More Aviom Tricks

As I’m sure you know, I really, really like our Aviom system. It has made a huge difference in the main house sound (by lowering stage wash) and has made the job of the FOH engineer far easier. By adding 5 additional monitor “mixes,” we can now give each of the vocalists their own wedge so no one shares. Overall, it’s a great system.

There have been a few hiccups, however. The first problem we had was with the musicians not knowing how to mix. Makes sense, they’re musicians, not monitor engineers. What was happening was simple; when the Aviom starts up, all the inputs are set to 50%. So as the musicians built their mix, they kept turning things up. The problem was, they quickly ran out of headroom. I was getting complaints that they “couldn’t hear themselves.” I’d run up on stage and look at their “mix,” and discover all channels at or close to 100%. Since they don’t go to 11, they were out of room.

To solve this, I’ve created a simple preset that I recall before each rehearsal/sound check. I programmed all the channels to 0%, except the talkback channel, so they can hear the FOH engineer calling for instruments. I programmed this preset into 16, so it won’t accidentally get erased. It takes just a few seconds to recall the preset and gives everyone a blank slate to work from. And I haven’t had a complaint since.

Another issue we’ve run into is with power outages. We have pretty flaky power around us, and it goes out from time to time. When this happens between rehearsal and the weekend, the mixes everyone so carefully set up are lost. Since it just happened again last week, I will be reminding everyone to save their mix before they leave Thursday night. That way we don’t have to start all over again on Saturday.

Since you can save 16 presets, theoretically everyone could be assigned a Aviom unit (one for drums, one for bass, etc.), and each musician could have their own number. More likely, I’ll just have them store it into 1, and it will be re-written each week.

The final trick involves the labels we use. If you visit the links page on this blog, you can download a template done in Excel that you can use to create custom labels. I started doing this a few weeks after we put the system in because we have 4 worship teams that rotate. The challenge was, how to affix the labels to the mixer so they would not shift for the weekend, but not be a pain to remove. In a flash of brilliance, I came up with vinyl report covers. I cut them down about 5/8″ from the folded edge, which gave me a tight “V” shaped piece of vinyl. I inserted some tape inside the “V”, then taped the vinyl to the mixers, over the channel marker strip. Now I print off the labels and just slip them into the vinyl each week. They stay put, and are easy to get out. Total cost, about $2.00.

Peace.

The Time for Video Production is Now!

These are exciting times for church video producers. We have at our disposal toolsets that offer an unprecedented feature set, at previously unheard of prices. When I started my career in video production (just after electricity was invented…), it cost a minimum of $250,000 in equipment just to produce what was then known as “broadcast quality” video. Now that cell phone video is being broadcast, that term no longer has any meaning, but that’s another post. A few short years later (shortly after the computer was invented), we got into digital editing. We decided to skip the first wave (Avid—cost: $100,000) and join in on the second (Media 100—cost: $35,000). It was a great decision and I haven’t looked back. Every now and again I’ll reminisce about the days of match frame editing on an A-B roll suite, but then I remember what a pain it was to make it all work.

Today, the story is much different. It is now possible to put together a video production system with an off-the-shelf Mac or PC and readily available software for well under $5,000. Amazingly, that system will have vastly superior capabilities than even the quarter of a million dollar systems of old. Today, we’re going to look at the two 800-lb gorillas of the video editing market, Apple’s Final Cut Studio Pro, and Adobe’s CS3 Production Premium Suite. The usual disclaimers apply here; I’m not on the payroll of either company, however I am doing some production work for Adobe at one of my jobs. In exchange for a Mac Pro and a copy of Final Cut Studio 2, I’m happy to say nice things about it all day long, however ;-). Ok, I’ve exposed my bias. So there.

First we’ll look at Adobe’s Production Suite. This summer will mark the long-awaited return of Premier Pro to the Mac platform. Those of you new to digital editing may consider Premier a PC only product, but in fact, it began life as the first real QuickTime editor on the Mac. Premier Pro offers an impressive feature set, along with great ease of use. One thing Adobe had done really, really well in the upcoming CS3 version is to integrate Premier, After Effects, Photoshop, Soundbooth, Illustrator, Encore and Flash. One of my favorite new features is “Dynamic Link,” which allows you to edit a section in Premier, export it with no rendering to After Effects, add effects, compositing and filters in AE, then export back to Premier—all with no rendering. If you’ve ever gone through this process the old way, especially on a PC (Windows does not fully support QuickTime and the reference movie concept which makes it a little easier on the Mac), you’ll recognize this as a huge timesaver. We’ve been able to import Photoshop files into After Effects for a long time, but the integration is tighter than ever. Moreover, Adobe as included Flash in the new workflow, which will make it far easier to get high quality video on the web. 

