My Church Gig

In the ongoing effort to balance intensity with volume levels I made a change to our system processing this week.

Last weekend we got the usual complaints but this time I was told that people said “it sounds great, it’s just too loud.” I’ve never heard “sounds great” as part of a volume complaint so I perked up. It might be because people who complain generally like choirs and we had one last week. Just a guess.

It was interesting to me because I featured the choir and lead vocal prominently and let the band take a little of the back seat. Ironic after all my talk about vocal placement but it just felt right for the morning. To give an idea, measured in dB-A Slow the band even with guitar solo ranged from 85 to 89 at most. At the 9am service I let the choir run up to peaks of 93 with no complaints. At the 11am service I only ran the choir up to 91 and 92 with complaints. In each case I just gave the room what felt right at any moment.

On Monday I gave a critical listen to the raw CD over the system. Truthfully, it’s a little in-your-face in the high-mids especially when it breaks 89dB-A. I can see how it would be uncomfortable for some.

After the jump: Smaart screen shots and audio clips of adjustments made to the system if you’re interested. If you don’t feel like wandering off into the technical weeds, just jump down to the audio clips.

Read the rest of this entry »

I’m prepping a post about some technical stuff having to do with volume levels and multiband compression in a live setting. In it I reference last weekends worship.  That worship time deserves a short post of its own.

Last weekend’s worship at Cornerstone goes down in my book as one of the most memorable in our history. I can’t put my finger on why, and if I could it would only diminish its personal meaning the way naming things does.

I love what Frederick Buechner says about naming things in his book The Sacred Journey. My memory is hazy and I never have a copy around because I’m always giving it away, but I remember that he spurred this thought I carry around.

As a small child, a tree has greater personal meaning and intrigue before you learn to call it a tree. Before it has a name it only has its treeness and you’re not yet aware of any distinction between you and it. There is only what is at the moment you see, touch, and smell the giant in front of you. We inevitably and necessarily learn the names of things and lose an innocent sense of wonder as we start to feel that we understand them; that we own them somehow.

We would be wise to take care in describing and naming things we don’t understand – like an amazing time of worship. I saw a couple people on Monday and Tuesday with a look in their eye still of, “Wow. I don’t know what that was but… Wow.” And isn’t it the same with God? Certainly God would inspire a stunned and awe-full “Wow” infinitely more than anything else ever could if we’d let ourselves be comfortable with not naming, not fully comprehending, and not owning him but rather being (re)named, comprehended, and owned by him. I understand the deep value of the ancient Jews never speaking his name.

So, my fellow tech friends, may you have more moments of “wow” and more mixes (and camera shots, focus rolls, graphic slides, lighting transitions…) that come together on their own in ways that feel deeply spiritual and full of mystery.

I used to smoke.  That means I quit smoking once. We all know that smoking is more than a habit; it’s an identity.  If you smoke then you’re a “smoker.”

Here’s the hardest lesson I learned when quitting:

Just because you don’t have a pack of cigs on you doesn’t mean you’ve given it up.  Nope.  You haven’t given it up till you toss the lighter in your pocket.  (And the ones in your glovebox, junk drawer, night stand, yesterday’s jeans…)  That’s harder to do than it sounds, believe you me.

I don’t know why, but that’s what I think of when a guitar player or bass player walks in and asks, “Hey, do you have any guitar chords and a guitar stand anywhere?”  I think to myself, “I know your type – you’d ask me for a smoke AND a light.”

If you don’t have (1) all your own chords and enough of them, (2) a tuner with a mute switch, and (3) guitar stands for all of your axes then you are no more a “guitar player” than a “smoker” without a lighter.  And, no, that pick in your pocket doesn’t mean a thing.  Drummers don’t ask for sticks and sound engineers dislike roadie duties.

OK, this is a fun little rant but honestly, I don’t mean to impose my personal standards upon everyone else. The answer is actually yes.  We have a few guitar chords.  We have a few guitar stands littering the back stage.  You can always grab some if they’re available but, please, put them back.  Remember that they’re only there in case you forget your own.  Guitar cables like to walk so I don’t like to stock up on them.

What I’d like to point out to fellow volunteer musicians (I am one too) is that when you show up with everything you need and display a sense of self-sufficiency your confidence level as well as the confidence level of everyone around you goes up.  It says something about how seriously you take your gift; God’s gift to you that you give back in worship to him.  Nothing says “pro” more than a player who only has to say, “just give me your XLR for my acoustic” or “my amp’s ready for a mic.”

A tip for the road:  Don’t take any non-church gigs without having all that stuff.  The sound guy down at that super-cool club will stare at you blankly and only for a second or two.  You’re on your own.

OK.  Go shopping.  Need suggestions for what to get?  Leave a comment.

