.
As I sat at the booth a little perplexed, the worship leader accidentally bumped into a microphone that we use for lead singers in our contemporary services.
This mic, sitting to one side of the stage, was folded down on it’s boom so that it sat parallel to the floor, and it was also pointed right at the back of one of the monitors on stage.
When the worship leader nudged this mic, he turned to the booth and asked why it was even on.
Bingo! It immediately occurred to me that someone on stage, probably trying to turn up the vocals in his/her monitor, was turning up that mic by mistake.
I went to mute the channel of the offending microphone – ah, but the direct out on that channel is pre-mute.
So I figured I had a few choices:
1) Turn the gain all the way down (but then I would have to remember where it was and return it back to the right spot);
2) Disconnect the mic from the personal monitoring system (however, same problem as above, I would have to remember…);
3) Shut off the phantom power to this mic (it’s a Shure Beta 87 condenser).
I opted for choice number 3, and also put a large piece of tape on the button to remind me to re-engage it after the first service was done.
Problem solved, but a great reminder of the perils of using personal monitor mixers on stage with open wedges. You never know with musicians…
Gary Zandstra is a professional AV systems integrator with Parkway Electric and has been involved with sound at his church for more than 25 years.