As I was pondering on what to write about for this month's Sound Sanctuary, I couldn't help thinking about how many really interesting e-mails I have received over the years. They have not only been interesting but I have picked up a lot of useful information as a result of the e-mails and the sound techs who write them. I just want to say that many of you out there who read this column appear to have more knowledge, experience and greater understanding of mixing worship sound than myself. One of these months, I will list all of the amazing people who have written to me over the years.
Outside Ears
The fact of the matter is that I am a sound professional, but I am constantly looking to learn new things from the pros who I work with or observe. What this is all leading up to is that I would like to have sound technicians from other houses of worship come on over and mix at my church. In reality, this is what houses of worship do when they hire me to mix sound for them. They bring in a pro (like myself) in the hopes that I will improve the sound of a service or event. Some houses that I work with only call me for those "special" presentations. This is why I have more work during the Christmas and Easter seasons than other times of the year.
So, I thought to myself, maybe it would be a good idea to hire a professional sound guy (or girl) to mix at my church. I would be able to observe (and hear) how someone totally foreign to my worship space mixes. Just getting another set of trained ears in front of that good old sound system that I have listened to for many years could be very enlightening.
Right now, this is just an idea, but it is an idea I would like all of you to embrace at one level or another. We all should expand our mixing horizons whenever we can. The last thing I want for any of you is to fall into a Sunday or midweek service rut. You know; like just turning on the system, pushing a few faders, looking meaningfully at the mixing console and at the end of the service saying "God bless you" and going home. As sound engineers, we are bigger than that.
If you walk into your house of worship and decide that you will learn something new about mixing and something new about God at every service, you will have a heck of a good time (and ultimately lean a lot). Which is why I am interested in hiring some fresh ears for my church.
One Pro's Impact
About a decade or so ago, Peavey offered to send a sound tech out to my house in Pasadena, CA to evaluate the worship space. The guy showed up with a laptop loaded with one of the spectrum analyzing programs of the day and a couple of reference microphones. Within a short time, he had mapped out the frequency characteristics of the entire worship room. The process was not new to me, but was fascinating to watch and hear.
The program on the laptop visually defined what I had been hearing for long time. The point is that because my church had gone to the effort of bringing in a professional sound tech, his finding had more credence and caused the staff to take more notice of the sound problems in the building. The end result is that, for the first time in the history of the church, we addressed the sound problems with a variety of acoustic treatments and ultimately overcame many of our frequency issues. In simple terms, we got feedback from a new person and, as a result, we changed the sound of our worship space for the better.
By bringing in a pro to mix at my church, I hope to accomplish a similar result. And that is making the music and spoken word sound better in my house of worship.
If I have sold you on this idea, you have to decide when and how you will get a new set of trained ears to mix for you. You may live in a city with dozen of sound companies and sound technicians at your disposal. Or maybe you have a friend from another church who mixes sound and you could invite them to mix a service or two. Please tell me you have friends or acquaintances that mix sound at other churches. If you don't, get on line and find somebody. You can't live your audio and spiritual life in a bubble. Jesus certainly didn't! Not that he mixed sound, but he could have if he wanted to. You get my point. Life in general is not meant to be lived in a vacuum, so don't live your worship life there.
Get Out Much?
Okay, let me get off my soapbox for a minute and see where we are.
While you are looking for a pro sound person (other than yourself) to mix at your church, you may want to consider visiting another local house of worship and listening to their mix. You may even strike up a conversation with the sound tech and possibly learn something new about your craft. You could even invite your new sound friend over to your house to mix it up worship style. Anyway, whether you are paid for your efforts or not, it is natural to want to do better.
In reality, we are all professionals, or pros in the making. If you work as a professional sound technician, you know you can always learn something new. If you are just beginning your worship sound career or you just want to get better quicker, seek out as many pro technicians as you can and read up on all things sound related. For that matter, read your Bible. You will find many references to music and instruments and sound. God did sing the world into existence, you know. It was probably a very cool song.
