Last Saturday, I was again running sound for The Elms. Side note- they released a new record recently, and I highly recommend it. Funny enough, they have a song titled, “County Fair.” The show last Saturday was at the Dekalb County Fair, just north of Fort Wayne, IN. I’ll get to the audio production portion, but let me show you what it’s like to be on the road. Our Friday night show ended and we rolled out at about 1:00am and instead of getting a hotel, we drove 4 hours across the state in a van and trailer, which goes slower than in your car. When we arrived at the hotel at 5:00am, they of course couldn’t find our reservation! Don’t worry. Happens all the time. We’re used to it.

One of the most common comments I get sounds something similar to, “We got this great sound system, and at first it was an awesome improvement from our old system. Now, though, it just sounds bad. I’m not sure what else we need to do!”

On one hand, I feel for these churches. They are right. They did invest in a good-sounding system. They believe the problem though, is with their gear. I think the problem, which is not the best word to use, though, lies someone else.

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.

I just got done posting 3 sections of audio files in a new “Download” section. Before making my own files, I researched the web for a product out there that provided these type of tracks. I found none. The 1 product I did find was $80 plus shipping from the UK, and it was produced in a recording studio! My files are NOT produced, and it’s on purpose.

A lot of church sound engineers do not have the luxury of mixing 5+ shows a week, and most church musicians do not have the time to do a full soundcheck before each rehearsal. What this means, is that the average church sound engineer does not get to a chance to experiment with gear, learn EQ, understand gates, or tweak good compression. So, I present UNFINISHED sounding (on purpose) sound check audio files for you to use in your sound system and get more alone time with your gear.