In the Presence of Greatness Part Two

You may have read my post on my surprise trip to see Allison Kraus & Union Station last week. That was on Friday night. On Sunday, I found myself once again in the presence of greatness. This time it was not someone famous. Chances are you’ve never heard of any of the people I was around (unless you’re a Crosswinds regular…). Just the same, these are great people. Of whom do I speak so highly? Sunday afternoon after our service, we had a picnic to celebrate our technical team. Nearly 30 people arrived at a wonderful spot overlooking the lake to eat some good food and spend some time together.

Crosswinds has been blessed by God with some really great technical volunteers. We have some 25 that serve on weekends. They are not professional tech people, but I’ve seen every single one grow in their skill level over the past year. The production quality of our services has never been higher because of their dedication to excellence. Not only do they come to serve, and serve well, but they do it with great attitudes. Honestly, they are some of the most joyful people I know. There isn’t an attitude among them and they all love working together.

As I was watching everyone interact at the picnic, I thinking of just how blessed we are here. Then I thought back to some of the other churches I’ve been a part of where we didn’t have this kind of a crew. Maybe that’s your church. So I wondered what is it that makes it so good here. I have a few thoughts as to what might be contributing to our great volunteer team.

First off, we just have great people. People really do make the difference. They are servants, they love God, they love God’s people and they love each other. So, I think the first key to developing a great team is to recruit people like that–regardless of their skill level. Skills can be learned, but if someone does not have the heart of a servant, they’re not ready for a tech team.

Second, this church really, genuinely appreciates it’s volunteers. I’ve spent many years laboring in obscurity, mixing sound or doing lights, with no one ever saying thanks. Tech people by nature are “behind the scenes” people, and don’t desire a limelight. However, we all need to be acknowledged and thanked. The staff at Crosswinds is very intentional in regularly acknowledging and thanking our tech team. We don’t have cookouts every week (though some suggested that would be a good idea…), but we do say thanks a lot.

Third, we really try to provide useful, high-quality training. Nothing is more frustrating for a volunteer than to be expected to perform at a high level of excellence, and feeling like they don’t know what they are doing. Honestly, it’s one of the most unfair thing a church can do, expecting too much without providing proper training. We also try to raise the bar regularly and pull the team to new heights. Notice I didn’t say push. I and our video/lighting director are constantly learning new things, and as we do, we share them. We’re not asking the volunteers to do anything we’re not willing to do.

Finally, we do try to have fun. I often say, “We’re worshiping God, it should be fun.” I’ve been in churches where the tech team is a pressure cooker. One false move and you’re fried, sometimes very publicly. At Crosswinds, we try to plan as much as we can, prepare as much as possible, and then have fun during the service. Most times it works. And when it doesn’t, we try to laugh about it, and then fix the problem.

I wouldn’t say this is an exhaustive list, nor do I think we’ve got it completely nailed. However, we’re doing better this year than we did last. I think it’s a commitment to continuous improvement that  keeps making it better week after week.

Are you blessed with some great volunteers? Tell us your “secret sauce” recipe. Are you struggling to build a great team? Consider some of these suggestions, and see what God does.

In The Presence of Greatness

It was a pretty normal Friday afternoon when my friend and fellow sound tech, Joel called. He asked if I had anything going on that night. I was free. He told me his son was sick and his wife was going to bail on the concert they had tickets to. He wondered if I would be interested in going to see Allison Kraus. It took me about 10 seconds to decide. If you aren’t familiar with her (and Union Station, the band she has been recording and touring with for many years), go buy a CD or download some songs from iTunes. It’s OK, we’ll wait.

The concert was at our city’s performing arts center, an indoor/outdoor facility. We had great seats under the shell. Here are a few of my observations:

• Allison has an amazing voice. She can run from low to high, from a near whisper to mezo forte with what seemed like effortless ease, and without a trace of harshness or edginess.
• The guys in the band are amazing musicians.
• The JBL Ver-Tec line array they played through sounded exceptionally clear and present (with perhaps a little too much emphasis at 1.2 KHz). However even with an amazing sound system, there is no substitute for talent.
• There is also no substitute for being able to move large quantities of air to properly reproduce a stand-up string bass. Sorry, but two double 18’s were not enough.
• Even without adequate bass, it was the best-sounding concert I’ve ever heard in my life.
• Music is worship. God gave us music, an He obviously blessed these musicians with an incredible talent. To be in their presence as they exercised their gifts was to be in God’s presence.
• Most of the set was done with just the bass, fiddle, acoustic guitar (or 2), banjo and a dobro. They did a few songs with a B3 or piano, and the drums. I didn’t really miss the drums when they weren’t there (and normally I really like drums).
• Did I mention Allison’s voice?

