Ask the expert – advice on cables

By Guest Blogger | March 3, 2011

Daniel S. Fick emails: “I’ve downloaded Bob Kilpatrick’s “Church Soundbook“, and in there it talks about using a multi-channel headphone amp along with basic headphone cables and ear buds to make an affordable “in-ear monitoring system”. I’ve now purchased the parts, and my question is: what kind of cable I need to connect the headphone […]

Ask the expert – impact of downgrading to smaller speakers

By Guest Blogger | February 26, 2011

Steve Edwards writes: I’m running two (large) 300w speakers from a 600w stereo amp (300w per channel). If I downgrade to (physically smaller) 250w speakers am I right in thinking that it’ll take less drive from the amp to get my current sound levels from the 250w speakers? Also, will the bass response be lower […]

Ask the Expert – Tech team trauma

By Andy@Musicademy | February 17, 2011

Rusty emailed us with a really tricky problem: “I have been a live sound engineer for 22 years, I toured for 14 and owned my own sound company for 9 years. With that said I have been going to the same church for about  5 years, in that time I have helped bring the sound […]

Free Worship Resources Index- Posts on PA/Sound Tech/Visuals

By Marie@Musicademy | February 10, 2011

Here is a list of all Musicademy’s articles on Tech resources to date. If you have any questions for our resident experts, please post them in the comment box below. Or if you are something of an expert yourself and would like to write anything for our website then please do get in touch. General […]

What you need to run church sound – FREE survival guide handbook

By Bob Kilpatrick | February 5, 2011

We first posted this back in 2009 but we’ve had some more recent requests for it and thought we’d upload it again ahead of a new series of posts on church sound. Bob Kilpatrick has allowed us to make his church sound e-book available to our subscribers free of charge. Click to download the ChurchSoundbook. Bob […]

Ask the expert – Mic recommendations for a choir

By Guest Blogger | December 9, 2010

We tackled a question on mic recommendations for groups of singers a while back. This question is particularly pertinent in the run up to Christmas with festive choirs. Sara Chambers from Alaska emails with a supplementary question: “Hello!  Thank you for your good work!  I appreciated the article “Ask the Expert – mic recommendations for […]

Visual worship case study – carols by candlelight

By Guest Blogger | December 6, 2010

We first published this post last Christmas, but its helpful for a number of churches planning their festive services so here it is again. The carol service at St Silas is always a big event and has had a variety of implications for visuals in past years. I thought it would be worth making a […]

Ask the expert – playing sound from a laptop

By Guest Blogger | November 3, 2010

John Birbeck from Rawmarsh asks for some technical advice: “We want to play backing tracks from our laptop computer through the PA system.  So we want to go from usb on the laptop to an XLR microphone socket on the mixer.  We are using Windows Vista on the laptop but will probably play the tracks […]

Ask the Expert – mic recommendations for groups of singers

By Guest Blogger | September 6, 2010

Recommendations on microphones for a group of singers Dan and Aylin Fick emailed from Sucre Bolivia asking: I was wondering what kind of microphone you’d recommend for having 5 vocalists grouped around, say 2-3 mics/stands. Would a standard Shure SM58 do the trick, or am I better going omni-directional….hanging a “choir mic” from the ceiling, […]