Other notable time savers include the ability to author a DVD right from the Premier Pro timeline for quick approval copies, an easier way to create moving menu elements for inclusion in DVDs, the ability of Photoshop Extended to handle video—giving you the ability to paint frame by frame, and a really impressive array of import and export options. 

The Production Studio will include Premier Pro, After Effects Pro, Photoshop Extended, Soundbooth, Illustrator, Encore and (for the PC only for now) OnLocation (formerly Serious Magic’s DV Rack) and the Ultra keying package. OnLocation and Ultra are Adobe’s newest additions that come from the recent acquisition of Serious Magic. I’ve used Ultra quite a bit, and it’s a powerful keying tool. Even though it’s currently Windows only, I expect that to change as Adobe gets into further development of the code. On a newer Intel-based Mac, I suspect that it would run just fine in the Parallels environment, so Mac users are not completely out in the cold. 

I’ve downloaded and played with the beta version of Premier Pro CS3 and am really impressed. Adobe has done a lot of things right here, as they continue to buy up other innovative companies, I expect the suite to only get better. My only major gripe is that they went with Illustrator rather than Freehand, which they killed off when they bought Macromedia. I’m still bitter about that if you want to know the truth. Otherwise, this $1,700 package offers huge bang for the buck and gives you the tools to produce the most professional looking videos.

Not to be outdone, Apple has recently introduced Final Cut Studio 2, which also offers an impressive array of features, at an equally impressive price. Final Cut Pro is arguably the most accepted and widely used editing software today. TV shows and commercials, major motion pictures and scores of video projects are all cut on Final Cut. It’s fast, flexible and easily configured to an individual editor’s liking. Plus, because it runs on the Mac OS, it’s inherently stable (oops a little more bias slipping in…). FCP was an impressive package before, and with Studio 2, they’ve really kicked it up a notch.

The box includes FCP 6, Motion 3, Soundtrack Pro 2, the new Color, Compressor 3 and DVD Studio Pro 4. FCP includes several new features that will make it even more popular in today’s multi-format world. First is an open timeline, which means you can mix and match formats on the same timeline, in real-time. This is a huge boon to anyone who has to cut together videos made up of sources from all over the place (that includes us church editors a lot!). Another big plus is the Pro Res 422 codec.  Apple says Pro Res offers HD quality at SD file sizes, which is a good thing because HD video really eats up drive space in a hurry. 

Motion is Apple’s answer to After Effects, and with version 3, they’ve made it more powerful. With Motion you can now composite in 3D space, utilize point tracking and match moving and employ image stabilization. Soundtrack Pro is a very powerful, easy to use music composition and editing software. Now offering full 5.1 surround sound support, as well as an auto-conform feature (changes made in the project in FCP are automatically reflected and updated in Soundtrack—very cool), it is an even more powerful audio tool in your toolbelt. 

Compressor has matured into a full-featured multi-format delivery tool. After you finish your project in FCP, export a reference movie to Compressor and let it generate versions for DVD, the web, mobile devices and more. I’ve used Compressor quite a bit and am always impressed with the excellent image quality it produces, not to mention the ease of use. 

The newest addition is the one I’m most excited about: Color. FCP introduced the 3-way color corrector a few years ago, and it revolutionized color correction on the desktop. Now with Color, Apple has done it again. Color is a fully developed, professional color grading tool that appears to rival stand-alone (and trés expensive) color graders like the DaVinci. One thing that really irritates me about many of the videos I see is inconsistent color from shot to shot. With Color, it is easy to make each shot match, or even better, to create a “look” for the entire video (think O Brother, Where Art Thou…).

All of this power comes at a shockingly low price of $1,300. If that sounds expensive, consider that even 10 years ago, this kind of post-production power would easily have cost $300,000, and required an entire room to house the hardware. If there was ever a time to get into the video production game at your church, this is it.

