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So, let’s see …
Posted on February 27th, 2008 in Church Life, Faith, Family, Life and Family, Old-General by Fred McKinnon
Hey Everyone,
So, let’s see … it’s 10:00 AM EST … I just settled down in my office at SSCC, starting on my 2nd cup of hash. (that is a word for coffee, isn’t it?). I feel like I’m already 3 hours behind today. We’re only a few days away from our “launch” at the new facility. Folks, if only you were close by – I wish you could see this place. It’s amazing. Gorgeous. Technology-Design cool. I love this place – I think I could live here. Actually, I have lived here the past couple of weeks.
I just need to ramble a moment – get some stuff out of my mind and onto this blog so I can move forward … so, if you’re interested, here are some random, crazy thoughts …
- Still no callback from Nemour’s Children’s Hospital re: Andrew’s MRI results. Joy and I are both 100% positive that this “mass” has either gotten smaller, moved, or both. Moved is definite – I’m 100% positive this mass isn’t in the same place it was when we discovered it a couple of weeks ago. To confirm my suspicions, I asked Joy “do you think it’s moved”? She said “yes” … I asked “where do you think it was, and where do you think it is now”? … she answered EXACTLY what I was thinking. Maybe this is some hernia or something.
- 2nd rehearsal last night this week – the rehearsals are long and arduous. Kudos to Travis (our Tech Director) for keeping his cool while 12+ people on stage are all demanding tweaks to their IEM (In Ear Monitor) mixes. At some point, I think we’ve gotta lighten up – and quit asking for detailed, special mix adjustments on every single song. This is where the Avioms would’ve been nice.
- I’m pumped about our opening this weekend – it’s going to be amazing. I’ll post the setlist shortly.
- Jon Michael and Will both have their first soccer games of the Spring season this weekend. I’m supposed to be working @ the church and hate to miss their first game. It will be Will’s first game ever.
- The Earthworks PianoMic system arrived about 30 minutes ago via Fedex.
- So, for the last 10 minutes or so, I’m on phone w/ Travis talking about all the IEM mixes. I’m taking a band that has never really used IEM that much, who are used to playing on a stage the size of a postage stamp, with 4 floor wedges blaring in front of them … and asking them to go IEM. It’s a HUGE ADJUSTMENT … somewhat painful, but will be for the better.
- Another rehearsal tonight – we’re going to try and run down the entire setlist for Friday night from start to end without a lot of stops and monitor adjustments. Today I need to install the piano mic, test it out, try and figure out why our Alesis HD24′s are syncing as they should, and do some administrative stuff – reconcile my church credit card and find all my receipts, submit some reimbursements, schedule the next few Sundays, and check on how our database entry for the C3 Choir is coming along … sounds like enough to warrant another 12+ hour day.
Well, I’ve vented some frustrations in Jim’s office next door, talked on the phone w/ Travis for 15 minutes, typed this blog, and I’m starting hash #3 … time to get to work.
So, how are things going in YOUR NECK OF THE WOODS?
For the Kingdom,
Fred
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23 Responses to “So, let’s see …”
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At FC, our changeover to IEMs was tough and took about 3 months to iron out, and our musicians did have control of theirs using Hearback Technology. We had to move some to headphones to get a better bass feel, and our older musicians had an especially tough time. As a leader, I even pulled out one of my ears to hear crowd feedback better – it made me more confident. The other big issue we ran into was people who would stop playing for a moment to adjust their unit.
I often ask musicians when they get that picky about their monitors (wedges or IEM) whether they can live with what they have or if they’re just trying to get it perfect – most of the time, they’re searching for perfection.
Why aren’t you guys using some sort of on-stage adjustment – budget restrictions?
mjd
Also, isn’t hash also called pot?
mjd
Hey Matthew -
Yeah – I think “hash” is also called “pot” .. haha.
As for on-stage adjustments – two reasons:
1. TD doesn’t like the look of them – another thing to clutter up the stage.
2. We don’t want musicians constantly stopping playing to become mix engineers – we want them to be musicians – and not be fiddling w/ the mix all the time on their monitors.
I totally agree that most times, they are searching for perfection. Last night, Shannon (he’ll probably comment here once he sees this blog) stopped and said “can I get just a tiny, tiny bit more of this” … and My response was “dude, if all you need is a “tiny, tiny bit more”, live with it and leave it alone!
Fred
This is expert witness, Francois Van Pooperwinkle, though I’m sure you’ll suspect – however incorrect you may be – it to be Shannon himself.
In Shannon’s defense, he is leading a few songs from guitar, and seemed to only have been picky with the drums in his in-ears – trying to find that perfect middle ground between ‘feeling the rhythm’ without having to actively listen for it (distracting me from his own playing/singing) and the potential hearing-loss that comes from having the drums loud enough to where he’s assured he’ll ‘feel’ them.
