Gurus of Tech was an awesome experience last week in Chicago.  It was really great to visit with so many old friends, as well as meet face to face many new ones from Twitter and this blog.  The content was as great as you would expect…especially Scott Ragsdale’s interview with Robert Scovill.  I’m planning to unpack a few of statements from his interview over the next few weeks because there’s so much wisdom here, especially in the world of church production.  If you haven’t seen it yet, regardless of if you’re an audio guy or not, go here, watch, and take notes.  His is session #4.

http://www.willowproduction.org/gurus-chicago-2011/

The magic to me of Gurus is the organic-ness of it all.  In a world where there is seemingly at least one conference or trade show a month, Gurus still maintains an innocence just by the whole premise behind it – technical artists gathering together to teach each other, be inspired, and share community.  I’m definitely a convert and will be doing everything I can to take a group from New Life to the gathering this summer in Louisville.

I was especially honored to be able to join a panel with some great friends this time around to talk about the art of mixing.  If you were not able to make it and would like to download “bootleg” audio from our session, my friend Dave has it posted on his blog.  You can find it here… http://goingto11.com/?p=1032

We interrupt this series on #DECADE for a quick blip on Gurus of Tech in Chicago.  If you’ve never heard of it before, Gurus is what I would consider, for lack of a better term, a grass roots organization of church production artists from all over the country who gather a few times a year regionally for education, networking, and encouragement.  In the past, events have happened twice a year – once around NAB and once in the summer in Kentucky.  The team at Willow Creek so graciously stepped up this year to host an event in Chicago that is happening next week.  Due to the close proximity to DECADE that just wrapped up two weeks ago, plus my wedding anniversary all falling within the timeframe of Gurus, I had decided a few weeks ago to pass this time around.

Thanks to some gentle last minute prodding from friends and my amazing wife’s full blessing, plans have changed and I’m looking forward to attending my first Guru event.  On top of that, apparently there was a cancellation on the speaking team and so I was asked to join a panel with my good friends Dave Stagl and Scott Ragsdale to discuss “Mixing – it’s an art, not a plug-in”.  As a fan of great mixing, I’m really looking forward to hearing the other guys’ opinions on the questions we’re going to be asked as its a topic I think we’re all really passionate about.  It should be a fun time on Monday night.

If you were planning to just catch Guru’s the next time around as I was, I strongly encourage you to reconsider.  I just heard this morning that now over 500 have registered for the event so I’m sure this is going to be well worth your time, even just from a networking and relationship standpoint.  I, for one, am really looking forward to finally putting names and faces together with some longtime readers and Twitter friends.

If you’re going to be at Gurus, please make sure and come introduce yourself.  See you there!

Here’s some favorite shots I found of the conference…

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is not measured by the quality of the tools at your disposal – rather in the quality of the approach.” – Robert Scovill

“Take what a man makes and use it, but do not worship it, for it shall pass” – unknown

“It’s not about the stuff, it’s about what they did with the stuff” – Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten

I’ve written on this before, but I think there’s some new pearls here from Scovi in one of his breakouts at Willow this year. Such an important part of the game that is live audio is making the artist comfortable with you regardless of what your actual skills are. So often audio guys keep the gig because of a high credibility score and it has absolutely nothing to do with audio skills. It’s important to show people we’re really together, organized, ready to go…they can trust us. Nothing will serve the team better then you being a trusted, professional engineer. God is in the details – why aren’t we detailed people? Develop into a detail oriented pro!

Poorly handled “tasks” can be the enemy of your credibility. Things in the wrong places on stage, no power, not on time, not ready to go.

“The difference between greatness and mediocrity is not measured by the quality of tools at your disposal – rather the quality of the approach.” Over rated, under paid dude with lots of TEC awards on his shelf

Here’s some ideas on how to improve your score that are really close to my heart right now…

Be accountable as the audio engineer. It’s really simple to say but can be much harder to do. This behavior is infectious and nothing will raise your credibility score more than saying its my fault, I did that, and then making sure it never happens again. That last part is most important because you’ll only be allowed to mess up so many times and it will be time to find a new seat on the bus or a new role to play. Learn from every mistake and only make the same ones once.

Do not make problems mysterious. Digital consoles don’t do things all by themselves – they must have human interaction. Computers seldom just hiccup. Wireless mics rarely just turn off during a service or aren’t ready for an artist on their own. Most times if something doesn’t happen the way we intended, its ultimately our fault and it requires courage, confidence, and humility to be accountable to the rest of your team.

Dave Skaff shared an interesting story on building the relationship with U2 as their monitor engineer. As you know, their stage designs are always very open and unique with the monitor desks placed under the stage, viewing the performers via video on their consoles.

I asked what were the challenges in trying to communicate and be in relationship with the band when you’re so disconnected by location. Video was so important to him in seeing the band, but he also relied heavily on an internal talkback system between him and the band techs so they could pass on notes to him from the guys. He also spent time up on the deck listening to what they were hearing for context.

What I found really interesting wasn’t so much what Dave needed but what Larry, the drummer, requested. Larry wanted a camera so that he could see Dave at all times down under the deck. His biggest concern was knowing when he needed something that he could see Dave responding. This little psychology lesson is HUGE towards the importance of good relationship and communication between the engineer and band.

Dave said as he was early in his relationship with them, they were used to it taking a long time or require multiple requests before changes would be made. Their requirement to him were that changes happen FAST – 10 seconds or less. With this in mind, in order to train them that he was always watching, he would sometimes make drastic changes when asked knowing full well he’d dial it in more finely but he wanted them to know he was paying attention.

On one of the largest stages in the world, for arguably the biggest band in the world, the same rules apply: responsiveness, attention to detail, and relationship are everything for success in the world of audio!

Had a great time at the Arts Conference this year. The main sessions were great but the best experience for me was time with mentors soaking up every bit of knowledge and experience I could. I’ve got lots of insights to post over the next week or two. Big thanks to Scott and Nathan for all of the hang time, Dave Skaff for a great lunch and even more fun later that night, and all of the Willow crew for one of the best productions I’ve ever experienced in that room.

It’s that time again! Hard to believe a year has gone by since my first Arts conference but I’m looking forward to going again this year. All the fun begins next Wednesday morning. The highlight of this trip is going to be a 4-hour audio session on Thursday with Robert Scovill and Dave Skaff. Also looking forward to spending some time in the Digidesign booth with the D-Show and Profile.

If you’re going to be there, respond to this post and perhaps we can connect for lunch or something to talk shop.

If this year holds true to last, I’ll probably have a bunch of posts after the event with learnings for our team.