Looking for a small yet versatile setup for church

[devastone]

Yesterday after the service I spoke with the music director and let her know I was interested in playing. Our Pastor had already told her as I had mentioned it to him a while back.
So what she does is, email the worship team the set for next weeks service as a PDF. It’s basically lyrics with the chord changes written on top.
I have her my email and asked if she could include me on the list. This way I can get more familiar with the songs and start to get a bunch of songs under my fingers.

And yes....I’m totally overthinking it!! Although I’m not a perfectionist per se I like to know what’s going on....I’m not a fan of working in the fly.

I totally understand, I tried out for a team years ago, it was a big church, and yes they had auditions. I met with the director, played some with him and he gave me a chart and a cd of tunes, I was quite confused that the songs on the cd were in a different key from the charts and didn't get any answers to my questions about what should I play these in. I did the old cover band thing and learned them by ear from the cd, wrong choice. After doing it as long as I have, that seems stupid, but the younger me made bad decisions, now, well, I'm older. It is a different world and some songs don't translate to different keys as well, especially for guitar, but the vocals are the most import thing in worship, I mean, try playing Back in Black in Db, just doesn't work. So, yeah, that is probably the biggest thing to be aware of coming from playing clubs. If I played acoustic, yeah, I would make sure to have capos around, I don't really use them on electric though, I can bar pretty much whatever I need.

FWIW, with our past leaders I was faking a lot of it unless it was a prominent part, our new leader wants most of it like the record or close, and sometimes finds buried parts that I barely hear and wants them played so the worship online stuff comes in really handy. So, while I wasn't OCD about it before, he's forcing me to be more so. But, we also have click tracks and cues in our IEMs which helps hugely, especially the cues. We've made huge technological leaps in the past 3 - 4 months.

Weird that they don't use Planning Center or something like that to manage everything, we use that and worship online, they link together from the schedule in PC.

 

[beaubrummels]

Weird that they don't use Planning Center or something like that to manage everything, we use that and worship online, they link together from the schedule in PC.

Music Stand! That is the best integration with PC. I use an iPad as sheet music and an AirTurn DUO foot pedal to turn the pages.

 

[NegativeEase]

The mega churches I've done studio work for used a full integrated workflow scheduler application for their Worshio teams -everything from lyrics, chords. session notes, team schedules, church coordination, internal chat groups in one app -almost like a mobile version of MS Project Server and MS teams together in one app for Churches

Impressive, but a lot to take in considering what the goal is

 

[Gtrjunior]

Music Stand! That is the best integration with PC. I use an iPad as sheet music and an AirTurn DUO foot pedal to turn the pages.

I was thinking of using my tablet and possibly an air turn to do the same thing.
I’ll check out music stand...

 

[Gtrjunior]

The mega churches I've done studio work for used a full integrated workflow scheduler application for their Worshio teams -everything from lyrics, chords. session notes, team schedules, church coordination, internal chat groups in one app -almost like a mobile version of MS Project Server and MS teams together in one app for Churches

Impressive, but a lot to take in considering what the goal is

Ha! That’s exactly what I was thinking. Kind of overkill...

 

[Gtrjunior]

This is the one?

 

[NegativeEase]

This is the one?

Yes, that was one of them for sure..

It's a cool product and well thought out -don't get me wrong -but for me, I can't imagine Church being so formal, so professional, so much pressure and so much business-like that it feels like going to a job for the purpose of what amounts to personal worship at the end of the day....

I mean, I get being organized -but man Mega Church worship team world is life or death before you even get to the life or death part of the sermon

I think you said the church you were involved with wasn't quit that level of seriousness -I live in the deep south -it's so...so... so serious here.

 

[beaubrummels]

This is the one?

Yes, that's the one. If the sheet music is in PC, it should show up in Music Stand if you log in with the same account and navigate to the service you are assigned to play. It has a player built in so you can play the related MP3s from PC, while running through the sheet music, for personal practice. Just Bluetooth in AirTurn and it should take over flipping the pages. If you have an Apple pen, you can make your own annoations right on the sheet music, and if another guitar player already made notes for that song, you can 'apply' their notes on top of the sheet music instead.

