Heath McConnell

Welcome to The Scout Blog Log

2009-04-25T20:13:45Z

Here you will find posts that log the history as well as the progress of our IHC 1972 Scout II. The original Scout is a 2-wheel drive unit. It had a V-304 engine with a Torqueflite 727(as of today it still does). This vehicle was in mint condition when purchased (June 1997) from the original owner, who purchased it from an International dealer in Missoula, Montana. Over the years age has deteriorated a few things and I have replaced the water pump, plugs, wires, cap, rotor and had the carb rebuilt… That is it as of April 25, 2009.

My goal at this point is to convert it to a 4×4, maybe replace the 304 with one of my 345’s, fix a few rust spots, strip and repaint the vehicle and restore most everything else. You may also wish to view the gallery of photos that we have prepared which include photos of the progress.

I appreciate any IHC enthusiast commenting anywhere where comments are allowed. For those that want more help with their projects, head over to IHonlynorth and the IHonlynorth Tech Forums.

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Firsts | Backpacking and Hammocks

2010-03-09T07:00:46Z

I was typing a post over at the Hammock Forums when I started to get lost in nostalgia. It was my first official backpacking trip out in the Mojave Desert and my pack was 60+ pounds… OUCH!

Scene from the top of "Sawtooth"

The place was known to us as “Sawtooth”, because of all the jagged rocks. I somewhat grew up out in the Mojave Desert and this place was our equivalent of “Being out there”. You had to scramble up Boulder mountains similar to Joshua Tree, CA but much bigger mountains and more jagged.

I love the outdoors (20 years of Land Surveying probably helped that). I loaded my first pack late in my life…1992. I had an external frame pack loaded to some astronomical proportion, making me wish I had astronomical propulsion… I think it was like 60 pounds or so. I headed out through the Mojave Desert to climb the mountains at Sawtooth, as we called it. This place was in between Barstow, CA and Big Bear, CA. Despite the weight, I was hooked on the wild freedom of bushwacking where no man has been.

First Backpacking Camp

I climbed until I finally found a flat ledge that fit my tent and a 3 foot area for a fire. It was perfect. I set up camp, made a fire and enjoyed the evening. After going to bed, I was rudely awakened by a wind storm…not uncommon in the desert. What was so alarming about this was that the wind was blowing so hard on my cheep-o, two-man, Costco tent that the wall had me smashed against the opposite wall. I tried my best to push and hold that wall back, but eventually the heavy fiberglass poles snapped. I had to pack up and walk out of there by the light of my little REI candle lantern…but I digress.

Not sure how I found out about hammock camping, but I did and I bought a Hennessy Backpacker Ultralight A-Sym. Not knowing what to expect, as I had never really been in a hammock before, I decided to try it out while car camping with the family.

We camp a whole lot and I always wake up a million times through the night with sore shoulders. I brought the hammock on one of our trips and tried it out. I was amazed at how comfortable it was. I decided I would never sleep on the ground again.

First Hammock Camp

I have used the hammock since 2008 and have got my son into it as well. I have also decided there are some things about the HH I really don’t like and am gearin’ up to hop into the DIY’er arena to make what I want (removable netting, simpler suspension and a top entry).

I never realized there where that many hangers or the cottage industry until I found the Hammock Forums. That is one place FULL of useful info. I have also noticed, or so it appears, that the majority of people on there are East coasters… or at least people from THAT side of the Rockies.

I am looking forward to getting others hooked on “hanging” in the woods as well as hooking up with some PacWest hangers for events & etc.

Hammocking in the Waldo Lake Wilderness…

Flash the double-edged sword | How to remove Flash pop-up ads

2010-03-02T20:57:01Z

Are you like the rest of the population and sick-n-tired of all the popup ads when you are browsing? Do you wonder why you still get popup ads even though you have set your browser, Safari, Firefox or Chrome to “Block Popup Ads”?

So…double-edged sword huh? Yes, There are a lot of nice things flash has done to the web experience, however there are also some bad things as well. Ads and security issues versus pretty.

