Piano Music

Recording 97 Oct 10, 2026 32:04 Recording 97 is the first one since version 3 of the LED bar was finished. Version 4 is being printed in transparent filament for comparison, and a version 5 design with one focused LED per key is in early testing. The edit is the full overhead performance on the acoustic piano with Piano VFX, delivered at 3840×2160 and 60 frames per second. The audio edition comes from the same finished mast

Recording 96 Oct 3, 2026 32:07 Recording 96 was finished during a week with no live streams. The streaming schedule is now seven weeks on and one week off, plus any week with work travel, and the next break falls the week of November 9th. The edit is the full overhead performance on the acoustic piano with Piano VFX, delivered at 3840×2160 and 60 frames per second. The audio edition is cut from that same finished master an

Recording 95 Sep 26, 2026 30:34 Recording 95 is the first one made with version 2 of the LED bar over the keys. The bar puts more focused light on the hands, which helps on camera, but too much of it reflects off the keys. Version 3 is in progress with the bar angled at 45 degrees so the light falls onto the keys instead of across them. The video keeps the overhead view of the acoustic piano with the Piano VFX treatment, mastere

Recording 94 Sep 19, 2026 31:58 I finished Recording 94 at the beginning of the week to make more room for album work. The video keeps the overhead view of the acoustic piano and the current Piano VFX treatment, with a 4K, 60-frame-per-second master. The physical LED bar is still a separate project. This week’s test fits focused on how the boards sit in their printed holders, the clearance around the piano keys, and where

Recording 93 Sep 11, 2026 33:53 Recording 93 is a 4K/60 Disklavier set with Piano VFX over the real overhead piano. The source mornings were June 19 and June 22.

Recording 92 Sep 5, 2026 29:57 Recording 92 is the first weekly episode being prepared for 4K video delivery. The overhead piano footage and Piano VFX composite remain part of the finished Final Cut Pro master, now exported at 3840 × 2160 and 60 frames per second. A new lens on the Canon provides the framing for the 4K setup, while an OBSBOT video conferencing camera adds another angle. Lighting adjustments continue around the

Recording 91 Aug 29, 2026 After a lot of measuring, test prints, and revisions, the LED rail now has printed mounts and bar sections that work. That replaces the temporary metal ends. The next step is cartridge spacing. Each short section has to aim its LEDs at the correct piano keys, and a few millimeters is enough to show up from the overhead camera. I am tuning one section at a time before committing to the full keyboar

Recording 90 Aug 22, 2026 I got a 3D printer so I can replace the angle-iron ends with printed mounts that sit in the fallboard supports. The metal worked, but I never liked that hardware that close to the piano, even with felt tape. I also added a second LED strip. Fitting and reprinting took longer than I expected. The bar was out of commission for the first two morning streams. When it is on, it adds a really cool dynam

Recording 89 Aug 15, 2026 First working LED rail. Removable aluminum bar in the existing fallboard supports — nothing glued to the finish or the keys. A Raspberry Pi reads the MIDI and drives per-key lights so the overhead camera can show more of the shape in the playing. First version, not the last. Next up: printed clips and baffles, and a cleaner power path for a second strip.

Recording 88 Aug 8, 2026 I spent this episode fighting Piano VFX drift. One MIDI timing issue is fixed, but a longer render still walks off the keys. The reliable fix is splitting the VFX layer by song in Final Cut and using Retime on each section. That adds another two or three hours. New effects this week, less flame, more around the notes. After Disklavier listen tests I also limited release-velocity edits to tight rep

Recording 87 Aug 1, 2026 Seven pieces from May 28 through June 2. New camera: much closer to true overhead, more keyboard in the frame, the inside of the Yamaha C7 visible. I had to pull the keyboard cover. The front lip hid the key tops from that angle, especially with falling notes. Only my hands are in the shot now.

Recording 86 Jul 25, 2026 Seven pieces from May 25–28. First episode with Piano VFX all the way into the finished video: real overhead piano underneath, falling notes composited in Final Cut so they follow what I actually played. Dark background, keyboard mask, and edges took some work. I also moved the production desk off a single-vendor app so I can switch models without rebuilding the workflow.

