Audio, a work in progress

Well, we've been in this new building for almost a year, and still, the audio needs help. The latest addition, speakers on the stage, and subs on the floor.

The speakers on the stage are to provide coverage to those folks in the first few rows of seats who are not in the main coverage pattern of the flown speakers. Unfortuneately, near as I can tell, there is no trim on the speakers in order to attenuate the one within 2 feet of a seat vs. those 6 feet away. And, these are great when seated, but as soon as the audience stands, guess what, no coverage to the 2nd row of seats (assuming of course that people are in the 1st row. :-) )

The subs on the floor, more to come by the way, are to get more umph in the bottom end, move some air, compress your chest as the kick drum is played. So, those of you who like the low end, go ahead and sit closer to the stage since that's where the initial impact of air movement will be felt. I could feel it pretty good during rehearsal last Wednesday, but didn't really feel it this past Sunday. I wasn't mixing though. :-)

And that brings up another point. Those of us who mix at front of house, do have our own styles. I tend to be more rock 'n roll, and others tend to be more musical or studio-like. We each use our giftings and knowledge the best we can for the moment. Grant it, in live audio, there's no re-do, you just roll with it, hope you get no feedback, and that the mics are opened when they should be. Sure, we make mistakes, and no one is perfect. We try to get a good mix with all the distractions of others relaying information to us while in the heat of mixing. It isn't easy and takes a certain kind of personality to deal with (or ignore) "it". There are some in the audience who loved the mix and some who didn't. There are those who have been in bands, are still in bands, and have a thing or two to say. We just roll with it, take what we can from it and hope to be better and better as time rolls on.

Think about it. A front of house guy can't really take his instrument home to practice, so the only practice we get is during rehearsals or live shows. That's why the better ones have been doing it for a long time. The really good ones keep on learning.

We've all heard the "God isn't finished with me yet", and so it is with audio. We're not finished yet either. More enhancements to come.

Serving Him in sound reinforcement,

Ken

A blog? I don't have one!

So, here I am running sound for Maximum Impact at my church 12Stone Church and a guy named Dean comes up and chats about all things audio. We talked about the M7CL console in use, the Danley speaker cabinets, what I use the DCA's for, you name it.

And then, he asks if I have a blog. Well gee, I never thought of having one. Being a volunteer, the church doesn't yet have sharepoints for us to use, so the only alternative is to go create one on my own, offsite. I'd rather have a sharepoint for schedules and other information for my team, but that's another topic.

So, Dean, if you found me, you can thank yourself for inspiring me to get one going.

Anyway, I never put much thought into creating one or using the blog capabilities of my facebook login, strobelight.audio, for those interested, since my first thought is that a blog is time consuming. But then, I think, I only need to update it when I feel like it, when I might have the time. I figure, may as well have one, at least I can get things off my chest as issues crop up. "Issues?" you may ask; sure the Church isn't immune to people issues from within, I myself trying to come up with other audio team schedules, thoughts of a recent message, you name it.

So, for those of you who found this, welcome. For those team members reading, I trust this will be informative.

I don't claim to be the eloquent writer, so flames off as we used to say on newsgroups. But then, blogs aren't newsgroups. I suppose this is more of a one way treatise from me. Ha! Although, feel free to leave comments and such, with my approval, of course.

Thank you for your time,

Serving Him in sound reinforcement,

Ken