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Originally Posted by delta soundman
First things first. IMO!!! My first responsibility is to the people of the church. THE PEOPLE!!!! Not the preacher, not the choir director, not the keyboard player, THE PEOPLE!!!!. That being said, I know what you are thinking, "how can you take care of the congregation if you don't take care of the platform first?" The platform needs to understand they are there for the people as well. No be in from of people doing your best American Idol routine. I believe in quality over quantity. If you have good quality the quantity will come too. I do not like feedback (the ringing kind) or roars. If you are a singer or musician and your selfishness is taking away from the quality then we have a problem.
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Delta, you sound a bit defensive.
Look, the pastor and music dept. members are "people", too, and sound men do have a responsibility to everyone. Your responsibility is dual, to make the sound (of the preacher/speaker/singer/musician) as good as it can possibly be, and in so doing, you please the people by making sure everything is heard in good quality without busting their eardrums or making them endure roars, squeaks, etc.
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I have been in churches where they had out ear plugs to people who complain. That is crazy!!! Get the sound right and you won't run people out.
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This isn't always true. There are some people who are simply complainers and are never satisfied. I have been a pastor's daughter for 31 years and a music director for 10 years, and I can tell you that is a fact. Get it right, get it perfect, have it at just the right level, and
someone will still probably complain that it is too loud. It's the nature of the bea...er...the people.
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My services run anywhere from 95db to 102db when things are jumping. It's not piercing or annoying because there is an understanding. The people come first. Trust the soundman to put you out there the best he can. In the end he will be blamed no matter what so let him do the job no strings attached. I can't stand people who think the soundman is their personal knob turner to make them sound like Celine Dion or Yanni on the keyboard. It's church people not a flipping concert. Get your heart where it needs to be and let the soundman handle the rest.
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Usually if there is a problem with the singers and musicians not being able to hear themselves, it has to do with a sound man not knowing how to implement
monitors. I don't care how low you turn me in the audience (assuming I can still be clearly heard), as long as I can hear myself on the platform. Unless churches go back to purely acoustic music and singing, then it is nearly impossible to hear yourself speak/sing without a proper monitor feeding the sound back to you. I'm sure you understand that.
Our sound man is my personal knob turner.
He makes me sound as good as I possibly can, and I appreciate it. There ARE sound men who are difficult to work with, and when they are asked to add effects or turn up the monitor, they huff and puff and display an attitude that presents their own "heart" problem. The truth is, music and sound go hand in hand, they cannot really be separated, so it needs to be teamwork, not "let me do my job and leave me alone."
Of course, if our sound man says, "Please turn the keyboard down", then my response is usually, "I'm sorry" and I turn it down. There can be bad attitudes on either side, OR their can be teamwork amongst departments which makes everything go smoothly.
No, its not a *concert*, but with the technology there is, if the musicians are on point and the singers are good, there's no reason for it to not be on par with the excellence you would find at a concert--without the concert atmosphere.
Sorry if this thread has stressed you out, ds.
My theory is, if
one person is consistently complaining, either from the platform, pew or the soundbooth, it may be
their problem, BUT if lots of the PEOPLE are complaining, it may truly be too loud, OR if lots of the singers/musicians are complaining, it MAY be the sound man.
And I thought....
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