Open Air or Isolation?

I was writing a friend tonight and the topic seemed appropriate to bring up on here for some interactive discussion if any of you are interested. I can’t be the only one wondering about how to take my mix to the next level!

My biggest handicap at Kensington is our room. The auditorium we are in was intended to be no more than a 5 year home when the campus was built in 1998 and isn’t far from being an activity center/gymnasium. There is little acoustic treatment, so interaction with the room is a big factor in everything I do. Our music team just came back from the Thirsty conference put on by Passion at North Point in Atlanta. The biggest feedback I’ve heard about the event was that our guys were very jealous of the big-ness of the sound…that the kit could be without a shield, guitar amps kickin, and Neumann sennheisers on vocals no less and everything sounded awesome. I love the Neumann head (we have 5 or 6 of them) but I have to be so careful with when they are used because they have such an open pattern that they can quickly become an extra drum mic if the kit is not shielded.

It seems there are two schools of thought regarding sound for worship at churches, although I think one perspective always wins if the church and room is on the smaller side. The first direction is to keep everything open and treat it like a rock show (when was the last time you saw a shield on an arena stage?). Guitar amps and drums are mic’d, but not shielded. The artistic directors love this because it looks awesome both in the room and on video. The challenge is that stage volume goes up and increases the interaction with the room. This is fine if the room is big enough to overcome it or the room is sound and the added stage volume doesn’t accentuate negatives already in place in the room.

The other direction is more along the lines of studio isolation. This direction does everything possible to keep stage volume to a minimum – isolated cabinets, drum shields or even electronic drums in really small spaces. Like I said, I think there are lots of churches that have no choice but to do this because their space dictates it.

My challenge in navigating through the waters at KCC is to figure out which artistic direction would be best suited for us and then sell that to the powers that be who need to be in the loop on it. Our music guys were blown away by the experience at Thirsty, but yet I know that North Point goes the isolation route in their day to day services. So does Willow, who we pattern so much after. Now none of them go so far as electronic drums – they don’t have to – but isolation is the key to them, keeping stage volume down and house mix intelligibility high.

There is no question in our space that it sounds best when we keep the stage volume down, so I think that the answer to my question is to find ways to make the musicians as comfortable as possible so they can give us an excellent product to reinforce, while doing everything possible to keep the volume down (ears, isolated cabs, shields, etc). It also means more conversations with the music department and arts folks about priorities and long-term goals to achieve “our sound”.

I’m really impressed with the Radial SGI system for isolating guitar cabinets. Logistics question for those of you who go the isolation route: with the cabinets isolated, how do you deal with the guys who come in with amps where they’re running multiple channels to the amp and need four 1/4 lines between their pedal world and the amp? How many of your guys use integrated head and speaker and how many keep the head on stage and just isolate a cabinet for the sound? Are players with integrated units not happy about having their tone controls locked away where they cannot adjust them? I would expect finding an adaptable solution to this would be my biggest question mark since, like you, I have so many different players through the room in a given month.

Thoughts? What works well for you? For those of you in large rooms (1000+ seats), do you go the isolation or open air route? Why or why not? Thanks in advance!

10 things techs wish they could say to band leaders sometimes…

1. “I can’t break the laws of physics just so you can have more vocal in your monitor. I didn’t invent the laws, I just live by them. You might see if God will change them for you.
2. “If you had spent the last fifteen minutes tuning your guitar instead of fixing your hair, we wouldn’t be late starting soundcheck.”
3. “No, there isn’t a ‘muddy knob’ I can turn down to make it sound better.”
4. “Instead of using another mic for your voice, why don’t we use another voice for your mic?”
5. “Sure, I’ll run all the way down the stairs, across the auditorium and up to the stage to move your monitor three inches. After all, we wouldn’t want you to break a nail by doing it yourself.”
6. “Oh, never mind me. I didn’t want anything from Starbucks. I’ve only been here by myself for the last three hours setting all this up for you.”
7. “No, if you ask me to turn all the house lights down, I can’t make it so you can see the audience’s reaction during the songs.”
8. “No, the camera doesn’t add ten pounds to your face. You did that by yourself.”
9. “There is not a knob to make it sound more round, more blue, or any other shape or color.”
10. “Tell you what: you don’t tell me how to mix and I won’t tell you how to play – deal?”

Tips from Buford Jones…

Here’s the final post from Dave Stagl’s blog, for the benefit of my KCC guys who will get a lot out of these tidbits of wisdom. Dave had the opportunity to do a mixing class with Buford Jones, tour liason manager for Meyer Sound a few months back. Below are some of his notes from the class, along with my thoughts about each of them.

- There are two types of mixing, musical and technical. Technical mixing is where you’re focusing more on the technical side of things i.e., there’s two much 200 Hz in the room or that snare drum needs a little more 5k. Musical mixing is more along the lines of learning the song and becoming an extra member of the band. It’s anticipating solos and understanding what’s happening underneath the solos. Musical mixing is really about making the whole thing gel. When showtime(or the start of the service in our case) hits, you should be focusing on musical mixing and not technical mixing.

[In the KCC environment on a weekend, for example, I treat the first couple hours of rehearsal as technical mixing, getting EQs, compressors, and other band stuff happening and the console programmed so everything feels good. Then the second half of rehearsal, post-meeting, transitions into musical mixing. Once I reach the service, it's time to stop trying to get the killer vocal EQ or guitar effect and mix the service. Another element of musical mixing that is very powerful during worship sets is to feel the music and help the band and vocalists "pace" the set dynamically. You can take a worship set from an 8 to an 11 by appropriately pushing songs organically as they hit emotional high points...pushing and pulling volume as it makes sense, lots of kick and bass during the uptempo closer, great vocal blend with some verb during balads, etc. Our job is to be more than just being technically correct. Many more can achieve that then actually becoming artists themselves and taking the band artistically to the next level - TC]

- The mix should be the result of collective input. This could include the artist, the artist’s staff, and the audience. Buford likes to poll the audience because they’re the ones he’s mixing for. He takes a lot of satisfaction in positive feedback from audience members as they’re leaving the show. He also looks for responses from the audience during the show he’s mixing.