Recording 85 Jul 18, 2026 Six pieces from May 21 and May 25. I took 56 of my own past edits and had the production model try the first timing pass instead of Smart Tempo. Through the middle of a song it now matches my hand edits almost note for note. It still misses the big feel changes, so it’s on the shelf. It keeps learning from the episodes I still edit myself.

Recording 84 Jul 11, 2026 Five pieces from May 19–20. I recorded this back-to-back with the previous episode in one sitting so two weeks would already be in the queue.

Recording 83 Jul 4, 2026 Five pieces from May 15–19. Recorded as part of working ahead. No new camera or MIDI change this week.

Recording 82 Jun 27, 2026 Six pieces from May 13–18. A quieter production week. Same compile: morning streams cleaned up into one listen.

Recording 81 Jun 20, 2026 Six pieces from May 11–13. The change you can hear is the sustain pedal. When timing gets stretched, the tiny gap where the pedal lifts can collapse and the next chord lands dry. That cleanup is automatic now. Nearly four hundred late lifts on this episode, with the deliberate pauses left alone.

Recording 80 Jun 13, 2026 Six pieces from May 6–8. The real ship this week is chapters on everything. Streams get song names. Spontaneous pieces are labeled Selah in the key they live in. Podcast chapters point back to the exact morning they came from. I rolled that through the back catalog too, so the rough take and the cleaned take stay linked.

Recording 79 Jun 6, 2026 Seven pieces this week, from four mornings (April 30 through May 5). I recorded it a week early so I can keep a couple of episodes in the queue. For the live-room clips I switched from glasses-only POV to a split view with a locked camera. The head motion was hard to watch for more than a few seconds.

Recording 78 May 30, 2026 A short week on the bench. Same compile of the morning streams into one listen. No new instrument or camera work to report.

Recording 77 May 24, 2026 More distribution than piano this week. There’s a 24/7 shuffled replay of past sessions on Twitch, and the same playlist on Rumble: continuous piano, no commentary, new order each day. The weekday morning stream stays at 6:00 AM CT.

Recording 76 May 16, 2026 Not a gear week. The record-to-publish path is finally routine, which is the point — I spent more time on music than on workflow. I also had a scheduler bug that posted the same clip twice. Deleting the scheduled item did not cancel the job. There’s a trap now that pulls the duplicate within a couple of minutes.

Recording 75 May 9, 2026 I had to re-record this episode. While adding an auto-switching scene — overhead keys versus FaceTime — I found the piano mics sitting on the overhead scene and in the global mix. They were doubled. Soft passages can actually be soft now. Same week I found Logic Smart Tempo crushing Disklavier sustain. After I simplify a pedal press to about seven CC64 events, Smart Tempo can squash the release in

Recording 74 May 3, 2026 Same compile as last week: morning streams stitched into one listen, still about two weeks behind the calendar. That’s fine. The weekly ship matters more than which days the tape came from. On the live-room side I finished a cutover from analog (MainStage to an Apogee box to analog runs to the board) to Dante end to end. Keys stay digital the whole way, and I can record the mix plus an isola

Recording 73 Apr 26, 2026 This week was Logic Pro’s Auto Tempo. I don’t play to a click, so Disklavier MIDI used to land off the grid and eat a full day of dragging notes. Auto Tempo listens to what I played and bends the project tempo to match. I haven’t run a whole episode through it yet, but I’m estimating it cuts the 8-hour MIDI floor down to about 3–4 hours. The publish steps (trim, intro card,

Recording 72 Apr 20, 2026 Recording 72 continues the weekly rhythm — another full piano session captured on the Yamaha DC7XE3. Each session is a chance to refine both the playing and the production, and the small weekly improvements should be audible over time. Thanks for listening.

