learned modern stuff. Mm-hmm. But, but they just... I feel like a lot of ti- not all the time- Yeah but they have incredible chops, and because of the way that the key bed is laid out- Yeah ... you can play so many notes- So many ... so easily- Yep ... and, and cover so much frequency. So bass guitarists are a little agitated when they're hammering down there. Yep, yep, yep. Heavy left hand. Um, I know EG players, y'all are, uh, uh... can get a little, um, upset when we have outshined you guys if we have, like, some crazy synth stuff that goes through- Mm-hmm ... that we're... You're also getting your distortion and going through. Yeah, yeah. But doubling is great, too. This- I, I'm actually a big fan of doubling. Talk about that, man. Yeah. One of my favorite things is sometimes, like, there's a, there's a song where you're starting off and there's a clear guitar line or a c- clear piano line, but a lot of times, like, in a lot of bands I've played for, we'll actually, like, double on purpose, and it's a really cool thing. Like, when you're, like, locked in, playing the same melody- Yes ... it creates a really pretty thing. So I love that. Another hot take- ... is, uh, you don't have to use all of your fingers, and you don't have to play all the notes. So, like, I think it's really important... I mean, I'm... Again, I'm not a, I'm not a keys player, but, like, if you're playing, uh... I mean, like left hand, if you're hitting, like, octaves or even just, like, the one and the five of a chord, and then your right hand, like, you can just be playing, like, the third or be playing like, uh, like a simple melody versus feeling like you have to always hit the full chord. Totally. Which goes back to listening. It's like, hey, if your bass player's hitting something down here, and he's playing these quarter note, you don't have to also be hammering. You c- Like, it'd be- Yeah ... better for you to hold a whole note- Totally ... and sit, and let that sit there. Or, like, if electric guitar is doing something, um- Yeah, I think, I think it's just comes back to everybody just listening to each other. Totally. And we're, like, realizing that we're all a part of, like, a team, and this is not, like, a individual sport- Yes ... but we're trying to, like, work together. And if I hear you're playing, uh, like, if we're playing major seventh and you're playing the seven, I might hit, like, the nine or something to add something a little bit different. But we're kind of, like, working together to play that major nine chord. Absolutely. Um, or yeah, I mean, there's so much you can do. Oh, yeah. But I would say it, it's that listening piece, which is- Absolutely ... is so crucial and- Absolutely ... and which makes it fun, too. And then I, I'm sure you've experienced this, but when you play with guys that are great, and you've played with them for a long time, you'll, like, know what they're gonna do. You know what they're gonna do, yeah. So, like, yeah, so you know, like, they're gonna drop out and hear something, or they're gonna do something, or they're gonna jump an octave- Yes ... making room for somebody else, who at that same time is gonna go s- they're kinda gonna swap places a little bit. 100%. 100%. Um, which is so- My favorite thing is when you get into more of a spontaneous prophetic flow thing- Yeah where the s- the song's kinda ending, but you kind of seeing where we're gonna go. Mm-hmm. And while the worship leader's trying to decide, like, what, what's gonna happen, what's g- where it's gonna go, you start playing a random other melody over that, that four, five, six progression. Yep. And, like, whether that is the, if the electric guitar starts it- Mm-hmm then the keys player catches on. That is my favorite. That is my favorite, too, man. That, man, when, like, uh, yeah, whenever that happens where it's like that spontaneous moment- Yes ... somebody comes up with a new melody- Yep ... and then somebody is listening- Yes ... and does, either they copy it, or they do, like, a countermelody. Yes. It is like, for me, like, that's, like, one of the most, like, magical moments in music- Yes ... where it's like you f- I don't know, as a musician, you feel, like, so alive in that moment. Absolutely. You're like, man, this is, if this is, like, what worshiping the Lord for all eternity is gonna feel like in Heaven, like- Come on that one, like, little tiny feeling in that moment. Yes, yes. Like, what a, what a, what a glorious place. I love it. And on the counter side of that, sometimes I have been where there was a great melody going on, and then we were building momentum. And then all of a sudden- The guitar player or keys player Yeah, yeah Vice versa, will just stop playing what they were playing to do some, some other random thing. Probably the guitar player. Yeah. I'm sor- we're sorry. We're sorry. Forgive us. It's like once, once I s- it's like I've started to- ... I've started to, like, support this, and all of a sudden he starts going na, na, na, na, na, na, na. Yeah. And like, oh. But no, sometimes it works- Yeah, yeah ... 