FIX THE MIX
OFFLINE SOFTWARE AND VIRTUAL SOUNDCHECK AS WORSHIP AUDIO TRAINING TOOLS
Jeff Hawley
One of my favorite classes in college was In many ways, live audio engineers are LET’S TALK OFFLINE:
Music Theory. I loved breaking down 4-part performing this same mixture of the careful and All major digital console manufacturers now
Bach chorales and trying my hand at writing deliberate musical creation and sight-reading offer free offline editor software downloads
counterpoint and fugue. It always felt like I on the fly. Both tasks require practice to get designed for creating or editing ‘show files’
was hunting for a particular magic voicing that comfortable and excel under pressure to make before the show. Most are offered in both Mac
worked perfectly as a starting point to get me things sound great. Thankfully, there are now a and PC versions and allow for the transfer of
through to the most pleasing and effective number of free tools available to help us all get setups from the console to the computer and
closing chord. There were times when I would better at performing our craft -and particularly vice-versa via a USB thumb drive.
spend hours composing just a few measures for those on the worship arts team who are just worth of music - yet there was something getting started with audio mixing.
For instance, the Allen & Heath SQ MixPad
almost therapeutic in the careful crafting of
app is available for iOS, Android, Windows and
effective chord progressions and tension and Just as there are chords and fret positions macOS platforms and its offline mode allows
resolution. and voicings that seem to more efficiently and an engineer to “store and manage scenes and
effectively achieve our musical goals, there shows, edit strip assignments and channel
On the other extreme, we’d burn through sight- are ways of designing a console layout that lists, transfer files to USB devices (PC and
reading a dozen charts in an hour during jazz can save engineers a lot of headaches when Mac), or push/pull the show directly to/from the
big band rehearsal. This was a totally different Sunday comes around. Working carefully and mixer.” With Avid’s VENUE software, “you can
animal altogether, requiring mental and physical deliberately in advance of the performance pre-program shows or edit show files offline …
dexterity to execute well. For those of you who to get the console workflow and labeling The standalone software is also a great way for
may not be familiar with sight-reading, it is the completed is not only a regular part of the new users to get familiar with VENUE operation
performing of a musical piece from sheet music pro audio engineer routine for top touring ‘hot before laying a finger on the console.” DiGiCo’s
that the musician has not seen before. Similarly, hands’ on the road, but it is a great practice for SD12 offline software “gives access to every
sight-singing would be the term for a vocalist training new audio operators. And as a special console function … which means you can
singing a completely new song at first sight. bonus — this can be done for free, without tweak and edit your sessions while on a plane,
Not for the faint of heart. even having to be near the actual console. train, tour bus, or wherever takes your fancy.”
170 August 2019
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