What a journey this is turning out to be! First of all, I was so afraid that the quality of my tracks would not be to my satisfaction, and to be perfectly honest, they aren’t quite as clean as I would like them to be. The real difficulty is not in the conversion of the album to the computer but in the original recordings. The older recordings are the most difficult and I’m not really sure why since I am not a recording engineer. I’m sure the quality of recording equipment improved from those early days as did the quality of the vinyl that was used to make the records and that makes for a better track. After all, the folks making the records had no idea that they would ever be used on anything but the standard record players that we had then, and the sound was perfectly fine for that. Here are some of my completely nonprofessional thoughts about this:
I am dating myself here I know, but for years we sang in church without the benefit of PA systems and microphones. If you wanted your song to be heard and to bless those who were listening, you projected your voice to the back of the church so that everyone could understand the words of your song. Do I think we should go back to the old way of singing in church? Of course not; however, I do think we have lost some of the power that was manifested when Holy Spirit anointed singers sang the praises of God to the top of their voices.
The church where I grew up in Bristol, TN, started a mission work in a neighboring community and I always loved to go to Mendota on Sunday afternoons for the service. Now, I am a mountain girl and you cannot find any more fervent singing than we had in the mountain churches. Ruth Rice was the song leader and she could pull the “sing” right out of you. Everyone in the neighborhood heard the singing from that little church nestled in that beautiful valley. With the windows all open and Ruth leading the singing, the message went out: Jesus Saves, Victory in Jesus, Send the Light and many others. Only eternity will reveal those outside the walls of the church who were touched by the messages of those songs.
What in this world does that have to do with records? Well, when holiness singers went to the studio to make an album, they sang in the same manner that they were accustomed to singing in the church. I know when I played with the Isbell Family and we made a record in Nashville, it was very difficult to take our style of singing into the recording studio. When you got to those lines of the song that blessed your soul so much, your volume went up to match the moving of the Spirit on your soul. I’m sure it was very difficult for the engineers to try to harness that and come up with a recording that was not overmodulated.
Now when you take those same records and convert them to digital files, you have a real chore on your hands. There is a fine line that separates what to filter on the recording and what to leave alone. I don’t feel too bad about the tracks that we have produced, even though I would personally like for them to be perfect. I keep reminding myself of the goal: to replicate the music from these records and transmit them as we heard them years ago, loud singing and all. I trust that they will not only stir precious memories from years gone bye, but will bless and encourage you in your walk with God.
I am dating myself here I know, but for years we sang in church without the benefit of PA systems and microphones. If you wanted your song to be heard and to bless those who were listening, you projected your voice to the back of the church so that everyone could understand the words of your song. Do I think we should go back to the old way of singing in church? Of course not; however, I do think we have lost some of the power that was manifested when Holy Spirit anointed singers sang the praises of God to the top of their voices.
The church where I grew up in Bristol, TN, started a mission work in a neighboring community and I always loved to go to Mendota on Sunday afternoons for the service. Now, I am a mountain girl and you cannot find any more fervent singing than we had in the mountain churches. Ruth Rice was the song leader and she could pull the “sing” right out of you. Everyone in the neighborhood heard the singing from that little church nestled in that beautiful valley. With the windows all open and Ruth leading the singing, the message went out: Jesus Saves, Victory in Jesus, Send the Light and many others. Only eternity will reveal those outside the walls of the church who were touched by the messages of those songs.
What in this world does that have to do with records? Well, when holiness singers went to the studio to make an album, they sang in the same manner that they were accustomed to singing in the church. I know when I played with the Isbell Family and we made a record in Nashville, it was very difficult to take our style of singing into the recording studio. When you got to those lines of the song that blessed your soul so much, your volume went up to match the moving of the Spirit on your soul. I’m sure it was very difficult for the engineers to try to harness that and come up with a recording that was not overmodulated.
Now when you take those same records and convert them to digital files, you have a real chore on your hands. There is a fine line that separates what to filter on the recording and what to leave alone. I don’t feel too bad about the tracks that we have produced, even though I would personally like for them to be perfect. I keep reminding myself of the goal: to replicate the music from these records and transmit them as we heard them years ago, loud singing and all. I trust that they will not only stir precious memories from years gone bye, but will bless and encourage you in your walk with God.
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