Soundmatters

15/12/2022

The same view from right outside the studio in summer, autumn and winter 😍

18/11/2022

Cosy corners at our lovely studio (small boy not usually included….!) 😀

15/11/2022

Had the very talented Lexi Reina down at the studio recently recording her original song Peace My Heart 🙂 Definitely a young artist to watch ⭐️

by Lexi Reina Recorded 31 Oct 2022 at Soundmatters Engineered and mixed by Matt Withers

03/11/2022

Should I get one of these for the studio?? 😆

17/09/2022

Finished the vocals for this lovely lady (Julie Wilson) today. Project nearly done now 😃

16/08/2022

Opposite Christie's Hospital

09/08/2022

21/07/2022

I've struggled a lot recently. A LOT. It's been 5 years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I went into surgery 2 days later and then had chemotherapy after that, 3 days before Christmas. Oh what joy 🤒 Two weeks after chemo I left the house for the first time. Previously, I had been extremely fit, cycling a few miles every night across the Peak District....

ve struggled a lot recently. A LOT. It's been 5 years since I was diagnosed with cancer. I went into surgery 2 days later and then had chemotherapy after that, 3 days before Christmas. Oh what joy 🤒…

13/07/2022

If you need to record a track, (say a vocal take at home), you will need to use proper recording software and a recording setup to get the required quality. There are various simple recording programs like voice recorder available, but these are generally for note taking and so far, I haven't found any that will record in a decent quality format....

https://soundmatters.co.uk/using-audacity-to-record/

If you need to record a track, (say a vocal take at home), you will need to use proper recording software and a recording setup to get the required quality. There are various simple recording programs…

08/07/2022

https://youtu.be/I8Y1rykFxNw

Traction engines are really noisy. Might as well watch them go by. They're another one coming up the street too.

30/06/2022

Learning "Music" is a few different things. I'm just going to cover the basics of playing here, and other aspects of music in future blog posts. Learning to Play Music Learning what music is and how to play it can be a very daunting thing if you've never really done it before. It may seem more difficult as you get older, and your brains (and other parts) aren't quite as flexible as they were, but that isn't usually as big a problem as you would imagine....

https://soundmatters.co.uk/how-to-learn-music-how-to-play/

Learning "Music" is a few different things. I'm just going to cover the basics of playing here, and other aspects of music in future blog posts. Learning what music is and how to play it can be a very…

30/05/2022

A good belt supports you and protects you. It helps you to carry heavy loads and still stand firm afterwards. In a similar way, so does the truth....

https://soundmatters.co.uk/check-your-armour-belt-of-truth/

A good belt supports you and protects you. It helps you to carry heavy loads and still stand firm afterwards. In a similar way, so does the truth.

29/04/2022

Learn how we can work with you, turning your lyrics into a radio ready piece of music
https://soundmatters.co.uk/song-production/

27/11/2021

Coldest gig of the year, the annual Christmas tree lighting. Brrrr!

03/01/2021

This year, make a resolution to Seek God's Will

14/12/2020

We're open again

Recording at home? Feel like there's, "no room at the inn"?
Come on down! Now open, and as big as a barn 😁

27/11/2020

True

21/09/2020

What is Worship?

To me, worship is 2 things:

What you were built for (the reason God made you).
Valuing God

Firstly, from Genesis it is clear God made us to be in partnership with him on the earth. To be good stewards of all things on his behalf. So what am I stewarding? What did God make me for personally?

I am many things: a worker, a father, a husband, as well as a musician/sound engineer.

As a worker, I have found that I am good at some things, and not so good at others. Through the early years of my working life I have wandered from job to job, working to fund the rest of my life with no real appetite for the boring mundanity of it all. However, we should be working as if we were working directly for God himself. It is better to do right by your co-workers, be a good team player, and lend them a hand in their lives when they need it. You might be in the wrong job, but it doesn’t mean God can’t still use you as his hands and his feet wherever you may be.

As a father, I have become more aware of how God must feel and care about his creation, and how I view other people. As a young man, it was very easy to be self centred and I was often dismissive of others. After all, for most of my life to that point, I had been working on cutting apron strings and becoming more and more independent, and now that was reversed. Having another tiny human life being fully dependent on you is humbling. My parents weren’t perfect and I’m fully aware I’m not either, but it is a privilege to take part in creation. It is also fascinating. Does God enjoy watching us grow as much as I enjoy watching my little one take his first steps, or learning to swim, ride a bike etc.? This also made me much more tolerant. Everyone else out there is also someone’s child and they are sometimes good and sometimes wayward, but regardless, full of worth to their loved ones. We should endeavour to care for each other in whatever we come across, even as it may be a kindness to all manner of connected people we may not see directly.

As a husband, I’ve found that the opposite s*x can be a fathomless mystery (said every man ever!). Most marriages have difficult patches but my eyes have been gradually opened in so many ways as to the broad experience of being human and understanding how others feel. Being factually correct doesn’t always mean you are in the right. Loving and supporting your spouse often means giving way on things that might be important to you for their benefit, (I stayed in my old job while we built up my wife’s business first before launching the studio). A husband should lead the way, rather than boss his family, and cherish his wife, (a good wife is worth her weight in gold).

As a musician/sound engineer, God has blessed me greatly. I’ve always loved making music and tinkering with things, so my musical skills and technical abilities have grown naturally over time. Not only that, but since I have brought these things to God’s table to serve fellow believers, I have been guided through many troubles, but always come out the other side in a better position each time. Since working for his glorification rather than mine, things have only got better. I am now stewarding the gifts he gave me.