All ads are annoying, however, animated or pop-up ads are the equivalent of someone ramming a dead, dry and golden christmas tree branch into your eye. You know what I am talking about. You thought you took control of this blinding experience and chose to “Block pop-up ads” only to find that your browsing experience is more and more riddled by pop-up ads. Let me let you in on a secret… it is Adobe Flash. that’s right. the ads are added into the ad (he he). let’s look at an example shall we…

The annoying popup

http://backpacker.com and a reason I hated the site until now. When you load their page you are greeted with what seems a normal magazine theme website and then all of a sudden… BAM!… your hit with a “subscribe to our magazine”ad. This is a slap in the face to those of us who already subscribe, and the reason I stopped visiting the site. The following screen shot shows what I mean (There are also non-pop-up ads that are Flash animations as well out there).

There may be hope. There is a program I found out about on the TUAW blog called “ClickToFlash”. Basically, this is actually a plug-in for your browser… and if I am not mistaken, only for Safari. You can turn this little sucker on and CHOOSE, yes YOU choose whether or not you want the Flash to display. The settings page and an example of how a page will be viewed are shown below.

ClickToFlash Settings

What it will look like

All you have to do is click the little gear icon in the corner of the Flash content and you will get an options menu similar to the on in the image titled What it will look like.

I also wondered if this would stop the stupid pop-ups within the YouTube videos themselves. Since I have my settings set to view the H.264 versions, that is the choice I am given to open. So I clicked on the little “H.264″ text (as opposed to the “Flash” text) in the middle of the RANDOM video I chose. Low and behold, the pop-up ad that played in the Flash version of the video did not show up in the H.264 version. That is sweat!

So, where do you get this tasty morsel filter? Right HERE.

As a side note, I am told there is also a healthy dose of security risks through Flash

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Aperture 3 Feature for Backpackers and Photography

2010-03-03T19:56:41Z

Here is a feature in Apple’s Aperture 3 that I ALWAYS wished I had…visual map reference of all my outdoor and backpacking adventures tied to all my images and GPS tracks for cataloging my adventures. I take Landscapes as part of my love for backpacking in the wild. Not only that, but as I journey around the backcountry I come across places I really want to remember AND find again. Aperture 3 makes that possible.

Let’s say I hiked a section of the PCT and at some point I went off trail for a few days to a place I chose on a map. Let’s say I found a beautiful, crystal clear lake and a very secluded private camp. I took LOTS of pictures all over the area for my journal, as well as a few beautiful Landscapes for my portfolio. My camera does NOT have GPS capabilities so what can I do?

Once the images are loaded into aperture, I take out my GPS unit I was using to track my adventure and hook it to the Mac. I then import the “Track” into Places. If you know anything about GPS at all, you know it is all based on time (I could explain but it would take a lot more time than I have). So now that your track is in Places, You can drag your pictures that you took, while on that track, to the track in Places. Now for the “magic” part… because GPS is time based and so is your track, all your pictures are added to the correct place on the track. How? The pictures are all time stamped, are they not? The track is time generated and all the math is done by Aperture.

Very cool!

I could use this for car camping too. We hate going to campgrounds or paying to camp, so we head out on logging roads and 4×4 to places way out in the woods. All the pictures of camp are now referenced so that we can find them AND remember what the camp was like (big, small, water, sites are all cataloged). Even if we are camping somewhere else and come across a great camp site, we now put it in the “Campsites” project for future reference.

Here is Apples videos on the feature:

Importing GPS Locations from a GPS Tracker or iPhone

Jim Richardson on Places

If you liked this please retweet

UPDATE 02-03-2010:

So I import my GPS track from the Garmin, it places it, but I get no “assign photos” dialog after dragging the first one. I then drag the rest and they all go to one point. I go back and look at the track log and find every time stamp is set to 5pm. There is no way for the photos to align, because none of them were taken at exactly 5pm.

After working this over a few times, I have found that any time I clear a GPS track in my Garmin GPSmap 60 (after saving internally of course), Garmin has made it so that all timestamp information is stripped. How dumb is that. This means that the 12 tracks I currently have saved in my GPS unit have NO time stamps and this feature will not work.

The only way to get timestamp information is from the “Active” track. So, let’s say I turned my unit on at the trailhead, and tracked all the way to the camp 4 hours away. Let’s also say that I want to track, for safety reasons, my bushwacking adventure for the day to a small lake. You could go on and on with this for as long as your out there.

