they do have MIDI run into all of them . So that ' s been amazing too . And I can create whatever on a MIDI track and then send it to any of those . But they ' re all analog . The Voyager is analog-ish . All vintage-y like an Arp - super old . The first keyboard I ever owned was the Roland Juno 106 . But it ' s all nerdy , analog , easy stuff that you can hit a MIDI tracker and that ' s what I ' ll do most of the time . I ’ ll come up with a part , and then to send it to the wall of synths and then see which one sounds cool . And then you can stand over there and mess with them on the fly while your part ' s looping .
This is again , part of what my wife does , is design furniture stuff too . So next she turned the desk into where the kick plate would look like at the bottom of the desk . But it hides my pedalboard and then slides out and the pedal board is already plugged in . Then I ' ve got a signal already in my “ in ” and it can go to any of my templates that I ' ve pulled up , whether live or on Ableton or Pro Tools . But it also splits to an amp room through my home Automation app .
I can turn on any of the amps that are already mic ’ d up and ready to go .
And we have such a hard time figuring out how to route stuff , since it was a remodel , we didn ' t get to build out the wiring ahead of time . Trying to figure out how to get a wall of synths or a guitar signal back to a closet in the back of the house was a difficult thing . And then right when we were in the middle of trying to figure out what we could do to get the AD conversion right , we found out about these Tascam converters . And it sounds great . There is no latency issues . They ' re just a miracle thing .
[ WM ] Tell us about your banjo playing . Is it a passing phase or are you still playing banjo everywhere ?
[ Crowder ] Oh no , we still are stuck with it . ( laughing ) I mean banjos diehard . I will play banjo . And then there are some who say , “ Man , I am so over your banjo ”. I ' m like , “ No , no the banjo is here to stay ”. I got to keep the banjo jokes alive .
[ WM ] Are you still using the Deering B6 banjo touring and recording ?
[ Crowder ] Yeah , absolutely . Yes ! Still in heavy rotation on this new record as well .
[ WM ] Okay , the next question . I liked that you honored Bill Gaither with the feature on Neon Steeple . And I watched the interview podcast with him you did , which was just so charming . Then recently you joined forces with Johnnyswim and Tori Kelly with a fresh take on “ Because He Lives ” for an Easter celebration . For some of our readers who are not familiar with this grandfather of contemporary Christian music . What does Bill and Gloria Gaither ' s musical heritage mean to you ?
[ Crowder ] Oh man . Well , they are some of my earliest musical memories driving in my Dad ' s car in the backseat with the Gaither ’ s music playing . I can give vivid memories of me
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David Crowder with his Deering Boston 6 String Acoustic / Electric banjo “ I love what Deering is doing . Finally a banjo to match my beard .” - David Crowder