Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

[Hoss]

for those of you who do or don't or care (lol)...here's a little update!

so i've been at odds with the sound guys during our worship service at church because they insist that we plug our electric guitars into the stupid PA! aaarrrgghhh!

i've kept telling them that you can't do that and expect any kind of decent sound whatsoever and that it is a horrible idea...i told them that all we need is two uni-directional mics, a couple amp stands and a couple flexible mic stands and voila! but nooooooooooooooooooo they refused to listen to me at all!

it even got so bad that last Wednesday night right before we started church (while people were praying) the sound guy came up on stage unplugged our guitars from our amps (i had them mic'd with multi-directionals...it was the best i could do!) and plugged them into direct boxes!!!!!!!! i couldn't believe my eyes and later on my ears!!!

so we went up there to play and couldn't hear ourselves or each other and our worship leader kept trying to get him to turn us up...what an unnecessary mess!!! finally, we plugged ourselves back into our amps and played!

after the service the Pastor told our worship leader that he'd had enough and that what had happened will not happen again...such unnecessary drama :smack: he said that he would talk to the sound guys and tell them to fix this problem and to make sure they cleared it with us as to what they were going to do.

soooooooooo last night we are practicing and the sound man shows up as we're winding down and comes up on stage and tells us what he's gonna do...i couldn't wait to hear this....lol

"ok, what we're gonna do is get this special microphones that only pick up what's in front of them and set the amp up on amp stands facing the guitar players and then put the mics on some flexible mic stands" :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack: :smack:

DUH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i told him that i couldn't have designed it better myself and he said that he hadn't thought it up but the guy at the music store told him what to do!!!!

hello...mcFly...what have i been telling you for the past months, my wife even laughed when he walked off!!!!???

ah well...i'm just glad it's gonna finally be fixed!!!

 

[Skarekrough]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

I've never heard of a MENSA meeting being cancelled because it was a night that alot of sound guys would be required to work their jobs.

It always stuns me that sound guys are so unwilling to listen to the actual musicians that have actual real world experience doing this.

 

[Hoss]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

rotfl!!!!!!!!!!! :laugh2: :laugh2: :laugh2:

 

[More-Gear-Than-Skill]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

Nice to see that conflict isn't reserved for smokey, boozy stages! The sad fact of this mattter is that that sound guy probably won't acknowledge your wisdom. Arrogant and stoopid folks tend to shy away from doing that.

Why not borrow a nice big Fender Metal Head stack or two (on appro) and level the first five rows! Tell the Pastor that it was mr soundman's solution! Oops!

 

[Kane17]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

hahaha


Dude, I have my stuff mic'ed at my church. People always laugh when they see it just cuz they think everything is just supposed to "plug-in".

I always keep a speaker cab emulator handy though, if we play out somewhere else, I dont want to explain the whole thing to someone elses sound tech.

 

[Hoss]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

hahaha


Dude, I have my stuff mic'ed at my church. People always laugh when they see it just cuz they think everything is just supposed to "plug-in".

I always keep a speaker cab emulator handy though, if we play out somewhere else, I dont want to explain the whole thing to someone elses sound tech.

that's why i'll never get rid of my Tech 21 pedal...ever!!!

it really is a relief though...i can't express my frustrations enough...i look forward to the music just getting better and better now and not worrying about this other junk.

 

[Stratman]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

This is another reason why I stopped going to church and converted to Islam.

 

[joelap]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

^ Bad sound guys made you convert to islam?

 

[devastone]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

At our church, the cab (a Mesa 2-12) is off stage and mic'd and we have in-ear monitors. It helps that it is a big church and owns the amps so they stay set up. Our sound guy is also a pro and before becoming technical director for the church, he worked for Showco and has run sound for big names from George Strait to Pantera, Kiss, and Brittney Spears. Yeah, it sounds good.

 

[RW James]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

I'm glad to hear that it finally worked out for you... and good for you for not jumping all over the guy with "I told you so!"

I guess it is always a struggle with the sound guys (except for devastone - I'm envious). My biggest problem is that our sound guy is my son-in-law. He started doing sound for us because his wife (my daughter) was singing with us, so he was there anyway.

Now he's an expert and I can't tell him anything. Well - not totally true - but it's hard - but we eventually get compromises. I whine a lot and I think he's ignoring me - and then eventually he comes up with a good solution.

