Function: Personal monitor mixer

Price: $199.99

What’s New: The Powerplay 16 Personal Monitor is a new, affordable personal monitoring system from Behringer.  It gives musicians and vocalists complete control of their monitor mix with a simple interface and great features, including 16 channels of audio and presets, level and pan controls, 3-band EQ per channel and Solo and Mute functions.  A master limiter gives the listener ear protection when wearing headphones from sudden loud noise or feedback.  

The powerplay 16 works with the Behringer P16 Input module that connects to the main mixing console to send up to 6 individual mixes on stage. If you’re not familiar with personal monitoring, basically the way that it works is the main mixing board sends each channel to a unit on stage that allows the user to control the volume, pan, EQ of each instrument and vocalist themselves for their headphones.  This is extremely helpful in mixing the live stage because it eliminates all the stage noise of wedges, allows for faster soundchecks, and prevents frustrating communication breakdowns between AV and band.  Compared to other personal monitoring systems on the market, the Powerplay system surpasses the features of the popular Aviom system at a much reduced price. The Powerplay system is a great alternative to traditional wedge monitor setups for musicians and AV teams alike.  For more information about the Powerplay 16 and other products by Behringer visit http://www.behringer.com/

-Andy Toy

Function: Backing tracks and lyric projection for iPhone and iPad

Price: $0.00

What’s New: iSingWorship is a new app for iPhone and iPad that pairs worship backing tracks with external lyric display in one application.  Playback is extremely flexible with the mixer section with the option to turn acoustic guitars on or off in the track, along with vocal volume control.  This gives flexibility to play with an entire track, just acoustic guitar, or even a quiet, acoustic version of a song.  iSingWorship allows the user to control the form of the song as well while the song is still playing, giving the worship leader options to repeat certain sections as they see fit.  A wide range of backgrounds is available to display behind lyrics using the video output of the iPhone.  The library of songs is always growing, with different genres, keys, and other features coming soon.  You can even request/suggest a song for iSingWorship to prepare.  This app is perfect for smaller worship teams or small groups and would be extremely helpful for kid’s worship.  To find out more about iSingWorship visit http://isingworship.com

-Andy Toy

Function: Analog delay pedal

Price: $199

What’s New:  The Bomes Ape Delay pedal is a hand-built, true-bypass analog path delay pedal with features galore.  Standard controls for delay time, repeats, mod depth, and tap tempo are included along with some completely innovative features such as overall pedal volume control, repeat filter, and two separate, switch-able delay volumes for toggling between a loud delay sound and a soft sound instantly.  There are seven separate knobs on the pedal.  1) Overall volume – this knob controls the volume of the entire pedal, similar the preamp section on a tape echo unit.  This is a very cool effect and can get the pedal to overdrive giving a dirty, lofi sound.  2) Repeat filter – this is an 8-step knob that controls a filter on the delayed signal, giving an immense amount of possibilities of how the repeats sound through the filter.  3) Delay level 1 – this is a very cool feature that allows the user to set one delay level, and switch between another delay setting with a tap of the foot.  4) Delay level 2 – set this knob either softer or louder than Delay level 1 and have two delay levels available quickly.  5) Repeat amount – go from a short slap to infinite repeats and self-oscillation 6) Mod depth – this knob controls the amount of modulation (chorus) on the delayed signal, modeling an old tape unit.  The mod on the Ape is really great and hits both the tape echo and the Memory Man sound on the head. 7) Delay time – a traditional delay time control with a twist: anywhere left of 12 o’clock engages the dotted eighth tap (when you tap quarters you get dotted eighth delay) Anywhere to the right of 12 o’clock gives the traditional tap tempo. Three footswitches control on/bypass, delay level 1/delay level 2, and tap tempo.  Overall, the Ape is an incredibly musical, interesting pedal that has a classic analog delay sound with some really great features that you won’t find on any other delay pedal.  This might be the perfect ambient delay pedal in my opinion and the Ape stands out to me because it’s not trying to do anything that’s already been done.  In a market saturated with every kind of delay imaginable, Bomes has done something really special and created a great sounding pedal that is truly unique.  

