I've been doing sound for my church for about 3 years now.
I've talked to people here in the live sound forum a bit and shared my opinions about things such as drum cages, and IEMs and such.
Yesterday me and the other sound guys at my church made a trip up to Puyallap Washington to visit a church and talk to their sound guy. He's been doing sound since it was all tube amps and analog boards. We got to watch him mix for a worship service, pick his brain about things, it was a good experience.
I've realized something about a church's mentality regarding sound people: they expect you to make it sound good, regardless of who is up there and playing/singing. If it sounds bad, it's our fault.
So, because they expect us to be completely responsible for the sound, we have to be given complete control of the sound. We need to be able to make the band silent or super loud whenever we need to.
And that is why I advocate things such as amp-less stages and drum cages. Stage noise is our #1 enemy. We are constantly fighting it. And it doesn't matter how quiet the guitar players and bassist make their amps, we are STILL fighting it.
You also have to remember that worship team members are usually volunteers. They aren't classically trained musicians. Music is not their career, and sometimes not even their favorite hobby. These people don't usually make music their life like some musicians. So really, you can only expect so much out of them.
I have been told time and time again on this forum things like "putting the band on IEMs and taking away their amps is preventing them from growing as musicians."
Well, if the musicians were able to turn down their amps anymore than they are, they would. The bass players at my church all try to run the amp on stage as quiet as possible, but in order to actually hear it, they have to turn it up to the point where it interferes with the mix (and that has to do with our room and our lack of acoustic treatment)
In fact let me stop for just a minute to clarify something: I am talking about my church, and other churches in my situation. Some of this will, obviously, not apply to other churches.
The drummer at my church learned to play drums at the church, she had never played before that. She's been playing for less than 3 years. She is more or less self taught. When she learned to play, she learned to beat the drums fairly hard. We've talked to her about volume and she absolutely gives an honest effort to control her volume. But it's a challenge for her. Because of this, the drums can completely over power the mix sometimes and all I can do is try to get her to quiet down. I move the faders on the board and they don't even change the volume level of the drums sometimes.
People also talk about the disconnect between the musicians and everything around them when they use IEMs. But in my own experience, the use of ambient mics can bring back most of that. Plus, you can actually hear everything!
Finally, the last thing is I hear people say that drums encased in plexi-glass sound terrible. All I can say to those people is that they need to drive up to Puyallap, Washington and visit Experience Church on a Sunday morning for their Dynamic service. Listen to those drums and tell me they don't sound good. When I was there, the drums sounded super-tight (in a good way) and they were HUGE. I loved it. Not only that but even though the kick was so high up that YOU COULD FEEL IT IN EVERY PART OF THE ROOM, it didn't over-power the mix at all. I could still hear everything else in the mix clearly.
So anyway, all of that is why I advocate amp-less stages, all musicians on IEMs, and caged drums. Thank you for reading.
I've talked to people here in the live sound forum a bit and shared my opinions about things such as drum cages, and IEMs and such.
Yesterday me and the other sound guys at my church made a trip up to Puyallap Washington to visit a church and talk to their sound guy. He's been doing sound since it was all tube amps and analog boards. We got to watch him mix for a worship service, pick his brain about things, it was a good experience.
I've realized something about a church's mentality regarding sound people: they expect you to make it sound good, regardless of who is up there and playing/singing. If it sounds bad, it's our fault.
So, because they expect us to be completely responsible for the sound, we have to be given complete control of the sound. We need to be able to make the band silent or super loud whenever we need to.
And that is why I advocate things such as amp-less stages and drum cages. Stage noise is our #1 enemy. We are constantly fighting it. And it doesn't matter how quiet the guitar players and bassist make their amps, we are STILL fighting it.
You also have to remember that worship team members are usually volunteers. They aren't classically trained musicians. Music is not their career, and sometimes not even their favorite hobby. These people don't usually make music their life like some musicians. So really, you can only expect so much out of them.
I have been told time and time again on this forum things like "putting the band on IEMs and taking away their amps is preventing them from growing as musicians."
Well, if the musicians were able to turn down their amps anymore than they are, they would. The bass players at my church all try to run the amp on stage as quiet as possible, but in order to actually hear it, they have to turn it up to the point where it interferes with the mix (and that has to do with our room and our lack of acoustic treatment)
In fact let me stop for just a minute to clarify something: I am talking about my church, and other churches in my situation. Some of this will, obviously, not apply to other churches.
The drummer at my church learned to play drums at the church, she had never played before that. She's been playing for less than 3 years. She is more or less self taught. When she learned to play, she learned to beat the drums fairly hard. We've talked to her about volume and she absolutely gives an honest effort to control her volume. But it's a challenge for her. Because of this, the drums can completely over power the mix sometimes and all I can do is try to get her to quiet down. I move the faders on the board and they don't even change the volume level of the drums sometimes.
People also talk about the disconnect between the musicians and everything around them when they use IEMs. But in my own experience, the use of ambient mics can bring back most of that. Plus, you can actually hear everything!
Finally, the last thing is I hear people say that drums encased in plexi-glass sound terrible. All I can say to those people is that they need to drive up to Puyallap, Washington and visit Experience Church on a Sunday morning for their Dynamic service. Listen to those drums and tell me they don't sound good. When I was there, the drums sounded super-tight (in a good way) and they were HUGE. I loved it. Not only that but even though the kick was so high up that YOU COULD FEEL IT IN EVERY PART OF THE ROOM, it didn't over-power the mix at all. I could still hear everything else in the mix clearly.
So anyway, all of that is why I advocate amp-less stages, all musicians on IEMs, and caged drums. Thank you for reading.
