Week at Church Camp -- LS9, LX7ii

[yeshua]

I thought I would share this. There is no questions (well I don't think so at the moment), just my experience. Sorry that I kinda go back and forth between venues, just talking in the order things tended to happen....and it is pretty long too...lol

Well to start out, at my Church, I'm running a very simple system (way to small and simple for what we need ), its just a 8 channel Soundcraft Gigrac board providing 2 outs (FOH + 1 mon mix), 50 people on average....and thats really it....about 5-7 years ago when I started I was using a Yamaha GA32....so not too much to tell about my current state or past experience....

This last week (June 30-Aug. 7), I went to my Church camp (2000 people @ some services) and decided that this year I'll take a closer look at the AVL systems that they were using. Such an amazing decision!

I started out by taking a look around the building and I noticed that the FOH was a LS9 (which I've looked into a bit for the day I'm allowed to get a nice upgrade). I then started talking with the sound guy (Gary) after the next service and asked a bunch of questions like how does he like the board, how do you have it setup, etc. After talking for a while he mentions to me that if I want to, I could do Busters Cafe (after service, some of the various musical groups at camp can play outside where we set up another sound system and people can come in a listen to them). I said sure, why not.

And thats how I got suckered into doing sound.....for this year...and next year....and the year after that....oh wait thats what I'm suppose to say after its been a couple of years....so I'll continue....

So I set up Busters (Soundcraft LX7ii, LR mains and 2 auxes, inputs used ranged from 5-14) and I just started to hang out with Gary most of the services, watching what he would do before, during, and after services the services, and come and hang out during the worship rehearsals too.

I picked up on the basics of the LS9 really quick and he would take off to the stage or something and I just started to play around on it going through various menus at first, then listening through the headphones using the que function (always making sure I didn't change any settings). And of course I just kept on asking questions like "so how do you save settings"....

One time I think I really impressed him on my quick learning when he was trying to figure out how to use the 2nd layer as a way to control some of the faders (he actually wanted to have 2 completely different setups, but split between the layers), I took a quick look through the manual and said "well this is how you can assign channel 29 to fader 61 as well, but it doesn't look like you can do what you want". At that point I'm guessing he new he could trust me alone with the LS9 if he needs to do whatever.....

On Tuesday, the worship team actually forgot to tell Gary that they were going to have rehearsal...but guess who was there! Gary's Protégé! Me! The worship leader asked "Can you turn us on?" I said sure, and proceeded to turn on their channels which caused them to come through the monitors....it took me the next 5-6 minutes to realize "oh ya, I need to push the ON button for the house mix too....no wonder the volume wasn't working!" They asked me to change up there monitor feeds once and a while as I mixed FOH during rehearsal....Now that was a lot of fun! Oh ya, the band consisted of 2 vocals, 2 keys, 2 guitarists, 1 bassist, and 1 drummer on a electric kit that was split stereo with more kick and snare in the left fyi. The band said thanks for being there and I said "its a good thing I've already started to figure the LS9 out and that I love doing sound too! Thanks for letting me mix for you!"

Well during that afternoon after the worship rehearsal, I setup the LX7ii for busters. I started to just try to figure out the board since its been about 5 years since I've been on a board of that size....it took me a little bit to really understand the groups and how they work (about 30 minutes), and also the EQ on the board is much different then what I had been used too (that I started to understand more after playing on the LS9 more and more). The next day (wed.) some of the musicians for that evening wanted to rehearse early so I started to mix for them a little before our evening service and had lots of fun doing busters over the next few days with the various groups and individuals (all of them were quite good...well almost all of them, you always have to have a person or 2 that isn't quite as good)....The shows would go for about 1 hr to 1.5 hrs and I would stay there till after midnight resetting the stage or changing it up for whatever was suppose to happen the next day (one night I was there till 2AM cause I was talking to someone for like an hour....) and thats really about it for info on busters...I did have a lot of fun with those groups....having worship tunes and country tunes going on at I'm guessing about 85-95 DB's....something I haven't done before (having random groups playing....not the DB's...I've done 95 DB's before....)

On Sat., Gary actually decided half way through the worship rehearsal that he was going to go for a afternoon nap (he was fairly stressed because he's also moving because of a job change)....so he left me in charge....I then mixed for the rest of the rehearsal and did monitor changes....the usual....saved the scene as I knew that there was a group that I needed to setup up for, and depending if Gary showed up or not, I would mix....the end result of that rehearsal was I mixed that rehearsal and saved the scene....this way it makes Gary's life easy when he comes in for FOH duties for that evenings service....

