Lately volume complaints have been more frequent and bundled with complaints that the vocals are not clear enough. When someone is polite enough to email or call and give us a way to get back to them then it gets discussed between Scott, our worship pastor, and Chris and me, the FOH engineers. We take this stuff seriously.
Rather than get into the weeds about clarity and volume again, I thought I’d share part of an email I sent to Scott in this discussion. Here’s a candid peek into our inner workings; the kinds of emails that pass regularly between the production staff. I’ve edited it slightly but the substance is the same. (I’d love to share other people’s emails too but they’d exact their revenge by doing mean things to my cube and FOH booth.)
If you’re an FOH guy or gal I think you’ll resonate with this. If you’re a worship leader remember that vocal clarity starts with vocal performance. If you’re one of our vocalists please don’t be discouraged. We have room to grow, that’s all.
Scott,
…
I think we can afford to bring the vocals out a little more by lightening up on the compression and riding the faders more but we’re probably not ready to bring the drums down much without your direction. I spent some time this morning listening to our web streams and I can see how people who are used to listening to KLOVE and American Idol would consider them buried. For research I reread Glenn’s post. I clicked through Glenn’s links to the Desperation Band website then found a Desperation Band live album on iTunes. After listening to some previews I feel confident again that we’re in the pocket for this style of worship music especially because a live album can be mixed any way you choose. They chose a balance that sounds nearly identical to ours.
Check it out in iTunes:
(Open iTunes before clicking the link.)
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum?id=157191981&s=143441
Freedom Song – driving with lots of cymbals – we do this a LOT.
The Difference – straight ahead snare in your face – where our snare lives.
Live for You – sounds a lot like our web stream. Listen to Everlasting God from two weeks ago to compare.
I believe a preference for vocal placement is generational in nature. The music we play is much more like Desperation Band than KLOVE; more 20s & 30s than 40s & 50s.
So far I’ve been talking about musical style, personal preferences, and mixing philosophy but there are some practical things to consider as well.
Chris and I are often at a disadvantage for the quality of vocal performance we get. These are things I’ve tried to address but have mostly let go of because I get little response. With a few exceptions, our vocalists are not on par with our musicians in terms of live performance.
About pitch:
We bury out-of-tune singing. That happens often with some of our bgvs.
About intensity:
We’re inclined to bury background vocalists when their intensity doesn’t match the intensity of the worship leader – which, honestly, is much of the time. You’ll never have trouble hearing Kim because her intensity always matches the song, the worship leader, and the band. Some of our bgvs tend to sound like a half-flat tire on a sports car. (I don’t know how else to put it.) When they don’t match we don’t push them out front because it sounds out of balance. Now, most of our vocalists have a real capacity to shine, they just need coaching from someone they’ll respond to.
About range:
After recent complaints about vocal clarity I’m convinced that choosing songs that fit the worship leader’s range is more valuable than picking a range that suits the average worshiper or picking a song because it’s awesome. Nobody’s saying, “I couldn’t sing along with that song very well.” They’re saying, “I didn’t feel a connection with the worship leader and the voices on stage.” There’s not much we can do when you guys pick songs that put the worship leader’s voice in the basement especially on verses. That happens a lot too.
(Believe me; we know what it’s like to compromise what’s awesome with optimal range. It’s tough because it’s personal.)
If these issues of pitch, intensity and range are addressed and improved I guarantee complaints about vocal clarity will subside.
-Sam
Note: The blog post reference is to a great post by Glenn Packiam, What I Wish I Knew About Worship Leading…10 Years Ago. It’s a must read for worship leaders.
Entries (RSS)
I find this pretty interesting because this ties into something I’ve been thinking about lately. I watched a bit of the webstreams on Cornerstone’s web site from the last couple weeks, and the vocals seem pretty clear to me. Based on my little MacBook Pro speakers, I might even say it wouldn’t hurt if they came down a bit. BUT maybe in the context of the sound in the room they’re straddling a line between just right and not quite right, and here’s maybe a reason why.
Lately I’ve been thinking about the audience participation factor which is something that I think a lot of guys mixing maybe ignore or disregard. Sure, we might listen to the crowd response and take that into consideration in terms of balancing the ambient crowd against the band, but I’m thinking of something different. When you are singing along, you don’t hear/perceive things quite the same with your voice rolling around in your head mixing with all that incoming sound. Of course, most FOH guys probably don’t know what this is like in the course of mixing because most of them–myself included–tend to focus on mixing in lieu of singing…go figure. Similarly in rehearsals, decision makers tend to be listening alone basing their judgments without taking participation into consideration. In my current gig, our Sunday’s focus heavily on making outsiders feel comfortable so I just generally try and mix it from a listening perspective and keep it all above the audience should they participate. I think of the hundreds of concerts I’ve attended and use it as a baseline. But maybe this isn’t the right approach for every church or worship environment.
Another thing to consider is that most people tend to “hear” the words better if they are reading them at the same time so if your lyrics are up on a screen and most of the room is looking there, that’s another thing that’s going to affect someone’s listening perception.
Anyway, I guess this is just some food for thought if you do tend to find yourself involved in these kinds of discussions.
Thanks, Sam. This is as close as you’ve come to “The Screwtape Letters” in this blog, only . . . wait, that’s IT!!! Write faux letters from some demonic sound engineer . . . wait, no . . .
Hey Dave. That is a genius thought. It hadn’t occurred to me, but it’s true. If I were singing along then I’d hear it all differently, which is why singing and mixing don’t mix. (Ever have to tell your lighting op that the booth is a no-singing zone?) At least two of our complaints are from people who sit center and no more than 5 rows back – and I’m pretty sure we’re not throwing words up front right now. Also, they’re probably the type who prefer to engage in worship with eyes closed. I remember one of your blog posts – must have been a year or more ago – about perception and lyrics on screen. It stuck with me. It’s cool that you bring up your clear direction for making non-church people feel comfortable. I don’t think we’ve defined our direction clearly enough on that point, and long-time church people have no reason to assume that targeting the non-churched involves a different style than traditional church. Thanks for the insight. I’m going to bring it up at our next production meeting.
And Blake! That’s a great idea. A church tech blog founded purely upon satire and irony. Wait, was that your idea? :)
Sam-
Thanks for sharing the inside communication that goes on. It’s nice to see how intentional you guys are regarding the smallest of details. Great insights.
Dave-
Thanks. That’s good point that most people don’t even take into consideration. When I was in Rome on the DZ tour the arena that we were in was really bad. No need for reverb there, everything was in a hall. But the head pastor said that he thought it sounded great. I think it was because he was sitting up front, and he knew all of the songs so he was singing at the top of lungs. He was experiencing his own voice and all the voices around him as part of ‘the mix’.
When I ran FOH at Kensington, during the worship services I would sometimes back off the lead vocals on down chorus situations. The result was an encouragement to the audience, all of a sudden they heard their own voice with the other people in the room, and they got louder.
Sometimes when we mix loud with in your face vocals, it can be an unintentional indicator to experience the situation passively and enjoy the concert, so to speak, rather than engage in the service.
Hi guys, I always mix lower lead vocals or instruments in a down cycle of a song or a soft more worshipful section so the audience can feel a part of the mix. Usually our singers will back off their mics as well and lead the people who in turn participate even more. Makes for great recording as we do everything 32 tracks to Protools every service. When the musicians are all working on in-ear mixes or headphones/Aviom mixes, they will not bring the dynamics down as far as needed most of the time. Marathon is a rockin church, more concert levels than normal church levels but the audience participation is just as important.