So far this year I’ve been to a few church services that are more traditional- piano, organ, choir, hymnals, etc. In a way, it’s been a little nostalgic for me, as I grew up in small churches that only sang hymns with piano accompaniment. It occurred to me how a lot of traditional churches on the surface appear to not suffer from the frustrations of audio problems because they aren’t trying to amplify drums, electric guitars, etherial keyboards, pop-style vocals, etc. The reality though is that there are still issues that need addressed and sometimes, the simplicity of the mix can make problems even more noticeable.

Ever been to a soundcheck for another band other than the one that sings in your church every Sunday? Show up early to club show, sneak in mid-day to a tour stopping through your city, or pay attention between bands at an all day festival, and the first thing you’ll likely hear for sound check is… kick drum, then snare, then hats, etc. Watch the other musicians on stage and you’ll see them speaking in sign-language to the monitor engineer trying to communicate. “I need more.” “It sounds flat.” “Can you make it punchier?”

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.