SOUND CHECK
LETTER TO THE EDITOR: ENLIGHTENING AND DISHEARTENING AT THE SAME TIME …
I got this email from a friend of mine who plays electric guitar in his church worship team … it shows a frustration level that may be more common than we think, and possibly easily fixed?
I’ m on my church worship team, which I increasingly view with— I’ m sorry— a near creepy level of disgust.
Amps are sequestered backstage. Drums are behind a plexiglass-surround and are usually over-played obnoxiously loud. Now, our main electric guitarist runs an impressive board of stereo effects. But his gorgeous, ethereal reverbs and delay pads are only experienced by those team members who know how to turn him up in their stereo in-ear monitors. And with our sanctuary system in mono, the beauty is lost on the congregation.
The sanctuary has no sound treatment. It
booms with echoes in the 200hz-500hz range— in mono. Speech is difficult to decipher, and electric guitars are often completely lost— either due to mix engineer forgetting to turn them on, or just general room rumble.
Last Sunday, our main electric guitar player took the day off, so I was scheduled in his place. I decided to try a different approach, by having my amp on stage next to me: a 1971 Fender Deluxe Reverb. The sound engineer asked me to set my volume at“ 1” so I would not be too loud. Even at“ 1” the mic’ d tone in my headphones was lovely, and I played well. But I got little indication the band was hearing what I was playing— they can only hear me if they think to turn me up in their mix.
In“ normal” bands I’ m used to the players“ listening to each other” and gauging their own playing in context of what others are playing. In church, I don’ t have control over their headphones, and there’ s no dynamic interaction of actual live music.
This, and other technical circumstances, have me feeling next to useless on the worship team. I start to wonder if I should explore a different type of church, and learn to enjoy choral music...
Wow! There is a lot to take in here. I will commit to asking the right people to address aspects of his comments. But I actually started the audio aspects already with Kent Morris’ s FOH column on Page 84. Check that out...
This letter was enlightening and disheartening at the same time. We can do better, can’ t we?
Lord Bless You as You Follow Him,
Bruce & Judy
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