Forgive me for not updating last week. I spent the majority of the week in Seattle and the blog was one of the casualties of the “to-do” list. Here are a few things from this past Sunday:
Audio
There was a problem with feedback during one of the Bridge gatherings about two minutes into the message. It couldn’t be addressed because the Audio Tech was not in the booth. I understand that sometimes we need to stretch, use the bathroom or grab a quick beverage but we need to stay in the booth as much as possible. We should definitely wait five minutes into the message to make sure the levels are set well. It takes about that long for the speaker to begin to hit their vocal stride which was probably why the mic was feeding back.
I want to make sure we are also working on balance issues. Whoever is leading a specific song at any given time needs to be loudest. By this, I mean that the primary vocalist should be at 100% and the back up vocalists should be between 50-75% depending on the dynamic level of the song (soft verses 50%, loud choruses/bridges 75%). This is another reason why all of the tech people should be familiar with the audio recordings of the music so they have an idea of the vocal and band structure. The same thing is to be said if we have multiple guitars on the stage. The worship leader (myself for example) does not always need to be the loudest instrument. Depending on the orchestration of the song they might need to be the most quite. Just a reminder that mixing sound is a constant work flow and we should never be satisfied with a mix and leave it.
Video
It seems that someone during the week either messed with the cables underneath the video desk or accidentally kicked them around (serious long legs) while they were sitting at the console as the right projector was disconnected from the distributor box on Sunday morning. If one of the projectors isn’t working that is always a great place to start looking to see if the VGA cables are connected.
Lighting
Big thanks to Pat M. for filling in on the lighting console and serving as the Stage Director. This man has no end to his many talents.
Overall, it was a good Sunday with only a few minor hiccups. Let’s make sure to stay on our A game so we can be as effective as possible in our task of building the Church and spreading the Gospel.
I appreciate all of the time and effort you put in!
Much Love,
P.Seth
Seth … unfortunate w/r to ‘feedback’ but I don’t think rules are the answer, here. The speaker was sounding hollow at the beginning, I was tired and didn’t pick up on it. Thanks to Daryl for helping me here. There is no way to get a cup of coffee during the actual breaks (too busy) and we have no-one to turn to, to ask for help. I know everyone is very busy on Sunday, but somehow we need to figure out there can be a little more grace. There was actually a big boo-boo during the second set. Somehow the subs (aux12) were turned on in the violin channel, and since we don’t do a complete run-thru, that got missed. Incorrect settings of aux12 or the low cut filters is usually not on my mind since the channels stay pretty stable. If folks could be careful to not mess with these, it would be appreciated. Finally, I really appreciate the job Mitch and Andrew do on set-up. It saves us a lot of time, and the attention to writing down the monitor setups, as well as some indications on the board are greatly appreciated. Thanks.