#DECADE The “Real” Photos

So I’ve shown you the cool official photos from our DECADE photographers and you’ve seen media samples from the service itself.  Today I’m going to share the snapshots I took with my phone throughout the two days.  Production fans will probably enjoy these most of all since they really show nuts and bolts of the process.  Enjoy!

#DECADE “Official” Media Samples

Now for the part you’ve been waiting for…

These are raw, but I decided I am ok with putting them out there so you can see what raw looks like.  Are there some mix things I would change…sure.  Is everything perfect…no.  But there was such a spirit to what happened and I believe that translates to these videos in a way that supersedes everything else.

For more cool content, go to Youtube and search for “NLC Decade”. There are a few videos out there that really capture what it felt like in the room and I’m really pleased with how things translate.

Enjoy a glimpse at DECADE!

#DECADE Audio Notes

So if you’ve been following the series, you saw a few posts ago that the PA was a very large d&B J-rig.  Let’s just stop right there for a second and enjoy those words hehehe.

In this post we’re going to talk about the drums and keys rigs for DECADE and some overall direction things we’ve learned the past few months at NLC.

We’ve gotten our drum sounds as far down the field as we’re able with what we own, but it is in the plan for this year to replace our kits and go for a more vintage, timeless sound.  For DECADE, I took that future direction for a spin by renting a Ludwig Classic Maple kit from SIR in Nashville.  16×20 kick, 13″ and 16″ toms, and two snares – one for each guy…a 6.5×14 Black Beauty and a 6.5×14 Supraphonic.  For cymbals, I spec’d Zildjian…  17″ K Custom Dark crash, 19″ K Dark thin crash, 22″ K Custom Dark ride, and 15″ A hats.  Overall a very classic sounding kit and it sounded AMAZING!  I think this kit (or one very similar) is now at the top of our list for purchase this year.  My philosophy is to go for classic, timeless sounds that will translate to lots of different styles of music and sound good over many years.

I received a few questions regarding the Sub-Kick you may have noticed in some pictures.  If you’ve never played with one before, personally I’ve really enjoyed using one – especially with a nice and small, tight kick drum.  You put the condensor mic inside just as usual – in my case a Sennheiser E901.  Then add a bit of channel delay to line it up with the Sub-Kick on the outside.  High pass the E901 so the Sub-Kick takes care of the thump from the kick and the E901 handles the attack and character of the drum.  The combination sounds really really good on a well-tuned kick drum.

For Keys, we’ve been experimenting with a more software based approach as of late with strong results.  We own Yamaha CP-300 stage pianos that are used every week but I’ve wanted to enhance the quality of the sounds for a long time.  We spent some focused time over the past few months listening to demo’s of newer stage pianos – ideally looking for something with really killer sampled piano tones that can also do organs and strings really well.   There are a few options out there that seem to do both – the Nord Stage 2 piano, the Yamaha CP1 being two of them.  The problem is that both of those sell for upwards of $4,000…outside my budget with all of the other pressing needs to address.

The solution for us is the Native Instruments Komplete 7 collection, along with Ableton Live.  For a few weeks prior to DECADE, we experimented with using MIDI to trigger sounds from laptops since our players were content with the feel of playing on our CP300′s but we just weren’t crazy about the tones.  Now with a smaller secondary keyboard on top and MIDI going from both into a laptop, there are amazing organs, strings, electric pianos, and auxiliary percussion at our fingertips.  Combine that with Ableton Live to generate click tracks for the band and you have a really powerful package.

In the samples that you heard yesterday (if you missed them, go up to the media tab at the top of this page and you’ll find them along with a few others) the piano downstage was the Native Instruments New York Concert Grand.  The keys position upstage is running Live to trigger clicks and some tracks, along with Native Instruments exclusively for all of the other sounds generated.

If you’ve been following me for a while, you may remember my journey with Receptor and sampled piano libraries when we replaced an acoustic grand at Kensington with a piano shell from Slam Grand and sampled sounds a few years ago.  Now that was a little while ago so I disclaimer with that, but let me tell you how impressed I am with the grand piano samples in Komplete.  The ability to control three different lid positions, key noise, and pedal noise is amazing.  When you hold down the pedal, you hear the “dampers” let go of the strings, the voicing sounds great, and its low in resource requirements so it runs great on our Macbook Pros.

For the piano rig downstage, we just came out of the laptop into a stereo DI and went from there.  The upstage keys position was more complex.  We used a Digi003 interface to give us up to 8 line outputs.  Outs 1/2 and 3/4 were two stereo keys stems.  One stem was primarily keys sounds, the second a few loops and percussion sounds.  Outs 5/6 were some stereo ensemble tracks and Out 7 was click.