I was a little surprised at how the snare sounded. Normally I go for a really bright, snappy, in-your-face sound on my snares. However, for this show, it was rather muffled; Joel described it as muddy. And you know, I really liked it. It was there, but it was clearly in the background. My guess is the FOH engineer didn’t want it to be competing with the sound of the guitars or vocals (which is what we were there to hear anyway). I want to try toning my snare down this weekend and see what happens.

It was also nice to come away from a show without my ears ringing. The concert was a perfect volume—loud enough to hear and feel, but no where near painful. That was refreshing. I spent the first half of the show analyzing the mix, trying to figure out what he was doing. That was highly educational. A big part of learning to mix better is going to listen to people who can mix better than you. This guy was pretty good.

After a while I got wrapped up in the music and was reminded why I love to mix—because I love music. Almost any music. Music is one of God’s gifts to us. It is beautiful and points to God as the Creator of beauty. If it’s been a while since you have seen a live show (and it has been for me…), go see one. If you have the wherewithal, take the volunteer sound techs in the church. Make it a educational field trip. Honestly, if I had known how good this was going to be, I would have done that. And it was good to get out and spend some non-church time with a friend. Thanks for thinking of me, Joel!

Of Cables, Conduits and Labels

Warning: Rant coming. It might be best to get the kids out of the room for a minute.

One thing I’ve discovered in the last 20 years of doing church tech (and other tech for that matter) work is that in any given cable installation, over a period of time, the once neatly installed cables degenerate to a mess resembling a big old plate of over-cooked #11 Vermicelli. I don’t know if there is a roaming squad of cable trolls who tangle it all up or what, but it’s been true of nearly every installation.

So last night I decided to pull all the cables in our youth ministry center and lay it out again. I wasn’t surprised that all the cables were twisted up, and that a bunch of stuff was not connected correctly. What really aggravated me was that I found a bunch of cables that were laying in the cable tray under the counter with no labels on them. There were RG-59’s that disappeared down a conduit without a trace of where they may go. I found cables running up to our RF DA in the ceiling without a single flag of tape as to which one was input and which were outputs (after toning them out I found out the input cable was connected to an output terminal, explaining why the system didn’t work…). I found eight 1/4″ lines also laying in the tray, with no idea where they go.

I’ve done a lot of wiring in my life, and I’ve learned a few things. One is that putting a label on a cable end doesn’t take that long, and it makes troubleshooting a lot easier. I’ve learned that in a month, I will not be able to remember where all the cables go. I’ve also learned that I will not be the last person working on the system. And this is where the aggravation comes in.

If you start running cables all over your church to connect rooms or booths or TVs or whatever, and none of them are labeled, at some point, something will get disconnected and someone will have to figure out what goes where. If everything is labeled, it’s a whole lot easier to track it down, especially in a large church. We have 5 theaters that are all inter-connected by unlabeled wires. Which makes the wires in the conduit useless. At some point, I will have to spend the better part of a day toning these lines all out and figuring out what goes where. That’s a huge waste of my time, and it could have been avoided by putting something other than a flag of red tape on the end of a cable.

I like to label everything. We have one of those nice label printers with a QWERTY keyboard on it, and I personally have gone through at least four 50′ rolls of label tape in the last year. I label connectors with the tape, and put clear heat shrink over the label (a cable tray full of labels that dried out and fell off is almost as frustrating as unlabeled cables).

While were on the topic of labels, make sure you label it so someone else can understand it. “To Lobby TV” might be a great label—if your church has one lobby and one TV in said lobby. However, when you add on in 3 years and have another lobby with another TV, things will get confusing. For runs that leave the room (whatever room they originate in), I suggest some type of code to go along with the label. If you have all your rooms connected with RG-59, perhaps tag each end of the cable with a serial number, like “RF-1,” “RF-2,” etc. You can also put something on there like “To Min Cntr” so that someone has an idea where to go look for the other end of “RF-2.” Same goes for audio tie lines.

