Sound System Changes :: Update

Collin and I spent some time Wednesday last week on the sound system, and as such we've made some changes.  See below and let us know what you think.

• We setup a return mix to the monitor board from the main sound console.  This will allow the sound engineer to send whatever he needs/likes to the entire monitor system.  Things like music for the band to listen to, or a talk back mic are the intended use.  I ran the line into channel 16 of the monitor board and set the volume at noon on all used mixes.  It uses aux 4 on the main sound console.  The mic is channel 29...simple unmute it and everyone on the stage will hear you, headphones or not.
• There is now another set of subs in the gym.  Could you feel them on Sunday?  We received a good amount of positive feedback that the music sounded 'fuller' and more 'powerful' on Sunday.  Up until this addition we were lacking in power below 80hz.  This made the kick, toms, bass, and synth all lack the power they should have at normal worship volume.  We did another auto-eq of the room and thus far it's seemed to make a big difference.
• We decided to use some extra snake/console room and cabling we had to run the 8-channel output of the drums to the main sound console.  This allows us to mix the individual parts of the drum kit.  It was a huge hit this past Sunday, and coupled with the additional subs, it made the drum's presence much more powerful and dynamic.  The drum parts are run into channels 17-24 on the main console.  From there they are sent to groups 5-6.  We switched the 5-6 busses to group mode instead of their default aux mode.  This allows them to control the overall volume of a set of channels on the console.  You can assign a channel to be routed to a group instead of the main mix with the button next to the channel's slider.  So, the 5-6 bus sliders control the overall volume of the drums (in stereo) and the individual parts are controlled by their respective sliders.
  
• This happened a couple weeks ago, but we removed the Focusrite recording equipment after decided we aren't ready for 16-channel multitrack recording right now.  For the interim we will use a stereo mix on busses 7-8  that's mixed live.
• On Sunday we added another platform for the camera section of our booth.  This allowed us to lower the camera on the tripod to make it more user friendly for those less than 10' tall.
• The radio shack mixer that was added for the computer monitor speakers ended up being bad so it was removed.  The speakers are now directly plugged into the computer again.

We'll have the Sunday in Review for  the 20th posted this evening.  Thanks for being a part of this ministry!

Jason

9.13.09 Sundy-In-Review

Sunday Overview:

• Christian started the service with Psalm 27
• We sang 2 songs “As It Is In Heaven” and “The Father’s Love”
• Oscar did announcements and shared a little of the experience in Guatemala.
• Offering
• Collin introduced “In Christ Alone” as the first hymn of 10 that we will be memorizing for the next 10 months.
• We sang 2 song “In Christ Alone” and “Revelation Song”
• Christian Preached the first week of the Series “Life in the Father’s House”

Sound:

From my perspective on stage the mix was good overall but I would like some input from the other techs that where in service. What I notice most is when there are overall sound changes when the level is boosted during a building part of a song. I really enjoyed these boost by Sam and could tell the response from the congregation was good, i.e. they sang louder. The real test is the reaction from the congregation. When it is really loud and everyone is singing their hearts out boosting the sound like that is a great addition to our time of worship. When the people are standing there staring at the stage and singing very little it can be a hindrance to the congregation singing when the volume is boosted even a little. Working off of the music that the team is playing is very important but it is equally important to work off of the congregation and how involved in worship they are. Turn it up when you notice them singing out, then when we cut out the band on the last chorus of an encouraging song the contrast elevates the importance of the congregation singing even more.

When Oscar was giving announcements in first service I noticed a little bit of reverb was on his voice, it only lasted for a few seconds but we need to make sure to not just catch that when it happens. The best solution for this is to cut the reverb immediately following the end of a song.

Sounds techs take a note of mic 4 as well. Oscar used mic 3 in first service with not issues interference issues, second service we added Drew Pearson to the team on mic 4 and when Oscar used it there was a static like sound that happened multiple times while he spoke. Let’s keep an eye on mic 4 and see if we need to make some adjustments or maybe even replace it.

Projection and Lighting:

From what I noticed projection went very well this week. We installed windows 7 on the media computer and reinstalled easy worship and there were no noticeable glitches at all. Great job this week Bekka. Also thanks goes to Kyle for covering for second service when there was a schedule conflict for Bekka.

I apologize for my lack of communication before first service. I won’t even comment on lighting this week because it is ALL MY FAULT for not letting you guys know how it works. We have now established new presets for “Worship”, “Announcements”, and “Preaching”. Each projectionist and sound tech should get familiar with how it works the next time you are on the team.

Video:

It was wonderful to have Brian Schols start on videography this week. We hope to build up a team of 3-4 videographers that eventually will allow us to project the speakers image on the screen for and bring our videos to another level of excellence. Brian did a great job this week and there was a very obvious improvement over even last week’s video, so thank you Brian. We need to start recruiting some more videographers so please tell all of your friends and let me or Jason know of anyone interested.

