Featured Contributor: Ben Worcester
Loop Community is privileged to have many talented musicians and music programmers contributing to the community. One of those people is Ben Worcester.
I asked Ben a few questions and wanted to share our discussion.
MM: What do you use to create your loops?
BW: I use Reason 5.0. We use it in the live setting as well.
MM: What advice can you give those who are interested in making Loops?
BW: As advice for loop writers, invest time in studying how others create unique sounds. Consume others’ creations to develop your own. In addition, save your favorite sounds/patches so that you can implement them in any other file quickly.
MM: What instruments do you play?
BW: I play keys, generally, but I am also semi-pro trumpet player.
MM: Are you serving somewhere in your church? If so, where / whats your role?
BW: I’m on staff at University Christian Church in Manhattan, KS as the Contemporary Service Coordinator. My role is to oversee musical and technical aspects of those services.
MM: What made you want to start using loops in worship?
BW: One of biggest reasons is to implement synthesized sounds at the heart of our music. This makes it easy to have these extra instruments that fill out the sound. I also think that by using loops live, a band solves a lot of problems quickly. Two examples would be starting/ending songs and tempo issues. Loops can help with those transitions and make things more seamless.
MM: How do you run loops live during worship?
BW: We use Reason to fire all of the loops. We have an M-Audio 1814 FireWire interface that sends the stereo loop to the house (and monitors) and sends the click to the monitors. I usually fire them from my spot on stage behind the piano. Before the service, we load all of the loops in reverse order. Then, at the completion of the song, I (quickly) close the window and fire the next one.
Everyone has their own way of making music and playing it live. It’s always interesting for me to hear how people implement loops and programming into their worship sets. It can spark a new idea or teach me something new. Thanks for sharing Ben!
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