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Your Sound Skills?
Remember, Practice Makes Permanent!
A couple of months ago, I mentioned to my MoM (Minister
of Music) that our backing vocals were sounding pretty rough on a regular
basis. Their intonation was so bad at times that we often had to use
the "shoot it before it multiplies" approach to mixing. You
know - if it doesn't sound good, don't turn it up!
So over the
summer he scheduled regular rehearsals just with the backing vocalists,
and he stopped me in the hall recently to tell me about how well things
were going. Not only were the vocals sounding better, but the singers
were encouraged and really enjoying the process.
We rejoiced
together over the results of their renewed faith in practice, but I
couldn't help wondering why they hadn't been practicing like that on
a regular basis for years. I guess sometimes we get used to how things
have been done in the past, and it's not easy to see, or hear, the need
for improvement. As Chris Beatty is known for saying, practice doesn't
make perfect - it makes permanent.
We Need Practice Too
By
the same token, if you're responsible for the sound in your church each
week, you need to be attending those rehearsals as well. The single
most effective thing any church sound mixer could do to improve his/her
contribution to the worship service is to practice with the worship
team on a regular basis.
We are called to excellence in the
technical support ministry. God gave us His best, and our service through
the tech ministry should offer no less than our best pursuit of excellence
for Him. Audio, lighting, and video are all crafts that require our
diligent study to learn.
We can learn by finding someone to mentor us, by reading and studying
books on the subject, by participating in online discussion groups (like
our own Church
Soundcheck Discussion Group), by attending trade shows and workshops,
and so on.
If anything, the majority of people who serve in a technical
support ministry of their local church are way behind the curve on learning
that craft. Let me explain. In most churches, the musicians and vocalists
who lead worship each week are accomplished musicians. They have studied
music and how to deliver an excellent performance with their instrument
for many, many years.
During those years of learning they immersed
themselves in the learning process by taking lessons, practicing for
hours on end at home, playing in recitals, practicing some more, and
attending concerts to hear others perform. It wasn't easy, but they
finally got there. Some are just farther down that road than others.
Yet the majority of individuals who find themselves serving
in the tech support ministry of their local church don't have years
of study at that craft like the musicians and singers do. Many of them
are just starting to learn how the gear works, often struggling with
well-meaning people teaching them the wrong way to do stuff, filling
their heads with audio mythology instead of truth.
Being good
at any one of those crafts also requires an element of performance during
a worship service. A worship leader doesn't walk on stage to perform.
He/she goes out there to lead others into worship of God.
But
there is an element of performance in what they do. Knowing the right
words to the song, knowing how the melody and harmony parts go, developing
the ability to sing well and in key - all of those are elements of performance.
I think you would agree that we're thankful for the time they've invested
to develop the abilities God gave them.
God has given us unique
abilities to shape and control the sound, or the lights, or the video
equipment, to capture and even enhance the gifts of the worship team.
But you didn't wake up one day with the ability to deliver a great mix.
You had to work on it.
Artfully lighting a dramatic presentation
on stage, or even lighting the stage evenly so that the video team will
have a smooth picture to broadcast takes an investment of our time and
a decision to learn and develop those unique abilities that God has
given us.
Stay on Task
Delivering a flawless worship service
requires focus and sensitivity on our part. First, we need to be focused
on the task at hand. As much as I want to close my eyes and lift my
hands in worship during an especially moving song, I can't. It's not
that I can't get anything out of a worship service, because I do.
But
I tend to look at my part of the service as a sacrificial offering to
God so that others can enter in. If I allow myself to get distracted,
if I'm not fully focused on the task at the moment, then I can easily
miss a mic cue, allow a bit of feedback to get out of hand, miss a lighting
cue, forget to put the right song lyric graphic on the projection screens,
and so on. Those kinds of mistakes are understandable, but inexcusable.
We need to put ourselves in the congregation's shoes. The congregation
should simply hear exactly what they need to hear, at the moment they
need to hear it, at the exact level they need to hear it, and not know
how it happened. They should never even know that we're there.
We do this by paying attention to the little things. For example,
if your worship leader is anything like 99.9% of the worship leaders
I've worked with, they sing a whole lot louder than they talk. So let's
say that you have their input fader at "0" (unity gain) while
they're singing. You know from experience that if you don't push their
fader up to +10 dB between songs, that there's no way your congregation
is going to hear what's being said. So when they finish the song, and
you know or suspect that your worship leader is going to talk before
the next song starts, you should have already started moving their fader
up to a position that you know will be loud enough for them to talk
with the congregation.
No compressor is going to make up for
that difference. You - yes, you - have to push the fader up while they're
talking so everyone hears what they need to hear. You also have to pull
the fader back down when they start to sing or they're going to blast
everyone out of their seats. That takes some work on your part to learn
the worship leader.
