“We don’t practice until the morning of the service.” “We have a mid-week practice.” “Practice? I get a five-minute sound check and that’s it.” I’ve heard from audio techs the world over regarding their weekly practices / sound checks and it usually falls into one of those just mentioned. It seems time I detail how my church goes through our production routine.
I’ll note that I’m not sure on the timing on the video and lighting behind-the-scenes prep work like programming the lighting scenes. This will cover what do know.
Wednesday Nights
This is our mid-week practice in which the worship band practices all of their songs. Consider this the FIRST practice. They’ll work on the overall songs, timing, problem spots, etc. From a production point of view Steve or I will have all the equipment on stage and running. Microphones, in-ear monitors, everything. This is a great opportunity for us to set our channel assignments, channel gains, and dial in a rough mix for the overall band. The band also sets their in-ear monitor mixes.
I say “rough mix” because sometimes things will change. The electric guitarist might change to a better patch for his sound on Saturday. There might be a musician who can’t make that practice. It’s rare, but it does happen. Also, the band might not really gel as far as their overall sound and arrangement changes are a possibility.
We run the M7CL so Steve and I can save a generic scene for the Saturday practice.
Saturday
We run three services; one on Saturday evening and two on Sunday morning. Our Saturday begins around 3:30 pm with musicians coming in for practice around 4 pm. Consider this the second practice.
Second Practice
The second practice is when Steve or I mix for each song, save the scene, and then mix for the next song, save the scene, rinse, repeat. This is where it’s handy to have that generic scene from Wednesday night to start as a baseline. Often, it’s a generic scene with all of the channels cleaned up but nothing much after that. By the end of this practice, our scenes are set and we are ALMOST ready to go.
Full Run-Through
At this point, camera op’s take their positions, the lighting tech is in place, and the production director takes us through a full run-through of the service. The band plays all of their songs, we have a stage manager perform mic checks on most of the speaking microphones (elder, announcement microphone) and the pastor will come out of a few moments for a quick mic check.
During this run-through, from an audio point of view, it’s rather easy. Scene change, scene change, etc.
The Saturday Evening Service
During this service, just like the first Sunday morning service, Steve and I can make any mix changes and if we deem it of value to keep, we’ll save those changes in the scene. This way, we aren’t making the same changes for each service.
Sunday Morning
Sunday morning, before the first service, we do a quick sound check with a few songs, and we are ready.
That’s All Folks…
Not quite. I’ve had people say our level of practice is more along the lines of what they’d expect for a professional performance. What they are really saying is “I think your worship band performs instead of ‘worships.’“ To that point, two things;
- I’ve seen churches big and small with limited practices and prep time and it shows in a negative way. It’s obvious when the band doesn’t know the song as well as they should. It’s obvious when the sound tech has to work like mad prior to the service just to dial in a decent mix. And it’s obvious when the words on the screen don’t match with what is being sung.
- As I mentioned in my previous post, Colossians 3:23-24 reads; “Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ.” I do know a lot of tech’s who have weekly processes similar to ours, so if anything, our process is more along the lines of the normal expected rehearsal process.
So that’s our typical week as far as what we do from an audio point of view. I’ve never questioned the amount of time we spend prior to the first service because the moment the first service starts, I know the musicians and the full tech crew are fully prepared. And that’s a really nice feeling to have.
Question: What’s your weekly process?
John O'Keefe says
August 5, 2014 at 12:29 amI completely agree with this article. I’ve been in tiny churches where practice time was dreadful and service was ammatuerish because nobody (including me) could get our act together. Thankfully at my current church we have a 1.5 hour Wednesday night in which the band can figure out what they are doing I can get a decent per song mix and then do a run through that we record (Music director likes having a CD for timings, possible changes, etc…). Then on Sunday morning we have a one hour practice in which we run through service music, I get the chance to make any alterations, and then we have two services.
I remember reading an article you posted about big church envy, and I’m starting to have some when you talk about per song scenes. Still on an analogue board. Ah… I dream of the flexibility of going digital… :).
Anyway, thanks for this article.
Chris says
October 7, 2013 at 5:43 pmBenjamin, thanks for writing those two points. I love that statement about winging a performance leading to stress and panic. So true!
Michæl says
October 7, 2013 at 5:16 pmWe’re a smaller church (200-250 total between two Sunday morning gatherings). Most weeks it’s a 2+ hour mid-week practice and a T-minus-2-hour sound check. I’ve been pretty happy with our schedule, especially when looking back at previous churches I’ve helped with, but this article leaves me wanting a bit more.
For starters, we have four distinct bands (with different styles) and I have three assistant sound technicians, and they are each matched with their own band. I run sound for the fourth band and then cover holes as needed. This is a positive in that the sound tech feels like part of the group, but it’s a negative in that the bands and techs have a three-week gap between ‘gigs’. I think I’d like to see the bands commit to a second weeknight practice each month. Sometimes they have what we call a “creative jam session” but it’s very informal. The sound tech is rarely involved with that and it’s usually fairly unplugged.
The video techs (there are four, counting myself) are rarely involved before the Sunday morning sound check. Even then, we tend to use the time between the first gathering and the second gathering as a chance to fix typos, which is admittedly a bad habit to have gotten into.
None of my team (myself included) get a paycheck and I’m nervous about asking them for more of a commitment, especially when they all pretty much volunteer in other areas of the church.
All four of us sound techs generally use one scene for the entire gathering and just make mixing changes on the fly based on memory. Maybe it’s time to start implementing individual scenes for each song to make things smoother. I’m not actually sure how our mixer copes with that… it’s a StudioLive and I don’t think it smoothly fades the levels or channel EQs when you recall a scene. Plus, the faders aren’t motorized, so it’s a bit mentally challenging.
Advice?
Chris says
October 7, 2013 at 5:41 pmMichæl,
Looking at everything you mentioned, I think a lot comes down to this statement; “…and I’m nervous about asking them for more of a commitment, especially when they all pretty much volunteer in other areas of the church.”
Having volunteers is great. Having volunteers who never get the chance to sit in the congregation and worship, that’s a problem. I’d start with looking at your process with typos and what can be pro-actively done to avoid them. As far as an extra practice for each band, that’s a tough call. You know the situation best. Who needs the extra practice? Is it for the band or the tech team? More questions than answers, sorry.
As for the StudioLive, you can do different scenes. The thing is when you switch scenes, you need a moment to align the channel volume faders to the highlighted LED position and then tell the board you are ready.
Benjamin Rockwell says
October 7, 2013 at 11:27 amTo those that would suggest that it’s a performance, I offer two more items:
1. In order to worship, you have to separate yourself from practice. If you fail to practice, then you are winging a performance. Winging a performance leads to panic and stress, two items that lead people away from worship. One needs to be confident about the music, the words, and the other elements of a performance, in order to be able to worship.
2. Sometimes a member is not in a worshipful mood. What should we do then? Dismiss them from the stage? The impact on morale of the team could be drastic. My worship pastor says “fake it until you make it”… which seems and feels false, but it does work. You can’t always just force the world out on your own, but then the Holy Spirit fills you through what you are witnessing and experiencing from the stage. Who are we to judge, however, not knowing what’s going on in their lives?