church players...

[rockeroo]

Who in here plays their instrument regularly in a church setting? What kind of setting is it musically? Do you run into any sound restrictions? If so, what?

- A fellow believer here who gladly is in a similar boat

Cheers!

[musicsoma]

Hey there,

I lead worship for my church on Sundays. I have played in quite a few venues (200 to 3000 people). There can be quite a range of sound issues. Typically at smaller venues it is an issue of volume. To help with this, I picked up a lot of smaller amps (1965 Vibro Champ, 1965 Princeton, and a 1952 Tweed Deluxe).

For some of the bigger venues I have a 1966 VOX AC30 Super Twin I will sometimes bring in (thought the smaller amps sound killer when they have a great mic). The most common issue I run into with larger venues is being able to cut through the mix. Often church sound guys are volunteers and are not necessarily trained mix in a professional manner. For example, they may mix 3 guitarists in the same EQ range with similar tone. It can definitely create "sound mush". This is actually the main reason I like to use the BBOD for lead stuff. It has such a unique sound to it that I can always differentiate my guitar in the mix.

[alanbarley]

Hi, I play for my local church 4 times a week (including one rehearsal evening) for the the last 25 or so years. The congregation numbers about 2500 people. I am also the music director for our Friday night service. The large service is held in a 2200 seat sanctuary. In there I use a 65 Amps London head with a 65 2x12 cab in an iso box I built located off stage with a mic in it. We use Aviom personal monitors with inner ears. Inner ears are always an adventure trying to maintain a good tone coming through the earbuds. Once in a while I pull them out to hear how my tone compares in the house. It always sounds better but because its a large room you can feel like you are swimming. The Avioms are great to have control of your mix though. Some days my tone through the inner ears is glorius, other days I feel like it sucks. I find that sound men are always trying to brighten my tone in the house mix and I'm always trying to keep it in the lower mids. You have to make sure you become friends with your sound man! We play contemporary, gospel, Hillsongs, country, and just about any other genre of music in our main services. We do our Friday night service in an 800 seat auditorium and there I use a Divided by 13 JRT 9/15 or a 13 CJ 11, and both are on the verge of being too loud. We use floor monitors in there. I keep it simple and use an Shure 57 to mic either amp. Recently I picked up a Faustine Phantom II attenuator and I have been using it with the 9/15 (which is pretty loud for a small head) to help keep it under the singers. The Friday night service more harder rockin stuff. We are always learning new songs so it stays interesting.

See ya!

Alan

[Hulakatt]

I get to experience the sheer joy of, not only playing in our Worship band (drums, bass or guitar) but of being the lead sound engineer for our church. I get to oversee, train and run sound every weekend.

When I run sound I prefer everything mic'd and shielded so I can adjust continuously throughout each song. I view (and teach) that running sound is playing another instrument that is part of the band.

When I get to play guitar I run a Marshall 2061x into a closed back 1x12 loaded with a greenback. My amp is on an iso riser with a mini shield covered in Auralex up tight (about 4-6 inches from the front of the cab) with a Sennheiser e609 for my mic. Using a closed back cab with the foam paneled shield so close allows me to crank my amp to my preference within a wide range of volumes leaving a large amount of control to the sound guys.