Breaking Blue CD Release Concert June 21st

Well I have been out of the saddle a while so I thought this would be a good way to get back on the horse. Tonight is Breaking Blue's CD release party for there 3rd record Perfidy, listen to a sample here, and I have the privilege of providing sound for the event. Here is an input list and stage plot.

Christmas, Christmas Time is Here!

Well it is Christmas time again and it is one of the most challenging ones I have had in my 16 years at DSC. Christmas is on a Sunday! This means we are doing our two Christmas Eve services on Saturday night and then turning around and doing two completely different services Sunday Morning. We see it as a great time to celebrate the birth of our savior and his resurrection from the dead in one weekend. Needless to say that means one mighty big weekend of music. Christmas Eve will be our regular band consisting of bass, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drums, percussion and 7 vocals rotating through, plus a string quartet, extra electric guitar, children's choir, twelve person ensemble.  Sunday Christmas Day we will be pairing back to our regular five piece band. Should be great fun and a lot of work. This a rough stage plot for Christmas Eve.

VBS Goes Vintage (sort of )

Well VBS was a great success at Desert Springs Church this last week. Here is the run down of Microphones used.
Skits
11- Shure and Audio Technica Wireless systems
We paired various types of microphones to those systems:
2- Countryman E6
1- Countryman E6s
3- Audio Technica BP892-TH MicroSet
1- DPA 4066
3- Samson SE50
1- Audio Technica Artist Elite® AE4100 Handheld.

 The Band
Kick: Shure Beta 52
Snare: Shure SM 57
HiHat: Shure KSM109
Rack Tom: Audix D4
Floor Tom: ATM 25
Ride and Crash: Pro 35's underneath
Bass: SansAmp DI
Acoustic Guitars: Radial ProDi
Washboard: Beta 98
Wash Tub Bass: Beta 91
Lead Vocal: Beta 87c
BGV's: Shure 55's of various types. 1-Super 55, 2-55SH, and my personal 1959 Shure 55. It was so sweet.

If it Worked once Try it again

Well I was having a dilemma. Los, our young adult minister/church planter, has been preaching the last few Sundays.  He does not want to wear an over ear mic like the E6 but also did not want a traditional lapel. Los also uses a large dynamic range when he teaches from very soft to very loud. The is to make him understood no matter how loud or quiet he is. The microphone we tried had been using on him for a while was the E6s which is shorter version of the normal Countryman E6. He liked it because it was easy to hide. The problem is it does not give, at least for Los, great clarity, so I went back to the well. Los wears glasses with a nice flat frame. So like I did with our Teaching Pastor Ryan, see post here, I taped the microphone to his glasses. With Ryan I use a Countryman EMW. I do not have a second one on hand so I used my Shure W93, which is a nice flat lapel like the EMW.  Wow what a difference. Los is clear and I have a ton of head room. Another reminder to keep your options open when trying to mic someone or something up.

Is That a Keyboard in Your Piano

Our PC88 in its costume for VBS.

Electric Guitar Isolation

I just checked back through my archives and did not see any posts showing my guitar amplifier isolation case for our Worship Center Stage.  This is a case we packed on one of our trailers when we were portable. I reworked the inside of the cabinet and added some acoustic foam to help with the Isolation. I am able to put two combo amps in this case. I have a mic input, an input for the Radial SGI guitar interface, power, and a fan for each amp to keep things cool. Right now I have e609's on the amps. Check the photo.

Mic That Piano part 3

Well I got my Audio Technica ATM 450's in to try on the piano.  Let me just say they sound great. They fit right under the piano lid and look pretty cool, of course the lid is closed so except for this picture no one will really see them. They give a great over all piano sound, which is something I have been looking for lately. I have been using DPA 4061s but they just have not been cutting it with our current players. Our former Music minister Zach played a little heavier and the DPA's sounded great but they lost some of the natural sound with the lighter players we have now.  The AT mics did the job. I highly recommend these microphones and at half the price of the DPA's they are well worth the money.

New Drum Shield

Well we got our new Drum Shield. It is the Phoenix Slim from Whitley Solutions. I was looking for a seamless shield to replace our old Clear Sonic which we have had for about eleven years and was getting pretty banged up.  The new shield looks great and works great. This pic is from our first sound check with this beauty.

