Guru's main session video

The videos for the main session have been posted here.

If you only watch one, watch the Harvey Carey Session. Probably the best talk given to a tech audience that I've ever heard.

On the other side of the console.

A lot of the conversation and sessions at Gurus of Tech were about the relationship between musicians and audio engineers. The opening video was a great take on the apple vs pc commercials. It worth the 5 min or so to watch. Very funny.Even before Gurus I had been thinking some about seeing things from the other side of the desk because in the last month i've ended up playing keys twice for services. I grew up playing music and that's what got me into sound engineering in the first place. Before I came on staff at Willow I played almost every weekend at my old church. It was a small church where i was the sound guy and musician all at the same time.

I consider mixing to be the same thing as playing on stage. There's just as much creative input going on as if i was playing keys. To me there is nothing truer then the term Technical Artist. That's what we are. For me this means that i get the same fulfillment out of mixing as I do playing.

That said every once in a while (every couple of years) i get the urge to play again. I actually had a couple of the midweeks off in Jan. so i asked if a keyboard player was needed and it turned out they needed one so i got to play for our midweek service. Even broke out a melodica for a song.

Weekend Story
So here's the story on how i ended up playing on the weekend. It started out as a normal weekend for me. I was mixing monitors for the wknd and we had just wrapped up our initial rehearsal on saturday afternoon. We usually get a 5 or 10 min. break before we do a full run thru of the service. During this time Bill had come into the room and was talking over with the band about how he wanted to end the service. I was in the green room eating pretzels.

All of a sudden i get called on com and i'm being asked to come out to the piano. My immediate response is, "Who broke it?" Once out there it's explained to me that Bill wants to end the service Billy Graham style with Just as I Am and that they need it played stronger. I'm still in tech mode and i'm thinking, "so how am i supposed to fix that?" Eventually I realize that they're suggesting that i play the piano and the rest is history. I ended up being the underscore guy and playing underneath Bill for the close of the services as well as playing walkout which after the sunday 11:15am service was about 1hr 15min.
Takeaways
So what did getting behind the other side of the console show me? Well it showed how important it is for us as engineers to try and experience what it's like on stage. I can't overstate how important it is for you, especially if you're mixing monitors to get on the stage and experience it for yourself. Now joining the band on stage for a service might not be an option but there are other things you can do. Even if you don't play the instruments get out there and try to experience what it's like. Sit down at the drum kit and play with the drummers mix in your ears. Play the piano or keys. Hold and play an acoustic guitar while listening to the players mix.

Another thing i've tried in the past is to get my own vocal mic and after soundcheck is done and the band is rehearsing, i set up my own mix and tried singing along. Make sure you tell FOH what you're doing so that they don't put you in the house. (or maybe it might be better in your case not to tell FOH in case they would turn it on purposefully.) I learned a ton about vocals in iems by doing that. Several things became apparent once i started to try and sing along.

Also go out on stage and sing with only 1 ear in. We all hate that as monitor engineers but chances are half the vocalists do this. It might just help you to be able to speak in terms the vocalist understands when you are trying to convince them to wear both ears.

I had another discovery while underscoring during the service. I found that the piano was actually too loud in my mix and as a result i was playing with such a light touch that i wasn't getting the best out the piano like I could. After the first service i turned it down in my mix and following that i was able to play in the sweet spot of the piano dynamically while underscoring.

Bottom line is the more you can put yourself in the ears of the musician on stage the more you'll be able to provide the "best monitors ever!"

Made the homepage of the website.

The other weekend I found myself on the other side of the console. Now it's on Willow's website home page. Maybe eventually i'll share the full story.

Gurus of Tech

Gurus of Tech is tomorrow!! For more info check out the Gurus site. It's a totally free conference for Church Tech artists Monday afternoon thru Wed. morning. I'm still working on my talk on Tuesday about audio processing.

Also for those who are coming my friend Paul is offering 50% off at Pablo's Mexican Restaurant for anyone who presents their Gurus badge. Great Mexican food so definately check it out.

See you tomorrow!

Pursuit of the Dream

This weekend i had the blessing to fulfill what for me in high school was a dream of mine. I got to mix FOH for Michael W. Smith. It's hard for me to think of another person who i didn't know personally who had a greater impact on my life during my high school years.

