Photo provided by metabahn
The lights dimmed, the Christmas performance started, and the orchestra played. Only the orchestra had something I didn’t expect. And it worked in a way I hadn’t expected.
This weekend, my family and I attended a Christmas performance at a local church. The sanctuary holds less than 1,000 people, which includes a small balcony, so let’s call it a small-ish church. The performance began with a 20-piece orchestra. Due to the size of this church and the acoustic properties of the room, there was really no need for electronic amplification. But then my eye caught a sight I didn’t expect…
…An electronic drum kit!
Imagine listening to an orchestra that is just below the stage but off to the right side. You expect to hear the majority of sounds of the orchestra coming from their location, low-end being a bit of an exception. And that’s exactly what happened this weekend.
But what about the electronic drums?
I expected to hear them from the house mains. Seems like that would make sense, don’t you think? However, had I heard them in the mains, wouldn’t that have sounded un-natural given the placement of the orchestra?
Instead, Dan, the FOH guy, used the monitor for the electronic drums in a dual role. He used them as the natural monitor for the drummer but also gave it enough volume so the audience would think the sound was coming from the drum kit, in the same location as the instrument itself, instead of coming from the mains 25 feet above their heads.
How often do you see or hear discussions on minimizing monitor volume? Monitors aren’t for the congregation to hear, right? At least not as the primary sound source. But then you have Dan and his creative use of using a monitor to give the effect of a natural instrument because that’s what the audience expects to hear.
Christmas season and Christmas performances are upon us. We find ourselves doing things we normal don’t do. This month, when you are challenged with doing something new, look around at the stage, consider the point of view of the audience, and be creative. You might find the perfect place to hide a floor monitor or place a choir microphone that you’d have otherwise missed. There are all sorts of ways to be creative. Dan did something creative and so can you!
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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.
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The One time monitors should be louder! http://t.co/edYPRWcx?
For my Church, the choir monitor is flown above the stage and ultimately in a fixed location. Everything was fine until the week of the performance we suddenly had new risers…4 feet in front of where they used to be. Therefore the stage monitor was now projecting behind the choir. Due to the fact that our system is archaic and lacks pretty much flexible connections, I had to bring my personal amplifier from home and stick it under the stage risers. I stole the connection from the piano mic and setup a floor monitor in front of the choir.
I know this is nothing exciting and probably common place for many churches, but it gave us a big “what now?” pause 2 days before the performance. :)
Jared, great thinking on your part to find a workable solution!
“The sanctuary holds less than 1,000 people, which includes a small balcony, so let’s call it a small-ish church.” – Chris, you make me laugh sometimes… you don’t know what a small church is! :)
It’s such a relative call. For some, 1000 is huge. For other people, it’s small-to-medium. Looking back on what I said, though, it does come across as funny. :)
When I was doing theatre sound in school, it was common practice to hide speakers in the set so sound effects could be played from speakers near where they would occur. Sound effects that needed to be louder were also sent through the main PA with a slight delay (invoking the Haas effect).
It’s an area that I haven’t explored much in live church sound. That said, our band kind of did that without knowing what they were doing. The drummer’s monitor is behind him, and it’s fairly loud to make up for our wimpy PA. Given the delay introduced by our DSP and by time of flight difference between the drum monitor and the overhead cluster, we should [theoretically] get a bit of a Haas effect going on, which should help localize the e-drums to the stage. I’ll have to listen for that around the room during sound check (if we ever have one sometime) to see if such localization is actually happening. :-)
Josh, maybe we can start a petition for your worship band to have a regular sound check!