I even label cables in equipment racks and behind soundboards and the like because eventually, it will need to be unplugged. Who can remember what gets plugged into where? If the connector is big enough I’ll label it with where it goes, “To Projector,” and what it gets plugged into, “Octo Output 1.” If it’s a small connector, I’ll just call it what it is, “RF Mod In.” The idea is that one person should be able to unplug everything, and someone else could plug it all in correctly, and without tracing lines all over the place.

Next time you’re about to string some cable over the ceiling, or push it into a conduit, think about putting a label on it. It takes just about a minute to do it, but I can almost promise you will save someone a lot of time trying to trace it out later. You can get a label printer just about anywhere;  clear heat shrink is cheap insurance and available here.

If you happen to be the one who ran cable all over Crosswinds with no labels, I hope I didn’t offend. Perhaps you can come in some Saturday and help me track them down and we’ll label them together.

What Makes A Great Church Sound Tech?

Pulling off great sound during a church service is no easy feat. It’s not like a concert, where you can focus all your energies on getting a rock solid music mix. In the church setting, there are a ton of extra elements plus the added bonus of last minute changes. Getting it right takes a lot of work, and significant attention to detail. The rewards however, are significant. Below I present to you what I consider to be the 5 key factors in mixing a great church service. This is not meant to be exhaustive, but if you pay attention to these, other details will fall into place.

Pay Attention
Seems obvious, right?  Except, how often do you see sound guys talking on the phone, texting, working on a laptop, talking to someone else, reading a book? Too often, I’d say. A typical church service is made up of many elements, and you’re typically working with non-professional talent. This means you need to keep an eye out on what is going on. There are often last minute changes to the service; someone comes up to pray when they were not scheduled, a song is inserted into the close, the song order changes, whatever.

The point is, you need to watch what’s going on and be ready to react to it. Sometimes we can get so wrapped up in tweaking EQ or trying to find the perfect mix we forget to lift our heads up and notice that person stepping out on to stage to pray. Or we may get so focused on one element of the mix that we fail to appreciate how the people in the room are responding to the service. Being a great church sound tech takes concentration—the service is not the time to get caught up on relationships.

Plan for Contingencies
As the saying goes, “Stuff Happens” (I think it’s more graphic than that, but this is a family friendly blog…). Things will go wrong during the service. Songs will get sung out of order, batteries will die, mics will suddenly stop working, monitors will get unplugged. Whether or not the problem becomes a distraction depends on how you handle it, and how you handle it depends on how you prepare. Having a spare mic on stage is cheap insurance in case the worship leader’s mic suddenly goes out. Making sure they know it’s there and what to do is also helpful.

What do you do if the pastor’s mic suddenly stops working during the message? Again, having another one ready to go, near where he or she is standing is a super idea (and one I need to implement, come to think of it…). I know of some churches that double wire the speaker, just in case one mic fails. Not a bad idea. Take a look through your typical weekend and think about all the things that could go wrong. Then come up with a plan to deal with each one in such a way to minimize disruption. Someone running down the aisle, jumping up on the stage and changing a battery during a song set is not minimal disruption.

Watch the Big Picture
There was a great article in Live Sound a few months ago entitled Nice Third Rack Tom. It talked about a sound engineer who spend the entire sound check trying to get the tom sounding perfect, but ran out of time to put the rest of the band in the mains. The first time the audience heard the lead guitar was the first time he heard it too. You can guess how well that worked out.

Likewise, in a service made up of many elements, there is a tendency to focus on our favorite—getting the bass sounding sweet, tightening up the snare, dialing in a smooth vocal effect—and missing out on the big picture. You could have the most perfect sounding rack toms ever, but if the actors mic feeds back during the drama because you didn’t get it dialed in, you missed the point. I like to work in layers, making sure each element is good before I make anything great.

I developed this technique while editing video under tight deadlines. First I cut the video together. Then I’ll make a quick pass at adding needed graphics. Then a pass at sweetening the sound. Next I’ll color grade. Then if there’s time, I’ll go back and tweak the edit, upgrade the graphics, make the sound better, really dial in the color. The end result is, if something takes longer than I thought, I still have a video. It may not be sweetened, or color graded, and the graphics may be simple, but there’s an image on the screen.

We can do the same with sound. First get your gain set right. Then rough in a monitor mix. Next, rough in a house mix (you can actually do these steps at the same time). Then tweak monitors. Make sure you check speaking mics. After you have everything good, work on making it great. You may not always have time for greatness, but the truth is, most people won’t notice if the kick is a little muddy. They will notice if speaker feeds back because you didn’t get that mic rung out.

