Soundman/woman, what are the main skills you need so that the overall service or event is as best as can be technically achieved?

We tech folks typically really concentrate on tech things and can easily get absorbed into the gear, settings, and tweaking everything. Some of this is needed to achieve excellence. But those non-tech human beings that are creating the wonderful sounds that we love to recreate usually need some attention to attain the level of excellence they are reaching for.

So, technical competence is obviously a key skill for mixing sound. That is a given and an absolute skill that we need to continue pursuing.

Almost as important is an understanding of how to interact with and assist the artists. They need help with gear, monitors, cables, accommodating their space needs, stowing cases, tools, drum keys, batteries,…… Once the soundcheck and practice starts, keep asking if they need any changes in the monitors or anything else for that matter. For them to play their best and lead the congregation into a higher level of worship, they need to know that they can ask for changes and that we will try to accommodate them. So we keep asking them throughout soundcheck and practice if they need any changes. Yes, a few people will constantly ask for minor tweaks, but most will ask for a few. The key is that they know that they can ask.

Once they are comfortable as a worship team/band and can play to the best of their ability, our part of creating excellent sound becomes much easier.

If you deal with the same artists every week, then over time the relationships can be developed further and every musician needs to know they can ask for literally anything and that we will respond with what we can do and sometimes saying no if it is not the best for the overall group – but then explaining why in terms that the artists can understand.

When you work with a new group, make sure they know that they can ask for anything. That starts the moment they arrive and you work with them to get plugged into the system. During soundcheck and rehearsal keep asking.

Only when the artists and tech crew are working as one team can the worship service move in any direction that the Holy Spirit leads.

And that is what the sound/media ministry is all about!

This entry was posted on November 14, 2010 at 8:23 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Church Sound Live Sound Mixing Monitor Mixing Worship by Bob No Comments Yet