Talking with sound technicians and worship leaders, I often hear the complaint that from week to week the quality of Sunday morning varies.
I have determined some of this is from training, like when there is a problem and the sound tech doesn’t know how to fix it. Some of it is skill; some sound guys just have a better ear and command of the equipment than others.
On the same hand the skill level of the musicians may also vary. I have found that with inexperienced musicians the level they are playing can fluctuate greatly.
I attribute this to their lack of confidence. When they know the song they “bang” it out. When they are unsure, they hold back.
Today I would like to focus on another contributor to the problem of inconsistency: equipment status and organization.
Example Time
It’s 5 minutes before the start of the service and you’re sweating bullets as you have to set up 4 additional players that the worship leader never told you in advance were “joining in with the band”.
You’re thinking, “Great, no time for sound check, much less a simple line check!”
You dutifully plug in the mics and direct box needed and position them as best you can. You then high tail it to the sound booth as fast as you can for the start of the service.
Thankfully you make it in time to guess at the input gain and monitor levels, say a quick prayer and unmute those channels for the opening song.
Then it happens, that infamous bzzzzzzzzzzzzz that makes every sound guys hair stand on end!
You throw on you headphone and determine it’s the direct box that the bass player is plugged into. This is when you’re forced to make a split decision as what you should do.
You decided rather than race to the stage to see if the line chord from the bass is bad, the ground lift on the direct box needs to be switched or if your mic chord is bad, you will just mute the bass players channel and work on the mix.
Plus your thinking at least his bas rig on the stage is working and that will spill into the house.
So, how many of you have had this happen to you? Was it preventable? Of course it was! Feel free to let us know in the comments below!
As I always say it’s the simple stuff that kills you. So, how could all this have been prevented?
More than semantics, equalization has very real practical consequences.