Sometimes it Helps to Think Outside the Box

It seems like everyone is moving to a Countryman E6 or other over the ear microphone for spoken word.  And why shouldn't you? They get greater gain before feedback and sound better than a microphone mounted clipped to a tie or coat.  The microphone stays in the proximity to the mouth instead of being to far away one minute and too close the next. Well what happens when you get resistance to the over the ear microphone craze. I had this problem with our teaching pastor Ryan Kelly. We had three issues: First he did not want to wear a "Brittney Spears" microphone. Second he did not like talking to people after services with the microphone on, and if he took it off it never went quite back where it belonged. Third they just did not stay on his head that well.  We tried single ear, double ear, DPA, Countryman, Audio Technica, Samson, but nothing stayed on his head. I really needed find something that would give me the constant microphone position I was looking for. Then one day it hit me! His glasses! I was using the Countryman EMW Omni Classic Lavalier, which I love because it sounds the most natural of the lavaliers I have tried in the past. It happens to be a flat microphone, and is just the width of Ryan's frames. I use two thin pieces of gaff tape to fasten the microphone to the glasses. The microphone is placed as close to the hinge as possible and taped just before the head of the microphone. The second piece of tape is placed just before the earpiece. I hope someday to have a second pair of glasses so we can just leave the microphone attached to the glasses. It only takes about 3 minutes to get the glasses wired up, so not a huge inconvenience. This method has solved all of the concerns we were having with the over ear microphones. His glasses fit his head, the microphone is always in the same spot if his glasses are on, he does not have to take it off to talk to people after service it is almost invisible even at normal conversation distance, and of course most important he does not feel like Brittany Spears. Below is a picture of the EMW microphone.

Change in How I Mic up the Drums

Well we changed how we mic the drums here at DSC.  Some of this was an experiment by me and some out of necessity because of our new favorite kick drum, lovingly called The Donkey. It is an old marching bass drum that our drummer Ian added some hoops and refinished it.  It sounds awesome. We have used it live and in our new recording space.  Let us start with my experiment. I changed how I mic the cymbals.  I was using SM81's overhead but decided to use a method I have used in the past for our VBS music when we want to blend the band into the set design a little more.  I replaced the 81's with Audio Technica Pro 35's placed under each cymbal. You can see them above in the picture from Easter. The other change was adding a Audix I5 to the beater side of the kick drum.  Usually I would put an Beta 91 inside but we don't have a hole in the kick drum head so that was not an option. The Beta 52 is still used on the outside for the bottom. I added the I5 to add a little attack to the tone. We hang it off the floor tom with an LP Claw, and what a great sound we get from this combo.

Encouragement

Encouragement is not heard a lot around a sound booth. If some in is talking to you it usually is someone needing a monitor adjustment, someone telling you how the mix should be, or just telling you it is way to loud or to soft.  Today I had a great compliment.  My friend Matt was running 1st service today, he always does a great job, but a man came up and complimented him on the mix.  He said that we have the vocals very clear, you can understand the words.  He mentioned he had visited a couple of times and was impressed each time with this.  He said that we do get about as loud as he likes, no more please, but it was not just noise.  Two things I got out of this. First, Matt does a really good job 1st service. Second it goes off of how we build our mixes at DSC. I try and get the vocals right. In church we need to understand what the leaders are singing.  This does not mean you need to sacrifice a good bass or electric guitar tone, but places the priority first and everything else in the mix is there to support it.

Where Should the Mix Start From?

I have been reading a lot about building a mix lately. Most have been stating that you start with Kick and Bass Drum because they form the foundation of the Mix.  I do agree that the foundation is in the kick and bass combo. I build a mix a little different. Though some have discounted this statement from Robert Scovill I agree with it especially for Worship, "They won't go home humming the kick drum." Even Big Mick from Metallica starts with the vocals.  I build vocals down.  The vocals have to be out over the top of the mix, yet they are not usually the weakest on the stage. I dial in a good vocal blend and start bringing in guitars and keys. I then will bring bass in drums in.  I can still get a tight sound between the two and get a nice foundation. I don't think it is wrong to start with kick and bass many great mixers do, but I as they say there are many ways to get to the same end.

Mic That Piano part 2

Well I was unable to make my KSM 27 experiment did not work but I am going to try a few small diaphragm side address microphones. My first set will be Audio Technica ATM 450 and after that I will be trying a pair of Beta 181's. I ended up using DPA 4061's which worked great as usual, but I am still looking for a new microphone setup so I can switch the DPA's to violin when needed. Stay tuned for the results in the coming weeks.

The Batt-O-Meter

I just ordered the Batt-O-Meter from Keith Mcmillen Instruments. It tests the battery level of instruments and guitar pedals without having to take the battery out. Just insert the 1/4in. Plug in and watch the reading on the screen. We will start using this on Drew's guitar seeing as It goes through batteries pretty fast. It only costs $20.00. I will write a review after we use for a month or so.