A little desire, a little training, and a little creativity is all you need.
Here at Interactive Worship Live, we have built this company with the everyday worship leader in mind. You don’t have to be a live DJ or a studio engineer to run Interactive Worship Live. The interface will seem easy to navigate when you know where “play”, “stop”, “add locator”, and “song tempo” are hiding. Invest less than an hour with us by watching a few training videos and checking the FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) page. You’ll soon be on your way to achieving:
- Great sound at every service no matter how many
musicians you have
- An easy way to teach parts to singers and
musicians
- A library of Loops and tracks to enhance one
person or a full-team
- The same cutting edge quality sound you hear on
big tours and concerts.
We all desire this sound in our church… Here
are the steps to make it happen!
Things you need to know before signing up with IWL
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Your drummer
will need to use headphones for an in/ear mix.
Here's why: |
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For two
reasons: 1) To run tracks your
drummer and the person running the
tracks both need to hear the click in
their monitor to hear the count in and
to keep time with the tracks. 2) If you
have a floor monitor for the drummer, it
has to be loud enough to match the
volume of a drum kit, if not louder.
From a sound standpoint, this can cause
all the monitors to be louder than they
need to be and create issues for your
front-of-house sound person. These days,
with in-ear monitoring so common and
affordable, we recommend an Aviom system
as a long-term solution for your stage
monitoring.
Short Term
Solution: For an in-expensive way
to make the transition right away, you
can hard wire the drummer’s mix by
skipping the power amp and going direct
into a headphone amp like a Presonus
HP-4 and using a set of studio grade
headphones like the Sennheiser HD 280
Studio Headphones and your drummer will
be set with his direct mix from the
sound board. The bass player could share
a mix and come off the same headphone
amp if he/she was willing to do so.
Lastly, if your guitarist, keyboard
player, or singer is running the tracks
from their laptop they can do a wired
mix with a headphone amp as well. For
more discrete looking in-ear’s with
great bass response, check out Westone’s
UM2’s.
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Configuration Suggestions on stage setup and
different musicians running tracks
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Overall
Configuration: We recommend
running from the stage. We see IWL
almost like another instrument that
someone on stage is triggering like a
DJ. This can be done by anyone and
midi interfaces can help you do this
without looking like you’re checking
your email. We recommend this is
run by the person who can function as a
music director or someone who can
communicate well on stage with the music
director.
For Keys:
We recommend using a two-tier keyboard
stand and building a stable platform for
the top tier where you can place your
laptop. You can look at your
computer and use the computer keys on
your laptop to trigger your session
because it’s right in front of you.
If you prefer to use a midi controller
or another keyboard to trigger this, you
can do so as well.
For Guitar or
Bass: We recommend the
Ability controller which is built to
work with Ableton. You can find
out more details on
http://younfx.com. If you need
a volume pedal with your midi
controller, check out the Roland FC-300.
For Drummers:
Any midi unit with big pads that you can
use to trigger from behind the drums.
For Singers:
The Ability Controller
http://younfx.com or the Roland
FC-300 are great Midi-foot controllers
if you want to cue sections from a foot
controller on the stage more discretely.
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Ableton is Mac or PC compatible. If you’re
buying one—here’s what we suggest.
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Ableton is Mac and PC compatible.
If you or your church is buying a
dedicated computer for this purpose we
recommend that you buy a Mac. We
won’t debate you on which is better if
you like PC’s because both will work,
but Mac are often preferred by audio
engineers. They come with a
Firewire 400 connection ready for your
Firewire 410. We recommend the
same Firewire 400 connection for your
hard drives if you use them.
Lastly. The new Mac OS X operating
system called Leopard allows you to
share your computer with another user
through iChat which can take your phone
support from IWL to another level.
Should you have an issue, through your
Mac computer, you can iChat with your
IWL support tech and allow them to take
over your computer and solve your issue
while you watch.
