Author: Doug

Vocalizing

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I do enjoy singing.

This likely started when I discovered music as a youngster.  And I’m sure it developed because of a great Youth Choir experience at Severn Baptist Church with a great married couple, Al & Margaret Hunter, as director and pianist.  Such dedicated volunteers and talented musicians.  Mr. Hunter would take time off from work in the summers to take the Youth Choir “On Tour” usually for a week visiting and singing for Churches as far away as South Carolina.

Since I am often behind the controls while engineering recording sessions, I don’t often get a chance to sing on recordings.  I have done a few tracks here and there with the assistance of “deputized” engineers with brief training (“Sit here, push this button to start, this button to stop, this to start over”).

Recently, we’ve been in the Amore Alta studio working on new tracks for “OPERATION LET THE FIRE FALL (OLTFF).”  This project is preparing liturgical music to be distributed to Catholic military chaplains.  I’ve had the pleasure of being included in the vocal ensemble and having all the technical details handled by Paul Mercer, a talented engineer (and recent convert).OLTFF Vocal Session

There’s a real satisfaction that comes from the blending of different human voices, either in unison or singing rich harmonies, especially when it’s done all for the glory of God.  St. Cecilia, ora pro nobis.

Prayer

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Praying StatueLast night in a homily at St. Peter’s, Fr. Brett shared a prayer he teaches people to pray:

“God, I want to want what you want.”

Does it really need to be any more complicated than this?

Fr. Brett is vice-rector at the nearby Mount St. Mary’s Seminary and assists Fr. Jason with the Mass schedule on occasion.  He has also authored a book on discerning a vocation to the diocesan priesthood called “To Save A Thousand Souls — A Guide to Discerning a Vocation to Diocesan Priesthood“

Crossroads Roadwork

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I was recently asked by my friend, George Misulia, to transfer a vinyl record to digital. The record was done back in 1982 by his music group, Crossroads. It was entitled “Roadwork“. The recording was done at Sheffield Recording Ltd in Phoenix, MD, a studio I had done some work in back in the 80’s as well.

AHH, VINYL

Yes, spinning vinyl on a turntable.  The copy of the album was not new. The cover showed some signs of wear along the bottom edge, probably the result of sliding it in and out of a storage shelf. The paper liner had some slight water stains across the bottom edge, but was otherwise intact. We began with a thorough cleaning of the album. There were a few visible crosscut scratches on side one. When we dropped the needle, our suspicions that the album condition was not the greatest were confirmed. No doubt that this particular platter had made a pass or two under the stylus, or that the previous stylus was not in the best of condition when asked to render from the tiny grooves the music encoded there. There was a slight ripple warp toward the outer edge causing a bit of a bounce on the tonearm, but not bad enough to dislocate the stylus from it’s groove.

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