Chris Pedro was hired as my audio assistant when we built our building 5 years ago. I was still doubling as webmaster and that hat grew by gallons after we moved in. Nowadays Chris is the secret glue that holds this joint together. He masters audio, manages the podcast, mixes weddings and funerals, bails out ministries with tech problems, replaces house lights, sets the stage… the list goes on. And over the years he’s become a darn fine engineer.

Now, Chris is reading this and probably feeling a little queasy about public praise so I’ll take it easy on the guy. What I wanted to share is the secret of any success I’ve had as a church FOH guy: sharing FOH and other responsibilities with someone I trust.

I believe that if it’s at all possible, especially in a church environment, you need a Pedro. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

If you’re single and work at a church in a production role then you already know where this is going.  Here’s what it’s like.

You:

• are perpetually available and value that as a positive spiritual attribute.
• are often commended for going above and beyond the call and lap up the admiration of your pastors.
• are secretly resentful for constantly having to bail out ministries that don’t plan their events well.
• find yourself on campus more evenings than there are days in a week and lament the lack of a social life. And the mere thought of the effort it would take to develop a social life on top of your job makes you queasy.
• find that all of your friends = workmates = church people = the same people you see 9 days a week.
• have more unused vacation than most pastoral staff.
• feel guilty for saying no because, though you won’t say it out loud, your personal time seems to carry less value than everyone else’s.
• wonder why you’re still single.

If you resonate with that list at all then you are my people. Here’s what I’m learning in my 40s, never married, having been committed to ministry in various forms throughout my life. Read the rest of this entry »

If you follow this blog much you’ll know by now I’m a bass player and musician as much or more than a sound guy.  Honestly, more than less. Good bass players live between the precision of the beat and the flow of the groove and we’re generally more aware of the whole picture than the rest of the band. Generally speaking, I’ve noticed that bass players are more likely to become engineers (live or recording) than the rest.

One thing good bass playing has is, bluntly… sex appeal.  Seriously, good bass playing is straight up sexy.  Not gonna lie.  I’ve had a man-crush on more than a few players.  Clearly, I’m no expert on sex appeal but I’ve read that the main ingredient is confidence.

Rules # 1, 2, and 3: Play and sing with confidence.

Feeling confident and playing with confidence are two different things – and it takes a little time and maturity to figure out how.  This applies to every aspect of life by the way.  So much of life is reflected in live music, don’t you think?

With that said here’s what most bass players are dying to say to you all. We do you no favors by keeping quiet.

1. Play what you mean.  Mean what you play.  Always.
2. Sing what you mean. Mean what you sing.  Sing it wrong; just sing it strong.
3. Attack the first note. Not the second, not the third, not the fourth.  The first! The first note is the most important note of any phrase and if it’s not solid then the rest matter less.
4. Get into it for chrimeny sake! Don’t stand there and eek out words and notes like it’s a transcendent humility at work in your soul.  That’s the opposite of soul, my friend.  Smile.  Put some personality into it. If you don’t feel like you have any personality of your own then borrow some.  (I actually mean that.)  Playing live is not unlike acting.  Don’t punish your listener with your lack of feeling it.  Your job is to help them feel it, not you.  That’s not faking; that’s caring and serving.  Fake it till you make it.  That’s what I say.  (You might carry that advice into your marriage by the way.)
5. Make it fun. Fun doesn’t mean it’s not serious.  Playing with a tight, smokin band is seriously fun.

Sam out.

Hey, check out this thing I made with Adobe Flex.  I mean, who doesn’t love a hot blond chick in a desert canyon?  Move the bottom slider and observe some mad coding skilz.

Read the rest of this entry »

My buddy Noah is a front-end web developer and pretty much a rock star at it. Any web developer will tell you that Internet Explorer 6 is the bane of their existence; that its quirks seek to taunt your sanity, even your living soul, right out of your body. The blogosphere is rife with arguments for and against supporting the old hag of a browser.

The basic problem with IE6 is it’s nearly impossible to do all the sexy stuff you can with every other browser and we all know how hard it is to kneel before the lowest common denominator. It’s a humility that takes real cojones to muster.

Here are links to two of Noah’s posts about IE6. Short reads and well worth it. If you’re into web development you’ll thank yourself for adding the feed to your reader.

• The Secret to Becoming a Rockstar Developer
• Because It’s My Job

Web development is very much like audio engineering for church. I love both for the same reasons. There is a fine balance to strike between art and usability. And, most importantly, your target audience determines this balance. If your target audience includes folks using ten-year-old white boxes or users on networks where admins have kept IE6 for security reasons then you have to support it. Great developers agree it’s used enough in general that it shouldn’t be ignored at all.