In the near future, I’m planning to roll out a Mac Mini on stage in our regular setup that will run Ableton Live and the Komplete bundle.  We’ll connect MIDI from our CP300 and from the secondary keyboard, then add a M-Audio Fast-track Pro interface so we can have two stereo discreet outputs and we’ve got our new keys rigs for our two main campuses.  Why the Mac Mini?  It will give us a dedicated machine that stays off the internet and is kept production ready for this singular purpose.  It is also clean, low noise, and has good reliability.  Finally, by keeping it connected to the network, our players can screen share into it for programming and control simply and easily.

#DECADE Production Documents

As you can imagine, it required a tremendous amount of detail to pull off an event like this.  I’ve received a bunch of requests to release the production documents and so here we go.  I think most of this will speak for itself so maybe it would be best to just open up the comments section to questions if there are any.

Production Binder (49 pages, includes room drawings, script, input lists, lighting notes…given to everyone on the crew)

Worship Information (the specific information for the worship team)

Crew Information (the specific information given to the crew approx 3 weeks before the event)

I’m sure there are better ways to do most of this, but I’m just showing you my way.  There were some lessons that came out of this, especially with the service documents themselves.

There are a ton of people on stage throughout the service.  A TON.  I went back and forth on how best to document this – using generic VOX1, VOX2, E/G 1, E/G 2 titles or using everyone’s names.  I eventually settled on names as I knew this would be best for all of our volunteers who would be operating.  However, this was not best for the Majestic Crew who didn’t know anyone by name.  Especially in audio world with so many mixes, it would have been easier for them had I created a version of specific documents that was more generic.

The production schedule was intimidating to create.  Because we were trying to keep our catering numbers as low as we could, we had to make sure as many people as possible had time in the schedule to go off site and eat.  We kept the on-site number to under 40 in most meals and this was a huge win for our budget.

The script was created in Numbers so it would translate easily to iPads, the building maps done in OmniGraffle, and Majestic drawings in AutoCAD, and most of the credentials lists done in Google Docs.  One note about that…we use Google Docs extensively at New Life Church and normally it is an awesome tool.  However, once we got on site at Verizon, internet connectivity was extremely spotty and inconsistent.  I’m REALLY glad that all of the important documents were created outside of Google Docs so we were able to maintain access.

Again, if you have questions, feel free to ask in the comments section.

#DECADE Production Systems

I’m in the middle of a series documenting the process for DECADE, New Life Church’s tenth anniversary service we recently completed.  If you missed the first two parts, make sure and catch it in the archives.

It was really important to us to maintain the look and feel of New Life Church even though we were doing an event in a potentially larger than life venue.  So we very intentionally selected a level of production system that would be the right fit for the space, especially in regards to the audio system, while not being so over the top that it would overshadow the content of the service itself.  The service was really just a longer version of our normal weekend and we wanted the production to match.  So no LED walls, a modest lighting rig that could provide beauty and wow, again without being over the top.  The most striking part of the entire set was the huge 22ft x 6ft letters that spelled out DECADE.  There will be a whole separate post on that from our set designer, Angie Brown, at a later date.  We went the direction of these letters to give the whole stage a NLC feel by creating something stunning in a “non-tech” way.  Often times those of us in production think the only way to create wow is through the latest and greatest technology…LEDs, versa tubes, Chroma Q, you name it.  Our creative team was 100% correct with this one that often times the best and most impactful design maintains simplicity and achieves the wow in the most low-tech way possible.

For those of you who are interested in the nuts and bolts of the systems you will see in the event video, here’s the overview.

Audio

(64) D&B J-Series Loudspeakers & Subwoofers in the air
(14) D&B B2 Subwoofers on the ground
(47) D&B D12 Amplifiers
56,400 Watts of amplifier power
46 input channels
FOH – Avid D-Show Profile w/Protools HD system
Monitors – Yamaha PM5D
26 Channels of Shure UHF-R Wireless Mics & Sennheiser G3 Wireless In-Ears
56 Channel Whirlwind Snake with 3-Way Transformer Splitter
(4) 16 Channel Whirlwind Sub-Snakes

Lighting

(32) Martin Mac 2000 Profile/Wash, Martin Mac 600 Moving Lights
(28) Martin Stagebar 54S LED Wash fixtures
(12) Arri 2k 10” Fresnels
(12) ETC Source 4
(6) Thomas Crowd Abuse Lights
Whole Hog III Console
ETC SmartFade 1248 Console
DF-50 Hazer with Fan

Video

(2) Barco SLM R12+ Projectors (12,000 ANSI Lumens)
(2) Draper 12ft x 21ft Projection Screens
(4) Panasonic 58”/42” Plasma TVs
(5) Panasonic HPX-370 Cameras
Panasonic HS450N 16 Input HD Switcher

Stage

#DECADE Crew

One of the most important values we had in organizing the crew for DECADE was to utilize as many of our volunteers as possible.  We knew there would be many areas of load-in and load-out where we would need to rely on the Majestic crew and local hired hands, as no one on our team has experience in rigging or large builds of this scope.  However, once we got to the service execution portion, the ultimate goal was to give our core leaders the chance to raise the bar, work with some of the best of the best in the Majestic team, and hopefully be challenged to take what they learn back to our regular services.

