even pitch movement over time .
Just how dramatic this animation should be depends entirely on the sound , the band , and the song but more often than not , especially if you ’ re working with a ‘ meat and potatoes ’ sound adding in a subtle bit of movement in one or two strategic areas can take the sound to a new level .
THE RIGHT AMBIENCE
The third word is ambient and I almost didn ’ t include it here . Why ? Because these days this word gets tossed around to the point where I sometimes worry it will lose most of its meaning .
Still , we are currently playing music that often pulls from genres that rely on ambience heavily . That means it ’ s important to wrap your head around what ambience is , when to use it , and maybe most importantly , when to exercise caution .
Ambience can be thought of at a basic level as any sound design programming that adds a sense of space to the original sound . This sense of space can be achieved in a number of ways with the most common being reverb and delay .
As I said , much of modern worship is described as ‘ ambient ’ in general terms these days . It ’ s tempting to sprinkle reverb on everything and call it a day but as I ’ ve written about before there ’ s something to be said for moderation here . Reverb and other ambient effects can transport a sound into any other room imaginable , but it ’ s of paramount importance to remember that your audience will be hearing the results in your church auditorium , which is itself of course , a room .
The benefits to adding tasteful ambience can be numerous . You can glue together several layered sounds or increase the width of your band ’ s sound with the right amount of reverb or a dialed in , stereo delay . On the other hand , if you take things too far it ’ s quite easy to wash out your sound or worse , the sound of your entire band .
Of the three words from today , ambience might be the one you hear the most but that also
takes the greatest intention and level of practice to really dial in .
A GROWING VOCABULARY
The three words I ’ ve brought up today are just a few of the many considerations that can guide your sound selection and design process , but each are important . If you ’ re wondering how to start getting more comfortable with these three concepts , first try simply noticing these characteristics in sounds or presets you already use and like before attempting to program from scratch with them in mind . Over time you ’ ll start to consider and notice these characteristics with less and less effort .
As a keys player you ’ ll always be called to adapt to changing styles , sounds , and ideas . Growing your verbal and musical vocabulary is a great way to get prepared in advance .
David Pfaltzgraff Founder and Lead Sound Designer at SundaySounds . com , a site that resources worship keys players and guitarists around the world . David currently resides in Des Moines , IA with his wife and two boys . He enjoys volunteering in his church ’ s worship ministry , old synthesizers , and a good super-hero movie .
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