For Hardware Minimum requirements, go to
http://www.ableton.com/pages/faq/general_questions
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I am having trouble using my IWL tracks on Vista |
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Recommendations for Your Church’s Configuration:
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For the church
with a worship leader that does not play an
instrument and has no band: |
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In a situation like this, you may
have been running tracks, worship
videos, or even split tracks. We
know of some churches using IWL that
we’re just putting on CD’s and having
everyone sing along. It’s hard
when the worship leader get on and says
“Thank You and Goodnight Cleveland!” and
you’re at a church in Chicago and it’s
9:30 in the morning. All of this
can be solved through IWL because you
can get inside the tracks and turn each
one on or off. You can direct the
tracks in the moment too—so you can
think of your worship leader as a live
DJ and their directing the tracks like
they would a band.
Preferred
Setup—Our preferred setup is for
those who want to know everything they
could possibly need.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you have a
PC you need to add a Firewire 400
6pin PCI card so you can connect to
your Firewire 410 and external hard
drive.
- On-The-Go
100 GB Hard Drive- Our
downloadable files are only 30-80 MB
on average so you may be able to run
sessions off your computer’s hard
drive to start. BUT, the best
way to run audio is the audio files
on an external hard drive and the
software on your computers internal
hard drive. The On-The-Go
drives are portable, bus powered,
and we really like them.
- Firewire
410—You can run out of the
1/8th in jack on your computer to
your sound system, but it’s not the
best possible connection. You
can connect to an Audio Interface
like the Firewire 410 and assign
your tracks through the 410 to you
sound person.
- Midi
Units—You can use the ability
controller from
http://younfx.com o or the Roland
FC-300 as foot pedals that can cue
the different sections of your songs
from a foot pedal on the floor.
This way you can direct the tracks
without looking like your checking
email.
“Only the
Basics” Setup- This is our “bare
bones” recommendation of what you can’t
live without and what you need to know
if you don’t get the items in the
Preferred Setup above.
- Mac or PC
Computer—IF you don’t add a
PCI card for Firewire to your
Windows computer you can try USB.
Some audio engineers will only
recommend Firewire at 7200 RPM speed
and USB 2 may work for you as well.
If you notice skipping, you need to
upgrade to a faster connection.
- Your own
hard drive or your internal drive—Again,
the faster the better. We
recommend 7200 RMP drives.
Unless you specified, your internal
drive is most likely 5400 and you
could experience skipping with too
many tracks and too little RAM.
- Your
computer’s 1/8 inch jack—This
will work fine as long as you only
need a left and right track and you
never bump the cord and send loud
scratchy sound throughout your
service. You could even pan
the click left and the tracks right
if you have a mono system and you
wanted to hear the click tracks in
your in-ears.
- Midi
Units—For the church with no
band an a worship leader directing
these tracks, I think a foot pedal
is a must have if you’re going to do
a lot of directing the tracks live.
You can preset markers in the song
for the any command so that you can
do it with your feet. For
example, you can set a marker to
play, stop, song 1, song 2, a vamp
on the bridge you want to repeat,
Song 3, a vamp, and song 4, then the
vamp for the prayer at the end of
service. You step on these
cues and you’re cuing the session in
the software from your foot pedal on
the front of stage and directing the
worship live. Ability
Controller
http://younfx.com o or Roland
FC-300 with volume pedal.
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For the church with a worship leader that plays
guitar but has no band
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In a situation like this, you can
play along with the tracks and mute the
acoustic or electric guitar and fit
right in with the mix. We strongly
recommend using in-ear monitors and
putting the click track in your mix
because you’ll need it to count you in
on every song. Plus it’s easier
for your timing to get a little lost in
the track if you don’t have a click
keeping you in time. Now, you can
just pump the tracks in a monitor and
that will work fine. But the best
option is always with a click and
in-ears.
Preferred
Setup—Our preferred setup is for
those who want to know everything they
could possibly need.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- On-The-Go
100 GB Hard Drive- Our
downloadable files are only 30-80 MB
on average so you may be able to run
sessions off your computer’s hard
drive to start. BUT, the best
way to run audio is the audio files
on an external hard drive and the
software on your computers internal
hard drive. The On-The-Go
drives are portable, bus powered,
and we really like them.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For
example, you can mute the guitar,
send the drums stereo down 1 & 2,
the bass down 3, the rest of the
tracks down 4 & 5 and the click down
number 6. This way the sound
person has more control over the
bass and drums, which are the
foundation of your sound, and the
click is separated to your worship
leaders in-ear mix and the rest of
the sounds are on 4 & 5.