So which to choose? Honestly, it’s a tough call. I love Final Cut Pro, but I also go way back with After Effects (to version 2…). I really dig Photoshop Extended, but Color has really caught my eye. If I could, I’d have them both. Really, a lot will come down to personal preference. That and platform. If you are tied to the PC (my thoughts and prayers are with you…oooh, more bias!), your decision is made. Thankfully, it’s a good one. On the Mac platform, the choice is much tougher, and would probably depend on what you value in your workflow. In the grand scheme of things, I don’t know that you could go wrong with either. 

One thing to consider is where you plan to be in a few years with your video capabilities. Apple has developed some great server level tools that allow even non-IT people to build powerful multi-seat editing facilities with their XServe and XRaid solutions. Keeping it “all in the family,” may make a lot of sense as they all come with Apple’s legendary ease of use. Not to say it can’t be done with the Adobe Suite, it’s just a bit tougher and requires the integration of multiple vendors. 

I suppose for me, the choice will be this: Whoever delivers a Mac Pro and a box of software first for me to officially “review.” And lets me keep the review copy (and hardware…) when I’m done. Anybody listening? Apple, Adobe? 

Happy editing!

 

P.S. You can download a (pretty much) fully functional public beta of Premier Pro CS3 at the Adobe Labs web site.  While I couldn’t find a preview download for FCP Studio, there is a lot of information about it here.

Save Your Budget, Save The World

I’ve never watch Heroes. I hear it’s a great series, and I recall the catch phrase from the early episodes—”Save the cheerleader, save the world.” I have no idea what that means, but I have a great suggestion for you to not only save your church some serious coin, but also save the planet. Interested? Check out rechargeable batteries.

Now if you’ve been around this electronics thing for any length of time, you probably have bad experiences with rechargeable batteries. Ten years ago, they had very low voltage (compared to their alkaline counterparts), and didn’t last long. Some devices, especially wireless mics, wouldn’t even run on them. Well, that was then, this is now.

I was motivated to check out rechargeables last year when I was going over the budget I inherited from the previous Tech Director. It was a great budget, but I was stunned when I saw we were planning on spending over $2,500 on batteries for the year. $2,500! On batteries! Are you kidding? Nope, I did the math and sure enough, at our current rate of use, that’s pretty close to where we were.

I did some research and came across Horizon Battery. They claimed to have put their batteries in hundreds of churches across the country. The are even used by Cirque de Soleil. That impressed me. So I did some research and read up on their line of batteries by Ansmann. As it turns out, a rechargeable Ansmann AA battery is rated for 2800 mwh (a measure of how much energy the battery will hold). A typical alkaline is rated at about 1800. They also make a 250 mah 9 volt batteries, and while not quite up to Alkaline levels, they will still power a wireless mic for several hours.

When I did the math, I discovered that I could convert our entire church (main ministry center, student and children’s ministries) for less than $500. Conservatively, we stood to save nearly $2,000 the first year. So I took the plunge. After a year of use, we haven’t looked back. I haven’t had to order batteries for nearly 10 months. Once I figured out how many we needed to keep up with the use, the only problem we’ve had is that some people think they are disposable and throw them out when they go dead. Ongoing education is the key there—we’ve lost about 8-10 batteries to the trash.

Before I rolled them out in services, I did some testing. I found that a 250 mah 9V would power our Shure ULXP transmitters for nearly 4 hours. Amazingly, two 2700 mwh AA’s would power our Shure SLX transmitters for over 10 hours. Not only did we not have to buy batteries anymore, but they lasted longer than the disposable ones!

In practice they have required a few changes to how we use batteries. We used to use one disposable in each wireless for rehearsals, then check it for Saturday night and if it was good, we kept it. We would then change it out on Sunday. Some weekends we would go through 10-12 batteries. Since the rechargeables don’t last quite as long, we replace them before each service. I always hated doing this with disposables, because I knew that there was still capacity left, but we couldn’t take a chance. Now, we toss them in the charger. They exhibit no memory effect that I can tell, and seem to hold a charge pretty well.

As for quantity, for the 9 volts, I took the maximum number of mics we might use in a service or program and doubled it. I figured that they would last as long as the charge cycle would take. So far that’s worked out great. We use AA’s in our student and children’s ministries, and since they last so long, I have a few extras, but basically the batteries last the weekend, then we charge during the week. Horizon sells 10 bay chargers, so we can turn over a lot of batteries in a short time.

We did have one problem with a 10-bay 9V charger about 8 months after we bought it. Four of the bays stopped charging. I called Horizon, they sent me an RMA, and we had it back in about 2 weeks (which was about a week too long, but it didn’t cost me anything). Overall their service was quite good.