This is my home practice setup: just an AirTurn and Zoom pedal on the board, straight into a Boss personal monitor for my guitar, then the iPad plays the tunes via Bluetooth into a Sony wireless speaker (on the flat stand just under the iPad in the picture).

 

[Gtrjunior]

Yes, that was one of them for sure..

It's a cool product and well thought out -don't get me wrong -but for me, I can't imagine Church being so formal, so professional, so much pressure and so much business-like that it feels like going to a job for the purpose of what amounts to personal worship at the end of the day....

I mean, I get being organized -but man Mega Church worship team world is life or death before you even get to the life or death part of the sermon

I think you said the church you were involved with wasn't quit that level of seriousness -I live in the deep south -it's so...so... so serious here.

They aren’t. I was looking at finding an app specifically for me.
Some of the players use a tablet (not sure what app) and other still use paper.

As I looked into that app I realize that it’s meant for multiple players to utilize. It’s not really ideal for just me to be using. I’ll find another one.

 

[devastone]

Planning Center and Music Stand work together, it's a team thing, and yes, we use them and the church has iPads for us to use and the charts and music are on it for us to access at home. I practice with my computer and have my GT-1K running through an M-Audio Air interface, so I can mix the guitar vs the songs. Since our new guy integrated worship online I have to use the online music, I much preferred mp3s so I could download them and pull them up in Sound Forge and isolate parts. But, on the plus side WO has isolated tracks for all the parts so pretty easy to learn them, and if you need a video lesson, those are available too, might not be the same key, but if there are parts you really can't get (quickly) it's helpful.

I'm sure they use it or something similar, again, don't overthink it before you start, they should give you the resources you need.

And yes, some of the big churches take it very seriously, they also pay the musicians so they can raise expectations.

 

[Gtrjunior]

Planning Center and Music Stand work together, it's a team thing, and yes, we use them and the church has iPads for us to use and the charts and music are on it for us to access at home. I practice with my computer and have my GT-1K running through an M-Audio Air interface, so I can mix the guitar vs the songs. Since our new guy integrated worship online I have to use the online music, I much preferred mp3s so I could download them and pull them up in Sound Forge and isolate parts. But, on the plus side WO has isolated tracks for all the parts so pretty easy to learn them, and if you need a video lesson, those are available too, might not be the same key, but if there are parts you really can't get (quickly) it's helpful.

I'm sure they use it or something similar, again, don't overthink it before you start, they should give you the resources you need.

And yes, some of the big churches take it very seriously, they also pay the musicians so they can raise expectations.

I wanted to let you know that I took your advise on using a Marshall type tone for the overdrive sounds vs a Fender map model. Great advise. The plexi model is much, much better at all gain levels without any of that harshness I had with the Fender amp.

And secondly, I ended up ordering a pair of CAA IEMS. From what I understand they are made by KZ but are more for musicians etc.
The ones I got have 6 drivers per side. Hybrid driver system. I used them last night at the rock band rehearsal. They sounded phenomenal! I really liked the overall sound I got from them. Vocals sounded great and more importantly the guitar sounded well, like a guitar. Lol

And lastly, I ended up ordering the Kemper Stage yesterday. I’m very excited to get that up and running. I’ll update this thread once I run it through it’s paces.

 

[devastone]

I wanted to let you know that I took your advise on using a Marshall type tone for the overdrive sounds vs a Fender map model. Great advise. The plexi model is much, much better at all gain levels without any of that harshness I had with the Fender amp.

And secondly, I ended up ordering a pair of CAA IEMS. From what I understand they are made by KZ but are more for musicians etc.
The ones I got have 6 drivers per side. Hybrid driver system. I used them last night at the rock band rehearsal. They sounded phenomenal! I really liked the overall sound I got from them. Vocals sounded great and more importantly the guitar sounded well, like a guitar. Lol

And lastly, I ended up ordering the Kemper Stage yesterday. I’m very excited to get that up and running. I’ll update this thread once I run it through it’s paces.