- Midi
Units—You can use the ability
controller from
http://younfx.com or the Roland
FC-300 as foot pedals that can cue
the different sections of your songs
from a foot pedal on the floor.
This way you can direct the tracks
without looking like your checking
email.
““Only the Basics” Setup- This is our
“bare bones” recommendation of what you
can’t live without and what you need to
know if you don’t get the items in the
Preferred Setup above.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- Your own
hard drive or your internal drive—Again,
the faster the better. We
recommend 7200 RMP drives.
Unless you specified, your internal
drive is most likely 5400 and you
could experience skipping with too
many tracks and too little RAM.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For
example, you can mute the guitar,
send the drums stereo down 1 & 2,
the bass down 3, the rest of the
tracks down 4 & 5 and the click down
number 6. This way the sound
person has more control over the
bass and drums, which are the
foundation of your sound, and the
click is separated to your worship
leaders in-ear mix and the rest of
the sounds are on 4 & 5.
- No Midi
Unit—You can try running
without a midi unit if you’re not
doing a lot of cues for songs.
You can build a session where you
press play and go and all the songs
flow right into each other.
But you have to use your computer
keyboard and this limits your
flexibility.
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For the church with a worship leader that plays
keys but has no band |
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In a situation like this, you can
play along with the tracks and mute the
keys and fit right in with the mix.
We strongly recommend using in-ear
monitors and putting the click track in
your mix because you’ll need it to count
you in on every song. Plus it’s
easier for your timing to get a little
lost in the track if you don’t have a
click keeping you in time. Now,
you can just pump the tracks in a floor
monitor and that will work fine.
But the best option is always with a
click and in-ears.
Preferred
Setup—Our preferred setup is for
those who want to know everything they
could possibly need.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- On-The-Go
100 GB Hard Drive- Our
downloadable files are only 30-80 MB
on average so you may be able to run
sessions off your computer’s hard
drive to start. BUT, the best
way to run audio is the audio files
on an external hard drive and the
software on your computers internal
hard drive. The On-The-Go
drives are portable, bus powered,
and we really like them.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For
example, you can mute the keys part
you’re playing, send the drums
stereo down 1 & 2, the bass down 3,
the rest of the tracks down 4 & 5
and the click down number 6.
This way the sound person has more
control over the bass and drums,
which are the foundation of your
sound, and the click is separated to
your worship leaders in-ear mix and
the rest of the sounds are on 4 & 5.
- Midi
Units—You can use the Axiom
25 or any plethora of different midi
units that can be used to trigger
the tracks and give you external
volume knobs that are easily
accessible.
“Only the
Basics” Setup- This is our “bare
bones” recommendation of what you can’t
live without and what you need to know
if you don’t get the items in the
Preferred Setup above.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- Your own
hard drive or your internal drive—Again,
the faster the better. We
recommend 7200 RMP drives.
Unless you specified, your internal
drive is most likely 5400 and you
could experience skipping with too
many tracks and too little RAM.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For
example, you can mute the guitar,
send the drums stereo down 1 & 2,
the bass down 3, the rest of the
tracks down 4 & 5 and the click down
number 6. This way the sound
person has more control over the
bass and drums, which are the
foundation of your sound, and the
click is separated to your worship
leaders in-ear mix and the rest of
the sounds are on 4 & 5.
- No Midi
Unit—You can put the computer
next to the keys or even on the top
tier of a two-tier keyboard stand.
If you do this you may want to
stabilize the laptop with some black
felt covered plywood underneath, but
having the laptop right above your
keys is nice and you can use the
computer keyboard for triggering
your markers.
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For the church with a music director in the band
but missing musicians |
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In this situation, we recommend that
you have one of your musicians function
as an “MD” or Music Director and this
person would most likely run the tracks.