Every worship leader I've worked with has
a certain style all to their own, including how they interact with the
congregation. Once you've worked with them for a while, and that may
take a few years, you'll begin to sense when they're going to do this
or that. "How did you know to push the fader up at that moment?"
"I don't know. I just sensed that he was going to do that, so I
pushed it up."
You'll also sense in advance when they're
going to sing a couple of words too loud, and you'll instinctively pull
the fader back the right amount without thinking about it. It will eventually
become so automatic you won't realize you're doing it.
It's
like a piano player who can make the piano do anything they want it
to do without even looking at the keyboard. They could probably explain
the mechanics of what they do, but they're such a part of the instrument
that it would be difficult to explain the thought process and emotions
that go into creating the sounds that they create.
So that's
one of your goals - to get so comfortable with the gear that you operate
it instead of the other way around. To listen so analytically that you
can discern even the slightest imperfection in the mix and deal with
it before someone else notices it. If it fits your style of worship
service, to make moves with the house and stage lighting systems that
allow them to have a life and breath that matches the worship service.
Excellence requires study and practice. Lots of it. It's a never-ending
assignment, so get used to it.
Sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
We also need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading at the
moment. This can be as simple as knowing that the guitar player is about
to take a solo, without anyone having told you about it. Now, frankly,
if they're already planning on it, I'd prefer that someone in the band
tell me that the guitar is going to take a solo during the third verse.
But I'm sure you understand what I mean. Trust your intuition.
Another reason for our staying focused on the task at the moment
is so that we don't do something really stupid during a service. For
example, we generally dim the house lights to a preset value at a couple
of strategic moments during our worship services. The dimming system
we use has a fader that determines how fast that fade up or fade down
is. On occasion, one of our tech team members will hit the preset without
checking to see where that dimming speed fader is positioned, and the
lights will snap to the next setting. Now, that's going to be obvious
to any congregation member. Instead of a slow dimmer move from one setting
to another, it's a sudden change that could be a distraction to some.
If it happens often enough, it could even have some members
thinking "There go those idiots in the tech booth again. Why can't
they get that right?" If it distracts even one person from the
worship service, it shouldn't have happened.
My Most Embarrassing Moment
Bet you can't top this one. Several years ago, we were in
the middle of the offertory special music one service when I offered
what will hopefully be the worst mistake of my entire mixing career.
The choir was singing with a live band.
To improve our chances
for gain-before-feedback in those days, we had gotten into the habit
of pre-tracking the choir. That gave me a click track on one channel
to feed to the band, and all of the choir I ever needed on the other
channel.
So imagine this. We're in the middle of the song.
The band is playing with the click track fed over their headphones.
The choir is singing live. I have mics on the choir, and I'm using the
prerecorded choir to fill out the sound and give me some extra choir
volume to use as needed.
As this is going on, I've allowed myself
to get distracted. I'm thinking about the transition from this song
into the sermon. And I'm looking around the sound booth, checking for
things that I might have overlooked, like forgetting to turn off the
CD player that I'd used for walk-in music before the service.
I
look over and discover the cassette deck rolling, and I say to myself
"Well, what's that rolling for?" The moment I hit the stop
button I realized what a stupid mistake I'd just made. You guessed it.
I stopped the track that the band and choir were singing along with.
Now, fortunately for me, my Bachelor of Music degree and 12
years of making my living as a musician kicked into gear at that moment.
I realized that I'd stopped the track on the downbeat of a bar. So I
somehow counted four bars and hit the play button on the next downbeat.
I'd be willing to bet that 99 percent of the congregation never knew
what happened.
Bless their hearts, the band and choir director
caught it, and gracefully adjusted for the extra four bars. But my goodness
did I feel stupid. You can bet that I've never made that mistake since.
It also taught me to stay focused. In a sense, it taught me to keep
from being too focused as well. It may sound odd to say this, but I
was trying so hard to be focused that that in itself allowed me to get
distracted.
My List of Pet Peeves
Here's my list of pet
peeves regarding stuff that just shouldn't happen in a worship service.
Some of these may seem so silly, so expected, so taken for granted that
they're not worth saying. But you'd be surprised how many times I've
seen these mistakes made in other churches, or even by my own volunteers.
If you've got some to add to the list, please send them to me and we'll
compile a list.
Don't miss mic cues. We can't afford to not have a mic turned
on when it needs to be on. But if you come to one of my workshops, you'll
hear me talk about keeping the number of open microphones to a minimum.
That is to say, if the choir's not singing, don't have their mics open.
If the pastor's not talking, don't have his mic on. And so on. But we
also need to stay focused so that the pastor doesn't have to say stuff
to the congregation like "Is this thing on?" What an embarrassment.
Turn off the mics before they hit the stand. It's purely unprofessional
to let a singer put a mic in the clip on a stand without having first
muted that channel. If you don't, the congregation is going to hear
a loud thump over the system, or at least over the monitors. Hopefully
the channel mutes on your console also mute the monitor mixes. That
way all you have to do is mute each vocal mic channel, and they'll be
muted both in the house and in the monitors simultaneously.
