In this enlightening discourse, we engage with Andre from multitracks.com, who elucidates the profound evolution of music production and accessibility within the worship context. Central to our conversation is the transformative impact of multitrack technology, which has revolutionized the manner in which musicians and worship teams approach performance, allowing for a greater level of authenticity and creativity. Andre highlights the innovative tools offered by Multitracks, including the Rehearsal Mix and Chart Builder, which facilitate seamless collaboration and practice among team members, thereby enhancing overall musical integrity. Furthermore, he articulates the importance of user feedback in driving product development, ensuring that the solutions provided are not only relevant but also responsive to the needs of the community. As we delve deeper into this topic, we uncover the intricate relationship between technology and worship, ultimately illustrating how these advancements empower musicians to deliver their best in a worship setting.

Takeaways:

• The evolution of music expectations in churches has significantly transformed over the years, reflecting broader cultural changes.
• Multitracks.com plays a pivotal role in providing access to high-quality tracks that enhance worship experiences across various settings.
• The innovative features of multitrack playback systems allow musicians to synchronize their performances seamlessly with recorded music, enhancing overall coordination.
• The introduction of MIDI cues in multitracks has revolutionized live performances by enabling musicians to control lighting and visual elements in sync with the music.
• The Rehearsal Mix feature offered by Multitracks allows musicians to practice their specific parts effectively, ensuring they arrive at rehearsals well-prepared.
• The Chart Builder application integrates various resources, providing musicians with real-time access to their charts and rehearsal mixes, streamlining the preparation process for worship teams.

Links referenced in this episode:

• multitracks.com

Companies mentioned in this episode:

• multitracks.com
• Ableton
• ProPresenter
• Planning Center
• Chart Builder
• Chart Pro
• Rehearsal Mix
• Playback

Is.

But so much has also changed since those early days for us all.

The way that music was.

Sort of.

The expectation of music in the church has changed tremendously.

When Drakey and I were growing up in our.

In our little church.

Why am I laughing?

In our little church, we did things the best we could.

Well, they did.

We were kind of young back then.

But just as far as the music, the integrity, the authenticity of it, in the sense of staying true to what the music was written and produced as, versus not authenticity as far as where it comes from, but just being able to produce and sort of imitate music the way that it was recorded has changed so much.

And just trying to.

Yeah, yeah.

And jumping back to multitracks.com, that's a huge thing there.

And you mentioned, like, Ableton, whatever it is that you use as sort of like your playback system, but just having the access to the tracks and almost being able to fill out the parts that are needed and still fill in the parts that you don't have access to.

You guys have done good with that.

And I know that you mentioned sort of the founder started off with this with his own music and sort of it grew.

Sounds good and it sounds amazing.

It is, but it doesn't sound like it would have been that easy to.

To do.

So can you tell us.

I know it was before you started sort of the transition from our own tracks to now you're with labels.

Like, there has to be a.

There's a big gap.

There's a lot of ground and proof of concept to cover there.

Do you know much about that?

Well, it's just you got to work at it every day, you know, it's like every day.

I'm not Quite sure what year.

29, 10 or something like that.

And then, you know, labels started picking up and adding and so.

And it's always about being, like, innovative in everything you do to push the boundaries.

And that's what Multitracks has been doing basically, for the whole time.

It's being innovative.

Right.

But, you know, today we're still innovating.

We still have some new things coming up all the time.

I mean, I wish that I could say everything sometimes, but I can't.

Please do.

This is a safe place right here.

You can trust us and our listeners to keep it tough.

Yeah, no, we'll stay on our toes.

And actually, can I mention.

Well, I guess it's fair to mention some of the changes that have sort of come out since I've been using it in the last couple years.

So I'd love to shout some of those out if I could now.

Yeah, go ahead.

So I guess originally the use and the expectation for multi tracks was basically, as we mentioned, just you're in a band, you're on stage, whatever it is, whatever size band you have, and then you have some tracks that are playing alongside you.