Final Thoughts:

Showing up on time for rehearsal on Thursday evenings and Sunday morning is essential for all sound tech’s and/or projectionists. Showing up on time means showing up early, 15-30 min. Practices have been starting late and so have Sunday morning rehearsals. There are times, such as this week where I had an issue with the printer that practice starts late because of the team on stage. For the most part, what holds up practice starting on time is sound related activities. If the sound tech arrives early the worship leader has less to worry about and has time to communicate the needs for that week.

Understanding the needs before anyone else arrives will make practice go much smoother for the worship team, this will also allow the sound techs to take part in the prayer time at the beginning of practice. Please sound techs show up early for setup, if that means you end up sitting around for 5 minutes waiting for the worship team to arrive this would be ideal.

Respond:

If any of you have any thoughts please share here for others to learn from. If you have not subscribed to the blog please do so in order to receive updates as we continue to post our S.I.R.’s Sunday in Reviews.

9.6.09 Sunday-in-review

This past Sunday was a busy one. Here is how things went.

• The service started with singing “Everlasting God”
• Christian Welcomed guest’s.
• We sang “God of This City”
• Christian introduced the identity.ebc document to the congregation.
• Herb Geeslin introduced the equipping hour for the fall.
• We sang “Great is Thy Faithfulness
• Christian introduced the connections ministry as well as Susan Winslow as the volunteer heading it up.
• Christian led the church in communion.
• Angel led the team in a beautiful instrumental for “Blessed Be Your Name”
• The service closed in “The Doxology” and a prayer by Gary Moore.

This was one of the busiest Sunday’s we have had in a long time. The "Fall Preview Sunday" is always like this but I heard a lot of good feedback to the effect that this was a great Sunday to come and worship and hear of the exciting ministries going on here.


Sound:

Multiple members this past Sunday mentioned that the sound mix was a good one. Sam Riley mentioned how different the mix is when sitting in the front few rows compared to back at the sound booth, there seems to be much higher clarity. This being said I want to thank all the sound techs for doing what they do in the midst of imperfect conditions. I am looking into some sound treatment for behind the sound booth for some better isolation, hopefully equaling better house mixes.

There were a couple instances where the speakers could not tell if their mics where on in the house. It takes courage but we should do our best to provide mic levels in the house that we want on the first word. Other than this I think this Sunday went wonderful sound wise, “Brownie” is here to stay.


Projection and Lighting:

As far as I could tell there were no major issues with projection this week. The only thing that I heard of was some issues that were my own fault. We did not go through “The Doxology” during practice and the Jeff had no way of knowing we were only doing the first verse but he recovered just fine.

There have been many instances of things going wrong in the short history of my being involved on Sunday mornings that we should be able to laugh at and this is one of them. Clancy Sheahan had a video to show during his presentation of his class in the equipping hour. The video was played in Window Media Player and had to be dragged over to the screen display then also the audio did not play right away. First we should always play videos in EasyWorship this seems to be the most efficient way to play videos and the least distracting. Second, we did not know of this video until a few minutes before 1st service. We will no longer allow videos to be added so close to the service unless they are submitted by the previous Friday, then approved by myself and/or Christian.


Video:

The video recording visually was awesome but the audio was completely distorted to the level of causing me to laugh along with Jose when we listened to it. We will work on this level again this Sunday as we are all obviously amateurs when it comes to this video. We will get better and it will be fun getting there.


What did you notice this week? Where there any distractions I may have missed? How can we do what we do better? Questions like these are what we want this site to address so please share whatever feedback you may have.

I will hopefully be doing these posts the Monday or Tuesday following the Sunday service rather than this late in the week. Have a great rest of your week.

tech.ebc - welcome

Welcome to the tech.ebc blog. If you are part of the tech team at Emmanuel, we are so glad to have you be a part of this very important ministry. This site will be used mostly for what we call “Sunday-in-review” but may also include posts that we are looking for discussion on. Please sign up for email updates on the right, this will also allow you to comment on the weekly blogs.

And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for
you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his
will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to
walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him,
bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the
knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power,
according to his glorious might, for all endurance and
patience with joy

Colossians 1:9-11

Welcome to tech.ebc!

Hi there! Thanks for stopping by. We're glad to have you on our tech team here at Emmanuel and we hope this website helps make your experience all the better. Here we will post a weekly Sunday-In-Review entry and ask for your feedback. Whether you decide to comment or not, please make sure to sign up for email updates (right) so you know what is going on.

We love our God, we love technology, and we love serving our congregation with excellent technical support. This blog is going to be our primary means of discussing things outside of the monthly tech update meetings. The start of our monthly meetings is still TBD, but stay tuned for more info. Thanks again for being a part of our team.

Jason