If you have an Aviom system or in-ear
system and if it’s not crucial for that
person to sing, turn the MD mic off in
the house and put it in the band members
ears. Now the MD can talk them
through the count-in, what sections are
coming next, and you’ll find it makes
the transitions really smooth and
tightens the band overall. The MD
will need to turn off all the
instruments that you have live on stage,
but you can leave in counterpoint guitar
parts and things like strings, pads,
horns, B3, and melodic parts you may not
have live. Once you mute those
parts and turn up the remaining mix, it
should fit together really well.
Preferred
Setup—Our preferred setup is for
those who want to know everything they
could possibly need.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- On-The-Go
100 GB Hard Drive- Our
downloadable files are only 30-80 MB
on average so you may be able to run
sessions off your computer’s hard
drive to start. BUT, the best
way to run audio is the audio files
on an external hard drive and the
software on your computers internal
hard drive. The On-The-Go
drives are portable, bus powered,
and we really like them.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For a
simple set-up with a full band, send
all the tracks down 1 & 2 for a
stereo mix (make sure sound person
pans hard left and hard right) and
the click down number 3. Give
everyone the click if possible, but
at the very least, give the click to
the drummer and the MD.
- Midi
Units—Depending on the
instrument, you can reference the
keys and guitar recommendations
above. There are lots of midi
units for every player or you may
prefer to use the computer keyboard.
“Only the
Basics” Setup- This is our “bare
bones” recommendation of what you can’t
live without and what you need to know
if you don’t get the items in the
Preferred Setup above.
- Mac or PC
Computer—We recommend filling
your computer with as much RAM s you
can—and at least 1GB. If you
have a PC you need to add a Firewire
400 6pin PCI card so you can connect
to your Firewire 410 and external
hard drive.
- Your own
hard drive or your internal drive—Again,
the faster the better. We
recommend 7200 RMP drives.
Unless you specified, your internal
drive is most likely 5400 and you
could experience skipping with too
many tracks and too little RAM.
- Firewire
410—This is very important
because it gives you more options
than just a left and right coming
out of your computer. The 410
gives you 8 analog ¼ inch outputs so
you could send 8 to your sound
person and he/she can have more
control over the mix. For a
simple set-up with a full band, send
all the tracks down 1 & 2 for a
stereo mix (make sure sound person
pans hard left and hard right) and
the click down number 3. Give
everyone the click if possible, but
at the very least, give the click to
the drummer and the MD.
- No Midi
Unit—You can use the computer
keyboard if you prefer.
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The training videos below cover most everything
you’ll need to know about how to run and build your own
IWL sessions. Before you begin, go to your Ableton
preferences under “Defaults,” and make sure Auto Warp is
turned off. We recommend you watch all the videos below
in the order they appear, and that you take notes. If
you skip a video, you’ll miss important functionality
you’ll need to know for later videos.
If you have any questions, email us at
info@interactiveworshiplive.com.
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Setting Up Your Computer For Audio
(Disabling computer functions that could
interfere with your session…screen saver, etc.)
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Getting Started - Opening A File
(Tells you how to open an Ableton
session from your desktop)
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The Basics
(Covering Start, Stop, Play and Mute)
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Adjust The View
(Zooming out, Zooming in, and Adjusting
your viewpoint of the session)
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Setting The Locators
(Setting, Naming, and Moving Locators)
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Activating Your Computer Keyboard or
Midi Unit to Trigger Your Live Session
(This deals with having your computer
or midi unit actually control everything in the
session from start, stop, play, etc… all
assigned to the buttons of your choice—very
easy!)
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Changing The Arrangement In Real
Time
(You can decide where you’re going in
the worship service and not be stuck to the
structure of the song! Yes, you heard us right…
the structure is flexible. This video shows you
how!)
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Setting your Outputs In Your
Preferences Menu
(This video goes through the
preferences menu and shows you how to set up
your outputs. Watch this even if you don’t have
an audio interface to learn your preferences
menu.)
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Building Your Own Custom Sunday
(This video shows you how to drag your
songs into an Ableton session one track at a
time and set your locators and tempo changes to
build your own Custom Sunday with multiple songs
in one session!)
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An Example of a Keyboard set up
using Interactive Worship Live!
(See an example of an actual keyboard setup
with the midi unit, hard drive and the
computer.)
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Videos require Quicktime.
Download the latest version here.

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