Unfortunately, Garmin has made the saving of individual tracks useless in this case. You have to keep all your travels as one LONG “Active” track. Once you get home and download the track, using your program of choice, you can split the tracks usually within the program.

Photographer on top of the Empire State Building

2010-02-26T18:40:24Z

I am always amazed at the great heights and lengths photographers will go to to create that image they see in their minds eye… their art. I found this video on Syl’s site, Pixsylated.com. This crazy guy, Joe McNally, working for National Geographic, climes up the needle on top of the Empire State Building. See joe’s AMAZING pictures and story on his blog here.

Aperture 3.0.1 Update Available

2010-02-26T06:10:48Z

Today Apple came out with an update to Aperture 3 via Software Update that fixes a lot of items. Note that if you are currently testing Aperture 3 in Demo mode, the update will not show up in Software Update, or at least it did not for me. I used the method below to get the download, however it will not work. It says, “Aperture 3.0 or later is required to install this update.”

demo users are outa luck

Standalone Installer

Apple Downloads offers a standalone installer that you can use instead, if you wish.

More information is available here: http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2518

What I had to do was remove the demo version of Aperture 3 and install the demo version Aperture 3.0.1 in its place. What a headache.

UPDATE 2/25/2010:I was over at the Flick Aperture group and found a very simple way to do the upgrade, I haven’t tried it, but user Theoden said, “Go to Library > Preferences and delete “com.apple.AECT.plist” then re-run the installer.” This is WAY easier!

Beautiful

2010-02-19T21:17:06Z

Beautiful (spontaneous song)- I love creating on the spot, especially in music. To be able to do this you need a band that is led by The Spirit, which is what you get at Life Bible Church. There is a strong value in seeking His presence. This piece came under an incredible atmosphere of His presence in the room. There was a long stretch of silence after this where all were in a state of awe of Him, face down.

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The Three Sisters BW

2010-02-19T20:57:31Z

After the first of the year, I was in need of a much anticipated break from everything. I decided to head out wheeling and camping in the Coburg hills. I took our new puppy and off we went. From the top you can see the Willamette Valley from Eugene to Albany on the West side and all the way to the Cascades on the East side. I came around a corner on one of the trails and this view opened before me. It gave me a sense of tranquility and peace and I marveled at the wonder of creation.

Changing The Oil

2010-02-19T00:04:37Z

I was heading home after dropping my son off and needed to add some oil to my thirsty International Scout. I pulled over and while I was waiting for the oil to pour in I saw this image. It was as if the the oak tree had a magnetic field drawing the lightrays down from the sky.

Will the iPad be useful for photographers

2010-02-03T22:46:30Z

The looooong awaited Apple tablet has been announced. The iPad. So, what will this device mean to photographers if anything?

I think there could be a lot of great use potential in it’s small form factor. I think it could be great tethered. What about showing images to a client.

It is possible that the iPad is all you may need to stay in touch while on the road, no need for the large 17″laptop. It seems that it will be a great new device, however, only time will tell. What are your thoughts?

Easiest Way To Download YouTube videos

2010-01-14T23:06:50Z

For all you Mac users out there, here is the simplest way to download videos from YouTube. All you need is Safari, a YouTube video and a double click of the mouse. Lets check it out.

Open YouTube and pick a video. Once your video has started playing,

open the Activity window (Command-Option-A, which shows the Activity window), it is under “Window” in the pull down menus.
Now look for the YouTube website listed. When you find it you may need to expand it by clicking the flyout triangle next to it.
Look through the listings under the YouTube website and find the largest file size. The file size should be larger than 5MB.
Double click that link and Safari will download the file, probably called Video.flv.

Now you can play it with VLC or with QuickTime (only if you have Perian installed).

Spotify

2010-02-19T00:09:16Z

Have you heard of Spotify? You have had to of by now if you listen to music at all and aren’t an oldster. Spotify is the bomb! Have you ever wanted to listen to a song by an artist you never heard? how about listening to an entire album? How about listening to over 6 million songs in there entirety? Spotify rocks!

That is what you can do. You can listen to any artist in their entirety. For example… If you did a search on Radiohead, which I am listening to right now, there are 515 tracks available for me to listen to in their entirety. There are 35 albums of Radiohead or albums they have appeared on. The service really rocks.