My only caveat is that you have to train everyone to change the batteries before the service (especially the 9v ones). When the batteries go, they go quickly. We tried to push the limits with our ULXP series mics because they transmit battery voltage back to the receiver. Problem is if you have 2 bars on the meter, you have between 10-20 minutes before the mic shuts down. It will go from 2 bars to 0 in a minute or two. After having the worship leader’s mic go out a few weeks in a row, we now just change it between every service.

The upside of making the switch was that I saved so much money on batteries that I was able to buy 3 more new wireless mics last year instead of throwing the money in the trash can. If you currently use AA batteries it’s a complete no-brainer to go rechargeable. Get the new 2800 mwh batteries (about $15/4) and a 10 bay charger and you’re all set. If you use 9V’s and can be disciplined enough to change them often, it also makes great sense. You’ll save a ton of money and keep a pile of batteries out of the landfill.  As an added bonus, the NiMH rechargeable batteries are not considered hazardous waste like alkalines are. Like I said, save your budget and save the world. What’s not to like?

The usual disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated or compensated by Horizon Battery or Ansmann. I just really like their stuff.

New Aviom Template

A while ago I posted some templates for making Aviom labels. I was just made aware that Aviom has created a template in Excel that works just great. I’ll create a permanent link on my Downloads page, but if you just can’t wait, you can download it here.

Happy Mixing!

Improving Videos – Get a Good Mic Pt. 2

If you’re playing along at home, you may have noticed that I skipped the second suggestion for improving videos, Don’t Zoom. That’s because I think this is more important. We’ll get to not zooming later. Another disclaimer – I receive no benefit from any of the product or companies mentioned in this post. When I tell you a product or company has been good to me, it’s because it(they) have, not because I’m on the payroll (nor am I making any accusations that any other bloggers are on someone’s payroll). Anyway… back to improving your videos.

Repeat after me – I will not use my on-camera mic for anything other than general sound. I will not use my on-camera mic for interviews. I will not use my on-camera mic for short films. On-camera mics have one major drawback – they are too far from the sound source. Let’s talk physics for a moment. There is a law in physics known as the “inverse square law.” It has many different uses, but for our purposes in sound reproduction, it applies thusly: As the distance from a sound source is doubled, the acoustic energy is reduced by 1/2 (or 6 dB).

So, let’s say you have someone speaking on camera, and that person is 8 feet away. A mic right next to their mouth may receive a signal of, say 55 dBA SPL (normal talking). As the mic moves from 3 inches away to 6 inches away, the signal level drops by 1/2, or to 49 dB. When we get to 1 foot away, it’s in half again, or 43 dB. At 2 feet it drops by half again, to 36 db. By the time we get to 8 feet (where the on-camera mic is), the once strong 55 dB signal is now down to 24 dB. Can an on-camera mic pick this up? Sure, but it will turn the gain up so much that it will also pick up everything else in the room that is at or above the signal level of the talent, including the sound of the tape transport in the camera! To paraphrase Alton Brown, that is not good sound.

The answer, of course, is to get the mic closer to the sound source. If you can’t get the camera to within 6 inches of the talent’s face, you need a remote mic. You have several options here, as I mentioned in the previous post. You can use something as simple as a hand-held dynamic mic (like an SM 58) and use it like a television reporter. If you are going to do a lot of “reporter” type shots, the hands down way to go is a noise canceling mic like the EV 635 or it’s shock mounted cousin, the RE50. Long favorites of ENG news crews, these mics will allow the talent to stand in the middle of a football stadium and will still deliver great sound of just the talent.

If you want to be a little less obtrusive, you can use a shotgun mic (like the Audio Technica AT 853b), and either suspend it from the ceiling, a mic stand or a fishpole. A fish pole is an extendable aluminum or carbon fiber pole that is designed to be held overhead by another person, and allows the mic to be placed just out of the frame above or below the talent.

If you plan on using the shotgun on a fishpole, make sure you use a shock mount.

The purpose of a shock mount is to isolate the mic from the inevitable handling noises that a fish pole will cause. The shotgun on a fish pole gives you a lot of options if you have a second person to hold it. That person had better have strong arms though. I really like this option because the sound quality is generally pretty good, and it doesn’t cost a fortune. I recently purchased a shotgun mic, shockmount and fish pole for our church and spent less than $300.