Cool, glad the info was helpful. I've always leaned more toward Marshall overdriven sounds, especially when I want smoother tones, I mean, I love Nuno's tone on WFTP, but that will rip your head off and shred your eardrums, not exactly what I'm going for in church.

I'll have to look up those IEMs, I'm using TRNs, but I'm guessing they are all coming out of the same place in China.

Let us know about the Kemper, sounds like the Amplifire was just a gateway drug LOL. I hear the Amplifire sounds great, so let us know how they compare.

 

[Gtrjunior]

These are the ones I bought...$38.

CAA C12. And of course I bought some comply foam replacement tips.

The Amplifire definitely was the gateway!
But now I have a backup to the Kemper should I ever need it.

 

[devastone]

The quality of the models should be as good as the Kemper's profiles, the Amplifire stuff is pretty highly regarded, but the interface isn't the best. Definitely interested in hearing how it works for you.

I'm starting to go the opposite way, since I only use a couple of sounds, and am old and have an affinity for knobs, I'm putting together a pedalboard around an AMT Series 2 or SS pedal preamp (I have a P2 and a B2, and may pickup an S2). The built in cab sim on those is pretty good, granted, I haven't sampled dozens of IRs like a lot of guys, but it works for me, or might pick up a Digitech CabDryver or something to put on the board. I like the convenience of the GT's small footprint, so will probably play with both for a while and see what is more fun and productive to use. I will admit I get bad option anxiety with any of the modeling units.

 

[Gtrjunior]

The quality of the models should be as good as the Kemper's profiles, the Amplifire stuff is pretty highly regarded, but the interface isn't the best. Definitely interested in hearing how it works for you.

I'm starting to go the opposite way, since I only use a couple of sounds, and am old and have an affinity for knobs, I'm putting together a pedalboard around an AMT Series 2 or SS pedal preamp (I have a P2 and a B2, and may pickup an S2). The built in cab sim on those is pretty good, granted, I haven't sampled dozens of IRs like a lot of guys, but it works for me, or might pick up a Digitech CabDryver or something to put on the board. I like the convenience of the GT's small footprint, so will probably play with both for a while and see what is more fun and productive to use. I will admit I get bad option anxiety with any of the modeling units.

That sounds like a cool setup. You should be able to get what you need from it.

One of the other reasons for me to want to move away from an amp and cab is the “I’m getting old” thing. I just don’t want to lug the gear around anymore. Lol

 

[Bogner]

The quality of the models should be as good as the Kemper's profiles, the Amplifire stuff is pretty highly regarded, but the interface isn't the best. Definitely interested in hearing how it works for you.

I'm starting to go the opposite way, since I only use a couple of sounds, and am old and have an affinity for knobs, I'm putting together a pedalboard around an AMT Series 2 or SS pedal preamp (I have a P2 and a B2, and may pickup an S2). The built in cab sim on those is pretty good, granted, I haven't sampled dozens of IRs like a lot of guys, but it works for me, or might pick up a Digitech CabDryver or something to put on the board. I like the convenience of the GT's small footprint, so will probably play with both for a while and see what is more fun and productive to use. I will admit I get bad option anxiety with any of the modeling units.

For kicks, check out the Neunaber Neuron pedal. It is amazing and does a ton of things.

 

[devastone]

That sounds like a cool setup. You should be able to get what you need from it.

One of the other reasons for me to want to move away from an amp and cab is the “I’m getting old” thing. I just don’t want to lug the gear around anymore. Lol

Yep, the GT in a gig bag is nice, just walk in with 2 bags on my shoulder. I gave up 4-12s years ago.

 

[devastone]

For kicks, check out the Neunaber Neuron pedal. It is amazing and does a ton of things.

If I come across one I will. Lots of great pedal preamps out there. I used to use a AMT SS-11b, has 2 12AX7s running at full voltage, great sounding preamp, might have to look for a deal on one of those again if I commit to the pedalboard.