So if there's some specific piano parts, for example, to keep it very simple, and your piano player is not capable or busy playing organ, whatever it is, you can still have that piano track guiding you through the songs.

And in addition to that, you have song sections, so it will count you into the song.

So say intro, 2, 3, 4.

And all through the song it's going to give you a count into the next section.

So verse 2, 3, 4 to your chorus and then even all the way through to outro.

So that's very clear.

So you're playing along with the metronome to keep the time you have a guide which is literally guiding you through the song.

So it's almost impossible to get lost.

And where it started to get a little cooler for me at least is when you could start to integrate the MIDI cues.

So now you can from your.

Whatever device you're using, whether it's a computer or a tablet, like this one here, that's actually this playbook up on it.

Now you can trigger this.

So you hit play on the song.

Now a MIDI cue can be set to trigger the lighting.

So you can go dim, you could go bright.

Whatever you pre program, it gets cooler.

Doriki.

Okay, tell me more.

You can trigger lyrics.

So all the way through.

I don't know if you can see too much here, but I'm sure Andre or will put some links up to things later on.

You can trigger lyrics all the way through the song.

It's triggering slides that are on another computer hosting propresenter, which is kind of like PowerPoint from back in the day.

If you stopped at technology there, people still use PowerPoint.

No, this.

So you could be triggering the lighting as you play through.

Triggering lyrics.

So that's the lyrics for online viewers in the congregation or in the building, whatever type of building it is, as well as you can have it for your.

Your singers.

So on stage they can have the lyrics as they go through the songs.

It's on a TV or a phone, wherever it is.

And Then there's so much more I could keep going, but I should give it back to you to sort of jump on there.

I'm looking.

Who's the brand ambassador here?

I'm looking to like song specific patches right now since we're on MIDI out here.

That's pretty cool because you can use song specific patches, I mean on keys.

Because I'm a keyboard player and.

Yep.

In main stage.

And it sounds really amazing, you know, like all the sounds.

Like sometimes like you play just boom.

Then you listen to.

Am I the one playing all these sounds?

Oh yeah, look at that, those high sounds, these arpeggios there going on, that bass loop there going on and all this.

So it's pretty, it's pretty impressive how it sounds.

So I would play then you need to change patch throughout the song, right, to.

To reflect the, the intensity of the music and all that.

Yeah, yeah.

So then I was going, oh, where do I need to change patch all the time?

Like I'm never sure.

But now with media out, you have song specific patches cues, song specific patch cues.

So you can have them like in playback and it will change your patch patches automatically.

So that's.

Oh yes, I love this, you know, so.

So I've been playing with this recently.

That's a fun feature.

I love it.

Yeah, that's another feature of the MIDI out.

So it can control your lighting, control your lyrics, lyric slides or control your patches or on guitar, you know.

So it's very, very cool.

And actually one of the newer ones, if I could keep this rolling just a bit longer, is something because.

So just depending on what your needs are, some bands are large enough or capable player wise of covering more.

But in our case, there's a lot of the tracks we don't necessarily need just because of where we are, band wise, size and I guess capability as well.

But the last rollout, man, it took over a lot of the others that have been coming up in conversations as far as best for playback.

And that feature is being able to automate and automation.

I was like, okay, I'm sold on this, I'm using it, I enjoy it.

But the automation was like a dream come true.

Because now what you can do is some songs you want a specific line, right?

Like if you think of any song, there might be that line that kind of makes it brings a song out or it's kind of like deeply associated with the song and.

And things like that were really cool.

Cause you don't have to necessarily have like, you might have five different guitar parts in one song.

So you have tracks for every single one of them.

With this feature, maybe Guitar 3 plays something really cool every time it goes into the bridge or on that last chorus, you can have all of the guitars out if you wanted to.

But when you get to that section where you want it, have that dial in and then drop right back out.

And that goes for everything right across the board.

So it took customization to a whole nother level.

Yes.

Yeah.

Sounds like it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And the excitement is real.

Cause I'm using this stuff, so it's like it's making my life easier and better.