Talking with Noah last week after rehearsal I dropped the words, “They are my IE6.” Whom, you ask? The congregation. Selfish thing to say, I know. Thing is, I’ve had a taste of running sound for a few awesome concerts. I’ve gotten to drive some big A rigs at festivals for many thousands of people. There’s absolutely nothing like it. Running sound at a church certainly is nothing like it. Ever feel like you’ve been handed an 8″ by 11″ piece of paper and some watercolors with which to create your masterpieces. The drama of the ego is unbearable sometimes, isn’t it?

The question of “target audience” is the Mexican jumping bean in my noggin lately. A couple years ago our pastor told us to reach younger in attraction with our production. I took it as liberty to crank things up to where it sounded the best we’ve ever had it IMO. It’s ok if your target audience isn’t necessarily the audience you have as long as everyone’s on board with it. I know of an aging church in San Francisco that hired a younger pastor with the intention of targeting a younger generation. I respect that.

After a couple years of this downward reach I scan the auditorium, as I always do during worship, and the crowd still looks pretty much the same. The complaints are the same. The compliments are the same. The volume has come down to lower than ever before. On rare Sundays we’ll peak only at 89dB-A but most of the time at 91 or so. Granted, it’s compressed so the average volume hasn’t dropped as far.

Bottom line. People coming to church in middle-class suburbia don’t expect a concert experience and some (if not most) honestly just don’t want it.

In his blog Noah inspires, “I’m not going to sit on my ass and let a sad browser defeat me. I’m going to make my work look good in IE6 for as long as I need to because it’s my job.” That’s what makes a real rock star in this business – deriving your satisfaction from kicking tail at creating something satisfying to others if not yourself.

I’ve said before that I preach to myself a lot. I need it. Here goes:

As church FOH engineers, our greatest challenge is to find where our best sound and the most acceptable volume level intersect. At times the two seem planets apart. It is a Jedi art form, no doubt, but remember, just about anyone can make it sound great when it’s loud. Making it sound great within limitations is as hard as designing an elegant site for IE6.

Rock and roll wisdom advises, “If you can’t be with the one you love, then love the one you’re with.” Makes sense to me.

Donnie Darko is one of my top ten favorite movies of all time.  In a very memorable scene a teacher asks students to read a paragraph describing a potentially complex moral dilemma (something like someone found a wallet with money in it but kept the dough then turned the wallet in to lost and found) then asks them to place an X on the life line between fear and love.  Donnie argues that life isn’t that simple; you can’t evaluate every life situation on a one-dimensional line.  Then he gets sent to the principles office for… well, you’ll have to rent the movie.

So it is with intensity in music.  You can’t just place an X on the volume line between quiet and loud.  It’s not that simple.

I say this all the time: Greater volume does not necessarily equal greater intensity.

The inverse is as true:  Less volume does not necessarily equal less intensity.

Intensity is borne more out of complex concepts like motion, tone, balance and tension than by the one-dimensional concept of volume level.  There’s a certain level of maturity a musician gains the moment he or she realizes that song sections don’t necessarily need to be louder or softer – they just need to vary in intensity.  Here’s why this is important to me.  Every time I’m behind the console and I hear a band just play softer, not only does the detail of their parts vanish, they typically get sloppy.  I know because I bring up the faders to get them back in the game only to discover the game’s been momentarily suspended.

I say this as a bass player to other bass players and the drummers to whom we are married to for moments at a time:  Play what you mean.  Mean what you play.  Always. “Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a well placed, well chosen note.” –Proverbs 25:11 for musicians.  It applies to all musicians, but especially the rhythm section.  Don’t succumb to the path of fear!

That doesn’t mean you need to be always aggressive.  It means don’t futz around playing ambiguously as if it adds anything to a tender moment and as if few people will hear what you’re playing anyway.  It’s usually just a tender cacophony of background noise.  Instead, play well chosen and well placed notes, like apples of gold in silver settings.

Well, I have the perfect audio clip as an example for you.  We have several great drummers but I’m going to brag on James who played last weekend.  He has every bit of this maturity in understanding intensity.  He drops in the perfect snare hit every time.  He chooses every note and places them well.

Here’s a section of “Jesus Lord of Heaven” which was an awesome moment of worship at our 11:00 service last Sunday.  During this 2nd verse, chorus and bridge the congregation went from standing to hands raised to singing loudly in gratitude to God. It was a moving experience.

As you listen note that the volume level is pretty much the same throughout.  The snare on two and four is the same throughout.  Things that add to the increase in intensity include the organ going from a sweet transparent tone to a rock tone and moving up only one or two inversions; not way crazy up the keyboard.  Also, the electric guitar goes from sparse slides with echoes to eighth note arpeggios adding more and more motion.  All in all every note by every player was intentional.  All of this allowed the vocals to breathe and go where they wanted to go.  If you notice anything else please leave a comment.

Disclaimer: this is a straight board mix with no post-production except for the normalization that Garage Band put on it when I exported the clip.

Jesus Lord of Heaven (example mp3)