Multi-Site Worship

Building and Maintaining Multi-Site Worship Teams

Building a Multi Site Worship Team from Scratch – Update II

Bay Area Fellowship Alice CampusOur next multi-site campus is coming along nicely in Alice, Tx which is approx. 35 miles away from our central campus (Bay Area Fellowship-Corpus Christi). It looks like we should be in there around mid – July. Fortunately, I’ve met some great people out there who have a worship band and are interested in sharing their talents with us @ B.A.F.A. There are also others, who aren’t in that band, who are interested as well so I will begin auditions during the 1st week of services. Man, what a relief! I seriously didn’t know what I was gonna do and was kinda stressed, but God has provided (just like He promises He will). I’ve always said, this is God’s work and He’s gonna get it done with or without us. So, why stress about it.

We are going to have to do some of the build out of the new facility. Sometimes this can be a huge undertaking but thankfully, we’ve got a great core group in Alice that’s willing to help with the rest (floor, temporary walls, etc.). As far as audio/video goes, we will most likely begin the install next week.

The auditorium part of the facility is not very big so the audio/video install will be minimal. We’ll be using a couple of 15″ JBL EON’s that will be flown, a couple of JBL 12″ monitors, Crown Pwr Amp, dbx eq’s, Allen & Heath MixWizard 16 & a dbx driverack. Video is through a Panasonic projector that will be shot on the wall behind the stage. It will be in an area of the wall that will be painted with screen paint. Media will be handled through an iMac via ProPresenter.

Because of the small space and high ceilings, my plan is to do all music unplugged with a couple of acoustics, percussion, bass and 2 or 3 vocalists. This is of course until we move into the bigger facility next door, at which time we will go with a full band and full instrumentation. I’m very excited to see everything come together and I know it’s gonna be awesome.

June 25, 2009 Posted by joeydavila | Audio, Bay Area Fellowship, Multi Site Worship | , , , | Leave a Comment

Guitar Tone – Cutting Through The Mix

TONE! Guitarists have been chasing after the perfect tone for years. What is the perfect tone? I don’t know. I know what isn’t the perfect tone. It’s one that is too distorted or cluttered with every effect pedal you have. You might have 9 pedals on your board but that doesn’t mean that you have to have all of them on at the same time. Of course when you’re doing cover songs, you’ll need to find the tone or patch that sounds exactly like the guitars in the song, but generally you want to create a tone that can be used for the different songs in your set list. Usually that means a setting that has a clean crunch to it with just a hint of delay or reverb. What works most times is a setting where if you have your guitar volume at about 5, it sounds clean but when you turn it to 10 it gives you a full crunch that cuts through the mix.
Be sure to put your pedals in a good order too. This really depends on your taste & the sound you’re going for. Do you want the delay to come before the compressor or after it? Or the tremolo to go before or after the preamp pedal. It’s up to you, but your goal is to have it sound good without any buzzing, hum or static (don’t forget the ground lift). Oh, and by the way, if you are using a graphic eq for some reason, don’t scoop the mids. That’s the area code for good guitar tone. Guitars cut through the mix at around 500hz to 1kz so if you cut those out, you’ll have a tough time being heard in the audience. Good guitar cables help too, although I can’t really hear the difference between a cable that costs $30 and one that costs $75.
Here’s an example of what I would say is a good guitar tone. Even though Andy’s got a ton of effects, he knows how to use them to cut through the mix.

April 23, 2009 Posted by joeydavila | Audio, Guitar, Multi Site Worship | , | 1 Comment

Getting A Full Sound Without EQ – Pt. 3 Keyboards/Vocals

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.

January 10, 2009 Posted by joeydavila | Audio, Multi Site Worship | , , | Leave a Comment

Getting a Full Sound Without Eq – Pt. 2 Guitars

Ok. If you’re really going for a full sound, I would advise using 2 electric guitars and 1 acoustic in your band. You want to make sure though that the electrics aren’t playing the same thing. That just makes everything muddy and very 1 dimensional. Make sure that one electric is taking care of the rhythm parts (power chords etc.) and the other electric is doing the high parts (melodies, coloring tones). Assign them a part and make sure they stick to it, even if it means that they don’t play anything until 1 min. into the song. Most songs today already have this arrangement so it shouldn’t be a problem. As far as the acoustic in this scenario, they need to strum open chords as much as possible. This will add a very nice texture to the overall guitar sound. Remember that the acoustic serves 2 purposes. It provides a very broad frequency filler and also acts as a percussion instrument when strumming down and up in 8th notes. If you bring it down in the mix, just a little lower than the electrics, you’ll hear the pick hitting the strings and it will almost sound like a shaker. This really gives a lot of energy to songs in any tempo.