Think Ahead
This is similar to paying attention, but it goes one step further. You’re in the last chorus of the last song of the song set—what’s next? Does someone come up to pray, is there a video? What do you need to do to get ready for it? You shouldn’t be surprised at what comes next. If your church doesn’t do order of service documents, maybe it’s time to start (check out the downloads section for what we use).

Today at Crosswinds was a great example. We went from a video countdown, to a live intro with the worship team to three people (including me) doing announcements from the tech and sound booths. To be ready to do the announcements, I had to make sure my mic was turned on, my script was on my computer screen and be sure the other two wireless mics were on. In the last measure of sustain of the song I had to mute the worship team (2 mute groups, vocals first, then band after the sustain), unmute the announcement wireless (but make sure only one fader was up), boost the level of the matrix mix to the TVs and Lobby, and get ready for the video that followed. And I had to be ready to deliver my announcement.

It was a tense few minutes. Last night, I forgot to turn my wireless pack on. I wasn’t thinking far enough ahead. Today, I automated as much as possible and began preparing during the second chorus. I may have missed a few minor opportunities to “perfect” the mix on the song, but the service flowed smoothly. To make it work, I though through the sequence of events much the way a downhill skier visualizes his run from the top of the mountain. During pre-service I put my hands on the knobs and buttons to make sure it would work.

I’ll admit to not thinking things through more often than I should, but getting this right is what separates the men from the boys.

Smile
I’ve met some pretty cranky sound techs, even in the church. At Crosswinds, we have a great group of guys who do a great job every week, with a smile. I often say, “We’re worshiping God, it’s supposed to be fun.” A contemporary service can get really tense with all we have going on. But that’s no reason to not enjoy it. That’s why I’m so big on planning. Plan for everything that can be known ahead of time, and you’ll have the bandwidth to deal with the unexpected with a smile. Not only that, how do you expect to recruit more volunteers if it doesn’t look like you enjoy what you do?

So I propose that the best church sound techs are not neccesarily the ones who can mix the best. They are the ones who deliver a smooth and distraction-free service week in and week out. They make it look easy, even when there are hundreds of things going on at once. And most of all, they do it with a smile that makes people want to be around them. Those are my thoughts, what say you?

Compressing Pastors and Good Memories

Two completely different topics—I know. Stay with me. I am writing this from an undisclosed location near Nashville. My family and I are here for a wedding of a dear friend of mine, Zach (of Zach and Sarah fame from John and Sherry in the morning on K-Love if you hear that where you live…). It’s really fun because I haven’t seen Zach in some time and he is one of the first people I ever trained in audio. Last night I was invited to his impromptu “Bachelor Party.” I have to tell you it was great to sit around with his peers and hear how much of an impact he has had on their lives. I thought back to 15 years ago when I was leading the youth group and he and I had so many deep discussions about theology and leadership. I was reminded of the verse, “Know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” What a joy to see how God used what I had to give years ago to now be such a blessing in others lives. Zach is truly one of the “good guys,” and it is truly an honor to know him. Zach, I wish you and Sarah all the very best God has in store for you.

I write this not only to indulge my sense of nostalgia, but also to encourage you, dear reader, to continue to invest in the lives of others. At times it may not seem like it makes a difference, but when we give of ourselves to others in the name of Christ, it does not return void. God will use even our most feeble efforts to accomplish His goal. What a privilege to be part of that.

Now on to our topic at hand—Pastors (OK, speakers) and compressors. I’m not speaking of a magical device that will shorten a 40 minute message to 30, rather the magical device that keeps the level of the speaker’s voice under control.

I’m a firm believer in compressing the spoken word. If I have enough channels of compression, I will compress everyone on stage who talks. I do this for two reasons; to make sure that the voice levels are high enough so that everyone can hear every word and to keep the listeners from becoming fatigued. Let’s tackle one at a time.

First, compression will help ensure the level of the speaker is sufficient to get over all the other noise in the room. It’s seems counter-intuitive that a device that lowers gain will help you keep levels up, but work with me.

Pretty much any room will be noisy, even when it’s “quiet.” People rustling papers, coughing, HVAC noise, babies crying; all of these things (and more) add to the noise floor of the room. In order to make sure the pastor can be heard, we need to keep the level above the noise floor. Placing a compressor on the insert of that channel gives us the ability to keep the average level up while not allowing peaks to get too loud. The compressor keeps the level more consistent, and more listenable. It’s not possible for a sound tech, no matter how good, to “ride” the level of a speaker and keep it smooth. The compressor does it more quickly and more consistently while the sound tech can keep an eye on the big picture.