Every time there's a new product roll out, I'm just waiting.

I was like, please come on and drop some more.

That was like three weeks ago when this one came out.

That's the latest, latest thing that came out.

And stay attentive because some more is coming out very soon.

But Multitracks has evolved a lot through the years.

Because at first when we started, it was like, basically tracks for Ableton mostly.

Right.

So you can download the multitracks still today and have the Ableton session and just use it in Ableton, which is a great solution.

Yeah, you provide those as well.

I forgot in what?

Sorry, no, I said I forgot that you provide those as well.

So if you're not using the Multitracks app, you can download all the files?

Yes, And I believe they come with the Ableton file.

So you can just import it directly into Ableton.

It will set up with the intros.

You can basically use any app.

You can just download the files, use whatever Logic, Cubase, whatever you prefer.

With Ableton, the advantage is you have the Ableton session, so you don't have to reenter the tempo and all that stuff.

So people were using on Ableton and throughout the years.

Well, we launched Playback.

Playback is our multitrack app to play tracks.

So it was only on iOS at first, and more simple.

It was more like it was.

The goal was to make it available to more people.

So Ableton, sometimes a little can be complicated.

So that made it playing Tracks now available to everyone.

Basically, so simple.

But now Playback has, like, evolve, evolve, evolve through the years, like features and features and features.

And then people are looking at, wait, wait, is it playback?

Should I stay on Ableton or should I go on playback now?

So people are.

That's the question they're asking themselves right now.

But the thing that's when you compare, like, app with app.

But what's key to Multitracks now is that it has developed into A total echo system.

So it's not just the app, it's rehearsal mix.

It's how you write your set list, how it syncs with planning center.

It's also your charts in chart builder.

So all this is the echo and communicates together.

So when you consider the ecosystem then in my view, there's just no question anymore.

You might way better to go on playback, especially now that it's on max.

On top of that, you'll benefit more as a worship team because that's our goal.

We're developing that app for worship teams.

So as a worship team, you'll have more advantage if you're in the multi track ecosystem.

So when I meet churches in Canada, well that's what I do about like the ecosystem and how that can help them.

As you prepare your tracks, you also prepare your charts and you write your set list.

It comes directly from planning center or directly from multitracks.

All your team receive their resources.

Whether it's the rehearsal mix or charts tracks, everything.

You save so much time.

The time you save.

That's what people say, whoa, we're talking hours.

Most definitely hours per what would have taken maybe at least if you're skilled and efficient, a couple hours, maybe four hours in a lot of cases to get like a Sunday ready.

Probably longer actually, depending how many songs you're doing.

Yeah, but yeah, you're saving a wealth of time.

I might get you to circle back and kind of explain what a couple of those products are quickly.

Yeah, sure.

I was going to actually ask for.

Some planning center which ties in and then Chart builder.

Chart builder.

Yeah, yeah.

So what we have.

Okay, Rehearsal mix.

Rehearsal mix is pretty awesome.

So you can, your team can listen to their own part or their own track elevated in the mix.

So you're a guitar player, you can, with what we call the up mix, you can hear your guitar louder in the mix.

And so you can really learn it whenever, wherever you are from your home during the week before the practice and you learn your guitar part and then.

You can switch to the minus mix.

Then you switch to the minus mix, which is the other way around.

Around.

Now you hear all the parts except your own guitar part.

So now you can play and practice with it to make sure you know your part very well.

So same thing for singers, alto tenors, you know, many times they're wondering what's their voice, what's their line, you know.

So basically with rehearsal mix, when the team arrives at rehearsal, they should know, they should already know all their parts.

You know, because hey, say that again, real quick, Andre.

Yes.

So basically the team, when they arrive at the rehearsal, they should already know their parts, right.

Because they practice during the week preaching many times what we do.

And that's what we've done all the time historically.

We get that rehearsal and then we go along and we say, okay, what are the songs today?

What are the chords?

What is my vocal line?

And then you know, okay, this is gonna be long tonight.

And we're only learning individual parts, you know.