The program is similar to iTunes. You have a column on the left that lists your searches and playlists. So lets say I wanted to create a Belly playlist. I search for bands similar to Belly like, Lush, Ride, Silver Sun Pickups, Teenage Fanclub, etc. I then drag and drop them to the playlist. I could also drag and drop anything to the desktop or an email to provide a link.

So, you ask, whats the catch? First, it is not available in the USA (unless you are hacker/tech savvy), which mostly has to do with the fat cats at the labels. The other catch is ads. Yes there are ads, but what did you expect for free? An add comes on about as much as on Pandora. If you purchased a subscription, assuming it was available here, there would be no ads and you could use the service offline, which is where it would shine. You would also have access to the mobile version.

There is also a “Radio” feature, however, I have found it sucks compared to Pandora, which I absolutely love for that purpose. When I chose the Radiohead station it played some pretty lame bands. Lets face it… online radio like Pandora is for discovery. You don’t want to have to listen to sucky music. There is way to much of that already. From my experience, Pandora picks the best selection of artists that fit each other than any other service I have ever used (LastFM, Slacker, etc). But with Spotify, I can make my own radio station.

One last thing… you can purchase tracks just like any other service, however, they are yours to keep. No limitation on what you can play them on or how many times you burn them. Due to the fat cats, you can only download the purchase 5 times. Might be an issue to some, but I don’t see it as one.

Don’t forget to reTweet to get the word out so that it will be legal here soon. In case you missed it, there is a link showing how to get the service here, but who knows how long the hack will work.

Update: There is even Karaoke versions of tunes… trippy.

Apple Updates Logic Pro and Mainstage

2010-01-13T04:26:37Z

Apple has just updated Logic Pro to version 9.1 and Mainstage to version 2.1. There are a number of numerous fixes and updates to the programs. Finally Apple has added 64-bit support. Not only has it fixed and updated, but there are also a number of things that are no longer working due to the 64-bit.

According to user “shivermetimbers”, at the Logic Pro Help forum, the following features are not currently available when using Logic Pro 9.1 in 64-bit mode.

Firewire streaming of video
Digital Cinema Desktop
AAF import and export
EuCon control surface support
Automap of parameters with control surfaces
OMF import and export
Conversion to MP3
Recycle (REX) file support
ReWire support
Vienna Symphonic Library Tool
Logic Node processing
AKAI format sample import

Interesting, to say the least.

Not sure how this is going to work for me, since Mainstage 2 had already doubled the resource usage on my Macbook Pro. Hopefully all goes well. I will keep you up to date in the comment section on what I find in my use of the new release.

The Eponymous Album Update #6 | A Blessing

2010-01-11T22:26:02Z

My prayers for a miracle have been answered!

Well, as you may know from recent posts, I had a hard drive crash. The hard drive circuit board fried and it caused some damage to the physical disc. I sent the drive to DriveSavers because I get a discount for being a Professional Photographers of America member and they offered free shipping both ways as well as a free estimate.

Once DriveSavers had gone over the drive, they called and gave me a quote. My oh my, I could not afford the cost they quoted me…$1700. That is a lot of clams for me. So, how important is the data on the drive? That data was irreplaceable. The hard drive was full (320GB) of images and audio. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the money, so I told them to send it back. Some one from DriveSavers called me back later and said they will not ship it back until I call PPA. The guy said that PPA may have a program for me. So, I called PPA.

It turns out that as part of your membership to PPA you are covered for hard drive failure. You are allowed a certain amount per year (contact PPA for details). All you have to do is come up with the $200 deductible and they cover the rest, up to PPA’s specified amount. I had no idea I had this coverage. My data was saved! I was instructed to call PPA’s lawyers, who told me this was an indemnification case, and they dealt with all the issues.

I finally received my hard drive, as well as the backup drive I sent. Everything all intact. If there is ever a lesson to be learned, it is backup, backup, backup. With Apples Time Machine, there is absolutely no excuse for loss of data. You can seamlessly and effortlessly backup your main drive and any connected drive without even having to think about anything. I have found nothing like it anywhere.

The only challenge is finding a large enough reliable storage configuration. That is a topic all its own, however, I am eyeing the Drobo product line.