-Andy Toy

For more information about the Ape Delay and other Bomes products, visit www.bomeselectric.com.  

Planning Center Online
planningcenteronline.com

The folks over at Planning Center just can’t stop tinkering with things… The Planning Center basic subscription program, for those unfamiliar, is a combination service order and volunteer scheduling program specifically designed to aid worships teams in organizing and staffing services. It revolutionized the planning of services—helping thousands of even the most “organizationally challenged” worship leaders get their acts together.

The latest of these tinkerings is Planning Center Projector. Projector is a basic program designed to do just what it says: project (in this case lyrics, Scripture, etc). With versatile programs like ProPresenter and the like available, why jump into an already crowded market, you may ask. The heart of the Planning Center model has been practicality and cost effectiveness, and this is where Projector shines. Projector is meant to be an inexpensive, basic presentation software package—as with all Planning Center products, users pay a monthly fee and access all programs from “the cloud.”

It’s in conjunction with the base Planning Center program where the true value of Projector lies. A “lyrics & chord chart generator” is built into Planning Center’s website. Through it, you are able to enter lyrics, chords, etc to create chord charts. Projector takes these charts, and removes the musical portion to create slides. This process is specially tailored to work on iPads or iPhones, in addition to personal computers, making “on the fly” editing easy.

The program is brand new—so new, in fact, that several features were still in the process of being added as this issue of Worship Leader went to print. According to the PC staff, several cool features are about to be added to the mix. Expanded formatting and layout options will allow various fonts, colors, and sizes for a completely customizable look. Quick Alerts will allow short “in slide” messages—especially useful for child calls. The ability to synch multiple devices is another promising development on the horizon (using an iPad or iPhone, up to 30 other devices can be remote controlled in a variety of modes). Partnerships with CreationSwap.com and WorshipHouseMedia.com create additional value and build excitement for whatever tinkerings the Planning Center team send our way next.

Cascade Fathead II Active/Passive Ribbon Microphone

Price: $599.00

Function: Ribbon microphone

What’s New: The Fathead II Active/Passive is the newest ribbon microphone from Cascade microphones.  Building on the highly successful design of the original Fathead and Fathead II microphones, the Fathead II Active/Passive is a first of its kind.  Like the original Fathead, the Active/Passive model is a hand-tuned, figure 8-pattern ribbon microphone.  An internal switch allows the user to switch between active and passive mode, making it the first ribbon microphone to have both options.  The active side requires phantom power and adds up to 25 db of gain, perfect for quieter preamps or live use, while the passive side (similar to the original fathead II design) is great for high gain preamps.  Between the two settings, the Fathead II Active/Passive can be used with an extremely wide variety of preamps.  The active side is especially useful on quieter pres, providing extra gain so the preamp doesn’t have to be turned up so loud that the pre starts making a lot of noise.  A high quality Lundahl transformer comes stock in the Active/Passive, contributing to the wonderful warm, full-bodied, classic ribbon sound.  The high roll off in the response of the Active/Passive gives it a terrific vintage vibe and sounds extremely open while retaining a warm and clear tone.  As an owner of an original Fathead microphone, I was curious about how the active electronics would affect the tone of the microphone.  Using a few different preamps, I tried the Fathead II Active/Passive on electric guitar, mono drum overhead, vocals, and room mic.  I was really blown away by the active side of the microphone, the gain boost did not make the microphone noisy at all, and the ribbon responded extremely similar to the way the passive fathead sounds.  On electric guitars, it is smooth and up front without being harsh or brittle at all and the low-mids were absolutely perfect. Vocals on the Fathead surprised me as being full, warm, and clear.  The mic was especially wonderful on male vocals, providing a rich, full-bodied, classic ribbon sound.  As a drum room/overhead mic, the Active/Passive performed extremely well, providing body and space without too much bright high-end sizzle of cymbal noise.  With the addition of active electronics on an already brilliant microphone, Cascade has stepped into groundbreaking territory to accommodate a huge variety of mics, pres, and compressors.  Excelling in a multitude of applications, the Cascade Active/Passive is an absolutely terrific ribbon microphone for a great price.  

-Andy Toy

For more information about Cascade Microphones visit http://www.cascademicrophones.com