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WORSHIP + TECH TEAM FAILS: THE SOUND SYSTEM PROBLEM | Doug Doppler
Sound is one of the most contentious and potentially divisive challenges we face. To paraphrase my take on live sound, it is kind of like a blender that mixes the sound coming from the stage, out of the P. A., and the inherent qualities of the room you’ re in. Any shortcomings in one area will affect the overall result. The goal of this article is to kick start healthy( but frank) conversations about the gear you buy and your approach for doing so.
FEEDBACK Before we go any further I’ ll add that some of you may not agree with the suggestions presented below, and they may not be the right fit for your church. As always, I look forward to seeing your feedback on the web site and having a chance to see things from your perspective!
BACKGROUND With that out of the way, let me start by saying I loathe big noting, and to date have never shared much about my background in this column or the magazine for that matter. Given the subject, I feel the need to do so for a point of reference and not ego.
As a professional musician, my work in the recording studio includes tracking my own sessions for Guitar Hero and much of an instrumental disc I put out on Steve Vai’ s label. After a couple of years of touring behind that disc, I settled into full time ministry. Prior to working full time for [ WM ] I was the Worship and Creative Arts Director at a 150-person church. In addition to working with the worship and tech teams, my role included facility management since our venue was available for rent, as were my services as a sound tech. Much, but not all of my experience from the studio and stage side of things translates to mixing live sound. Here are a few takeaways that are pertinent to this conversation to share as‘ collective common knowledge’.
THE ROOM Venues like Portland’ s Roseland Theater, the Ventura Theater, and the Baked Potato in L. A. exemplify three extremes of how much a room impacts your sound. The Roseland Theater is a square-shaped venue with cement walls that create a ton of reflection and standing waves because of their hard-parallel surfaces. The stage at the visually stunning Ventura Theater has the worst sound of any venue I’ ve ever played. Between the mushy sound and murky reflections, none of my‘ fixes’( turning up, turning down, more effects, less effects) have ever worked there. The Baked Potato is a small room that unlike the Roseland Theater has virtually no sound reflection, and is totally dead and requires the addition of a digital reverb to my rig to make things feel‘ live’. It is highly probable, that to one extent or another, I just described your sanctuary.
The placement of the stage, instruments, monitors, mixing console, and speakers all influence what happens in the room. Placing sound reinforcement equipment in a room that was never designed for live sound often exacerbates the pre-existing audio inadequacies of the venue. While adding treatment can help reduce unwanted reflection or bass build up, I again remind you of the‘ sound smoothie’ in which the room is frequently as much a bigger ingredient than people realize. The problems you associate with your sound system may actually be room problems which acoustic treatment and the right sound system and placement can do a lot to address.
THE MUSICIAN Ironically, as a touring artist my sound had a lot in common with churches who use backing tracks. The only way I could afford to tour was with tracks, which meant the sound tech only had to mix my guitar against a mono backing track, which I controlled via a Boss RC-300 Looper. This means that much of my source audio was pre-mixed and did not create additional sound coming from the stage, other than that coming from the monitors.
THE SOUND SYSTEM Like the room, your sound system is one of the constants whose inherent character plays a giant role in your sound. The church where I served as the Worship and Creative Arts Director had a great digital mixer and excellent personal monitor mixers for the worship team. The speakers on the other hand had a‘ blanket effect’ whose murky quality got worse the louder you turned them up. While sound treatment and the number of people in the room will impact the sound, a bad set of speakers will sound bad even in the best of rooms, which gets us to the story behind this story.
INDUSTRTY EXPERTISE Recently, I had an extensive conversation on church sound with several high-ranking employees at a major live sound reinforcement manufacturer. The longer they spoke, the more certain I became that I had to share their experience-borne insights in this article. As a frame of reference, prior to working for this manufacturer, these folks had decades of experience playing on worship teams, mixing sound, and putting together sound systems for churches. I encourage and perhaps even implore you to share this article with everyone who has anything to do with purchasing sound gear for your church and / or is involved with your building fund, if you have one. What we’ re about to talk about impacts everyone at your congregation in two crucial ways – sound and tithes.
Based on their collective experience, these guys firmly believe that the majority of churches install three separate sound systems for every space they inhabit, and what I’ ve coined the‘ rule of three’. Accompanying this disheartening of news and room of shaking of heads was a detailed set of reasons why this repeatedly happens from
48 June 2018 WorshipMusician. com