A New Band | Hobby or Profession?

2010-01-12T06:15:11Z

Friday night I met with 2 other worship leaders, (Jon Green and Michelle Lind) and one wacked out drummer (Josh Heidrick), for what may be the beginnings of a new band. Josh had suggested we all get together to see what happens. After a little conversation via Facebook, we all agreed on Friday night.

The practice was interesting considering there were a lot of things I wasn’t used to, and I am sure they were thinking the same thing. We went over a few songs and there were some nice harmonies spicing up the dish every here and again… I love harmonies. Practice went well, but it was obvious we all tried very hard to be polite and not step on any toes. Now that the FIRST practice is out of the way maybe our next practice will involve a potluck and the 14 kids we have between all of us so they can get acquainted.

This has all generated some questions… or should I say, this has amplified some questions I have about this band thing that I really want to work. I can see potential if we will focus and aim at a target as soon as possible. What do I mean by, “…aim at a target…”? Just like the others, I want to see this thing succeed. Not only do I want to see it succeed, but I would like it to be more than a hobby. It is to late in life to be dividing my time between family and ANOTHER hobby. To avoid that I can only participate in things that are focussed on two disciplines within my life goals, music and photography, which are my two arenas of gifting and anointing. Anything outside of these two areas is aiming at a chicken when I am hunting elk, or trying to make three baskets with one basketball and one shot, or trying to be an airline pilot while trying to be involved in your 3 YOUNG kids lives. I have to focus, but this is a rabbit trail from what I REALLY mean about, “aim at a target”. To answer that question, I need to know if this new band thing is desired to be a…hobby or profession?

What WILL it be? It is never to early to decide and the sooner the better. To find the answer to that we have got to think about the future, where we plan to go, where we want to go, and how we will get there. Without such thought I think we will fizzle out like every other band that hasn’t realized it is a business first and art second. I know when I say that word “business’, it can generate all kinds of thoughts like, “I don’t want a business, I want to jam and have fun”, or how about, “I already have a profession and I don’t want to switch”. I want both (For me I do not want to give up my photography business, but I want the music/band business. I believe I can balance both)! These kind of thoughts are heading off on a rabbit trail from the reality of success though. It is about it being a hobby or a profession.

I could say simalar things of myself as a photographer. I just want to take pictures and create art. But you know, if I don’t force myself to realize I am actually running a “business”, I will never go anywhere. I have to determine what type of photography I want to focus on, what niche. I have to figure out how to let people even know I exist (marketing plan). I have to have a business account and think of taxes (whether I like it or not). I have to look at competitors and make sure my pricing is appropriate for my skill set, products offered and my “target”. I don’t want to do any of this, however, photography will just be a hobby if I do not deal with the business side of things. You can never support a family on a hobby! So why would it be any different for a band, especially where you have four or more “owners” involved? There has got to be a road map so that it is definitely NOT a hobby.

Like I said about my photography, I want to just have fun and see where it goes, but I know it will not go as far as I dream unless there is a certain business “understanding” of what the goals are, short and long-term, and a million other things like that. I tend to be a “fly by the seat of my pants” kind of guy so this advice is mostly for me, because I know it is true and will make for a solid foundation and a target to aim for. It is simply smart. Will we think or discuss this? I have no idea, but one thing is for sure… it will determine my involvement/commitment level. I will say once again that I want this to work because, for me, it is the other half of my goals to balance the scales.

UPDATE (1-11-2010 10:02pm): What about a worship band? Now you have a whole new set of thought processes and we get deeper into a web of thoughts on what is right and wrong, etc. After pondering all I rambled here, reading some input from my wife, and carefully weighing things out, I think for now I would like to relax a bit, feel things out, make some new friends, worship my God the way I worship and see what happens.

Anyone out there have any comments to this? We are open for discussion.

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Happy New Years 2010

2009-12-31T23:34:51Z

Tomorrow is the new year and I wanted to wish every one a Happy New Year. May your year be blessed and full of increase.

I have many things to do this new year. I need to redesign some of our website, design a few Album layouts for the purpose of offering wedding albums, offer a more focused Senior Portraits package, find a space for studio work, utilize social media more efficiently and more.