We're all just doing our best with limited resources.

 

[Rich_S]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

"ok, what we're gonna do is get this special microphones that only pick up what's in front of them and set the amp up on amp stands facing the guitar players and then put the mics on some flexible mic stands"

Gee... good thing he found some of them there "special" microphones. They sound pretty high-tech. Are they like NSA or something?

This is another reason why I stopped going to church and converted to Islam.

^ Bad sound guys made you convert to islam?

Ever since sound guys became de rigueur in churches throughout the land, it seems like a reasonable solution to me.:laugh2:

 

[sosomething]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

HONEST QUESTION:




How can anyone be considered a "sound tech" when they don't have any concept of how to run sound?

Is no experience required at all?

On the day of the first church service, does the pastor get behind the pulpit and say "Ok, who wants to be the choir director... Yes ma'am, I see you in the 3rd row with your hand up. Ok, choir practice will begin next week. Now, who would like to run sound for our fresh and hip contemporary church rock tunes? You in the back - is that a gramophone horn in your ear? Sorry, I think this other gentleman had his hand up first.. Yes you - eighth row, puddle of drool - yeah - you're the soundman. Rehearsal is Saturdays at 9."

New soundman: "Will there be snacks?"

Pastor: "There will be if you bring them."

Soundman: "Yaaaaaaay! I like knobs and buttons!"

 

[wixedmords]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

I am glad you made it through Hoss. For the sake of the church, I am glad it didn't get too far out of hand.

 

[RW James]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

How can anyone be considered a "sound tech" when they don't have any concept of how to run sound?

Is no experience required at all?

Actually, for a lot of churches, that's pretty much it. You find someone that is interested in doing it and then you try to get them some training.

In my case, as I mentioned, I tagged my son-in-law for the job. He had no experience at all, but we had some trained people in the church that could help him learn.

 

[WhoFan]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

i think a lot of soundmen forget they are working for the band.... not for themselfs.... and too many out there calling themself's a soundman in my area have no idea how to play an instrument well enough to have a say in how the band should set up their gear.... My last band had some great sound guys and some awful ones...

 

[sosomething]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

Actually, for a lot of churches, that's pretty much it. You find someone that is interested in doing it and then you try to get them some training.

In my case, as I mentioned, I tagged my son-in-law for the job. He had no experience at all, but we had some trained people in the church that could help him learn.

If you don't mind my asking, why aren't the "trained people" in your church doing it?

 

[RW James]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

If you don't mind my asking, why aren't the "trained people" in your church doing it?

Yeah... I should have explained. I lead the band for a Saturday night service. The trained sound guys do Sunday morning and didn't want to come in Saturday night.

The thing is, now that my son-in-law (Mike) knows how to run the board - the regular guys sometimes take off and let Mike run Sunday (he's getting kind of stretched thin - so I give him a little slack when I have problems). He's there until 9:00 pm on Saturday then turns around and comes in at 6:30am on Sunday - and he lives 20 miles away.

 

[Brow]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

"ok, what we're gonna do is get this special microphones that only pick up what's in front

What sorta sound guy has never heard of a cardioid microphone?! :smack:

Has he never heard of an SM58

 

[devastone]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

I guess it is always a struggle with the sound guys (except for devastone - I'm envious).

I'm not playing in the church band right now, I just know the sound guy, he led a class that we were in. It's actually intimidating to play in front of him, he's ran sound for some incredible players. We also have in-ear monitors, the first time I used those with no amp behind me was really weird and isolated feeling. It would take a while to get get used to that.

Oh yeah, one of the bass players was a studio guy in Nashville before he moved out here, I'd love to play at church, but I think I psyche myself out from playing with them. I played with them at rehearsal once, well, sorta, I got about 6 songs to learn in one night, some of the songs were in a different key on the CD than the chord charts, it's not that the music was "that" hard, but I felt like I fell on my face. I haven't been able to psyche myself up for it again. These guys can transpose on the fly, but I'm a little slower, especially without enough time to feel comfortable with the tunes.

 

[ParaGuitarMedic]

Re: Remember the problems with the soundman at church i was having?

That's why I love the fact that I am trusted to do my job at my church. After that clown came onstage and unplugged me he would have been F-I-R-E-D fired!