Sound Advice - with Leon Sievers
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"It is often stated that every church purchases at least three sound systems. The first is the one obtained from the lowest bidder when the building is erected. The second is installed by the 'expert' in the congregation. The third is the one designed, installed, and adjusted by a carefully chosen team consisting of a professional acoustical consultant, sound contractor, and a representative of the purchaser-owner gifted with an understanding of his need and capable of working creatively with the consultant and sound contractor. " Don Davis founder of Syn Aud Con
Tips and Tricks
By Brent Handy - Sound Advice - Jan 30, 2012
| | Q: Our system has radio noise coming through the PA. How do we stop it from happening?
A: Here is what I would do. Solo each channel's input, aux sends, subgroups, matrices, masters, etc. to try to isolate where in the chain it is occuring. If it is coming into the console via a mic or line cable, then you must replace it. For whatever reason, if you cannot replace the mic cable or snake line, there is a $50. solution. It is called the Attwood RF-22 Filter. You can place it inline with your mic/snake cable and your console, and anything about 75kHz will be reje...read more |
Can You Hear It?
By Brent Handy - Sound Advice - Jan 23, 2012
| | Not many of us get exposure a large palette of microphones, to compare apples to apples. How would you like a chance to do that in a real-world environment...a church? This month I am doing exactly that.
May 13th-17th, at Eastland Baptist Church, Tulsa, OK, I will be recording a 70-voice choir, grand piano, acoustic guitars, etc.. I will be using approximately 20 mics from various manufacturers. These include Shure, Audio Technica, Rode, ADK, Audix, and vintage Neumann. The mics will be set up as close to the same positions as possible, so that you may listen and c...read more |
Back Projection
By EXW Staff - Sound Advice - Jan 11, 2012
| | Do your choir and vocalists have a difficult time remembering all the words to songs you sing each week? Do they sometimes resort to the naming of fruit to get by? Or do they turn to their neighbor and watch their lips for help? If you are like me, you want the singers heads up and looking ahead. If they use music, their heads will be lost in the pages. What to do?
For a quick fix, we use a video projector that points to the back wall. It is tied into our other video projector and shows the same images as the one the congregation views. This has proven to be...read more |
Digital Consoles: The Perfect Volunteer
By EXW Staff - Sound Advice - Jan 03, 2012
| | In today’s church, the most sought after “staff member” has got to be a trained volunteer. Can you remember the number of times you’ve had to run back and forth from the booth to the stage to adjust house and monitor levels simply because you didn’t have a volunteer that could run sound? A few years ago, many prayers were answered with the advent of the very first digital console in a church! While digital consoles have been around since the mid 80’s, the developments that make them the perfect volunteer have only been introduced over the last few years. More reasonabl...read more |
The Fourth Element
By Van Metschke - Sound Advice - Dec 19, 2011
| | True or false? "The sound system in your church is the same as the system in mine."
The answer to this question seems so obvious, but most sound people have learned most of their audio knowledge with the sound system they work with every week. If this system is not properly set up from the start the operator's ability to provide good sound is immediately compromised.
There a FOUR elements to good sound in any venue:
1.The sound system.
2.The sound people.
3.The room acoustics.
4.The program material (which includes the instrument quality...read more |
Just What Do We Do, Anyway!?!
By EXW Staff - Sound Advice - Dec 14, 2011
| | I happened to be passing by the door to the church conference room some years ago just as our pastoral staff was finishing their weekly meeting. This was a particularly grueling week for me. As the audio support staff of one, I was putting in a lot of hours. I stopped to say hello and I'll never forget their look of utter disbelief at the hours I was putting in to get the job done. Their deer-in-the-headlights look was followed by this revealing choice of words: "Just what is it that you do, anyway!?!"
Good question. And surprising, since I'd been working alongside...read more |
Quick Tech Tip
By Leon Sievers - Sound Advice - Dec 02, 2011
| | TOP 10 Methods to Reduce
feedback:
1. Turn the volume down.
2. Decrease gain on equalizer(EQ) or tone controls.
3. Reduce monitor system volume or its EQ gain.
4. Move microphones farther away from sound path of speakers.
5. Use a wide band graphic equalizer and/or parametric equalizer to reduce gain on susceptible feedback frequencies. (Note: When using EQ to filter out feedback, a sacrifice in desired tone quality may result. But if used carefully, an acceptable compromise of less tone for more feedback control can usually be achieved.)
6. Use higher quality, ...read more |
Microphones In Worship - Part 1
By Leon Sievers - Sound Advice - Nov 28, 2011
| | Nothing can disrupt a worship service like the annoying squeal of feedback from the sound system. Feedback is a ringing sound or squeal which occurs when the signal generated by the microphone is reproduced by a nearby loudspeaker which is then picked up by the microphone and the re-produced by the loudspeaker and picked up by the microphone again, etc. This looping process will continue until the microphone is relocated so that it does not pick up the sound from the loudspeaker. Feedback can be very specific to frequency and /or location. There are a variety of outbo...read more |
Audio Made Easy
By EXW Staff - Sound Advice - Nov 20, 2011
| | Easy reading and a great help for the beginning and intermediate SoundTech. Written by a Christian, Ira White has come up with an easy to read and understand book on sound. Covering every area from digital recording to mic choices and placement. For the soundtech and music minister who wishes to brush up on sound skills.
A EXW pick for the church SoundTech.
You can get this book at Amazon.com....read more |
Effective Effects
By EXW Staff - Sound Advice - Nov 08, 2011
| | It is often tricky to find the best effects in a live venue like worship. When to use reverb and when to use delays can baffle the volunteer and even experienced sound tech.
This article sheds some light light on what to use what and when to use it. When effects are used properly in a worship service, they can help the experience for the singer and musician as well as the congregant in the pews. ...read more |
Experiencing Worship, The Study