Comments on: Vocal Clarity – and a look inside Cornerstone

By: Eddie Howard

Eddie Howard — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:39:44 +0000

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.

By: Nolan

Nolan — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:49:40 +0000

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.

By: Sam

Sam — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 06:03:54 +0000

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? :)

By: Blake Simpson

Blake Simpson — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 03:20:18 +0000

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 . . .

By: Dave Stagl

Dave Stagl — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 05:06:24 +0000

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.