[Like Dave, I watch the audience a lot when I’m mixing. I actualy get into a routine most of hte time where my eyes quickly move from the console to each band member, the IMAG, and back to the console. I find that my attention span mixing a show can be compared to that of a ref in a basketball game. Eyes are constantly moving, digesting, making conclusions, and adapting. Focusing on any one thing for too long will likely cause you to miss another important part of the action because the primary "happy spot" is a constantly moving target. - TC]

- Buford prefers sound systems tuned linearly, and I say AMEN to that!!. When tuning, phase alignment and coverage should be the first priority. Tune sparingly when using EQ, and it should be parametric EQ and not graphic EQ. You should make board tapes and use the recordings to improve your mix.

[My philosophy is to tune the PA so what sounds good coming out of the console on a board tape is what sounds good in the room. If the room is adding to or taking away from parts of the mix, adjust the PA accordingly. I find great value in critiquing my board mixes every week from our service DVDs. In fact, I finally implemented a recording chain so I can digitially record right to my laptop every service and then listen back on my iPod in the car. If the PA is aligned and EQ's correctly, a slammin board mix should equal a good house mix. -TC]

- The volume should surround and engulf the audience, but they shouldn’t be worn out. Again, watch them for this. You want power and not pain in your mix. You need to figure out a comfortable range for your material, don’t worry about specific dB. Get outside opinions on whether it’s too loud.

[It is easy to fall into the trap of watching a level meter and having to fit inside a certain range each week. However, I think way too many churches pay too much attention to SPL and not enough to the feel of the room. I have an SPL meter at my FOH, and I watch it, especially from service to service to maintain consistentcy. But ultimately it really is all about how it feels in the room for a given song and given band. There have been many New Communities where 95-100 dbA was the perfect level for the energy of the room in worship, but that same volume level on a weekend during a hard rock tune would be peeling everyone's hair back. Also, the BAND plays a huge part in the mix quality; a great band mixed well sounds great at loud volumes, but a mediocre band mixed well sounds mediocre at any volume -TC]

- Document everything. Having documentation around is going to be invaluable if anyone ever needs to fill your shoes because you are sick or moved or took another gig, etc. Buford keeps detailed notes on songs such as when the solos are, who’s singing what, etc. He also keeps a diary of shows [I’m going to start], where he talks about what worked and what didn’t and ideas for fixing things.

[Welcome to my attempt at this here on this blog -TC]

- The show is a time for intense concentration on the mix so be quiet at FOH.

[I'm a stickler for this and I'm sure I get on some of our team member's nerves for requiring quiet near me during rehearsal, but I've found its extremely important. Often times I have an extremely limited number of times through an artistic piece to get it right, and it is my job to always be ready as fast as possible to move on to the next thing. It is the worst feeling in the world when the band has to keep running something because it hasn't clicked for me yet. My philosophy is if people aren't going to be standing around me speaking during the actual service, I don't want them doing it while we're rehearsing. Fight for it - it's worth it. -TC]

One last thing that wasn’t in my notes, but I’m going to mention is Buford talked both in his talk and offline about walking over to an artist and listening to them. Listen to your singers without the PA. Listen to the drums, listen to the guitar amps. I walk up on stage a lot during rehearsal to listen to drums and double check mic placement; our drummers all use their own snares and let’s just say that every once in a while someone brings in a snare that I need to check out in person….

[I've found the same thing. The same goes for monitor mixes. It's one thing to listen to their mix solo'd up in the cans and think it sounds great - it's a whole other thing to go up on stage and actually listen to what the artist is hearing. A tablet PC is a great tool for this in being able to make changes and adjustments on the spot. Highly recommended for those of you with digital consoles! - TC]

Everybody’s A Critic…Now What?

Here’s the first “pearl” from Dave Stagl’s blog…this is one of the best summations of an important element of life as an engineer inside a church like Kensington or North Point that I’ve ever read.

The word “loud” is a funny thing. It is a word that gets thrown around quite a bit, but doesn’t necessarily mean what the word really means. While “loud” complaints sometimes mean that “you’re hurting my ears with this volume”, I’ve found that a lot of times it really means “I don’t like this style of music.” As Travis mentioned in his comment, figuring out which complaints to really listen to and which ones to ignore can be an art form in and of itself.

While I’ve gotten to the point where I can hold my own on translating these comments/complaints, the beauty of my position/role is that I don’t typically have to make decisions in regards to them. I will push back when I need to, but I don’t typically need to. I was having lunch with Tom, one of our FOH volunteers, this afternoon, and he just completely nailed what our role is with something that one of his instructors drilled into him when he was at Full Sail sometime ago:

We are not producers. We are engineers.

At my present gig, I am fortunately blessed with the opportunity to work my own tastes into play and can play the role of audio producer/artist to an extent. However, I know that ultimately I am not the final decision maker. I am here to serve our producers and service programming leadership. If we are loud, it is because several people with more responsibility than me want it that way. If we are quiet, it’s the same deal. I put it where they want it. I have my own tastes and they do tend to run in line with my superiors, but when they don’t I’m here to serve my leadership. Sound reinforcement is a support service in AND out of the church. When you have a clear understanding and definition of who you’re serving, you are on the road to a win.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. Colossians 3:23-24 (NIV)