Mute the guitar channels. Don't you just hate the loud "buzzzt"
that goes with a guitar cable being plugged in or unplugged with the
channel open? If we can equate the word professional with excellence,
then it's unprofessional to not mute those channels in time to save
the congregation from that moment.
It's a two way street though. The sound guys aren't
mind readers, nor have they been assimilated and become one with the
automation of the console. All that to say, the guitar and bass player
in your worship team should give you a moment to mute their channels
before unplugging. It's just common courtesy, a recognition that we're
a team, that the tech support guys and the musicians are equal members
of the worship team.
Leave the sudden light changes to drama. Unless it's for dramatic
effect, the light changes both on stage and in the house should be slow.
If possible, they should be so slow that the audience really isn't aware
that a change is being made.
Dim the house and stage lights for video presentations. If your
church sometimes uses videotaped segments to underscore part of the
pastor's message, or for other things, you can really help the congregation
see the screens better if you'll dim the house lights a bit during that
presentation, then bring them back up afterwards.
Teach your backing vocalists where to stand, and how to use a microphone.
Would someone please tell me why most backing vocalists stand so far
away from their stage monitors? I don't get it.
In one church I used to work at, our vocalists
were very compliant and stood where we told them to stand - so they
could see down the throat of the HF horn in their stage monitor. Yet
I've seen so many vocalists who run away from their monitor. You ask
them if it's too loud and they'll say no. But they refuse to stand where
it will do them the most good.
Those vocalists I used to work
with were also careful not to hold their mic to their sides facing down
between songs. They simply held it about at their waist, still pointed
up. Think about it. If your vocalists drop the mic to their sides between
songs, the zero degrees on-axis point of the mic is going to be aimed
at the monitor, which is likely going to make it feedback. There's nothing
worse than 2,002 eyes from the congregation looking at you when you
did nothing to cause the problem.
Don't create a visual distraction during a worship service. Investing
your time and God-given talents in the tech support ministry is great.
But remember that it's an unseen, helps ministry. Do your best to keep
it that way. If you need to walk out into the auditorium during a worship
service, plan your route to offer the least possible distraction to
the congregation.
If
you need to talk on the intercom, do so quietly so that others around
you won't be distracted. If you need to get a message to one of the
musicians or singers on stage during a worship service, see if there's
a way to talk to them quietly over the monitors rather than sending
someone on stage with a note. That's another perfect reason for headphones
instead of monitors.
Tighten up the fittings on boom stands. One day in college, I
was helping set up for a jazz concert. As music engineering students,
we were responsible both for sound reinforcement and for recording such
events at the music school.
And I had
been given the responsibility of setting the mic stand with a boom arm
and a rather heavy mic on the end of it for a guest saxophone soloist.
At one point during the performance, of course during a saxophone solo,
that boom arm started to slowly drop lower and lower.
Guess
who was sent out to fix the problem!?! That's another mistake I've not
made since. I'd encourage you to learn from my mistake. Hey, get your
own ones instead!
Don't stop mixing between songs. Remember the technique of bringing
the worship leader's fader up between songs so the congregation can
hear what's being said?
Well, if your
pianist or keyboardist continues playing between songs, go ahead and
pull their faders or submaster down about -20 dB or so. They don't know
how loud they are in the house mix. Even if they're playing softer,
it may not be soft enough. It's your job to maintain a great musical
mix, even between the songs.
Don't forget to practice. It's just amazing to me that musicians
and vocalists - people who are used to practicing on their own - have
to be reminded of the need to practice as a group. I've seen the same
scenario repeated countless times around the world.
Stay plugged in! This is a given, but I've seen this happen to
too many tech support volunteers - myself included. This constant commitment
to pursue excellence requires vigilance on our part, but it cannot replace
our relationship with God. If we get lost in the fun of twiddling knobs
and playing with the gear, and in so doing forget why we're doing this
in the first place, then God won't honor our service.
All that to say, don't work every service. You and your family
need time to immerse yourselves in the worship services as well.
If it needs to be miced, then put a mic on it. I once watched
a sound guy at a church realize that he had forgotten to put a mic on
an instrument on stage, and then decide that it was just too much trouble
to bother going all the way back downstairs to add the mic. Hmm, not
worth the bother?
Keep Up the Good Work
I'll be the first
to admit that I don't always want to bother with the details it takes
to deliver excellence in every worship service. But I can't get away
from the fact that we're called to excellence in this ministry.
We
don't have a choice but to give God our best. It honors Him. It's a
way to say we love Him. It's not brain surgery, but it's important.
So keep studying. Join our discussion group so you can learn daily as
well as share your knowledge with others. And keep giving it your best.
Curt Taipale heads up Church
Soundcheck, a thriving community dedicated to helping technical
worship personnel, and he also provides systems design and consulting
services.
