Christmas Musicals for Church
Issue link: http://read.jwpepper.com/i/144439
152 USING THE ACCOMPANIMENT DVD The DVD for Christmas Is Coming was created to help visually enhance the themes and moods of the musical, as well as cue congregational participation as noted in the choral score. Projected lyrics will encourage corporate singing, the responsive reading at the conclusion of the musical is provided, and the other visual elements will help construct an atmosphere of celebration, reflection, and worship. While the musical can certainly be performed without the DVD enhancement, we feel the audience will benefit from the powerful use of visual graphics and projected lyrics of the songs and the final responsive reading. re vi ew O nl y Navigating the DVD When you insert the disc into a standard DVD player, it will automatically take you to the main title graphic of the musical, then move to the Main Menu page. At the Main Menu page you have three options: Stereo-Trax, Split-Trax, or Click. These options will allow you to choose an audio track for your performance. Once you have selected an audio track, you will be taken to a Song List. Here you can choose to either start the musical at the beginning, or select a specific title within the musical. To begin the musical for your performance, select "Play Musical" or choose a song title. Once you select a title you will be taken to a black screen that lasts approximately four seconds. Pause the DVD at this point and you will be ready to begin your presentation. You may pause between each track as needed, or you can let the DVD continue and it will automatically advance to the next track. You may also select the option to show all the lyrics to every song along the bottom of the screen. Fo rP Note: In order to maintain consistency between all three audio tracks, the chapter markers are typically set to match the beginning of the Click countdown. This may be of particular importance if you are using these songs independently from the musical (or out of their original sequence) with the Split-Trax or Stereo-Trax. As a result, it is recommended that you thoroughly navigate through the DVD before using it in a live performance. It is also recommended that the DVD operator have the capability of monitoring the video and audio on a separate screen. When connecting audio, you only need to connect the right and left channels to your sound system, and the video output to your video system. There is no audio recorded in the "center" or "surround" channels. Using Stem Mixes Stem mixes are supplied on DVD data discs as 16-bit, 44.1 WAV files; most files will be stereo while some (i.e., click) will be mono. As a general guide, rhythm instrument audio will be separated into individual stems (i.e., drums, bass, piano, acoustic guitar) while orchestral instruments will be grouped by section (i.e., strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion). (Some projects may vary in instrumentation and stem file organization.) To utilize stem mixes in your performance, import the desired stem files on individual tracks in your digital audio software of choice (i.e., Pro Tools, Logic, Ableton). To sync stem mixes with accompaniment DVD performance, select and drag stem mix audio files in your digital audio software into sync with DVD, preferably while playing click-track mix on the DVD. Both media will be in sync once the stem click track matches the timing of the DVD click track.