Sound men and women get a bad rap in churches. Musicians spend about 70% of their time complaining about their stage sound, their monitor mix, the irritating buzzes, the front-of-house levels – pretty much everything really.
Give musicians the slightest excuse and they’ll moan about the sound. They’ll behave like children if you don’t give them what they want. In normal circumstances you’ll only be a smidgeon away from giving them a hearty slap.
The sound man (or woman) is a mystery wrapped up an enigma, however. He or she turns up earliest, leaves after everyone else and has, arguably, the most important job of all.
It’s what it is. If you are a sound man/woman you are in charge of the sound. That sounds simplistic but consider this: you are in charge of the stuff that’ll affect one fifth of the congregation’s senses. That’s a pretty big responsibility.
If the sound person gets it wrong, the congregation will be like a salmon swimming upstream with little or no chance or reproducing during the worship time. It’s entirely understandable if a congregation cannot engage in worship if the noise coming from the PA system is no more than noise.
In short, you are in charge of an instrument. If you play it badly, it’ll hinder the worship. Play it well and you have done your bit to help people engage in worship.
Here’s a few pointers to help you along your way.

1 Do… listen to the music
Most sound people are volunteeered for the job initially because they are good at understanding technical stuff and plugging things in. Which is great for the set up but the whole mixing the music element is just as important. So don’t just be a techie. If you have been recruited to be in charge of the sound because you know how the equipment works then you will have to learn that this is not just a technological process. Now you are a musician whether you want to be  or not!. You’ll have to listen to the way the music ebbs and flows and adjust the levels accordingly. There are sound people, who get the levels sorted in the sound check and once that’s done, they sit back in their chairs and drink tea until the service ends. They might consider that they are there solely as a trouble-shooter – a rescuer in the event of a microphone meltdown – but that’s not it. You have to ‘work’ the desk throughout the service, paying attention to crescendos, troughs and the life of the sung worship. Those curly things on the side of you head are ears, so you might as well use them. If you are not sure where to begin, start listening CDs really critically. How many backing vocals are in the mix? how many guitars? What is the kick drum doing? What are the main rhythmic elements of the groove? And critically what sounds draw your attention and when? You see with a well produced album, at any given moment your ears will be drawn to a single sound or element, be it the vocals, a guitar lick, etc. So live you have to learn to pick out the things that people need to hear at any given moment and drop other sounds to the back. Different mixes can ilicit different responses in people too so pay attention to how diffiering styles of music are mixed and how those sounds make you feel. For instance classic rock mixes put the cymbals and guitars high in the mix and can sound really energetic whereas pop stuff makes the vocals and snare more prominent. So what levels and elements do you think are important for the worship music in your church?     Read More »