But if you're in like you play for a band or an orchestra, you don't do that.

You don't get like the play the symphony there and say, okay, I'm gonna sight read my music.

You should your music.

You're just practicing to make sure you know the whole thing works together and make some adjustments.

But you know, if you're not learning your part ahead of rehearsal, you're just making everybody else lose their time, basically because you got to learn your own individual part now.

Exactly.

Yeah.

So that's Rehearsal Mix.

So it's really powerful tool.

You can subscribe and have access to 20, 25,000 songs on multitrack.

25,000.

Wow.

You have access to everything.

Yeah.

So that's Rehearsal Mix and then we have Chart Pro.

Chart Pro is a subscription to our charts.

So you subscribe to Chart Pro, you have access to all of our charts.

The chart, they always match the multi track.

So when you hear like your guide cues saying intro chorus, well that's what you see on your chart.

You're not going to see something else.

You know, sometimes you don't have the matching tracks.

You know, you hear chorus and it's, I have a pre chorus here.

So.

So that's the charts and you can bring these two subscriptions, Rehearsal Mix and Chart Pro into our app called Chart Builder.

So Chart Builder is our app for iOS and Android.

So no matter what device your team has, I'm pretty sure everybody has one of those two devices in your worship team.

So you can bring both subscriptions in there and have access to all the charts, all of the, all of their here sold mixes.

And it has more advantages.

So the best way to use Rehearsal Mix and Chart Pro is in Chart Builder.

You receive your set list there from planning center or for multi tracks and you have all your music there, the right key line with the upmix, the minus mix, your chart and all of this chart builder syncs with playback or app playback.

So as the md, you decide, oh, I'm going to change the order of songs here.

The chorus the verses, I'm gonna start with three choruses, whatever.

So, well, that will be reflected in chart builder.

So all the whole team, they're gonna see their chart rearranged with three choruses at first and then rehearsal mix with three choruses also.

So they'll be able to practice knowing what's coming up.

You know, having the right arrangement, not only can you do that, like prepare your arrangement playback ahead of time, but, you know, you can also what we call playback sync.

You can sync it while live.

Your chart is going to flow and adjust to whatever is happening in playback.

So the MD decides to jump to the last chorus or come back to the beginning.

And the whole thing, you're going to see their chart just adjusts live to what is.

What's playing on a playback.

So it's a really cool feature.

That is impressive.

Yeah.

You can't get lost this way.

You should know what you are.

Yeah, yeah.

No excuses.

Yeah.

Sometimes.

Oh, maybe this is, like, too easy.

There's no guessing.

It really is.

It really is.

Yeah.

So.

And also, on top of, like, having the chords, you have the lyrics.

And then also there's that thing you have called MD cues.

So it's basically telling you what the dynamic, even sometimes what instruments should be in or dropping down.

So it might have a note that says, like, drums out or all in.

Right.

Stuff like that.

So it really is foolproof.

And that's right across the stage.

Everybody can be just looking at their charts and following through.

Exactly.

Very cool.

Exactly.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I wish to tell every church in Canada I know hey, there's a better way.

There is a video.

Exactly.

Less time.

It's all done for you.

You mentioned 25, 000 songs.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I didn't realize it was.

I guess it makes sense.

I didn't realize approximately.

Like, I didn't check last time, but.

Yeah.

But it's in that range.

Yeah.

Wow, that's crazy.

I had a question just about the.

It seems like you guys have really taken the time to break down worship and every need of like, you know, an MD or any audio engineer at a church.

I just wonder what the R D is like at, you know, the headquarters or if you've had any insight as to what goes in behind.

Like, because I'm sure you guys are constantly thinking of innovating or adding to this ecosystem.

And I wonder, like, what is the research and process behind developing these tools that are ready for launch or for the public or for churches?

What's the process?

Yeah.

Like, is there a giant team I can only imagine it's got to be a pretty robust team that's, you know, going through these things with a fine tooth comb to kind of make sure that the product you're adding is, you know, right for the ecosystem.