Recording 71 Apr 14, 2026 It has been over 10 years since the last recording posted here. A lot has changed, including a brand new piano — the Yamaha DC7XE3. This is one of the first recordings captured on it, and I think you will hear the difference immediately. The depth, warmth, and dynamic range of this instrument is remarkable. I hope you enjoy listening as much as I enjoyed playing.

Recording 70 Jan 23, 2016 I believe it is the best sounding piano audio I’ve ever captured. Please forgive me for taking so long – almost 2 years to post new music.

Recording 69 Jun 24, 2014 The last podcast to be recorded on my Yamaha DC3M4. It goes away tomorrow, and though it’s only been 4 years, I feel as though I have a tremendous amount of history with that wonderful piano. I actually had to pick and choose from about 2 hours worth of recordings since I’m not sure if the old format will be supported on the new piano. I’m truly excited about the capabilities and

Recording 68 Jan 2, 2014 Yet another all-original podcast. I did use some pretty familiar chord progressions, but I also tried out some new styles.

Recording 67 Feb 23, 2013 You may not hear any familiar melodies as this podcast is mostly original. I’ve adopted a fairly new process to recording the podcast. It has been working out okay so far. It also gives me an opportunity to select the best recordings out of many, and there was a really bad 15 minutes of recording I was happy not to have included in this podcast. You may notice that it may have a slightly dif

Recording 66 Nov 24, 2012 I think this might end up being my favorite podcast to date.

Recording 65 Mar 12, 2012 I think this is probably the first podcast ever to be original-free, although, it does contain some originality. Those who like consistently quite and peaceful podcasts may not enjoy this one as much since I get a bit loud in some parts. It may be a few months before the next podcast is posted, but I’ll try to make it softer. I’m blown away at the number of downloads that happen on a d

Recording 64 Nov 22, 2011 What a crazy couple of weeks it has been! I won’t bore you with all the details, but the end result is I finally have a new podcast. You’d think after 3 years of doing this I’d have it down but I don’t. This podcast required a massive amount of editing, but I think it turned out okay. I did find some ways to improve the audio over the previous podcasts. The only issue is th

Recording 63 Oct 16, 2011 I finished mixing the Soundwave album last week so I’m back at it – thanks for your patience. This podcast, I only used “Hosannah” for a brief period. The rest is original – some from previous podcasts and some that’s fresh and new. An interesting stat about this podcast is it’s the first to be exactly 30 minutes long! I admit, I stretched the end out a li

Recording 62 Aug 29, 2011 In a way, a lot of this podcast sounds repetitive to me compared to previous podcasts. It’s becoming a little challenging to keep things unique considering there is already over 30 hours of podcasts.

Recording 61 Aug 1, 2011 Still searching for the best mic placement and mix, but I think its getting there. Most all the tunes are repeat or new originals. You may recognize one or two of them. Peace.

Recording 60 Jul 4, 2011 This podcast does have familiar melodies from others, but I believe it has some uniqueness. One melody from the chorus of “Pour My Love on You” was used at the end. An estimate of 129 billion people have lived throughout the history of the world. Only 5 billion have experienced the freedom we enjoy, and 3 billion are alive today. How rare freedom is.

Recording 59 Jun 6, 2011 This podcast, I used the songs, “Came to My Rescue” and “I Will Exalt”. Since I actually recorded this podcast over a month ago, I had to refer to planning center for the song names.

Recording 58 May 9, 2011 It’s finally finished! The songs used are mostly original. I did play a familiar melody at the tail end. Most of it is a little more fast-paced than the norm.

Recording 57 Apr 11, 2011 Be sure to check it out if you haven’t heard it yet. A couple originals are included as well. One was from a previous podcast. I’m still on a quest for the perfect piano mix. Mic placement and EQ has been changing every podcast. I really need to swap out my NT1000 with something else. It isn’t very balanced across the frequency spectrum. Maybe I’ll be able to afford the mic

Recording 56 Mar 28, 2011 I used only one song this podcast. It’s by Robbie Seay, and it’s called “Crazy Love”. The rest is original. This podcast is actually a second take since the first didn’t record properly. I always thought recording to MIDI would eliminate having to re-record podcasts, but not true. I did learn that the Disklavier does not like any kind of MIDI signal coming into it when recording so hopefully this

