6 things your sound team wishes you knew
One of the real privileges I have at OBC is working with an incredible group of people who are dedicated and passionate for our worship ministry. Our teams are committed to leading people in worship, to developing their own ability and are always willing to try new things. This isn’t limited only to our musicians – we have some of the most dedicated and talented people serving on our AV/tech teams.
I asked Peter Bruce to put together a couple of blog posts that I could share with you. Peter is unique in that he’s one of the guys who heads up our tech teams but he’s also one of our acoustic guitar players, so he has some insight on the worship team experience from both sides of the stage.
Today he’s written some thoughts about what your sound team wishes you knew and tomorrow we’ll post some things that the worship team wishes the sound team knew. Some of you have great relationships with your tech team, some of you do not. Hopefully this is helpful for you.
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A while back Chris asked me to give some suggestions for Worship Teams and Sound Teams. As a sound person and guitar player I have been on both sides of the board. My wife who also takes part in both and I talked about some of the things that each team would benefit from knowing about the other.
Things the sound team wish the worship team knew:
- We are a team, we process every sound that comes off the stage and send it to the speakers. We are all working together to produce the best audio mix that we can. Invite us to join you during your pre-service/practice prayer times etc. If you need something just ask, we will do what we can to help, but remember we don’t like last minute surprises. Think of it like being handed a new song that you have not practiced two minutes before the service.
- Know what you need not want in your monitor. If you have too many instruments or vocals you will have a hard time hearing yourself. Less is more. As a guide, pick 3 things that you must have and a couple more that would be nice but not necessary. Until we get levels set don’t keep stopping and asking for adjustments, once you have gone through a song and we have set our levels we can then make any adjustments you need.
- Trust your sound person to do the mixing, Things sound different for you on stage especially if you are using in-ear montiors. We are in the congregation ( or we should be, but that is a whole other topic for sound booth position) and will be mixing for what sounds best out there.
- Please be aware of your monitor or amp level. You may like to “feel” the music and want your monitor loud but that noise bleeds out into the room and deminishes the quality of the mix for the congregation.
- Please be on time. We will do our best to have everything ready for you to start the sound check so we ask you show up on time especially if you need time to set up your own gear.
- Please use proper mic technique and hold your mic close, where we tell you to and not keep dropping it lower because of your own insecurities and issues.
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There is some good stuff here. What do you think? Any thoughts to add? Tech guys, what do you wish your worship team members knew?
Great post. I posted up something similar a while back that talks about the musicians perspectives and the sound techs perspectives. There is great stuff in the comments of these posts as well. When it comes down to it, sound techs are part of the worship team and a teamwork attitude means everyone respects the other persons opinion.
http://www.behindthemixer.com/content/time-get-honest-musicians-point-view
http://www.behindthemixer.com/content/now-i-need-sound-techs-perspective
Great post! When I came to my church 5 years ago, the “sound system” was a set of home stereo speakers with an amp that had 1 input.. needless to say, that has changed.. We now have a full (or close to it) sound system.. would like to get some bass bins, but that’ll be next year..
Adding all this new gear brought lots of challenges.. the first being, I was the ONLY person who knew how to use it.. so being the worship leader and the sound guy was really hard.. I’ve since trained a few others in running it, but they still need help at times..
doing “church” in a high school brings lots of interesting challenges.. the main one being that we have to set up every sunday.. so its been an interesting task raising up volunteers who arent actually running the gear, but just setting it up.. a real servant ministry, that we as people don’t want to do.. but we’re getting there… hopefully by January next year we will be breaking ground on our new building, and that wont be an issue any more..
All this to say.. I am SOO thankful for sound tech.. and even more thankful for those who step up and want to learn, because it helps me to focus on what i’m there to do, which is lead the people of God in worship..
Thanks sound techs! you rock!… churches have a “church secretary day” and pastor appreciation day… I think we need a A/V appreciation day.. because they are so important to the flow of the service..
Chris,
You and I have never met but I think I like you.
Thanks for the encouraging words to all us Tech people.
I agree with you that it really helps the worship leader / band do their job without distractions when they have a committed A/V team. Both Sound and Video. We have had a couple of times were we have lost a projector or a computer crash during a service and it is then that we realise how important the role of the projection preson is to keep the service flowing.
One comment… I agree with most everything, but I didn’t like how the last one came acros. “Insecurities and issues” … I don’t think that is quite fair, at least not in all cases – perhaps it was accurate in this case. Forgetfulness and simply not being used to it is more what I run into. :)
Paul,
I understand your concerns with the “Insecurities and issues” comment. It does sound a bit harsh but it came from Rebecca who had struggled with these issues for years but has learned to over come them and really trust the sound person. We are very blessed at OBC in that everyone who is on the worship team is very gifted and talented. Yes there is a range of talent and ability but we don’t have anyone just taking up stage space. The point that I was trying to get across was the area of team work and trust between the band and the sound person. For us, the fact that you are singing on a Sunday morning means that you have something to offer so yes you may be nervous and forgetful but stay with your mic and give the sound team something to work with. If we hear you going flat or not getting that harmony then we will pull you in the mix. Team work and trust is huge.
Thanks Chris, what a great perspective. I am going to send this to all of our church’s musicians, vocalists and tech team! So helpful. Thanks for creating this with Peter.
Chris from http://www.behindthemixer.com posted this comment a while ago but for some reason WordPress won’t let me approve it. So here is the comment from Chris –
Great post. I posted up something similar a while back that talks about the musicians perspectives and the sound techs perspectives. There is great stuff in the comments of these posts as well. When it comes down to it, sound techs are part of the worship team and a teamwork attitude means everyone respects the other persons opinion.
http://www.behindthemixer.com/content/time-get-honest-musicians-point-view
http://www.behindthemixer.com/content/now-i-need-sound-techs-perspective
#6. Please use proper mic technique and hold your mic close, where we tell you to and not keep dropping it lower because of your own insecurities and issues.
Also,singing out during rehearsals and then whispering during the service.
We will do our best to take care of you, just trust us and let us do it.