Another option is a lavaliere mic,  just like you would use on a pastor or speaker during service. Ideally, you would use a wireless mic that has a camera mount reciever, such as the Sennheiser EW100 series. The wireless option gives you the most flexibility because you have no wires to connect you to the talent. As long as you stay in range, and choose a clear frequency, things work great. Be wary of cheapo wireless mics, however. If a camera mounted reciever and bodypack combo doesn’t cost $400-500 at least, keep looking.

You can also use a wired lavaliere mic. I have used these extensively professionally with great results. You don’t have to worry about interference and the sound quality is excellent. For wired mics, I really like Sony’s ECM-77, though the ECM-66 and 55 are pretty good too. The 77 is great because it is tiny, can be hidden almost anywhere and sounds terrific.

A final option is to use a wireless mic that you would use in a live sound application. I do this a lot at church because we don’t have a camera mount wireless system yet. I’ll just take one of our old Shure UT series mics, set the receiver on the floor next to my tripod, and strap the transmitter on the talent. It works great, though it is a bit of a pain every time I move the camera.

All of the applications are assuming your camera has XLR inputs to work with (though the EW series also comes with an 1/8″ cable). Each of these mics are professional grade solutions for prosumer cameras and above. If your camera has only a 1/8″  mic jack, all is not lost. You might be tempted to make up an adapter to take XLR to 1/8″. Don’t do it. The pre-amps on consumer grade equipment will not function well with these types of microphones.

The better solution is to use an adapter box made just for this purpose, such as the ones from BeachTek. They have a variety of solutions that include phantom power, metering and variable gain. They are well worth the investment (as low as $199).

Finally, when you are recording, plug some headphones into the camera and listen to what you are recording. I am amazed and confused when I see people recording audio, but not monitoring it (and I’ve seen it with professionals as much as non-professionals!). When you listen in, you can hear trouble before it is too late. Make sure you use good headphones that provide good isolation. I’ve been burned before using cheap “walkman” type headphones and thinking I was hearing clean audio, when what I was really hearing was the person talking in the room.

Hopefully you’ve found this helpful and you will be on your way to making better, more effective videos that will tell the story without being distracting.

Aviom Update – The A-16D

As you may recall, we installed an Aviom Personal Monitoring System a while back. Click here to read more. Honestly, I love the system, with one exception; since A-16I does not supply power, you have to have all the individual mixers powered with wall warts. This isn’t that big of a deal, as it’s our backline on ears anyway, and we have power to every location already. However, during one rehearsal (that already wasn’t going well…), suddenly the bass player announced he had nothing in his ears. Same for the drummer. I ran to the stage to check it out and found the personal mixer at the bass location dead. Check the cables, looks good. Check the drummer. Same thing. Root around a bit and discover the wall wart came unplugged when the drummer stepped up to the drum platform a few minutes earlier. Ugh… Since the system is daisy chained, once one goes down, the rest after that go down too.

Enter the A-16D (and it’s bigger brother A-16D Pro). Basically an ethernet power-over-ethernet switch, it allows you to take the output of the input module and wire the system in a star topology instead of daisy chained. Each mixer is fed with it’s own cable from the switch (the A-16D, which looks a lot like a hub, or even a router, but it’s a switch). The A-16D acts like an audio distribution amp, taking one signal in, and sending out 8 identical copies of that signal. As a bonus, it also sends power down the Cat-5e cable, eliminating the wall warts (and the possibility that one will come accidentally unplugged).

The box itself is a 1/2 rack space unit with 9 RJ-45 connectors on the front (1 in, 8 out), and 9 power ports on the back (9 in, one to power the unit, and 8 to power each port). That’s the first disappointment I had when I opened the box. Given that at 24 port POE (power over ethernet) switch from D-Link can be had for under $200, I expected this $325 8 port switch to have a beefy power supply to power a mixer from each port. Instead, you have to use the wall wart that came with the mixer to power the port. And it only powers one mixer from each port. You can still daisy chain, but after the first mixer, you’ll be back to wall warts. It’s not a big deal, except that a power strip or rack power distro is needed. And since most rack power distros have 8 outlets, and the unit needs 9 to fully run, you’ll need a power Y-cord to fully utilize the unit.

