ProAudio Review - January 2009 - (Page 45)

If this is a constant issue at your church, I strongly encourage you to take this to your leadership and find that one person who is ultimately accountable for the sound. Get By with a Little Help from My Friends Many times, we are approached with valid suggestions or constructive criticism, where experience and credentials validate a person’s ability to voice such suggestions to us. There are also times when Joe the Plumber has a thought because he feels worship should sound like it does on his Bose system at home. In their own minds, both have legitimate points. However, we should view their concerns with different lenses. For instance, I’ll often ask Joe the Plumber if he wants me to explain the differences between our system and his Bose. Not in a cynical way, but with sincerity, because if I put myself in his shoes, I would want a logical explanation. If they start to glaze over or aren’t interested in any technical jargon, I’ll simply thank them for sharing and agree that I, too, would love for it to sound like a Bose system, share a laugh and move on. Then comes the guy or gal with the technical know-how graciously accepted his offer. What could it hurt? Was I going to lose something by having a couple of additional microphones up there for a choir? Worse case scenario, I’ll bury or cut them. Jump ahead to our Christmas Celebration service, and we had an adult choir. I paired these microphones 2-3 feet in front of the front row of the choir and about 6 feet high and 3 feet apart to capture the sopranos and altos. They joined our small overhead microphones hanging over the friend of who used to run sound our “Achurch hasminegreatquote: “Everyone hasattwo a jobs: their own and the sound man’s.” His quote was birthed from the neck turns of people in the congregation anytime something went awry and the many-voiced opinions about how things should sound—because everyone can run sound, right? ” A c h u r c h m e m b e r ’ s S e n n h e i s e r M K H 416 p a i r : A ke y e l e m e nt i n “ t h e b e st c h o i r s o u n d ” Da n h a s ev e r a c h i ev e d . to talk a bit of shop. And you know what I have found? Most, if not all, of these people would love to be called on to help out at their church. They get great value from helping out and being asked for their counsel without prompting. They are incredible resources for us to tap into and can ultimately make us better engineers. Case in point: We recently had a children’s choir sing with our worship band. In itself, a choir presents unique challenges from an audio perspective; make it a children’s choir and those challenges are magnified. Basically, our setup is a couple of large boom microphones behind risers with two small pencil-style microphones hanging over top and one wedge for monitoring. The two mics did an admirable job on their own, but when you factor in our whole band playing, the choir was lost in the mix. A few days later, a longtime member of the church who is also a very knowledgeable engineer approached me about the miking for that choir. He kindly offered up a Sennheiser MKH416 pair with wind screens for loan the next time we had a choir, and you know what? My defense mechanism crept up from the archives for a brief moment. But then my — ahem — mature humility kicked in, and I bass and tenors. The end result was absolutely the best choir sound I have ever achieved. Was it solely on those two microphones? Probably not solely, but they played a large part in capturing the fullness of the choir, even with the band at full strength. I even had an elder seek me out to compliment the sound of the entire service. Edification is always a welcomed conversation. The Point? My point is this: I have learned that the majority of the people want to be heard and their concerns or observations validated. It doesn’t mean I am a bad engineer or I don’t hear things well enough; it’s just that they have ideas and opinions, too. As we enter a new year and get wrapped up in all the technicalities of the job, I wanted to hit the pause button briefly and lend a bit of encouragement for working with those in our congregations that are not designed solely to be thorns in our side, regardless of what it may seem. If we take the time to embrace these people and gain from their strengths, ultimately our worship experience will improve. As iron sharpens iron, we are to sharpen each other. Now, back to loving the art of mixing. www.proaudioreview.com January 2009 | ProAudioReview 45 http://www.proaudioreview.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of ProAudio Review - January 2009

ProAudio Review - January 2009 Contnets Technically Speaking New At NAMM: Studio Opinion: Studio Sense Feature: PAR Session Trials: Large-Diaphragm Microphones Review and Second Opinion: McDSP TDM Emerald Pack III featuring FutzBox PAR Contributor Of The Month Review: Audio-Technica AT2050 Multi-pattern Condenser Microphone Review: LaChapell Model 583s Microphone Preamp & Model 583e Microphone Preamp/EQ Review: RNDigital D4 Plug-In Mini Review: MXL Microphones V88 Large-Diaphragm Microphone Mini Review: Solid State Logic Mynx New at NAMM: Live New Live Products Opinion: Worship Audio PAR Recommends: Portable PA Options for 2009 Mini Review: Fishman SoloAmp Review: AKG D 40 Instrument Microphone Installation Profile: 9:30 Club, Washington, DC Single Slice

ProAudio Review - January 2009

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