If you only have 1 electric and 1 acoustic, you’ll have to be a little more creative. If you’re playing a song and the guitars are doing their parts but a guitar solo is coming up, the first thing you’re going to notice when they take that solo is that the mids to low-mids is going to drop out because the electric is no longer playing rhythm. They’re playing a solo. They can’t do both. Or can they? Probably not. So, what to do. One thing you can do is bring up the acoustic guitar. What? Bring up the acoustic during the electric guitar solo? Yep! It works. Of course you’re going to bring up the electric too, but loosing your mids during the solo will suck the life out of a song fast. Another thing you can do is have your bass player play octaves or play power chords. Hey, they’re there, might as well use them right. Just kidding Seaweed!

There are few more little things you can do with the guitars in this area. TUNING! Always keep your guitar tuned. But please, if you’re going to tune your guitar on stage, have it muted. No one wants to hear someone tune up. Let’s keep it professional. NEW STRINGS! These things do wonders for a guitar, especially an acoustic. The percussive aspect of guitar strumming will really stand out with new strings.

Hope this stuff helps. Like I said in one of my previous posts, I am not a trained engineer. This stuff just comes from my years of trial and error in various bands. Check back soon as I’ll be discussing the role of keyboards and vocals.

January 6, 2009 Posted by joeydavila | Audio, Multi Site Worship | , , , , , | Leave a Comment

Getting a Full Sound Without Eq

I must start off with saying I am not an audio engineer. These suggestions are based on my experience in directing music @ Bay Area Fellowship and other bands of varying styles. I’ve noticed that a lot of people head straight for the eq knobs on the board when the mix just isn’t sounding right. And while this isn’t the wrong thing to do, there are other ways of getting your mix to sound full and not so empty. Lets start with the drums. Are the toms tuned? Tune them up! Are they ringing too much? Buy some moon gels and place them strategically on the beater head. You don’t want to make it sound too dead, so usually one is enough. Is your drummer sloshing the hats all the time? Is he/she using the crash ride through the whole song? If he/she is, you’re probably getting a harsh sounding mix that could be fixed by getting the drummer to close the hats for the verses and go to the ride during the choruses. It’s important to remember that dynamics play a big part in the overall eq of a song. If the room you’re in is relatively small, these changes will really help.
What about the bass. Is it in tune? Are the volume and tone knobs on the bass all the way up? The pickup he/she is using should always be turned all the way up. This allows the pickup to produce it’s intended frequency range. Be sure to use a direct box to go to the Front of House board and only use a bass amp for reference purposes at a low volume . Some basses resonate more when notes are fretted instead of being played on an open string. Give it a good listen and if the bottom drops out when the bassist is playing an open A, try having them play it on string 4, 5th fret (4 string bass). You’ll probably feel the room shake because fretted notes tend to resonate more. The bass and drums are the driving force of most songs, so they have to fit together sonically like a golfer’s interlocking grip. This is where eq will enter the picture. Here’s what I mean. If you’ve sound checked the kick drum and the bass and you’ve got a good signal, you’re ready to rock and roll. But, then the band starts to play and you notice that you don’t really hear the kick anymore. You’re first thought is to turn it up. Mine is too. But, what we really should do is check to see if the bass is hogging up the low frequencies that the kick drum resonates at. How do you do that? First start by setting the bass channel’s low frequency at about 80hz. Turn up the gain for that frequency and see if the bass is tighter and if the kick becomes clearer. If you get some separation, you’re on your way to a better mix. If not, try anywhere from 60hz to 250hz until you hit sonic gold. Hope this information helps. I’ll cover the other instruments on my next post.

December 3, 2008 Posted by joeydavila | Audio, Multi Site Worship | , , , , | 2 Comments