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.
Romans 12:1

Now, about valuing God…

Seems an odd thing to consider. How can you put a value on God? Well funnily enough, the word “Worship” comes from the old english “Worth-ship”. Like the word craftmanship means something that is well crafted, “Worthship” means something that has great worth. Worshipping God simply means putting him before all else, or as Jesus put it, Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Praise – music and singing, is simply acknowledging this with your mouth.

Here’s a great illustration:

A teacher asked all the kids at school to write their name on a balloon, and then they filled a corridor with them all, and mixed them all up. The teacher gave everyone five minutes to find the balloon with their own name on it. In five minutes, nobody found their own balloon. Then the teacher asked everyone to pick the nearest balloon and give it to the person named on it. This time it took everyone less than five minutes to receive their balloon.

The tale is told a few different ways with slightly different morals to the story, but I hope you can see, we all benefit when we work for each other.

07/09/2020

Useful for home recordists

05/09/2020

Where do I start?

Recently, someone contacted me out of the blue about worship singing. She wasn’t sure where to start, or what to do, but she felt led to do this, hence this post.

So what is the very first step? And the one after that??

The first thing to do… Actually, the first thing to do is always Pray! The next, is to develop your talents, so you are ready and prepared with something to offer. If you are at the very beginning of this, that means making sure you can sing and play your chosen instrument to a good standard and have a basic understanding of music theory. So, practice practice practice, educate yourself and maybe even take lessons (youtube is chock full of free ones). But why music theory? So you can understand other musicians, for example when someone says what key a piece of music is in, or what interval they want the harmony, you will be able to act on their instruction. If you already have some music knowledge, it doesn’t do any harm to refresh your knowledge and the BBC website has some amazing learning resources too, both for those learning from scratch, and the more advanced.

Now that you have prepared yourself, what is it you want to achieve? Sometimes it’s fairly obvious. You may be a very gifted guitarist, in which case, start there, God gave you a talent to use for His glory. Other times, we don’t really know straight away, (again pray). In the latter case, take a step in faith – here’s a story for you:

I frequently work with a lady who loves singing, (let’s call her Pat). I don’t know if she ever danced in front of the mirror singing into a hairbrush, or just along to the radio, but at some point, someone took her to a karaoke bar and she absolutely loved it. Or thought she did. Then she tried open mic nights, and found she liked that more. Word got around that she could sing and she was roped into a charity gig with a friend’s band. She enjoyed this so much, the karaoke began to lose it’s shine a little bit. And then we did some recording with her.

At each different stage, Pat discovered more about music and more about her capabilities, what she was, and wasn’t good at. What she could learn to be good at, and what she couldn’t handle. Through going out and exploring different things, Pat found that certain doors opened for her and certain ones didn’t. If you dedicate your walk to God, the same will happen for you. God will give you the tools you need for his work, and open the doors where he wants you to go.

OK, great story, but does that mean you too should start with Karaoke? No. Starting out in worship music, has a very easy first step. Find a suitable church.

What do I mean by suitable?

If you go to a church where the worship “band” is 3 old women warbling around the piano, then that tells you something. If you’re an old lady who likes to warble along to piano tunes, then this could be the place for you. If you’re a teenager with an electric guitar, maybe not, although it could be an opportunity if there are many younger people in the congregation who might prefer something a bit livelier every now and again. Basically, I am saying is visit a few churches until you find one (or two!) with worship that you think you could be a part of, and talk to the person who organises the music. Churches are frequently short of musicians because they often need people to fill in, when others are away.

Once you’ve got to know a few musicians at a church, ask, and you’ll find that some of them play at other churches too, and also know other christian musicians and creative people elsewhere. Networking is a great way to find other local christian musicians to collaborate with, and helpful christian resources. There are other ways to find like minded people as well, like online forums, social media groups on here and church networks. Social Media groups are particularly good because those pages often link to other related pages so you can quickly connect with many people.

If you want do more than just perform songs on a Sunday morning, you will also find that many christians like to write, record and perform their own compositions outside the church. Sometimes it’s just secular songs about their personal experiences, and sometimes it’s used as a way of introducing people to the Gospel. Either way, it’s good fellowship and God can use you, so get yourself out there and start meeting people.

P.S. If you like this post, please give me a like and a share/follow Cheers

02/09/2020

Can't work without proper tea...

31/08/2020

This is where we record

16/07/2020

Lately, there's been a spate of high profile worship leaders turning away from the Christian faith. Marty Sampson of Hillsong and Jon Steingard of Hawk Neslon to name two current examples at the time of writing, and people are asking "What's going on?" I've watched a couple of youtube videos featuring talking heads, or the artists themselves, and read the comments underneath. [ 721 more words ]
https://soundmatters.co.uk/performance-praise/

Marty Sampson of Hillsong and Jon Steingard of Hawk Neslon have both lost their faith recently, but in secular music, the reverse appears to be happening.

25/06/2020

In life, lots of us often take many things for granted. A roof over our head, for example, or food on the table at meal times. It's easy to forget that our hearts beat and our lungs breathe continually without us having to think about it. But every moment is a gift. A friend of mine recently told me that he frequently cries when it rains. [ 485 more words ]
https://soundmatters.co.uk/being-grateful/

In life, lots of us often take many things for granted. A roof over our head, for example, or food on the table at meal times. It’s easy to forget that our hearts beat and our lungs breathe…

21/01/2020

21/01/2020