FRONT OF HOUSE
IN PRAISE OF YOUTH AND SKILL | Kent Morris
Photo by Dan Page on Unsplash
An old war adage states,“ Age and treachery will always overcome youth and skill” and while it’ s probably true, there is value in the new and fresh. GOS( Grumpy Old Soundmen) need to quit worrying about their lawn and embrace new ideas and thinking. I was reminded of this wisdom while attending the Kentucky Baptist Worship Conference in Louisville recently where I met a young man named Micah Hall. Micah is a junior at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA and runs sound for the school’ s traveling ensemble, Vessel. What happened to Micah there sheds light on something we should all consider.
As with most traveling groups, Vessel carries their own sound system with them due to the extreme audio variability encountered in churches. In the case of Vessel, they are blessed with a new DiGiCo Quantum 225 digital console purchased from Sweetwater and Micah is well versed in its operation. However, as with all technology, digital consoles are imperfect and in the case of mixers, they are simply a Linux computer with a fancy interface. Vessel uses Waves plug-ins to enhance the signals outside the console’ s internal processing. Waves interfaces via a computer where the various DSP is sorted by need. Unfortunately for Micah, when he went to retrieve the proper Waves file for the show, he accidentally overwrote the program with blank data and lost everything in one click, just ten minutes before the service was to begin.
I saw the look on his face, a combination of disbelief and panic I’ ve experienced more times than I care to recall and went over to offer sympathy. However, Micah“ girded his loins” to use a KJV phrase and set about dialing in the 225’ s host Mustard processing. He quickly squeezed enough juice to make audio passable and the concert then began in earnest. The first song wasn’ t going to win any mixing contests, but things improved by the second one and with the third tune, he was there. Waves wasn’ t missed. The lessons were obvious: use multiple back-ups and be prepared to initiate Plan B.
After the event I explained to Micah how during the analog days of yore, though they were clumsy and heavy in comparison, they were also lovingly free of erasure angst. Since nothing could be saved, it also couldn’ t be lost. Wherever the knobs were is where they always were. We used grease pencils to mark alternate settings and later used digital cameras to snapshot( hence the term) the current settings. We didn’ t have the ability to store but we also didn’ t know such a thing could exist either, so we were fine with things as they stood. It wasn’ t until Yamaha’ s DMP7 digital mixer arrived that
we saw the future and for most of us it showed up in the form of a later 01V or LS9. If we as veterans embraced progress at one time, we should be willing to embrace it every time for it will not stop just because we get old. The future lies in the hands of the Micah’ s of the church production world to wield.
After the service Micah declared he would be less dependent on Waves and more willing to find every nook available to hold a back-up. He will also be exploring Mustard processing in detail and may default to it soon since it can’ t be erased. As a parting bit of hard-earned wisdom, I encouraged him to stay enamored with progress, open to new methods and systems, yet grounded in fully mastering the fundamentals of the practice since they never change. Proper gain structure matters as much on a DiGiCo Quantum console as it did thirty years ago on a Yamaha MC3204 and communicating with the band and speaking pastors will always be the most important skill to master. He absorbed very word as gospel.
I believe the future of church audio is safe.
Kent Morris Kent Morris is a 47-year veteran of the AVL arena driven by passion for excellence tempered by the knowledge all technology is in a temporal state.
76 May 2026 Subscribe for Free...