Once again, thank you to all of you,

Heath

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I Am Undone By You
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I Am Undone By You

2009-12-11T20:21:27Z

by Heath McConnell
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––
You have given so much!

You have given life
You have given breath
You have given Love

We are consumed by you!

You have given shelter
You have given food
You have given healing

We are consumed by you!

You have given freedom
You have given power
You have given grace

I am consumed by you.

I have set my heart apart
All my desires I surrender to your name
I reach to you with my face on the ground
I am consumed by you

You have given me your life
you have given me your heart
you have given me your love

I am consumed by you!

Language flows, a language from deep inside
Words I do not know, feelings I cannot find words to
you are glorious, so glorious
you are my king and I am in love with you!

all you have given to me…
Here is my heart…
you can have it all…
Because…
I am Undone by you

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The Eponymous Album Update #6 | The Verdict

2009-12-01T22:48:12Z

I thought I would offer an update on the situation since I just received word on my drive situation.

Well, I just got word back from DriveSavers. The hard drive had electrical failures and damaged some of the disk. They said they were confident that they could retrieve all of the data for $1500-$2160. Unfortunately I am an artist and can’t afford such a price at the moment.

I guess my only option is to RE-record everything I have ever done…Every track, every EQ, every plugin setting, every crossfade, every automation, every master, every spontaneous song, everything. It really changes the importance of data management and backups in particular.

Looks like I will NOT have the album out by December 31st.

I am now thinking of recording this album live if I can find some “work for pizza and liner note attribution” musicians… any takers?

The Eponymous Album Update #5 | The Crash

2009-12-01T22:36:21Z

Today I set up the gear as usual to begin recording the last couple songs. I plugged in the external drive to the power supply but didn’t hear any startup noises. I thought it was strange. I tried a few thing and decided to investigate. I unplugged the eSATA wire and tried it… nothing. I then tried a different power supply… nothing.

I was beginning to worry now. You see, that was everything I had ever done. It had live sessions… it even had Pro Tools sessions-I stopped using Pro Tools years ago. The drive was basically my backup of all musical data. I had been feeling the need to back up lately, however, I am an artist, I have no money for things like that-or so the thoughts went. I then popped open various other external drives and put this drive in…dead! nothing. There is no sound, nothing. As you can imagine, I just about crapped soiled my pants.

I called DriveSavers ( being a PPA member gets me a 20% discount). They were nice enough until I got the quote… $700-$2700. Yikes! The fella said that the evaluation is free. He said they would send a box via Fedex Next day. He informed me that they pay for shipping to and from, even if the free estimate is rejected by you. All you do is put the drive in the box, add a drive to have them put the data on in the box as well, and send it off.

I really can’t pay the kind of money they quoted me. My prayer is that it will be something simple enough in the inspection that there is no charge. It really sucks, but basically you need two spare drives for every main drive. the two drives should be rotated and one kept off the premises. That is expensive, especially considering the rate I fill up hard drives with data.

I have learned enough to have my main Mac (Macbook Pro) set up with Time Machine. It is so simple! The problem is every time I dig into either of my MacBook Pro’s and change the hard drives to a bigger size, I have to change the Time machine drives to a bigger size. It is a crazy thing… data.

It was suggested I take donations to help ease the pain of the repair. Should you choose to donate to the recovery, an account has been set up for “Hard Drive Recovery”, you can do so here:

The Eponymous Album Update #4 | Recording Workflow

2009-11-05T07:23:25Z

I thought I would post an update on the status of my Eponymous album. I have been working really hard on getting this project done before the end of the year – completing at least one song per day. With this schedule I have recorded 10 songs so far and have three or four more to go. The album will be available worldwide in stores like iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, Napster, LaLa, etc. I am trying to find a reputable disk maker and am wavering between Oasis and Diskmakers (any other suggestions?) for the disks which will be available at my website, CD Baby and a few select stores.

For those that have asked for more details on my workflow I will give a quick numbered list of what’s up with that.

