Where is the Microphone?

I get a lot of questions about where I place the microphone on our Teaching Pastor Ryan. People notice he does not have a lav. on his lapel, shirt, or tie. He does not have anything hanging from his ear. We tried a bunch of ways to get a more consistent sound when while Ryan is preaching. Using a traditional lav proved to have to many volume and tonal changes depending where the microphone was or where Ryan was looking. We tried a couple options of over the ear microphones like the Countryman E6 and DPA4066. We even tried the E6s which was the short version of the E6, I think they are the E2 now. Ryan was either distracted by the microphone often commenting on his Brittany Spears microphone or the thing just did not stay on his head. One day I was sitting there listening to the inconsistent sound of my lav. which at times sounded great but if Ryan moved his head it would change. I had settled on the Countryman EMW classic lav., it gave the most natural sound on Ryan. While I was listening I thought why not mount it to his glasses. He has pretty thick frames, the microphone is small and flat. We gave it  a try and have not looked back since. Here are a couple of photos with my test glases and the Countryman EMW classic. We just use a little gaff tape to apply.

Input List and Gear for Caitelen CD Release Party

Well as I said I would give you a report on the input list for Cait's CD release. Well here it is.
FOH: Yamaha M7CL-48
           Aviom Card installed for monitoring
          2 Dante Cards installed for recording 32 tracks.
          EAW AS690's, KF260's and SB1000's.
          QSC PLX on the mains, Crown Macro-Tech on the subs.

Input List:

1. Stomp(actually miked up Ian stomping during Take Me Down)- Shure Beta 91

2. Kick(the Donkey, Ian's Slingerland marching bass drum turned kick Awesome)- Audix D6 

3. Snare- Audix i5

4. HiHat Shure SM81

5. Tom 1 Audix Micro D

6. Tom 2 Audix D4

7. Chair Rack and 20ft piece of pipe (see photo, yes actual chair rack)- Shure KSM32

8. OverHead- Audio Techinca ATM450

9. OverHead- Audio Techinca ATM450

10. Chimes- Shure Beta 98a

11. Stand up Bass- (Shen SB200 Willow BassFishman Full Circle.)-  Aguilar tube DI

12. Electric Bass (Regenerate Guitar Works VRB)- Lee Jackson Perfect Connect BP1000 Tube DI

13. Acoustic 1(Taylor 414)- Taylor K4 EQ and Pre

14. Resonator- Radial Pro DI

15. Acoustic 2(Gibson J45 with LR Baggs Pickup) - Radial Pro DI

16. Electric 1- E609

Guitars

PRS Single cut with Bare Knuckle pickups

Telecaster with Klein pickup

Pedals

Fulltone Fulldrive 2

Hermida Zendrive

Skreddy Lunar Module

Barber Tone Press

Line 6 M9

Boss DD-20

Amp

1964 Fender Bandmaster

Avatar 2x12 cabinet with Celestion V30 & G12H30 speakers

17. Electric 2 (Ibanez Blazer from 1999, Line 6 M7, Fender Hot Rod Deville 4x10)

18. Piano (Yamaha G3)- DPA4061. I have the stereo pair but I have been loving just one in a band      setting.

19. Ld Vocal Piano- Shure SM86a

20. Ld Vocal Standing- Shure SM58 on ULX2 transmitter and ULXP receiver

21. BGV 1- Sennheiser E935

22. BGV 2- Shure KSM9

Caitelen CD Release Concert

Here are some images from a concert we did at DSC featuring our own Caitelen Schneeberger. She is a talented young lady and I have had the privilege watching her grow in here musical skills since she was a teenager singing in our youth worship band.  I will post the input list and microphones used in a later post.

Download Cait's music from here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/dark-is-light/id537770532

Summer Time Means Recording Time at DSC

As most of Desert Springs Church calms down for the summer months we in the technical and music areas gear up for a heavy dose of recording in Ralph our modest little studio. We just finished a great little EP for long time member Caitelen Scneeberger. Here is a link to hear a couple tracks. If you like buy and help support great music. Friday the disc will be released. We are celebrating the CD with a concert at Desert Springs Church Friday at 7:00pm. Oh yeah and keep a listen out for our next project. We are taking VBS music to new levels.

Youth Room System

Here is a quick run down of the Youth Room system here at DSC. It is a good sounding system for our room and it also can be portable if needed.

Console: 
Yamaha LS9-16

Monitoring

1- Aviom 16/o-Y1 Card

5- Aviom A16II

1- A16 distribution hub

Speakers

Mains:

1 QSC K12 per Side

Subwoofers:

1 per side QSC KW181i

Microphones

Shure:

1- SM 57

3- SM 58

3- PG56

3- PG 81

Sennheiser:

1- e609

Audio Technica:

1- Pro 35

Wireless:

1- Shure PG with PGX1 body transmitter/PGX2 w/SM58

Direct Boxes:

2- Radial ProDI

2- Rapco DB100
1- Radial Pro AV1

A Tool Every Church Techie Should Have

With technology so easily accesible these days a church tech guy needs to be ready for a lot of surprises. One common one is the I have my presentation/video on my computer/iPod/iPad/phone and I need to plug into the sound system. To solve this issue I have a bunch of the Radial ProAv1 for mono, and the ProAV2 for stereo. It depends on which room, and what else is happening on that system if I use the stereo or mono. The ProAV units give lots of connect options and they get rid of that nasty computer buzz when plugging into a sound system.