Apparently Fred’s forgotten that Shannon’s already been almost entirely deaf in both ears twice, and absolutely entirely deaf in my – um…I mean HIS – right ear 3 times already. He needs to protect those puppies!
However, I heard that his in-ear mix is sounding PRETTY INCREDIBLE, and he was bragging on it to his wife last night before she immediately changed the subject to just about anything else which she found more interesting.
Looking forward to tonight, and REALLY looking forward to Friday.
- Francois, in Shannon’s defence
Great…in my neck of the woods…
Glad to hear your thoughts on the “mass” or “not-mass”.
Sure doesn’t seem that urgent if they haven’t gotten back to you.
Wish I was close enough to see and hear and perhaps participate in your “new venture” there but I’m way out here in California territory.
Don’t really envy any of you on the “tech” stuff, though.
I remember how frustrated I was with my experiences of not being able to hear the piano in the monitor (found out sometimes it was because I was turned off!).
Always felt like I was being a “primadonna” in bugging about that but it’s like once you’re into that stuff you find if you can’t hear yourself you just can’t seem to play…then it seems it gets to where everybody in the band just keeps wanting to be turned up higher until we’re all at such a pitch!
Can we hear the praise and worship?
Asked for some conformation on my song, “Saving Daniel”. Didn’t know if it sounded too much about Daniel and not enough about the Lord, although I didn’t really say that much about Daniel per se, but I guess it was because I had been thinking and searching about different aspects of Daniel’s life and experiences…but meant to convey that it was leading me to God, and confirming his saving, healing, providing, etc.
Added some “ad libs” on the end…including a little run with the words, “saving Daniel, I feel healing in Your wings”…
I think it’s rooted in Mal. 4:2
The sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings… Jesus Christ!
(4:2)
nothing at this time is going on in my neighborhood
Sounds like you all know exactly what you are doing and the mass that you are talking about in your son is a miracle in the making and I am believing that it has disappeared…. no news is good news. Can’t wait to visit sometime. The next couple of weeks for us are packed but maybe we will see you all the end of March or First of April! God Bless You and we will keep you in our prayers.
Staff & Melanie
Awesome – great news on all fronts. I’ll continue to pray for you guys.
Can’t wait to see some pictures of this great new building!
Shannon, come on man. It wasn’t drums you were asking for. It was a “smidge of Elizabeth’s keys,” haha. I remember it like it was yesterday. (It was yesterday wasn’t it?) You weren’t leading then, you hand the mic IN your hand. You used it to make your “smidge” gesture. But, your ear mix DOES sound pretty good. If we could only convince the others that “clarity in sound” is not evidence of new problems but only revealing what has always been there, haha. Anywho, time to get some rest before another long one.
One other thought, though I’m sure you’ve eliminated this as a problem – watch out for the pre/post issue. We’d be mid-service and the pre/post button would get hit – which meant all hell broke loose as far as the musicians were concerned.
Matthew -
Funny you should mention it .. that happened on our E-GTR’s channel – they figured it out fairly quickly. Sometimes, I almost wish it *WAS* post-fader, so we could get the “live mix” more, but then we’d barely have “drums”, as they are mixed lower in the room since even though they have shields, they are still able to be heard acoustically as well .. but they sound GOOD!
Trav – not the time Fred ‘pounced on me’ – it was drums, but you’re right…I wasn’t leading at the time, but I WAS thinking about what I needed for when I led. Besides, it’s open game now that Fred asked for ‘tiny bit’ of something to be added to his mix last night! Muhahahaha!
“do as I say, not as I do”.
Shannon, PS: the “muhahahahah” made my day … I can hear it now!
The ‘ministry of evil laughs’ is one of my spiritual gifts.
Can’t wait for Friday night!!!!
Dude, you’re a brave man… I wouldn’t DARE try using IEMs without an Aviom system. I understand your team being fussy about it because IEMs are RIGHT THERE in your ear canals and if the mix isn’t close to perfect, it’s almost miserable trying to work with them…
yeah. IEMs without avioms. yikes! i’m sure y’all will find a way to work it out…. gosh.
glad to hear the mass is moved.
my neck o’ the woods? snowy. and i’m getting over some kind of weird flu bug thingy.
Mandy, Jeff … I think what Travis would say (and I tend to agree) is that professionals have been using IEM for a long time – way before “personal mixing systems” were around. And even still today – when watching professionals in concert, on TV, etc … how often do you see them all messing with their Avioms? Seldom, if ever.
Granted, it’s tough .. and they are … well .. “professionals” … I guess in a way, we’re trying to step up the game and reach for that level ourselves.
Fred
Hey Fred – the difference with professionals is that they’re able to get that near-perfect mix in their IEMs!
That’s why I’m kinda sympathetic towards your team and that’s also why you didn’t see a lot of semi-pro’s using IEMs in teh past – because it’s tough to get a decent mix in a short period of time (like a worship rehearsal).