Aside from that, the unit works as advertised. Since each port buffers and re-sends the digital signal, you get 8 exact copies of the output of the A-16I (or whatever input module you use). It’s been rock solid since we installed it, and not having wall warts on stage has been a real plus for keeping things neat. I built a simple 4 rack space box to house a Panamax power distro, and simply screwed the A-16D to the bottom of the rack, spacing it off with washers. The bottom of the unit is tapped for such mounting.

It should be noted that the A-16D Pro is rack mountable (2 spaces high) and includes a standard IEC power cord, uses EtherCon connections and does not require wall warts. On the other hand its nearly 3x the cost. Is it worth it? You be the judge. For my money, I’d buy one A-16D and 2 more A-16II personal mixers. I’ll live with the individual power supplies for each port.

Monitor Wars – The Solution?

Not too long ago, in a church not that far away, the battle had begun. It started off innocently enough. The bass player and drummer had to share a monitor because there were not enough to go around (budget constraints, you know). The first request was for a little more bass in the monitors. That was followed by a request for more kick and snare, then a little more bass. Now the drummer needed kick, snare and toms turned up. But the bass player couldn’t hear anymore, so he needed more. By now the level of those two monitors had reached 86 dB at front of house. The arms race had started; the Monitor Wars had begun.

Sound familiar? It happened in my church every week until about 6 months ago. Frustrated at using the house speakers to cover up the stage sound (and just barely at that), I began looking for a better way. Having spent many a summer shooting video of Christian music festivals, I was aware that most of the touring acts had gone to in-ear monitors, mainly the wireless variety. I greatly appreciated the lower volume on stage (I could actually talk to my grip…), but I also knew that without a separate monitor desk and operator (neither of which we had nor could afford), wireless in-ears would not help us.

I remembered an instant message conversation I had with a friend some years back about a personal monitor technology that used Cat-5e cable to send 16 channels of audio to the stage and was distributed to each musician in a way that allowed them to control their own mix. Some quick Internet research led me to Aviom and their Personal Mixing II system.

The concept is simple enough; take 16 channels, direct outs, aux sends, group outs, whatever, and patch them into the input module. Those 16 channels get sent via a single wire to the stage where it is daisy-chained to each mixer. Every musician gets full control over his or her mix without affecting any other. The system is wired, but since our guitar players rarely stage dive, this is not a limitation.

The benefits are many. The most noticeable is that stage volume is reduced significantly. No longer is the house mix merely a mask for the stage monitors. Our FOH engineers can actually create a mix that sounds great, and keep the volume 6-8 dB lower (which makes our more senior worshipers very happy!). It is now possible to turn the electronic drums down in the house, and have them go down – finally the benefit of electronic drums realized!

Another bonus is the generation of additional monitor mixes. Whereas we used to have four, we now have nine – 4 aux sends from the board for vocalists and the choir, and 5 personal mixes for the band. Not only do vocalists require lower levels, but we now have enough that the worship leader doesn’t have to share with the harmony singers, and we have enough left over for the brass section and choir. No more sharing. This makes everyone happy, including the engineers who have far more control to please everyone on stage.

I have to admit to a bit of fear and trembling when I was about to roll out the system. I knew it was a great solution, but would the musicians agree? Would the system be user friendly; would it sound good enough; would they revolt and refuse to use it? Thankfully my fear was unfounded. I made some good decisions (in hindsight) that really helped the adoption go smoothly. First, I talked it up for months beforehand. I knew the musicians (and the sound guys for that matter) were frustrated with the current state. Though I bought the equipment in the summer, I didn’t plug anything in until mid-fall. I wanted time to play with it, show it off and tell everyone how great it would be.

Second, I bought good equipment. The Aviom system rocks. It’s that simple. I also went with good ear buds, Westone UM1’s for the guitars and keys and AKG K240 headphones for drums and bass. I couldn’t afford ear buds that went deep enough (the UM2’s would have been nice), so I bought good headphones. Honestly, they look fine on stage, and some have commented they look really cool.

Third, I rolled it out in stages. I started with the drums and bass first, and they fell in love. It didn’t take long for the guitars and keys to want their own “ears.” I have had almost a 100% acceptance rate, and the only people who weren’t crazy about them at first were those not on ears. Not because they wanted them, but because they missed the “feel” of the sound. Once we dropped the stage level from the mid to high 90 dB range, to the mid 70’s, they didn’t feel the sound as much. It was mainly a problem during rehearsal when the house system wasn’t on. It took me a few months to solve the problem (it should have taken a week, what can I say…). Now we simply turn the house system on for rehearsal – everyone’s happy.