At Mult, everybody gets involved in the ideas.

You know, we, we share ideas together and we, we gather them and we try to discern them.

So we have a product team which managed the whole thing.

But I mean I like through the years I was able to share many ideas many times and it's just the same for everyone.

And we believe that a good idea can come from anywhere.

Agree, that's one thing.

But not only that, we really tried hard to listen to our users.

You know, the best feedback we get from a user, hey, we'd like to have this, we'd like to have that, you know, and then we don't just say, okay, good idea, no, we take note of it.

We, we put it there and we write it down and we put it on our board of ideas and we, we made sure to follow, follow up with that.

So yeah, so our many times our users who bring the best ideas and.

I guess it sounds like at least some of your team are users themselves, right?

Definitely helps.

Oh yeah, for sure.

But you can tell the difference between a product that was developed for an end user and kind of stays static or doesn't really move with changes required to keep up with I guess the evolution of wherever it is in this case music.

But this product, like I've mentioned before, definitely has done that.

So makes sense.

I guess just being a combination of taking in user input and being users yourself in a lot of cases.

Definitely helps.

Definitely helps.

That's really cool.

As a beginner or someone that's never used the product, what would you maybe suggest as like a good introduction into using multitrack stack?

Well, the truth is a lot of churches don't even have in ears, right?

They don't have an in ear monitoring system.

So that's one thing you need to start having in ear monitoring system.

And that's there are many reasons for that.

First, we know that when you remove all the wedges on stage, you know your sound automatically gets better in the room, right?

Because you have all that sound competing, right?

The poor engineer there in the room trying to make a sound and he's competing with all the musicians.

So that's one thing.

And two, well then once you have in ears, you can start playing with the click.

That's what I tell worship teams, you know that sometimes they're not sure, can we do this?

You know, I'll say, just start playing with the click.

Play with the click.

Your whole band.

Because once your whole band has the click in their ears, it gets a lot easier.

Because if you only have like one musician, the drummer trying to carry the band, you know, the whole band will pull, push, pushing, pulling.

So it's difficult.

But when the whole team has the click, it's way easier.

Way easier.

So even if your musicians are not like pros, well, they can probably do it very well if the whole team has the click.

There a mistake.

Worship teams do.

Sometimes they say, okay, I'm gonna try the click, but not too loud, please, in my ears.

You know, just like, that's the worst you can do.

You know, it's like, either have it loud or not at all.

Because cowbell.

More cow.

Yeah.

So that's what I think worship teams can do.

To start.

That's what we call for our live tools.

Right.

Then you can start adding tracks.

And that's our live tool.

But we also have all our rehearsal tools that we talked about earlier, where you have a rehearsal mix and you have your charts and chart builder.

Well, that you can start anytime.

You can subscribe today.

And even if you don't have in your monitoring system and huge plus for your team, you know, definitely that's true.

Yeah, it's a good starting place.

You're right.

That makes sense.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Absolutely.

That makes sense.

There's another thing I noticed actually.

There was a time just because, well, at our church, we have two campuses and they're pretty much running the same service both every Sunday.

So everything kind of has to be aligned.

So even if we don't necessarily need a chart for maybe some musicians or one band at the other, we probably do.

And one of the things that I came across more recently was Zurba.

It was a new song that was introduced.

I think the album came out in February and we were doing the song like a week later.

So there wasn't much available.

But I had emailed, what would have been probably three weeks, I should say.

I had emailed just requesting a chart again to save time because I didn't really want to have to do it if I didn't need to.

And it was at the point where I'm like, I'm probably going to have to do the chart because it's a brand new song.

But I Requested it from multitracks.com I got an email, it must have been like a week and a half later saying, your chart's available.

And I was like, holy smokes.

Yeah.

Yeah, you can request your chart.

You go on the website there and it says, request chart or in chart builder.

Request a chart there.

And the guys are going to put it on their list in there.

They're so quick.

Usually you request it.

Cool.

And it shows up eventually, you would think, but not these guys.

We have an active team and they write their charts.