Church Sound System and Church Audio
Bill and Linda expressed the desire of serving our church after attending for three months. We had become friends and I was excited for them. One of the church volunteer opportunities they wanted to fill was the Bible Study Group Overseer. Someone to shepherd over the different bible study groups. But there was a big problem. 
Getting out of my car, I thought to myself, "This is going to be one hot wedding." And not for the reason you might be thinking, either. This bright August day, the sky was clear, the sun was directly overhead, and I was headed to an outdoor wedding. In retrospect, I was much more fortunate than the groom and his entourage who were decked out in the 87 layers of rental clothing that come with wearing tuxedos. 
Setting monitor levels during practice is crucial to the success of the band. A problem that can present itself, once the congregation starts singing along, is that the monitor levels needs adjusting. I've seen this at professional concerts where the musician jumps up a few times or gives a thumbs up or down signal to the sound tech. In the church arena, the less experienced musicians are focused more on playing correctly than having the right monitor levels. And it's easy to tell when their monitor levels are off; they sound bad. 
1. Forget to Check Batteries
There are three primary components that affect the quality of sound; the quality of the sound tech, the quality of the equipment (and the equipment available), and the quality of the band. If only you could improve the quality of the band...you can. A few years ago, a worship team was struggling with improving their sound. Much of it was because of the large number of "lead" singers and how some of them would suddenly decide to sing harmony or would start stylizing. Then came the CD recording.
Stage volume can be a problem even when nothing is being said, sung or played. Think about an electric guitar running through an amp which is patched into the mixer. The amp has a natural hum about it. In this situation, the guitarist has the monitor at his feet and everything sounds great...until the music stops. I've seen this happen and under the right circumstance, it's very distracting to the worship experience. 
The argument forever burns on as to whether or not a church should be run like a business. Regardless of which side you're on, one thing is for certain, the church is primarily a volunteer-oriented organization and that, I hate to say, can lead to a poor volunteer mentality. Let's overcome that. 
Karl runs a great Poll
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Equalization / Mixing
Equipment-Cables
Equipment-Microphones
Equipment-Mixers
Equipment-Monitors / Monitor Systems
Equipment-Other
Equipment-Signal Processors (Limiters, Reverb Units, etc)
Free Stuff
Interviews
News
Reviews
Running an A/V Ministry
Sound Basics
Sound Booth Build / Construction
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Wedding Contract
Download the free wedding contract template for audio and video production. Easy to understand and easy to modify.
Newsletter Template
Create your own church audio newsletter for your team with this simple newsletter template. (View it in Print layout format within Word)
Team Organization
Download these team documents for tracking your existing team as well as recruiting new team members.
Inventory List
Track all your audio equipment with this excel sheet. Great way to see what you have and keep for insurance purposes.