Gary shows up, I tell him that the 2 scenes are saved and he says "ok, well I let you mix those guys during the service when its their turn....", I'm thinking "UMM WHAT?!?!"....butterflies start going around my stomach a little bit through the beginning of the service and just before the group came up....but I mixed them in front of probably about 1500-1800 that night....and it sounded great! After they were done he quietly yells at me "look out here comes Darius!" (our preacher that night) and he swiftly takes over and then says "you did a great job".....Well that sure did make my evening....

Sunday (the last day) we talked a bit and he says to that I'm hired for next year (well not paid....but I'll get officially be a part of the sound team as the camp gave told him that "you are everything audio" so in his mind he can make anyone he wants on the crew without camp board approval). Then just before he started a new conversation with someone else he knew, he says "thanks again for all your help!" and we shake hands and he even pulled me in for a hug (as part of showing me how much he appreciated my help).

So that was my week at camp. Even though spiritually I don't think I changed too much during the week, my servanthood showed up this year which thinking about it now, was one of God's ways to:
1. Help Gary be less stressed during the week
2. Help me gain experience and learn more about what I love doing in a much bigger and more "severe" worship environment (the number of people impacted by sound was 4000% more then what I'm used to...50 * 4000% = 2000 people)

I don't yet know of all that God has in store for me with my decision to say "sure, why not" to helping out with sound this year....but I pray that I will continue to learn and also pass on the knowledge I have gained just as Gary passed on his knowledge to me.



OK....and now for a bit of a review....so like I said earlier, I started on a Yamaha GA32 7 years ago or so, then moved down to a Soundcraft Gigrac about 5 years ago. I was never really taught about how to do sound, and was never pushed to learn. I only really started to push myself to learn in Sept. 2010. Now I've had a few hours on both the Yamaha LS9-32 and the Soundcraft LX7ii. I can honestly say that I think more Churches should look into getting a digital board (especially if they are upgrading) as I was able to pick up on many of the features within only a few "observation" sessions....I think it was actually a bit harder to go back down to the analogue board as it seemed to take me a longer to remember "oh ya this is how the monitors are set" (remember the gigrac only has 1 feed for monitors so there isn't much to do for that). I do think every sound person should still know how to get around a analogue board, but with how simple and how quickly I picked up the LS9, I do think that digital is the way to think about at the least. No you do not have to use all the features of digital right of the bat, but to have it available to your sound crew so that as they learn and want to try something new (during a rehearsal!), they can. I never really played with adding FX to anyone, I know how to, but I never used it as I wasn't ready to do it. If camp was another week longer, then I probably would have been using it by Wed.!

Both boards are great to use. I would recommend either to be used in a Church (but I'm still very much interested in the A&H iLive). No matter what Church you are, I would still look into digital if you are doing a system upgrade (especially if you don't have much for external processing) because if you purchase a $10k-20K digital board, it will take over for about $50k+ worth of eternal equipment like FX's, EQ's, and don't forget all the cords between the equipment! Don't use everything at once, just gradually use things as you become ready for it.

Now that wasn't much of a review, but its almost 4AM and I work at 8:30 so I'm going to sleep now. Thanks for reading my experience. Maybe this will help or even just encourage someone else out there.

Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll try to answer what I can

[Gracetech]

Rock on Josh! Great story and good take on a review. Keep your eyes open cause you never know what God has planned for you.

Look forward to hearing even more in the future.

crt

[Frank DeWitt]

Good read. This vocation get to us doesn't it.

I had the opposite experience at the church day camp for kids, but it makes your point that churches should look hard at digital.

I had a 14 year old running our Digital Console for our Summers Best Two Weeks program. I attended the parents day for the little kids so I stopped by the booth and politely asked if he could use any help. He was alone, running the video (a home made video, and a DVD) and some slides, and the audio (the above and a couple of microphones.) He said he was fine so I went and sat with my wife and enjoyed a flawless program.

The video software was Pro Presenter, and the audio was SAC on a remote tablet next to the video computer.

My point is not about these two pieces of software, but to say that people and especially young people are quite at home with software driven (Digital) programs

Frank http://lbpinc.com/DI.html