Pick Your Battles
by Phil on Jun.14, 2009, under Blog
Today I got to help my father since he volunteers his time running sound at his church. The first service was straight forward- piano, organ, choir and worship leader. 3 hymns were sung. The pastor started his sermon a little later than scheduled, and ate into the 15-minute set change time. Having to set up and check the second service music in 15 minutes is tough. Today we had less time than that, PLUS added a southern gospel quartet! Panic insued.
This my first time at this church, and the set up was not complicated: small mackie, 2 monitor sends, 1 FX unit. Still though, for someone without any training, it can be intimidating. Not to throw my dad under the bus, but he’s had this happen before, and he was worried about getting everything set up in time.
Before the end of the first service, I went out into the hallway to meet the group. What I saw was a stack of monitors, mic cables, an amp rack, and various other gear. One of the other church techs saw the gear, and was preparing for a fight, thinking there was no time to set up their stuff, THEN having to sound check them, etc.
I realized one thing. There was going to be little time to set up. Either we could force them out of their comfort zone and force them to use the church gear, or we could let them scramble, set up their own mics and mixer, and offer to take a single feed off their mixer and put it through the house system. That’s what we did.
During their set up time, we got everything ready for the regular church sound, then once the group had their mics and monitors set, they gave us 10 seconds of a sound check, during which we just made sure the feed was coming through the house.
The point is that sometimes you can (and should) accommodate what you are not comfortable with. Just because you always run the special music through YOUR mixer, doesn’t mean that’s the best decision. In this case, it was a win-win to let the group use their own gear. Their mixer was already set for their voices, and their monitors were already mixed for them… plus it took that responsibility off of us. 
The group was also more comfortable this way, meaning they performed better, and we got to enjoy the service instead of complaining and stressing all the way through it.
June 14th, 2009 on 9:13 pm
Great job and I bet your dad was real glad you came along today. We’ve had to scramble like that on many occasions. It can be stressful, but that’s why I like tech and it is rewarding when you pull it off. I agree with you that’s if at all possible it’s best to let the visiting group use their own gear as then they are in their comfort zone and don;t have to worry about anything but their singing and playing.
Craig
June 23rd, 2009 on 10:50 am
This is the way I prefer to have guest groups operate. If they have their own system, I recommend that they use it. I tell them to hook it up, just “no amps and no speakers” for the house side. Then they run a line to me to control the level in the house.
This way works EXTREMELY well. They operate with equipment and settings that they know and I get to make sure that no one looses their hearing!
June 23rd, 2009 on 12:50 pm
I to am an advocate of using the guest group’s sound system. Their sound tech knows their mix, EQing, etc. for the proper blend. Just run a line to the house board for the front end and the way we go. Unfortunately, we had one group who liked it very loud. My ears reached saturation during the concert. The RTA was hitting at 120 db. The pastor was not happy neither were most of the congregation. New rules were set in place after that experience.