I guess I’m lucky. My church has 2 services on Sunday morning, and the band shows up an hour early to do a full blown sound check. This morning I posted a pic and comment on my Twitter about sound checking, and I got a reply that there are churches out there that do NOT sound check. How is this possible? I mean, my church doesn’t even use monitors and we take an hour! Yep. You read that correctly. We go old-school. Southern gospel style! Our main speakers are on the back wall, so everyone on stage uses the house mix as their monitors. Do I recommend this? No way!

Monitors are one of the most common battle grounds where band and engineer face off and play tug of war week after week after week. Too commonly the band needs to hear more of themselves, and the engineer needs to hear less of the stage noise. To the musician who only plays Sunday mornings, the ideal monitor mix sounds much like the worship CD he or she listened to on the way to church. Professional musicians know, however, that a good monitor mix has a specific goal.

It seems there are a lot of churches exploring the idea of in-ear monitors these days. You know, the ones with the personal mixers so each person can have their own mix. I don’t really see this as a positive. However, I don’t think it’s bad either really. What happens, as we’ll discuss, is that when you solve one set of problems by switching to in-ears, you introduce an entirely new set of problems that must be addressed. There are great advantages to using in-ears, but just prepare yourself for a slow, bumpy ride before you’ll feel like you are experiencing any benefits.

As with any piece of gear, the first and foremost question that needs answered is, “What problem am I trying to solve?” In other words, why are you switching? If it’s because you see bands use them on tour or on TV, or perhaps because you want to not have to hear so-and-so sing so poorly, then you may have the wrong approach.

Recently, I’ve been able to work a couple shows, and it has reminded me how much different the church world is from the ‘real’ world when it comes to audio and production. I’ve had a few thoughts stick in my mind that I want to share, and some insight I’d like to impart after a conversation or two with some production company owners, roadies, and musicians. The 1st lesson I want to share is one that I hadn’t planned on mentioning or focusing on when I started this blog. However, this aspect is one of the most important areas you can focus on to become the best possible audio engineer.

For eight years I was the full time audio engineer for The Elms. Touring was fun, but I made the decision to get off the road late last year. The guys were in Columbus last weekend and asked me if I could step behind the board for them again. It was a blast, I have to say, and it was good to see everyone again. There is a lot church bands and audio crews can learn from a show like this. I’m going to give you a peek at the gear that was used, what it’s like to be the opening band, and some insights into the politics of a show this size.