The worship leader asked me a very good question after the practice; "How did we sound?" Simple question, right? At first thought, perhaps, but in truth, there are a lot of layers. 1. As the sound guy, I make them sound as good as I can. What do I say, "well, I took care of what I could?" 2. As a person in the congregation, I could say, "the singers need to hold the microphones to their mouth and not their chest.." 3. Then [keep reading]
Lend Me Your Ears – When More Is Better
April 21, 2010 Mixed by
Friday night, I used three pair of ears. I'm not talking about earbuds or anything electronic in nature. I'm talking about real human-tissue ears. And therein was the key to my success. It all started several months ago... A friend of mine is a singer in a 30+ person barbershop singing group. He told me they could use an experienced sound guy and asked if I was interested. A few phone calls and emails later, I found myself standing in front of this [keep reading]
What We Can All Learn From One Reader’s Unique Method of Setting Gain Structure
March 16, 2010 Mixed by
There is more than one way to skin a cat, to mic a snare drum, and to set levels. Thomas sent me an email which outlines his method for setting gain structure. He started by doing something very simple - he questioned his own methods. "I almost always lay out my channels in standard order... Drums, Bass, Guitars, Keys, Brass, whatever else and then Vocals. I'd then sound check the band in that order as is common. However, the problem with this is that the vocal [keep reading]
The Importance of Microphone Frequency Response
February 12, 2010 Mixed by
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. Microphones differ in the way in which they respond to different frequencies. They might boost a frequency or reduce it depending on the purpose for which the microphone was designed. (Also depending on the ideas the designers had in mind!) They might not alter the [keep reading]
Sound Absorption: The Chicken Sandwich Incident
January 12, 2010 Mixed by
Sound absorption is a concept that my local Chili's restaurant architect failed to consider when designing the interior. Echo and reverberation occur when sound is reflected off a surface. Sound absorption occurs when sound waves strike a surface which absorbs the waves. Sound absorption diminishes sound energy. The sound energy is converted to heat on the surface of the absorbing material. Sound absorption is literally the changing of sound energy to [keep reading]
I'm Chris Huff and I've been working behind a mixer for over twenty years. Since 2008, I've been helping other sound techs learn all about the art of church audio through behindthemixer.com.
For more about me, 