Like I mentioned in the last blog post, running sound at church puts you in line to run sound for events other than church services.  Take my experience with a jazz band for example. 

Imagine a huge place that sat thousands of people.  Imagine microphones on every instrument so you had control over the sound.  Imagine the perfect scenario.  This was not it.

The Amy Stephens Group was performing in a small church and asked if I could run sound for them as their regular sound guy was unavailable. The church sat about 200-300.  It was all wood interior with a high peaked ceiling in the middle.  Did I mention it was a jazz band with a trumpet and a saxophone? 

I ran through the standard mic check / gain setting / eq'ing before the concert.  At the time, I knew the brass could be a problem.  However, other than telling the horn players to play softer, I was running out of options.

The concert started and there I was to contend with a six-piece band - piano, drums, bass, saxophone, trumpet, and guitar.  Thankfully, no one sang so I didn't have to figure a vocal mic into the mix.

My options for blending the other instruments were either UP or OFF.  That's what I told the pastor when he came back and asked me if I could lower the volume.  OFF wasn't really an option.  My point to him was that when dealing with brass in a small room, if the musician's don't play softer, then I don't have many options.

The good news is that the concert was great and the only complaints I heard from a few people was about the volume.  They all thought the blend was good.

Running the sound system for any event can mean you are not working under ideal conditions.  What events have you run in which you had to deal with something that was less than ideal?