With this in mind, we created the crew roster with lots of redundancy in roles – partly to involve as many people as we could and partly to ensure many hands make light work.  Looking back, I think the staffing level was just about right.  I’m not sure I would have changed anything.

Here’s the overview of the positions we filled with our team…

- Service Producer & 3 Assistants – lead the service elements, content, and overall direction of the service, call service cues

- Production Manager & 2 Assistants – lead the production of the event by interfacing with the production vendor & crew, venue, local union stagehands, and NLC Wired team

- Stage Manager & 2 Assistants – manage the event production script, maintain the schedule for rehearsals, manage stage transitions and people to/from stage

- A1, A2, A3 – positioned at FOH…A1 mixes the event audio for the room, A2 is the script manager – calling music cues to the A1, A3 is on com with Service Producer for video cues and countdowns

- M1, M2, M3 – positioned in monitor world…M1 mixes monitors and was from Majestic, M2 is wireless wrangler, M3 manages the stage from an audio perspective – communicating monitor changes, making sure everything goes as planned

- Audio Assistants x2 – all things audio…stage setup, runners, cabling, band setup, you name it.

- LD – lighting designers and operators came from Majestic.  I didn’t think we had anyone on our team who was ready for this challenge so we leaned heavily on Majestic in this area.  This was definitely the right call as evidenced by the LD walking out of the venue on Saturday night before I did with a completely programmed, gorgeous lighting show.

- Video Director – from Majestic

- Video Assistants x2 – script management, calling shots and keeping up with what is coming next, knowing names for our people on stage, maintaining the NLC look and feel.

- ProPresenter x2 – we set out to use two ProPresenter machines…one for anything lower third and one for full screen playback.  We ended up only using one machine but we were prepared for two.

- Shader – operating the camera CCUs

- Camera Operators x5 – camera positions were two center, two handheld (one stage left and one stage right with tripods to land in during the message), and the 30ft Cam Mate Jib (operated by Majestic)

- Each camera had a grip assistant assigned.  This person’s function differed based on the camera.  For handhelds, they fed cable, kept the op’s path clear, and so on.  For stationary cams, it gave us a backup in case anyone needed relief or couldn’t come through for some reason.  We tried to get as many of these people seat time behind the camera as we could.

- Stage Crew x2 – these guys handled any moves needed on stage during transitions.  Mic stands, table and stool on and off, communion elements to the pastor, etc.

So if you are keeping track, that equals 9 team members from Majestic:  production manager, 3 audio, 3 lighting, 2 video and 30 staff and volunteers from NLC actually operating the event.  Add an additional 10 or 12 stagehands helping with the DECADE letters load-in and other projects around the arena and you get a sense of the scope we’re talking about.

In wrapping up this part, I have to brag on these people a bit.  I’ve been doing this production thing professionally for over 10 years now.  In that time, I’ve worked in large and small churches, arenas and theaters with lots and lots of different people – union/non-union, staff/volunteer, you name it.  I’m convinced I’ve never been more proud of a team than our Wired team serving at DECADE and what God allowed us to experience and accomplish for Him and for NLC – the way everyone stepped up, gave this event everything they’ve got, rolled through the changes and challenges, dealt with the nerves and uncertainty of producing something so epic, and served so gracefully through it all.  DECADE would have never happened without every one of this team serving and giving of themselves to something that is far bigger than any of us and worth our entire life!

From New Life Church:  Neil Greathouse, Nathan Pruzaniec, Bryan Barnard, Drew Spurgers, Kyle Basham, Jenna Wilson, Jason Hollis, Mindy Corder, Jade Gay, Emily Stockdale, Seth Jeffrey, Ken Barnes, Jack Benson, Nick Keith, Everett Ellis, Markus Turkia, Shelly Weir, Pamela Floyd, John Sketoe, Brent Hill, Robert Floyd, Derek Lewis, George Perkins, Bill Cunningham, Jim Rice, Doug Avra, Braeden Gregg, Gary Morrison, Brett Brownderville.

From Majestic Productions:  Ryan Bates, Jeremy Dodd, Derek Seal, Christian Hahn, Joey Davis, Ethan Frazier, Kyle Shepherd, Jeremy Seawell, Chris Ferrari

Thank you everyone!!