You see, the challenge of putting the voice through a system capable of generating ear splitting levels is that the voice can easily get so loud that it hurts. In our room for example, we have a few speakers who can easily fill the room with just their voice, especially when they are making an enthusiastic point. All of those dynamics add up to listener fatigue when run through the sound system. The speaker gets so loud that it is plain uncomfortable to listen to. What I try to do is keep the speaker’s voice supported with the sound system when he (or she) is speaking quietly, and let their natural voice do the work when speaking loudly. The compressor allows this to happen smoothly and (if set correctly) transparently.

So how do we set it up? It varies a little from speaker to speaker, but I like to put the compressor on the channel insert for their mic. After I set the gain on their mic, I will start with a mild ratio of 3:1-4:1, and start lowering the threshold of compression until I get between 2-4 dB of gain reduction. This “leveling of the peaks,” is enough to lower the overall dynamic range and make it more easy to listen to. When loud passages come along, or if I’m dealing with a more dynamic speaker, I like to let the compressor take out enough so that the increase in energy is apparent, but doesn’t result in the hair of the audience being blown back. Sometimes this means 6-9 dB of gain reduction. If you get into too much more than that, it will start to sound unnatural. Keep in mind, gain reduction of that magnitude is for brief periods of time, as in a word or two. You don’t want to run a steady state of 6-9 dB reduction.

I may accomplish this by lowering the threshold, or by increasing the ratio. If a speaker is mostly steady state, with occasional flashes of energy, a higher threshold with a higher (5:1-6:1) ratio may keep those loud moments under control. There is definitely some experimentation to be done here.

As for attack and release times, I will often just use the “auto” setting on the DBX 166XL I use for this. If you aren’t happy with that, or don’t have a good auto setting, try 30 milliseconds of attack and 100 ms of release. This may or may not work for your speaker, but it’s a good starting point. You want to keep the release time short enough that a loud word doesn’t kill the volume of the next sentence.

One thing to be aware of is that you want to set the gain on the channel with no compression or gain reduction (or gain increase on the compressor). Either pull the insert out, or set the output at 0 and raise the threshold all the way up (on the compressor) while you set the gain (on the board). The danger is that if you set gain with the compressor active, you can end up overloading the pre-amp while still seeing 0 dB on the channel. The compressor will just compress whatever you send it, lowering the volume back to the channel, meanwhile you can have the gain on the board cranked into nasty distortion zone. So be aware of that. If you see red clipping lights flashing even though your level appears in the green, that’s what’s happening.

I also recommend that if you are not familiar with compression that you do some experimenting at a time that is not the service. In fact that’s a good rule of thumb: Don’t try out new technology or settings during the service (don’t ask me how I know this).

So there you go—a brief (yeah right!) tutorial on compression. Happy mixing!

A Great Worship Weekend

As someone who does something related to the technical arts in church nearly every weekend, I occasionally find myself questioning my career choice. Because of the nature of my job(s), I am often working at least part of the day 7 days a week. It can get to be a grind sometimes if you want to know the truth.  But then, once in a while, God reveals again why it is I do what I do.

This weekend was Youth Weekend, an annual event where our student ministry leads all three of our worship services. Because I am also the student ministry media director, I have gotten to know our students, and have enjoyed working along side them during the year. The great thing about our student ministry is that it’s completely student led. We have student worship teams that lead worship and pray, students do the announcements and direct the teaching.

This weekend when that group of 15 students, ranging in age from 13-19, stood on stage and led the whole Body of Christ into worship, it was simply amazing. Even though I was quite busy mixing (and ending up with a sound that was every bit on par with our adult bands, I might add…), there were several times when I was almost overcome with emotion.

In some ways, when one is at all involved with youth ministry, the students start to become your kids. In this case, one of the students was my kid, my 14 year-old daughter. To see her up on stage leading hundreds of people in the worship of our King was breathtaking. How cool is it that I get to be part of that?

What was so powerful about the weekend was not just the talent the students displayed (which was considerable), but the heart with which they worshiped. They were so authentic, so real and so genuine. What impressed me is that when we as a church invest in the lives of those in our care, God does amazing things. And because God has, in His providence, chosen to allow me to be part of that, what I do makes a difference.

