I'll start with a confession; I enjoy listening to Nick Jonas.  Now be honest, if you are my age then you grew up on 80's pop - which is essentially bubble gum music.  The Jonas Brothers make bubble gum pop.  Recently, his band sounded like a garage band.  read more »

Talk of microphones usually revolves around the type (condenser or dynamic) and the polar pattern (cardioid, omni-directional, etc.), but there is more to a microphone.  The "more" is the microphone's Frequency Response.  read more »

A question commonly asked when picking microphones is "Which microphone has the best reach?"  The problem is that a microphone doesn't reach for anything.

A microphone responds to sound waves that travel to its location. The microphone measures variations in air pressure and provides an electrical output that mirrors those variations.  The air pressure variations can be sensed as long as they are within the hearing frequency of 20 - 20,000 Hertz.  read more »

A wonderful part of working in audio is all the technical terms and diagrams.  No matter how much I think I know, there is always something new that makes me scratch my head.

One of the early head-scratchers, for me, was the microphone polar chart.  I grew up knowing charts as having an X, Y, and sometimes Z baseline.  Pie charts, well those are pretty easy to understand.  I really shouldn't talk about pie charts when I'm hungry. Yummmmmmmm.  read more »

One method for identifying a microphone on stage is with a ring of colored tape on the microphone. Then place that same colored tape on the mixer channel or label it such as “Red.” This makes visual identification quite easy…as long as your sound booth is near the stage. The problem is that singers often cover up the tape when they are holding the microphone. Leave it to a microphone company to come up with a solution.  read more »

The djembe (a type of drum) is a great musical instrument that blends well into the church worship setting.  However, microphone placement for the djembe is not a hard and fast rule.  Here are the guidelines you can use for providing the best amplification.  read more »

I recently received a message from a reader concerning a statement I made.  I stated dynamic microphones are preferred to condensers for live vocals because, in part, dynamic microphones can withstand high sound pressure levels without damage or distortion.  My reader disagreed with me.  read more »

An acoustic guitar produces a wonderful range of sounds from warm bass tones to crisp high notes; a range of 70hz to 700hz.  Because guitars are made out of different types of wood, they can produce different overall sounds.  Some guitars have an overall warm sound, others are bright, and others might accentuate the midrange sounds.  How can you capture those sounds and amplify them?  read more »

Check out the post of Basic Mic'ing Techniques for Piano from ChurchAudio.

I'm finding some worship team pianist's like to play a regular piano instead of an electric such as the Clavinova.  While a baby grand does have a great sound, toss in a guitar, some drums, and a whole congregation singing, then you see why you need to mic the piano.  JB shows in his article that it usually takes more than one microphone.

When I first learned how to run a church sound system, the only thing I heard about phantom power was "the phantom power switch is right next to the power switch in the back of the mixer.  Make sure you turn on the power and not the phantom power."  Now, many years and a lot more microphones later, I know the reason behind the phantom power.  It's quite simple...  read more »