Vacation

Today is the beginning of a week away to one of my favorite places in the world (Nashville) with my wife for a little summer vacation.  We’re going to be hanging out with some good friends and I’m mixing a gig on Friday afternoon for a reunion show of guys I looked up to when I was a kid.  To be able to mix them this many years later is something I’m really looking forward to!

After 6 months of posting at least several times a week to this blog, I’m planning to take a couple weeks away for a summer sabbatical.  I’ll be back the week of July 20th.  When I get back, we’ll be in the throws of installing a new PA in the room where I mix, new wireless mic systems for campuses, our first Digidesign SC48 being commissioned, and then launching another live campus at the end of September.  There should certainly be plenty of blog topics!

See you then!

Mic Inventory

In the quest for uniform audio bliss at our regional campuses, I’ve set the goal to standardize our mic inventory so we’re all working with the same set of tools and will have more consistent natural results with less channel EQ.  Below is the list I think we’re settling on based on all of the things we’ve learned at the Troy Main Campus this past year.  The final list is a result of trying to achieve the highest  bang for the buck.  It isn’t practical to consider a set of 414′s everywhere or Neumann KM184s instead of the 141s.  Our normal setup is a standard 5 piece band (drums, bass, 2 guitars, & keys).  Occasionally we might have a string player or a couple horns but because anything we do must be accomplished identically at 5 locations, we don’t stray from the norm very often.

With this lens in mind, I’m still curious for feedback on other suggestions we might be missing or should check out.  Thanks in advance.

Digidesign SC48 Video Tour

In exploring Youtube yesterday, I ran across a really informative console tour of the new SC48 console from Digidesign that I have written about previously and we are considering for use at our portable campuses.  Check this out!

My IE6

My new friend, Sam Hernandez (mychurchgig.com), wrote a post that resonated with me deeply when I ran across it a few days ago.  Sam makes an awesome comparison between web development for IE6 (one of the worst web browsers on the planet in my opinion) and mixing to your target audience.  With everything going on right now in my audio world – auditioning new PAs and existing system challenges, dealing with criticism, and the overall uniqueness of trying to do audio at a high level within a larger ministry – it has been quite a journey to deal with the ups and downs of life.

Sam says, “…ever feel like you’ve been handed an 8″ by 11″ piece of paper and some watercolors with which to create your masterpieces. The drama of the ego is unbearable sometimes, isn’t it?”

This one is a must read! Check it out.

Approved!

Coming soon to Kensington Troy:  a new PA!  For the background on what’s been going on the past few weeks, make sure you check out this post from 2 weeks ago if you missed it.

I was recently involved in a process to actively prepare for a new PA that lasted almost a year.  However, due to the complete tanking of the economy in Detroit after the church finished pledging for our Trans4mation campaign, the project was put on hold.  A few weeks ago, I brought in a few different, smaller PAs then what we have currently or were planning to purchase, just to see how they would translate in our room.  Along the way, I think our whole team realized that a bit smaller rig (the leading candidate previously was d&b Q-series) turned out to have plenty of horsepower for what we do artistically and where our congregation is at regarding desired SPL.  Both the Kiva/Kilo & ARC’s rigs sounded fabulous in our space and had plenty of get up and go to make everyone satisfied.  It just so happens that there are some really great system options that fit in this category that also save us some pretty significant money which can then be invested into lighting and video, giving us an overall better product as well.  It really is a win/win for everyone.

So, we’re approved to proceed…evaluate, discern, and install!

The goals from a new rig are:

1. Even coverage with as few of boxes as possible so as to avoid all of the phase and comb filtering issues we have currently

2. Crisp, pleasing high end while maintaining rich, buttery, pleasing mids and thick, tight, feel-in-your-chest type lows.  The Kiva did exceptional with the highs and lows but the mids were lacking that pleasing quality.  The ARCs had wonderful mids and lows but were a bit smeary on the high end…especially with imaging and directionality.

3. Through our experimenting with these other rigs, we learned that a system that can get us into the mid-high 90′s without giving up is plenty for our weekend and midweek services.  Since we EXTREMELY rarely, if ever, bring in outside artists where we need to be concerned with rider acceptance or true concert levels, that goal isn’t the most critical for this system.

4. It is also a really good thing for the Troy main campus to have a similar level rig to what our portable campuses own since we’re all working in pretty similar size rooms.  If money were no object, it would be awesome to have a concert level J series or VDOSC in the space, but the reality is those boxes are TOO big for the room, throw too far, and are not the right choice.

D&B released a new PA a few months back that is an interesting solution for our room called the T series.  The system is comprised of T10 main cabinets, the T-Sub which is a single 15″ box that extends the response of the flown array down to 47 hz, and B2 subs for the ultra low-end.  The T10′s biggest claim to fame is that it is extremely flexible, used both as a line array and as a high directivity point source loudspeaker.  The HF driver is fitted to a unique waveguide horn producing horizontal dispersion to 105°, but by rotating the horn by 90°, the T10 is  transformed into a vertically oriented standalone full range loudspeaker with 90° horizontal and 35° vertical dispersion.

In our application this is incredibly unique and helpful because our rig will be comprised of two 6 or 7 box arrays at the front of the room covering 90% of the main floor, but we also need some front fill and balcony delays.  Due to the flexibility of the T10, we can use the same box for every application in the room, ensuring consistent voicing and performance throughout the entire space.  The dispersion of the T’s is also a better fit than the Qs (105 degree vs 75 degree) which will mean less fills to make up for dead spots in the dispersion of the main arrays.

I’ll write more about this as we start down the path of evaluating this rig in a few weeks. I’ve always been a really big d&b fan and this system carries on the same legacy of the larger J & Q series.  Can’t wait!

(For those of you who are more familiar with Kensington’s rigs, this is the same system we are planning for the Lake Orion campus which will be going live this fall.)