This weekend, through these students, God poured back into my life what I need to keep going. If you are involved with a technical ministry, I know it can get to be a burden sometimes. There are times when you don’t feel appreciated, or significant. But know this – you are so important to God’s plan. What you contribute is so worthwhile.  Sometimes, it just takes a teenager to show us that.

By the way, how cool is that set? Its a frame of 2×4’s painted black, with translucent roofing material stapled to it. Some cheap clip lights with colored bulbs give it color. We have 3 different colors to chose from so it always matches the mood. Way cool!

Be a Soundman – In Two Hours!

Recently I was given a challenge. It wasn’t posed as a challenge, but the more I thought about it, that’s what it was. We have a new ministry starting up in our church, and like most of our ministries, they needed technical support. Early on, they established the laudable goal of recruiting and training (well, I would train) volunteers to provide that technical support (sound, lights and video). A few weeks ago, they had some new recruits, and wanted to schedule some training. Now here was the “challenge;” I was asked, “Will 10 AM – Noon be enough time?”

Sounds innocent enough, right? Is two hours enough time to train a group of volunteers with little or no experience in the technical arts how to do what I’ve spend the last 20 years learning how to do. All I could say was, “Uhh, sure, that will be fine.” As I sat there staring blankly at the open door of my office, I started thinking about all the things I’ve tried to teach in 2 hours. Recently, I taught a 2 hour class on how to use compressors (could have used more time…). Before that was 2 hours on EQ and basic mixing techniques (went 30 minutes over…). Shoot, last summer to teach a group of Jr. & Sr. high school students how to do tech in that same room, I did two 3-hour sessions!

Once again, I got to thinking…there is a lot to this tech stuff we do. Precious few people can walk up to a soundboard, even a small one and start mixing. Some people can pick up on how to use Media Shout in an hour or two, and while programming a simple light board isn’t rocket science, it’s not exactly intuitive if you’ve never done it before.

I came up with an analogy (I love analogies…). Trying to teach someone how to do tech in 2 hours is rather like trying to teach someone how to play guitar in 2 hours, and then have them stand on stage and lead worship. Some years ago, I tried to learn to play the guitar. After about 4 months I gave up. And it wasn’t for lack of trying. I would “play” for several hours a night sometimes. Turns out, playing the guitar well is hard. The same goes for the technical arts.

Sure I can show someone how to advance a script in MediaShout, maybe even talk about how to add a song or a graphic. But once the lights go down and it’s showtime, it’s another world. I can show someone that “this is a fader, it makes the mic or instrument or CD player louder or softer in the house,” but go beyond that to patching stuff in, setting up multiple monitor mixes, effects, EQ…by now most people’s eyes are glazing over.

If you are a faithful volunteer or staff person who has mastered some level of proficiency in the technical arts, give yourself a pat on the back. This is complex stuff we’re doing here, and getting more so all the time. Have a commitment to learning all you can to improve your craft and don’t let anyone call you a button pusher. Yes, sometimes we do push buttons, but it’s knowing which buttons to push when that sets us apart. We’re no more button pushers than the lead guitar player is a string plucker. To all the technical arts people out there – I applaud you. Thank you for using your technical aptitude to serve the Kingdom of God. The service could not go on without you.

So what did I do with my 2 hour training window? Well, I simplified everything as much as possible, sent out a 7 page handout in advance for them to study and wrote a 15 page booklet with as many diagrams and screenshots as I could get in there. I talked as fast as I could and hoped I covered enough so that they can get started. Then I invited all of them to my upcoming 2 hour session on basic mixing…

How Loud is Too Loud?

There has been a lot of discussion lately about how loud we run our services. I got to thinking about this recently while going through a thread on the church sound forum. The question was posed, “How loud at FOH?” The answers varied greatly, from in the mid 80s to well over 105 dB SPL. Then a debate ensued about whether the metering of the sound should be done with A-weighting, C-weighting, fast or slow response and where the meter should be placed. Because I’m a geek at heart, I really enjoyed the discussion, and ended up doing a bunch of extra research to better understand the whole topic of sound level metering.

But something was bothering me. The thought that we can quantify how our various congregations perceive loudness and represent that with a single empirical number troubled me. There are so many factors that affect perceived loudness. Consider these factors as a non-exhaustive list:

• The acoustic signature of the room
• The tuning of the speakers
• The quality of music on the stage
• The skill of the FOH engineer
• The type of music
• The temperature, humidity and loading of the room
• The mood of the congregation (are they into the worship, or more passive?)