Recording 55 Mar 13, 2011 The rest is original. I used a different acoustic piano sample for editing the MIDI this week, and it actually disguised a lot of the small timing issues which is good and bad. The good is it took me half the time to edit (~4 hours instead of ~8). The bad is I notice them when playing back on the DC3, but I’m pretty sure most people won’t notice. For those who do, you’ll have the CD to look forwar

Recording 54 Feb 28, 2011 The rest is somewhat original. A familiar melody came to mind towards the end, but I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from. Feel free to leave a comment if you recognize it.

Recording 53 Feb 14, 2011 I also played “Amazing Love” and “You are My King”. The rest is original. Even though I didn’t spend as much time fixing timing issues as the last podcast, I did spend most of the weekend editing.

Recording 52 Jan 31, 2011 I used new mics and new mic placements for this podcast, and have to say, this may be the best podcast yet in my opinion. Everything but the beginning of the last song is original.

Recording 51 Jan 17, 2011 It seems like ages ago that the last podcast was posted even though it’s only been 4 weeks. The piano was recently tuned and is sounding wonderful. I’ve had this podcast ready for a while now. There were some issues with the sustain pedal after we got the technical problems resolved so I had to fine-tune the sustain MIDI data in a number of locations, which may be noticeable in some pl

Recording 50 Dec 20, 2010 Merry Christmas! Well, this is the place to come when you’re burnt out on all the Christmas music being played everywhere. I had planned on adding a Christmas song or two, but that didn’t work out. Everything this week is original. I may have hit a few familiar melodies once or twice throughout. Monthly download counts continue to grow with over 16,000 this past November.

Recording 49 Dec 6, 2010 There were a couple that weren’t Christmas songs, but they weren’t really appropriate. Well, maybe one was. Anyway, I have a big surprise for those who listen so stay tuned. I’ll be blogging about it next week sometime. Hopefully there will be some noticeable improvements in the podcasts from here out.

Recording 48 Nov 22, 2010 A podcast subscriber suggested recording without the usual increase in dynamics so I gave it a shot. My wife has actually suggested this as well a while back. I hope you enjoy it. It wasn’t really planned. I hope you have a wonderful Thanks Giving!

Recording 47 Nov 8, 2010 I apologize for being a little late for this podcast, but had the mic / audio interface problem again, and I didn’t discover it till it was too late so no second-take this time. I tried to compensate by automating the pan, but it’s still not like I’d like it. Because of this, it took quite a bit more time editing. This issue also caused me to use a bit more compression than I&#82

Recording 46 Oct 24, 2010 Once again, there ended up being a lot of timing issues in this podcast. Can’t wait to get the Disklavier. That will make timing much less of an issue. This podcast is actually a second take. My first take got botched for some strange reason. The left channel kept fading in and out. I tried to use automation to correct it, but it was so random it was easier to just record again. It could be the pr

Recording 45 Oct 10, 2010 Happy 10-10-10! Did you know that in some areas, the number of people getting married today is 10 times the norm! I happen to be at one of those weddings today. My best bud since the 7th grade is getting married! It was really hard to leave my wonderful wife with our 4-day-old son, Jacob, and our 2-year-old Sanban, but thankfully my mom is there to help out while I’m gone. At any rate, this podcas

Recording 44 Sep 26, 2010 There are quite a few familiar melodies from previous podcasts in this one. The only song I sort of used was “Your Love is Amazing”. I didn’t spend as much time editing this week since I kind of ran out of time. Yoko and I just hit our eleventh anniversary, which is really exciting. We went out to eat at our favorite restaurant and sort of took it easy this weekend.

Recording 43 Sep 12, 2010 I didn’t get to spend as much time as I would have liked editing this podcast, but I think it still turned out okay. I’ll be out all day on Sunday for a Soundwave gig in Waco so I had to get everything done on Saturday. The rest is original – some melodies may even sound a little familiar from previous podcasts.

