Question:
Someone's trailer said that soundmen get blamed for more stuff than Satan.
That is sooo true. I wonder if a good sound man is also good candidate for a "Group Therapy Phychologist?" On a more real note, I believe that the Holy Spirit has a lot to do with "relationships" and the way a note sounds and effects a person from the time it leaves the speaker to the time it reaches it's destination. Also....Maybee God is trying to relate to someone who can only accept less than perfection and the soundman is just being sensative to the Spirit. It's not always about us. Sometimes it is about training us to see things God's way.
Answer:
As a sometimes soundman, "Amen" to it not always being about us!!!
Nate
btw, welcome to the boards
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My frustration (as well as sound engineers' frustration on my team) is that everyone has a different way of running sound, which means that the sound board gets changed every week differently. Each sound person comes in and "undo's" what the other person did the week before. And - each way that the sound is done works fine, so it's not like someone is doing something wrong.
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Originally Posted by psalm63adam My frustration (as well as sound engineers' frustration on my team) is that everyone has a different way of running sound, which means that the sound board gets changed every week differently. Each sound person comes in and "undo's" what the other person did the week before. And - each way that the sound is done works fine, so it's not like someone is doing something wrong.
I can see where the extra time on soundcheck necessary in your situation might be frustrating, but it's also making your engineers better (hopefully). Otherwise, it can be easy just to leave things the way they are because "that's the way they were."
My church rents a building/small concert venue that has its own sound system. Usually 12-15 bands use it during the week in between our using it on Sundays. If anything, it's helped make our sound team sharper - at least most of the team members. The extra time, though, can be a frustration.
Nate
Answer:



Satan's
Operative;
Undermining
Nice,
Decent
Music with
Anguishing
Noise


From http://worshiptech.com/index.htm
Answer:
Originally Posted by psalm63adam My frustration (as well as sound engineers' frustration on my team) is that everyone has a different way of running sound, which means that the sound board gets changed every week differently. Each sound person comes in and "undo's" what the other person did the week before. And - each way that the sound is done works fine, so it's not like someone is doing something wrong.
That's why "zeroing" the board every week is a good idea.
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Well, since we have to setup and tear down every Sunday, it wouldn't be great to start from zero every single week.
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Originally Posted by Maestro_dmc


Satan's
Operative;
Undermining
Nice,
Decent
Music with
Anguishing
Noise


From http://worshiptech.com/index.htm
Dude, that is awsome, Im gonna show that to the rest of the guys in the soundbooth on sunday.
Answer:
Originally Posted by psalm63adam Well, since we have to setup and tear down every Sunday, it wouldn't be great to start from zero every single week. Its not that hard working from 0 on a soundboard. Really a "good" soundman should have up a static mix in a matter of minutes.
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Starting from zero isnt to hard.
Now, when you have several people on stage, who all have big ego's, and have their own ideas about whos mic, or instrument needs to be checked first, thats when it gets difficult.
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Originally Posted by niangelo That's why "zeroing" the board every week is a good idea. Boy do I believe in that. Those little greasepen lines do wonders too.... if each soundman has his own color.
I wonder how King David's praise and worship team "zeroed" the Soundboard?
"Asaph...........Tell those warriors to hold thier metal sheilds Perpendicular.... and behind the musicians...........How many times must I explain the concept of reverb???.........I mean you are all seers..aren't you???"
Asaph: "Of course King David." (Under his breath) "I knew that!"
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Considering more than one group use our churches sound board everyweek it doesn't help to have the sound team come in for practice and worship since we have to start from stratch everyweek anyway.
I support the sound guys! And I understand their often difficult role in ministry.
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Here's my take. I lead our sound ministry. First, all but one of my team members have no real technical sound training. They are volunteers who, prior to my arrival, were shown how to set monitor mixes and how to turn off reverb for spoken words and that was about the limit of their training.
Since, I've taken over there have been a lot of changes with training. We now have a reference manual, some DVD training, a lot of shadowing/mentoring, and I distribute articles and hints via a sound team binder.
As for process changes. I insist that the board is set to zero every week. We rarely have the same vocalist or instrument on a channel so its silly to consider starting with a channel that is already 'colored'. It is also a lot easier for someone to scan 32 channels and see most knobs pointing in the same direction and easily pick out those knobs that are different. If that individual tech has made any changes to the board, they know why and are more comfortable changing them later. Less experienced techs can be intimidated and might think "oh I better not touch that knob someone who knows more probably set it like that for a reason".
Now, what doesn't hurt (and what I need to do myself) is setup some cue sheets which show some good starting settings for each of your vocalists, and possibly for some of your instrumentalists. You can usually find downloads of these cue sheets from the console manufacturers. They show an empy channel strip and you can mark in with a pencil the knob settings. Then a tech can come in, zero the board, see who is playing this week, and have their channels setup right away.
Even if you had the same team each week I wouldn't just leave the board as is. Human beings have this strange curiosity with buttons and knobs and I rarely find things left with the same settings they had before. At the very least your tech in this situation should run through the board and ensure things were still set as they were last week, which really hasn't saved you much more time over zeroing and re-referencing your cue sheets. The zero/cue method will save a lot of time when training new people and will also help in those emergency situations where the sound guy calls Sunday morning and can't make it for some reason and you need to get the board setup quickly to something that should sound ok.
Anyway, enough rambling from me.
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Now, what doesn't hurt (and what I need to do myself) is setup some cue sheets
We run a mackie system and I downloaded the cue sheets, they work great.
We have 2 services at our church with two completely different congregations and worship teams. Each service has their own cue sheet and for our service we have a couple different ones for different scenarios, depending on who's leading. The tech goes over each channel and arranges to the cue sheet. Then he works his way from that. The key is paying attention durring the service. It's not a set it and forget it thing.
You need one person in deffinate authority over the sound that all complaints and suggestions go to. It is his responsibility to provide training and shadowing. This person should also be Holy Spirit lead, mature, able to handle critisism and have good communication skills. Don't just put a guy on the soundboard just because he's a techy and likes pressing buttons.
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A sound man is pretty much the catalyst for the flow of the set in a technology-empowered church.
There's nothing better than a good soundman who's humble, knows his gear and mix, and knows how to talk to musicians.
And there's nothing worse than a stubborn jerk, regardless of skill.