We only found out a couple of weeks ago that Smitty would be coming to Willow and it made me pull out my old cd's. I ripped them into my ipod and started scanning thru the songs on The Big Picture. I always remembered that this record had a huge impact on me but as I listened to the songs i forgot how huge that impact really was. I grew up in a very legalistic religious environment and i was ready to give up on the whole God thing until i discovered Christian rock and artists like Michael. The Big Picture was released as i was finishing the 8th grade and ended up being the soundtrack for my life in highschool. It got me thru a lot of struggles as well as made me dream about what God's plan was for my life.

As i entered college and pursued the audio side of things the specific dream of mixing for Michael faded but i still always wanted to use my audio skills and passion for Christ. Eventually that came to full fruition when i came on staff at Willow. Now to have had Smitty on our stage and to get to mix him it made me think of how cool God is and how he does care about our dreams. Sure it took over 20 years but he still took the dream of a 15 year old and made it come true.

Nashville Trip

I just completed a whirlwind 1 day trip to Nashville, TN. I was asked to take part in Yamaha Commercial Audio's Audioversity held at Nashville's famed Soundcheck Studios. This event was part training part trade show featuring Yamaha and Nexo products. There was a big line array demo out in the back lot featuring the 4 Nexo Geo Systems line arrays as well as their line of Cardioid Subs complete with a stage and live band.

The most amazing thing about the demo to me was the cardioid subs. Even though we have the Meyer M1d's at Willow they are 30 ft in the air so this was the first time I've been able to walk thru the subs from front to back. The rear rejection of every model was stunning. Monitor world was setup directly behind the CD12's and you were able to carry on a conversation standing right next to them.

The training aspect of the Audioversity included abrieviated versions of their M7CL training classes as well as Yamaha's mixing tips for worship. The panel discussion I was asked to be part of was "Using Yamaha Consoles in Houses of Worship." There were 5 of us on the panel. Mark Hengstenberg. from The Peoples Church in Franklin, TN, Matt Warren from Crosspoint.tv in Nashville, Josh Nelms from Hunter Street Baptist Church in Hoover, AL, and Bryan Guy from Nashville. It seemed to be a good mix of guys from different styles and sizes of churches. Yamaha's Mike Eiseman moderated the discussion and it included topics from what consoles we used to how we setup and use them. Also we talked about spl levels and how the quality of the mix is more important then actual spl, as well as recruiting and building up volunteers.

It was great to see old friends from Yamaha like Jeff Wilson and Randy Weitsel as well as meet new ones. Also one of the best takeaways for me was meeting the other panelists. Also Nexo has a new product coming out that looks very interesting. They didn't have the actual product out there but i saw a little animation sequence about it and it's very interesting. Can't wait to see the real thing.

Part 2 of this day was still taking shape as i was making my way down to Nashville. Even as i was driving to the airport i was putting 2 and 2 together and realizing that Tom Petty was going to be playing that night in Nashville. Since we've been friends with Robert Scovill now for a few years and since i missed seeing them when they were here in Chicago i sent messages off to Robert before i had to turn my phone off for the plane ride.

Sure enough when i landed i had a message waiting from Robert and I was in for Tom Petty that night. I also learned that Dave Stagel from Northpoint Church in Atlanta was also there with a couple of his volunteers so it was shaping up to be a great night.

I arrived at the arena right around dinnertime about 1.5hrs before the show. I missed all the system tuning and soundcheck fun and actually didn't get to talk to Robert that much because of the hour but i still had a blast hanging out with the Northpoint guys and just absorbing all that was happening. It was fun watching Robert mix and being able to watch the console and see what he was doing. I really walked away from the show with a whole new appreciation not only for what Robert does but for who he is. There was a bunch of guests of Robert hanging around FOH including engineers from a total of 3 churches. It's not often that you have someone who is considered one of the best at something who is so willing to share so much of what he has learned over the years. Very Inspiring.

The show? It sounded great. The mix was very much like what i try to accomplish whe

n i'm mixing. For instance, guitar solos were just right. I'm never a fan of jacking up the level of the guitar when it's time for a solo and having make the rest of the band disappear. Also vocals were just where i like them. Just on top but not too much.

After the show we said goodbye and Dave, Vance, and I went out for dinner. A great time. Eventually i made it back to my hotel and flew back to Chicago the next morning very tired.

Yamaha Commercial Audio's Audioversity

Tomorrow i will be flying down to Nashville to take part in Yamaha's Audioversity. I will be participating in a panel discussion on Yamaha consoles in Houses of Worship. It's being hosted at the facilities of Soundcheck Nashville. Should be a good time.