Worship Musician June 2018 | Page 48

BETTER BY SUNDAY
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