I would honestly recommend Avioms be right at the top of your list of “Gear to Get”. You can even use one Aviom for several vocalists (in conjunction with a headphone distribution amp).
I really believe that Avioms are the main reaosn why you’re seeing a major leap in the number of churches using IEMs and the hassle of using IEMs without Aviom technology is why many churches who could afford IEMs have traditionally stuck with floor monitors.
Hey – yeah, I used Avioms for years, and initially fought for them here, but we made the decision to not go that direction .. and only after 3 nights, we’re getting more and more comfortable. Plus, we can focus on making music, not turning knobs. I never said it would be easy – but hey, in the long run, I think it will be even better. We’re hearing things in our mixes we NEVER heard before – it’s like being in the studio- and it forces our musicians to not just focus on “them”, but to listen and hear everything, and place themselves in that mix. Our FOH/monitor engineers are doing a fantastic job, too.
I wouldn’t recommend it for churches who don’t have the professional tech staff to handle the mixing, but we’ve got a super group of techs working for us, and I’m excited about it. Actually, although there have been a few times it would’ve been nice to ‘tweak the mix’ over the last few days, I can say that NOT having it there is helping me focus more on what I need to be doing – leading worship, singing, playing …
Just my $.02
As the Tech Director of the situation in discussion I have to chime in AGAIN, even though it’s largely been said. Aviom systems ARE convenient, I have mixed on systems with total, partial, and no avioms. I have mixed on systems with all floor wedges. I have mixed on systems with all IEMs controlled from front of house. The systems with Avioms in place still have complicated rehearsals. Band members are constantly stopping in the middle of songs to tweak settings. I make a gain/EQ adjustment and it messes with their mix whereas when I am controlling monitors I know to compensate in the monitors for gain/EQ adjustments on the fly. I know you can run Aviom outside of gain structure and EQ adjustments, but that is just bad on so many levels. If you want easy, run side fills and let your musicians have an amp in front of them, haha.
Let me also add this: our FOH console is PHENOMENAL for monitors. We have a Yamaha M7CL-48. It is fully digital and has lots of incredible features but there is one in particular that makes mixing 8 IEM mixes not a big deal. “Sends on Faders.” This feature allows me to hit a button for each monitor mix and it comes up immediately on the faders where I have already been mixing. I can make an adjustment to all 29 of our stage signals in probably 20 seconds (and so can our volunteers). The digital nature also allows us to set a scene for every song and crossfade into it. As the service progresses so does all of our mixes and the monitors go with it. I can push lead instruments up in a mix and all that jazz or make gain adjustments for certain songs so that ears and the main mix are adequately suited.
We use planningcenteronline.com to coordinate our services now. I set a number for each song in the set and it coincides with scene numbers on the console. A volunteer can show up on a Sunday morning and follow cues and have a board already headed in the right direction.
Another thing that helps is knowing your musicians and vocalists. I can walk into a new room and get a setting on monitors pretty close to what most of my band members want to hear (not 100% successfully unfortunately, right Fred?). This saves a ton of time and stress. I really think that the majority of problems with IEMs stem from two things UNRELATED to the person in control and the system in place: quality of earbuds and hearing things cleanly. If earbuds are off of your iPod and cost less than, I dunno, $79 chances are you are losing some serious quality there. You will miss frequencies that you don’t miss when you get ambient noise. The flipside is that with earbuds, good ones especially, when you take out ambience and effects on vocals, the truth often comes out. Sometimes the truth is scary, you begin to hear timing issues, pitch issues and the voices in your head. We have one guy who suggests that the IEMs have made the band and vocalists get off time. However, I am out in the room and hearing them sound the best they ever have. Fred and I agree that they aren’t off time more it’s just that the guys are hearing CLEARLY what they are doing without color and reverberation in the room.
All this to say, it takes time no matter what. No situation is right for everyone. And finally, thanks Fred for insinuating that you have professionals caring for you at front of house.
-Travis
P.S. Avioms are ugly. And if you agree, and then hide them off stage… I say it defeats the purpose, haha.
Hey Travis – Dude, Fred is seriously blessed to have your expertise at his disposal! Thanks for the info on how you do things (your mixer sounds SICK!). I’m still in love with Avioms because our sound volunteers aren’t quite at your level yet and they’ve solved the endless requests for “more of me in the monitor” from the stage. I definitely agree with you that IEMs are “the truth”. I really believe that my pitch immediately improved the day I started using them. I’m just glad that you guys have a system in place that works well for you and (as I’m sure you know) in a couple of months it will be running flawlessly.
Hi Fred and Joy,
Billy has been keeping us informed here in McRae about Andrew. I’ve been praying for yall and Andrew. It sounds like prayers have been answered before you even get to get any results from the doctors. That’s great…..