'cause you're like, okay, now I'm, like, ad libbing. Yeah, yeah. But I'm like, man, we needed to dri- we need to keep driving this home a little more. Yeah. But man, I, I agree with you. It's, it's such a, such an amazing thing, and we're all just trying to paint that picture, so. Yeah, it's so true. I love it, dude. Well, do you have any, um, any other last pieces of advice for worship musicians, worship players, worship- Mm leaders- Wow ... churches when it comes to sound design, man? Yeah, yeah. Being the owner of soundshop.co- Yeah, thank you ... himself, Daniel. Uh- Danny ... I would say final thoughts are to, which we talked about a lot earlier, but it's just let yourself create again, and it's okay to try new things. It's okay to do things that are not the status quo. Mm-hmm. And, and just get back to, like, playing music for... Think about when you first started playing music and how fun it was- Absolutely ... and how it was just, like, joy and like you're a kid just building something with Legos. Get back to that And just have fun. Like, music is such a gift from the Lord. Mm-hmm. Such a beautiful thing. It's been doing music for the history of all mankind. Mm-hmm. And it never... Like, there's always more to learn. Totally. Always more to discover. And, uh, yeah, so just, like, dive into that creativity. Allow yourself to just express yourself differently. And, uh- Yeah. And go out to, um, lunch with your band mates- That's good. Come on now ... and, and spend quality time together, especially if you guys are having, like, problems- Mm ... in the team or there's tension- Yes ... or you're frustrated 'cause somebody's not playing how you'd like them to play or you're not playing how you'd like them to play. Most of that can be resolved just by relationship- That's great and getting together and just, just, like, sitting at a table together and having, having lunch or some coffee. So- That'll preach ... don't overlook that. It's really important. That'll preach right there, Daniel. Nothing to do with sound design, but No, that's great, man. I love that. It's always come back to relationship. Yeah. I mean, always- That's what it's all about. Totally. And in closing with this episode, I do wanna remind you guys, in past episodes, um, I shared my journey of making my own piano sample library, and I was telling Daniel before we started recording, I was a little hesitant to release this, especially here on, on the podcast. I know I host and, and talk to amazing sound designers such as Daniel here and other people that are here on the site, Andrew Sharp and Todd Locke and everything. Um, but I shared this sample library, which is completely free, by the way. It's still out there. You can grab it. It's just 10 patches that you can use in MainStage or Logic and, um, it's pretty simple. They're just upright pianos. Some of them sound really brittle and old, so it's like you're just sitting down at this really old, brittle f- uh, f- I have felted in regular piano so you guys can check that out. But if you're looking for something, like, really realistic upright piano sound, maybe check them out just for some fresh stuff. But also my main a purpose of this is to inspire you guys to go out and create. Maybe you are, um, you never know, we might have the next Andrew Sharpe l- listening. We might have the next Todd Lock or, you know, whoever else. Um, we're all just doing what we can to serve the church and to serve, um, you know, other producers, other people. So maybe you want... You actually have some great patches or you have some ideas. Go out there and do it. Go out there and create it. Like, like Daniel said, create your own sound, do your own thing. But maybe you're wanting to learn how to do something. If you guys wanna know, like how, how to do something, like how do I make my own template on Ableton or Omnisphere or whatever. We have e- we have episodes on Ableton and Omnisphere, um, uh, walking through different presets and patches and how to g- navigate and go around. Uh, that has some really great tips there for setting up, um, your Ableton session or Mainstage s- Mainstage session. We have a few episodes on Logic Pro and making multitracks in Logic Pro. Nice. Um, but if you guys, there's something we can teach here on the podcast or show you guys a tutorial on or, or maybe bring someone in who has, um, built out a big... Maybe we'll talk with Andrew some, some more about how he made these sounds. But maybe you, uh, are wanting to make some sounds and you wanna know how to do that. Check those ep- past episodes out because, um, I've micd up this piano right here and I sampled it. Um, I actually sampled it one time and then started editing it and realized I need to go re-record again. Y'all, like- Oh, no ... the sample world is crazy. Like- It's, it's intense ... your mics- It's a lot of work ... have to be placed really ni- and you have to have good mic stands 'cause you don't need that mics drooping- Yep 'cause you get phase throughout your, your sample. There's so many nuanced things that, it, it very heavily audio, like audio theory things. But the pure sound, like if there's, like if you love your piano that you play on in your living room or your grandparents' piano, whatever, just go mic it up, sample it. Good qual- good quality samples. Yeah. Good round robins. Um, but I have some videos on that on how to do that, and then you guys can s- can use iZotope denoise and clean it up and all that stuff. Load it into Logic, Logic Pro sampler plugin or find a way and go down the kontakt road a- as well and you can literally take those samples and make a sample instrument or sample library out of your own sounds in your own living room. 'Cause- Each, like this piano right now in this living room, uh, is gonna sound different than if you brought it on stage somewhere or in a gym somewhere. Yeah. So true. So, like, capturing that instrument in that moment, in that space and time, it's never gonna be like that again. And depending on the mics you use- Oh, yeah and how you, how you play it, like, there's so many variables to how creative you can be. And, uh, so I just wanna inspire... And, like, ho- hopefully that inspires you guys to go, um, make your own samples as well. So I wanted to leave you guys with that as well. So thank you to Daniel Dauwe of soundshop.co, who has played electric guitar for Jason Upton- for years, which is crazy. I didn't know that. Uh, but li- lives, lives in, um, good old Alabama. But thank you guys for being a part of the Worship Keys podcast. Um, if you're on YouTube, subscribe, stick around. We have episodes that come out