Those are just some of the factors. Some we can control or change, and others we may be stuck with. For example, consider the tuning of the loudspeakers. A while back, we had an issue with the tuning of our room. People were actually leaving the worship service because it was “too loud.” From a purely SPL standpoint, it wasn’t that loud; maybe 90-92 dBA. However, when a vocalist really belted it out, or the drummer hit the cymbals hard, it would just about take your head off. It hurt to be honest. Because we were still using floor wedges, we had to keep the FOH level high to cover up the stage wash. Now, when people are walking out of the worship service because it’s too loud, there is a problem. So we fixed it.

By switching to personal monitors and EQ’ing and time aligning the all the speakers, we’ve improved the situation by a large margin. Now we can mix the house sound without having to just cover up the stage wash, and while we still run peaks between 88-92, people have actually thanked me for turning it down.

Or take the skill of the FOH engineer (and I have no one in particular in mind here…). If the sound tech is not particularly adept at mixing, he or she could construct a mix that is painful to listen to regardless of the actual level. Improper EQ on vocals is a prime offender. Because our ears are generally more sensitive in the mid to upper midrange, if the vocals are too hot between 2-3K, the entire mix will sound “too loud.” Or if th music is overtaking the vocals and the mix lacks clarity, it will sound “too loud.”

Even the style of music will dictate what is too loud and what is not. A soft reflective ballad of a worship song may sound just right at 80 dBA in our room, while a really rocking number feels perfect at 92 dBA. However take that same ballad up to 92 and it sounds “too loud.”

So I propose this: If it sounds too loud, it is – regardless of what the meter says. Now, if this doesn’t open up a can of worms I don’t know what will. Who is to be the final arbiter of what “sounds too loud?” I suspect that will vary from church to church, but there should be consensus between the music pastor, senior pastor, sound tech and the congregation. This is not to say that we take a poll, but let’s face it, if the congregation is leaving during worship or complaining because it’s too loud, it’s too loud. Once a philosophical level has been agreed upon, the SPL meter can be useful for making sure things don’t get out of control.

For example, in his book  The Heart of Technical Excellence, Curt Taipale talks about a plan where more experienced sound techs are allowed to mix with peaks ranging in the 90-92 range (this range will depend totally on your room), while less experienced techs are only allowed to go to 86 – 88. The techs then need to be trained to understand what music needs to be near the top of their allowed range and what needs to be lower.  In any case, exceeding the top of the range can be cause for a “time out” of no mixing for a while. The ranges were set and agreed upon by the music director, technical director with input from those in the body and pastoral staff.

This is getting long, but I guess my point is, don’t blindly follow the number on a little meter as your final determining point of loudness. There is so much more to it that we can’t simply say, “The meter says 92 – it’s not too loud!” That may be true, or it may not. I’m curious to hear your thoughts on the matter – this is by no means the final word on the issue!

Practice Makes Perfect

It’s a phrase we hear all the time, right? Practice makes perfect. Actually, it doesn’t. Perfect practice makes perfect. Regular old practice just ingrains the same mistakes into your mind. But I digress. It’s commonly understood that if you want to get better at something, you need to practice. But now it’s time for one of Mike’s #1 pet peeves – people serving in the technical arts at church who are not committed to getting better at what they do. This boggles my mind.

We expect that the worship team will practice their music individually, and corporately prior to the service (and if they don’t shame on them – but that’s another post). This practice not only familiarizes them with the music, but also hones their skills as a musician. The same holds true for drama people. We would expect the preaching pastor to continue to improve not only their hermeneutics, but also their presentation skills, so as to engage their audience more completely.

As for the tech team, we expect…{insert crickets sound effects here}. Well, what do we expect? Too often, we expect too little, even of ourselves. If you’re a tech person reading this, what have you done in the last month to improve your ability to perform your task? Some might argue that it’s difficult to “practice” the technical arts. To some extent I agree, you can’t practice mixing if there’s no one on stage. But how about coming out for rehearsal time and work up a mix, then play with some outboard gear? Lighting people can spend hours playing with different combinations of lights to see what effects they can come up with (I know, I’ve seen them do it at our church…).

