There are different types of church sound engineers. Allow me to make a generalization for a moment. I would argue that there are three types of church sound engineers. Those that are technically minded, those that are musically minded, and those that are both technically and musically minded. If you are a musician who is a sound engineer chances are that you are technically and musically minded. This is a good thing. For those of you who are more technical, challenge yourself to think more like a musician – this will allow you to serve the needs of your musicians more effectively. Seek the musicians input! Often times when I am leading worship at church, depending on the song, I will need more or less vocal in my monitor, or more or less guitar. However, Ill try to catch the eye of my sound engineer but he may not be looking. Sometimes the engineer can be in a moment of worship with hands raised high, eyes closed, or – hyper focusing on a compressor or some other type of setting and not paying attention to whats going on onstage. Its a frustrating feeling. When I mix at church I challenge myself to be attentive to the band and make sure they are pleased with their monitor mix. If the praise team is comfortable with their monitor/stage levels chances are their performance will be better as well (and the entire worship service will see an improvement). Put it into practice – watch the praise team often – similar to checking the rear view mirror of your car while driving – you dont need to stare, but take a glance every 5-8 seconds just so that you can be aware of their needs – if there are any. And in between glances, stay focused on your mix. P.S. - Next week well touch on Unity mixing – the pros and cons, and a portion of the mini-course I call ‘feedback hunter which dips into using the midsweep feature on your channel strip eq.
Posted on: Fri, 19 Sep 2014 12:44:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015