I use Logic Studio 9 (Logic Pro) as my DAW of choice. I absolutely love it!
I create a new session and name it. I also make sure that it stores absolutely everything, from impulse responses to sample files to notes in the project folder.
Next comes the tracks…
1. I set up a drum track with Ultrabeat as a metronome.
2. I setup three tracks for the acoustic guitar
3. I take a split stereo signal from both of my guitar pickups, using a stereo-to-dual-mono cable and record them on two separate tracks
4. I create two VOX tracks… one for melody and one for the BV if any.
I set the bit rate and tempo
Everything in items 1-4 are set up in a template so all I have to do is open the template, arm the tracks and record.
I then will setup my marker text so that the lyrics are on screen and change as per verse, chorus, bridge, etc. I really like this feature.
I then begin hardware routing
Vocals go through a Mojave Audio MA201-fet Microphone
1. The mic plugs straight into a MOTU Traveler – I don’t have the funds for the Universal Audio mic pre I want, so, unfortunately, I must plug straight into the Traveler.
The acoustic guitar is recorded by a AKG c1000s and fed straight into the Traveler.
1. I also have a sweet stereo pickup system on my acoustic that I record at the same time. I use an L.R. Baggs iMix internal mixer that mixes an M1 and a iBeam.
2. This signal is split at the stereo end pin jack, where I plug in a stereo-to-dual-mono cable. The cable is then plugged from the guitar into the LR Baggs Para Acoustic DI, which is fed to the Traveler.
3. as a side note… this custom pickup system cannot be beat for live playing. It far surpasses Taylor’s Expression System or any other system I have tried.
The MOTU Traveler is connected to an Alesis HD24XR for track backup ( I use it as main recording media for all my live playing) and to a MacBook Pro via Firewire.
The sessions are recorded to an external hard drive via an eSATA Expresscard.
I lay down the tracks
comp the best takes if needed
create a rough balance/mix
Send an MP3 to iTunes with all the ID3 tags set and title it [Title]-[mix#]-[date] so that I can check it out on different listening devices.
1. For those that don’t know, there is a huge difference between mixes and listening environments. What sounds good in your headphones will not sound the same in the computer speakers, which will sound way different than the home theatre or car stereo. This is important. Not every one listens to music solely on an iPod through earbuds.
Use the “Notes” window in the project, for the project (not the track notes), to enter the date recorded and what needs to be done next, which is mixing.

This has been my basic workflow/setup for the last 10 songs. The next step, once I feel I have all the tracks that are candidates for the album recorded and roughed mixed. I will begin the mix down process, which is another topic all together.

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Life Bible Church – Wyatt – Harrisburg, Oregon – 11/19/09 – Corporate Deliverance (lead worship)

2009-11-01T21:56:11Z

Activity	Corporate Deliverance (lead worship)
When	Thursday, November 19, 2009 7:00pm - All Ages
Where	Life Bible Church - Wyatt (map) 21211 Coburg Road Harrisburg, Oregon, USA 97446
Other Info	Deliverance class

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Life Bible Church – Wyatt – Harrisburg, Oregon – 11/05/09 – Men On Fire (lead worship)

2009-11-01T21:54:02Z

Activity	Men On Fire (lead worship)
When	Thursday, November 5, 2009 7:00pm - 21+
Where	Life Bible Church - Wyatt (map) 21211 Coburg Road Harrisburg, Oregon, USA 97446
Other Info	Men on fire is for the gathering and building of men.

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The Eponymous Album: Update

2009-10-31T22:18:58Z

Just paid the fees…It’s Official… The album will be available worldwide on all download services. Now to choose which songs are added to that album.

The Eponymous Album: Update

2009-10-31T22:15:39Z

In an attempt to actually get my material out, I have opted to offer an album that the songs are not so much stripped down versions as they are the beginnings of each song… How they started… Each song has began with an acoustic guitar and an Idea (or spontaneity). I tried to capture that feel of “beginnings” on this album.

The Eponymous Album: Update

2009-10-31T22:12:57Z

Heath McConnell

Welcome to The Scout Blog Log

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Life Bible Church – Wyatt – Harrisburg, Oregon – 11/19/09 – Corporate Deliverance (lead worship)

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Life Bible Church – Wyatt – Harrisburg, Oregon – 11/05/09 – Men On Fire (lead worship)

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The Eponymous Album: Update

Just paid the fees…It’s Official… The album will be available worldwide on all download services. Now to choose which songs are added to that album.

The Eponymous Album: Update

The Eponymous Album: Update

Spent the day recording a song called Refreshment for the new album.