Multi-Site Worship

Thanks for checking back in for part 3. Please check out my previous posts for parts 1 & 2. We’re talking about keyboards today. Now, when I say keyboards, I’m not talking about a baby grand on stage. I’m talking about someone playing something like a Korg Triton or something similar that is normally used to play all parts including piano, strings, pads, synths, etc. One of the first things you’re gonna want to do is ask the keyboardist to stay away from the lower register. When you have a bass player, there’s not much room for both of them to be playing in bass clef unless the song calls for it. I usually suggest staying above middle C. This will clean up your sound and make it less muddy in the lower register. Secondly, if you’re PA is wired in stereo, make sure you’re running your keyboards in stereo . If it isn’t, there’s no use in taking up 2 channels if you can’t hear the difference. Lastly, inversions of chords also help to broaden your sound if it’s to thick in the middle. So, get your keyboardist to experiment with putting the 3rd on top or the 5th.

I don’t have much for the vocalists. One of the things that I have discussed with our sound engineers is that most of the songs that we’re playing are not duets and they shouldn’t be mixed that way. If someone is on lead and there’s a bgv (background vocal) then that bgv needs to be tucked behind the lead vocal (just a little softer). Duets = same volume, Lead/bgv = Lead is louder. Also, if your singer sounds like they’re singing in a cave, sometimes it’s not the eq, its the effect. Bypass all fx and start from scratch with channel eq @ zero. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll hear without fx.

For the band as a whole, you can broaden your sound by panning instruments to the opposite side of the stage from where they are standing. This is of course if your PA is in stereo. Lets say your electric guitarist’s amp is on stage left. Most likely you’re gonna hear a lot of stage volume from his/her amp. So, if it’s running through the PA, pan their channel to the stage right speaker until you begin to hear a difference and stop. Now its a nice full sound. Do the same for the bass and your rockin and rollin. Hope these tips help. Please shoot me an email if you have any questions.