Recording 42 Aug 29, 2010 This podcast, I used “Beautiful The Blood” and “You’ll Come”. The rest of it is original. I tried some different editing and mixing tools so it may sound a little different than previous podcasts. I hope this isn’t distracting.

Recording 41 Aug 15, 2010 The following songs were used in this podcast – “Tear Down The Walls”, “Your Name High”, and the Soundwave original that we just recorded in the studio, “Confidence”. There are some original melodies as well. I feel like this podcast turned out really well. I hope you enjoy it. The new template helped this time – no issues with the balance thankfully

Recording 40 Aug 1, 2010 There may be a few melodies in this podcast that you might recognize. I started with a fresh Logic Pro template this week since there seemed to be some automation or something in the last podcast that was affecting the balance between left and right. Thankfully, the new template fixed this.

Recording 39 Jul 19, 2010 There are some pieces of some new Soundwave songs that’ll be on the next album we’re working on currently. The rest is original – there might be a familiar melody or two.

Recording 38 Jul 6, 2010 The following songs were used in this podcast: “Your Grace Is Enough”, “Marvelous Light”, “Sing, Sing, Sing”, and “This is the Air I Breathe”. Throughout recording, the mic placement changed slightly so there are some noticeable variances in the tone. The next podcast will have a more consistent tone throughout since I believe I’ve found the &#

Recording 37 Jun 24, 2010 Felt a little rusty recording this one after 6 months off. It’s great to be back at it.

Recording 36 Dec 26, 2009 I Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. We certainly did hanging out with the family. I just realized that we didn’t take any pictures. We really need to designate someone to do that next time we get together because there are so many memories to be captured. This is the last podcast of 2009, and it is all original. I hope you enjoy it.

Recording 35 Nov 15, 2009 This podcast, I used a completely different setup to record. I’ll blog more about it later. I used a number of familiar tunes. There are some sounds in the background that got picked up by my new setup in the beginning, but they shouldn’t be too distracting.

Recording 34 Nov 1, 2009 I decided to change the naming from “week” to “podcast” since these will no longer be weekly. However, I will attempt to record one every other week. This podcast was actually recorded last Monday, but I wasn’t able to finish editing and mastering till this evening. The only recognizable song used is “Revelation Song” which I think I’ve done a few ti

Recording 33 Oct 12, 2009 This was supposed to be posted yesterday, but it has been a very busy weekend. I thought that after the exam, I’d have a lot more time to do stuff, but that certainly is not the case. I played a number of familiar melodies, but they’re all kind of mixed together so I won’t try to mention them all. It sure is great to be back to living life! Have a great week!

Recording 32 Jul 25, 2009 This week was kind of a half-way point between when I started really studying for the CCIE and the dredded date of October 2nd so I took a break. Since mid-May, I’ve put in right at 300 hours of study, and I’ve made a great deal of progress. It may not be the 40 hours a week I was shooting for, but it’s the quality of study that has helped. It’s been so long, I’m star

Recording 31 Apr 18, 2009 During this podcast, I used the songs: “Hosanna”, “Mighty to Save”, and a new song called “Forever”. It’s a great song and it’s not the one yall might be familiar with – it just happens to have the same title.

Recording 30 Apr 4, 2009 This one is a little longer than usual. I just didn’t feel like stopping. I used a number of familiar melodys and chord progressions in this week’s podcast. I hope you enjoy it.

Recording 29 Mar 21, 2009 The bi-weekly podcast is here. I missed the “record” button again. I ended up playing for over an hour today so that I’d have something to post. The first 30 minutes may have been a little better than the later 30 due to a little bit of frustration after realizing the first 30 minutes didn’t get recorded, but hopefully it doesn’t show in the podcast. I used “Mig

Recording 28 Mar 9, 2009 I’ve gotta make this quick – Don is out there working hard without me and has been for the past couple of hours while I finish up this week’s podcast. I used a few songs from Sunday morning service – “You Said”, and “There will be a day”. I also used a Soundwave song since we had practice on Friday. Live free!

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