How about continuing education? I’ll talk on sound (because it’s my passion) but the what I’m about to say carries over to every discipline. I’ve been doing sound and live production for almost 20 years, yet almost every week (sometimes every day), I learn something new, or pick up on a new technique. How? Because I spend a few hours a week reading magazines and web sites devoted to sound engineering. Right now, I get 5 technical magazines (all free) delivered to my house each month. I’ve also taken on-line classes on sound engineering (all free). There are numerous classes and seminars you can attend that are not free, but very good.

When training is offered at your church, do you attend? Are you willing to show up when it’s not your weekend to watch over the shoulder of someone else and maybe learn something? See, here’s the thing: What we do is very difficult, and it’s not for everyone. Making great sound in an imperfect room even with good equipment is every bit as difficult as playing piano. Creating compelling and effective lighting effects that enhance not interfere with worship is just has hard as singing a solo. So why would we think we can hop in there once a month (or once a week) and “just do it?”

I once had a conversation with a sound tech (a few churches back) about music. I had just finished running camera for a Christian music festival. I was listing off some of the bands we shot that week, the Newsboys, Third Day, Michael W. Smith. After each one, he said, “Hmm, not familiar with them…” Ok, so what kind of music do you listen to? “I don’t really listen to music much.” And he was a sound tech!? Nope, that’s not good folks.

Remember, we’re serving the King here. He didn’t skimp and give us seconds when he gave it all for us. How can we give our best to our earthly employers during the week, then come in and give leftovers to God? Call me a fanatic, but I don’t think we can. Check out the links page for some resources to help build your skills. Thanks for reading…

On Easter, Forgiveness and Making Tough Calls

Today is Good Friday. I’ve always questioned that nomenclature, and having just watched The Passion of The Christ earlier this week, it still doesn’t seem to fit. What happened was ultimately good, but the process was surely not. Watching the movie was difficult, as much as for the violent beating Jesus took on our behalf, as it was for the way He behaved toward His tormentors. It struck me as profound that while Jesus was being beaten to within inches of His life, He was dying for the very sins being committed against Him. I can’t even begin to comprehend that kind of love for others. It really puts things in perspective when a singer wants a little more “me” in her monitor, for the fourth time in as many minutes.

Having done this church tech thing for quite some time, I’ve dealt with some difficult artists. Few, if any, were bad people. They were just trying to produce the highest quality product they could, and sometimes lacked people skills. God has softened my heart quite a bit in recent years, and I’m much more tolerant than I used to be, though sometimes it takes work to get along. Watching The Passion really helped drive that point home. The work is worth it, because it is what is best for the Body. When we display an attitude of servant-hood, and really serve the people around us, we are reflecting Christ, and that will do more to further the cause of Christ than copping a ‘tude and yelling at the vocalist that she has enough and must be deaf if she can’t hear it (not that I’ve actually ever done that…it was a guitar player and turns out he was deaf in one ear…but that’s another story).

Nonetheless, as a technical arts director (or sound guy for that matter), sometimes you have to make the tough calls. Just last night I had on stage 6 incredibly talented musicians for our Good Friday services (we do 2, one ends up on Thursday). If you’ve read this column at all, you’ll know we switched to the Aviom personal monitoring system about 6 months ago and haven’t looked back. I’ve had the entire backline (all instrumentalists basically) on “ears” for months. No wedges or amps on stage. The effect on the house sound is amazing. With no stage wash to contend with, we can dial up a really sweet house mix

The trouble was, these guys and gals like to play with amps and wedges. They use the Avioms in the studio (they are all semi-pros…), but like wedges when playing live. I was reasonably sure we could have kept the volume down, but it would still color the house. And for this service, with the style of music and the feel of the drama that was also happening, I knew it would be a impediment to the optimal worship experience for the congregation. So, I did what I had to do; told a group of amazingly talented musicians, all my senior, that they couldn’t have what they wanted, and that they were going to use the Aviom system. They took it like the pros they are, but I know they were frustrated.

By the end of an amazing, worshipful night, everyone was fine. The music was incredible, the drama powerful and all came away feeling like we had led the Body closer to Christ. Could we have worshiped had the band used wedges and amps? Probably. But the experience would not have been the same. I would not have been able to modulate the volume to match the mood, and that would have created several jarring transitions. Going the route I took meant the entire evening was fluid, and the look on people’s faces as they left was enough for me to know I did the right thing.

Thanks for reading – and have a joyous Easter celebration on Sunday!