Sound Sanctuary

Churches are in the unique and difficult position of providing sound reinforcement for multi-use facilities. Our campus hosts a diverse array of events each week, ranging from contemporary worship, conferences, outside fundraisers and even large dinners. One of the challenges that we face is the constant need for “just two wireless mics and computer audio.” Sound familiar? How do you take a large line array driven by an advanced digital audio console and make it usable for these small events? Answer: Pay an audio engineer for every little event. These types of events cost the church money and run the tech team into the ground with a million little one-off gigs.

There are many ways to make improvements to your drum sound, some obvious and some not so obvious. Drums are one of the most complex instruments to mic and mix because of the large number of individual microphones in proximity to one another. While your drum kit and your situation will be unique, here are a few tips and tricks to squeeze the best possible sound out of your kit each weekend.

Powered speaker systems have evolved considerably over the past 20 years. The popularity of powered speakers has exploded, the price has come down substantially and the performance has improved. I’ve met a lot of audio engineers and techs that prefer powered speakers by default just because of the convenience, and don’t really stop to think about the long-term implications of powered vs. unpowered systems. The realities of the powered vs. unpowered debate are complex, and one type of system is not necessarily better than the other. As with most things related to audio, your individual situation will dictate which type of system you choose.

It is an age-old question for a house of worship audio engineer or technical director: Headsets or Lavaliers? As with most things in audio, the answer is, “It depends.” It depends of what you’re using the mic for, how discreet it needs to be, the personal preference of the pastor or performer, the gain before feedback and monitoring requirements, your current inventory and other factors.

Room geometry is one of the biggest challenges faced by sound engineers and system designers. A single level space with a main floor can be challenging enough, especially if the room is not symmetrical about the centerline. Add in a balcony, or even two balconies, and a number of additional challenges will need to be addressed. Providing adequate reinforcement for listeners seated in and underneath a balcony can be a costly endeavor that should be carefully considered.

Over the past decade, many churches have transitioned from monitor wedges to in-ear monitors. The cost of in-ear monitoring has come down dramatically for wired IEM systems, wireless systems and the ear buds themselves. Nevertheless, there are certainly still churches out there that haven’t taken the plunge and are still trying to navigate the benefits and challenges of moving away from wedges. While in-ear monitors aren’t for everyone, they often solve many of the traditional problems that we have with monitor wedges.

Who doesn’t want to upgrade their digital console? I always want the latest and greatest, newest digital console on the market. I’m always bored with my old, tired console, with failing faders and touch screens that just don’t calibrate the way they used to. It’s easy to tell yourself that, isn’t it? That having a brand new, shiny digital console would make your tech team so much better off? From my own experience, that’s not always the case.

As we enter the Lenten season, a common dilemma for the church technical director is deciding whether to buy or rent equipment for special services. When you’re in need of additional equipment for a special set of services, should you rent the equipment you need, should you buy it outright, or should you do a bit of each? My first inclination has always been to “buy, buy, buy,” but when you take a step back, buying is not always the best option in the long term. Carrying an inventory of expensive technical equipment costs money in maintenance and limits your long-term flexibility.

Managing low frequency energy is a notoriously difficult proposition. The very nature of low frequencies is that they are large (see Fig. 1), difficult to control from a directional perspective and difficult to treat from an acoustical perspective. If you mix in rooms that have little or no acoustic treatment (as many of us do), trying to get your low-end under control can be a real challenge.

Miking and mixing piano is one of the most challenging and rewarding parts of mixing audio at a house of worship. Over the decade that I’ve been working in churches, I’ve experimented with numerous different techniques for capturing the piano and ultimately placing it into my mixes.