The system is not perfect, none is I guess. At first 16 channels seemed like a whole lot, but when we started breaking it down, we ran out pretty fast. The problem is I have musicians who sing, and they need to hear their vocals and their instrument, so that really adds up. I thought I could get by with using group outs, but that doesn’t allow enough control. More aux sends would be helpful after all. Because we have 4 different worship teams, each with a different musical makeup, I end up re-patching the direct outs each week to accommodate everyone. At first I tried to avoid this, but in the end it makes life easier.

The overall effect of the system is fantastic despite these minor limitations. The house sound has improved so dramatically I actually have people commenting on it (how often does that happen?). Our engineer’s workload is greatly reduced, so they can spend more time finessing the mix, and less time trying to make the monitors work. We can run a much lower house volume, with cleaner sound that still feels great. And the musicians really love it. Some have taken to bringing their own headsets, which is fine and those who are not yet on “ears” are asking when I’m getting them a set.

The cost was very reasonable, and the beauty of the system is its expandability. We started off with an input module and 4 stations for under $2,500. We can add stations for less than $500, and we can add as many as we want. Next budget year I will be buying a powered hub to sit on stage that will power the mixers over the Cat-5, eliminating the wall warts. If you are facing the problem described at the beginning of this article, I highly recommend this system. Not only have we enjoyed a cease-fire agreement, but we are now in nearly complete peace. Worship leading has become fun again!

The Audio Technica AT892 Headworn Mic

I’ll start by confessing that until recently, I’ve not been a big fan of headworn mics. Most of the ones I have used in the past were big, bulky and didn’t look or sound that good. In the last several years, several manufacturers have introduced lightweight, unobtrusive over-the-ear mics that actually sound pretty good. And if you get them in a color to match the face of the person wearing it, they are not that noticeable.

We had been using Countryman e6’s at our church for a while. The e6 is somewhat the gold standard of over-the-ear mics for many people. Maybe it’s my contrarian nature, but I didn’t really care for them. When it came time to purchase some new mics for an upcoming Christmas Eve drama, I looked around to see what was out there. I decided to give the AT892 a try. Here’s what I found.

For starters, this mic comes in a really nice, hard plastic case with a custom foam insert (in contrast to other mics which cost a third more and come in flexible pouches). Also included in the case are two windscreens, an additional capsule that brightens the response and a clip to take the cable strain off the ear – a really nice touch that other manufacturers should follow.

The mic runs under the ear, rather than over which for some, is a great benefit. For others, it doesn’t work quite as well. The 892 seems ideally suited to those with average size, somewhat round ears. Those with taller ears tend to have issues getting the mic to fit securely, though a piece of clear medical type tape will help.

After unpacking the mic, I was anxious to hear what they sounded like. We have several different models of Shure wireless mics that we used them in for our large drama. As soon as the first actor wearing the 892 walked up on stage for a sound check I was immediately impressed. I have noticed that other headworn mics require a significant amount of EQ to get them sounding natural. Keeping in mind the main goal of what we do is sound reinforcement, my top priority is to get the amplified sound matching the actual source as close as possible. The spoken word is really tough, but we have to get it right – especially for sermons and dramas where there isn’t a bunch of other music to cover up the difference between the source and the amplified.

Anyway, back to our story. The first actor stepped on the stage, I dialed up the gain and that was it. It sounded just like her. A slight tweak at 3K to take just the slightest bit of edge off and we were done. Six actors later and the EQ on the board was still nearly zeroed out. I was in shock. Having used the mics for the last several months with dozens of different speakers and with several engineers, I’m still impressed. They are the most natural sounding mics I’ve heard of this type. And I’ve yet to have one feed back; even when the pastor walked right in front of the front fills during his message!

Downsides? There are a few in addition to the previously mentioned size of the ear thing. The cables are molded into the body of the mic and thus not replaceable (as they are on the Countryman), and they are very lightweight. This is good from a comfort standpoint; I just hope they hold up for the long term. The windscreens fall off pretty easily (we’ve lost 4 already), though I’m going to try the slightest dab of silicone to hold them in place.

Other than that, I have to say I’m very impressed. So much so I bought 7 of them for our church. Most of those who have worn them like them right away, though it’s taken some tweaking for a few people. For me, the biggest benefit is the sound. People just don’t sound “mic’d” when wearing these – and that’s the best compliment I can give a mic of this design.