One problem I encounter in churches, is the sound engineer never moving out from behind the board. It should not be a surprise that most churches (and a lot of clubs I’ve run sound in too, unfortunately) have horrible ‘sound booth’ placement. So, if you’re under a balcony, in the back corner of the room, and inside a closet, and the sound is PERFECT from where you sit, you must have done a great job compensating for the bad acoustical enviornment where you are, but what about the rest of the room? Is the congregation being subjected to bad audio and holding your responsible?

Your soundcheck should be your chance to get out of the booth and walk around the room.  How does the audio sound where most of the people are going to hear it? Perhaps your perfect mix is really thin in the middle of the room. Perhaps no one sits in the front 6 rows because IT’S SOO LOOOUUUDDDDD. Does your guitar player have his amp facing the audience and is it overpowering your mix? As we recently discussed, perhaps the remedy is to take it out of the mix completely since most of the room can hear it already.

As you walk back to your booth, you have to remember the changes that need made: beefing up the kick drum, smoothing out the vocals, turning down the guitar… and now where you sit, it sounds horrible! That is the challenge of volunteering in this ministry position. You actually can have the worst seat in the house.

Is there a remedy? Sure. Just convince your local board to build you a new room. And if that succeeds, let us know how you pulled that off! Sound booth placement is never ideal, because it would be in the middle of your room. The closer you can get, the better, but please learn to mix for your audience, not for yourself. Get out, walk around, and listen. Creating a good mix can be extra hard, especially when you can’t hear the results from your location. I know you’re up for the challenge though!