A while back, I came across an old post at another blog that described a trend… lousy church sound. You can read the post here.
I’ll warn you, there are a lot of things going on in that post, and it may take you a few passes through to get a handle on what he’s saying. (I’ve read it five times and I’m still not 100 percent sure…)
My intention is not to attack the author of the post, as I believe he makes some good points. But he makes some statements that I think are worth unpacking here.
Pro Level Requires Professionals
One statement he makes that I’m in general agreement with is this: “They [churches] haven’t yet realized they can’t invest in pro equipment without hiring a pro to run it.”
I’ve been saying this for quite a while now, and I’ve seen it happen at quite a few churches. They start off as a small church in a small room with simple, analog equipment that the volunteers figure out fairly well. As they grow, they build a new building and install a fancy new digital console and no one knows how to use it.
What the church needs is a technical director who can train the volunteers on the new gear and keep it running smoothly. Sadly, most churches discover this too late. There are a couple reasons for this failure.
1) Church leaders don’t realize how complex technology is.
Marketers tell church leaders that all they have to do is buy the latest digital console and their problems will go away. This leads them to tell their integrator they want to go digital.
The smart integrator will talk about the need for training for the team, but in the interest of saving money (which is generally needed because the church is trying to build a bigger church than they can actually afford), the training gets cut from the budget.
After the grand opening, when the integrator has gone home, the volunteers stare at the new console like deer in the headlights and things go downhill from there. The reality is, digital audio consoles are complex devices, and they require someone who knows how to run them properly to set them up. Some are easier than others, but all are complicated. Without training and support, the team is set up to fail.
2) It always comes down to the people.
I’m always amused that churches are more than willing to pay a healthy salary for a worship leader and will put him or her on the leadership team of the church.
At the same time, churches will often expect volunteers with no training, support or guidance to manage incredibly complex AVL systems. If the church does finally see the need to hire a technical director, it will often bring in a part-time person or will only pay slightly more than minimum wage.
But in fact, the person behind the console is just as important to the overall sound and worship experience as the person on stage. If one is worth a reasonable salary and status, so is the other. Neither will do well without the other.
If you lead a church that is going into a building project that will include a whole new technology system and you don’t have the hiring of a technical director on your radar, get on that. I can pretty much promise you will be disappointed if you don’t.
At this point, you might think I’m down on volunteers. In fact, the author of the original article implied that volunteers cannot possibly ever run a complex digital console. However, I disagree.
Blanket Statements & Volunteers
The author’s next premise is that volunteers will never be able to run a modern sound console. To wit: “Churches are discovering the complexities of modern worship. In other words, you can’t have a new mixing console that resembles the cockpit of the space shuttle and expect a volunteer to (ever) be able to get it to work right.”
I think there are two problems with this statement. First, the only console I can think of that resembles the cockpit of the space shuttle is the Midas XL8. And the few churches that have installed those have professional operators on staff because the consoles themselves cost more than a quarter million dollars.
Second, lumping all digital consoles in with the complexity of an XL8 (or perhaps a Studer Vista X) is really unfair.
But volunteers actually can mix on digital consoles. I know this first-hand as I’ve trained people to do it. Because I know so many technical directors in churches all over the country, I know they also have teams of volunteers who do a great job mixing every weekend. I know of volunteers who mix on various Yamaha, DiGiCo, Allen & Heath, Avid, and even Midas PRO Series consoles.
The one thing that almost all of these churches have in common is that they have a professional technical director on staff who maintains the console and trains the volunteers. As technical production systems become more complex, this is almost mandatory if great results are expected.
When I was tech director at Coast Hills, I had a volunteer who got good enough mixing on the DiGiCo SD8 that most people in the congregation couldn’t tell if it was me or him behind the console. Of course, I did a lot of the setup work that helped him be successful, but from an operating/mixing standpoint he could do a great job.
