I’m going to start with one word. Simplify!

The main thing to remember in both live and recording applications is that whatever you send into the mix is what will come out on the other end – no amount of processing can fix bad tone. Take everything back to the signal source – your guitar.

Turn off your effects – the distortion, the delay, the flange, the compressor, set the EQ on your amp flat, and plug a great guitar into your amp. Yes, all by itself – then turn your amp up! Learn what each pickup selection option sounds like, mess with the tone knobs in all possible combinations. Let your guitar sound like itself – just like there’s no way to make me sound like Todd Agnew when I sing, no amount of effects will make a Les Paul sound like a Stratocaster, and vice versa. Play like this until you have the defining moment every guitar player should have: learning to play clean exposes all the nuances of your playing – and given time can sound bigger and better than you sounded with all your pedals. Don’t throw the pedals away though – just use them with discretion, LATER. I love practicing with my Strat plugged straight into a PA via a DI box – it’s so much easier to hear my playing deficiencies.

Next, get a good equalizer. My signal chain starts with a 30-band rack mount Rane EQ with a sweepable high and low cut. I know it’s overkill, but it was just sitting around after upgrading our main PA to a digital eq/crossover unit, and I’ve found it extremely useful in my guitar rig. I’ve found that basic 7-band EQ pedals don’t have enough bandwidth to really be effective – though they help! Something with 10 or more bands or even parametric capabilities will give you more options.

Here are some general EQ guidelines I’ve figured out over the years:

Roll off everything below 80hz (In live situations, the 100hz cut on most soundboards will suffice).

100Hz can bump up low end nicely if you’re palm muting, but watch out for it interfering with the bass guitar.

200 – 250Hz adds punch and fullness.

250 – 800Hz is the “mud” zone. Roll off here if your sound is muddy.

600 – 650Hz boosted can REALLY warm up a lead tone.

2.5kHz – 5kHz adds edge and bite.

5kHz – 8kHz adds clarity.

8kHz – 12kHz adds “shimmer.”

Once you have your guitar sounding the way you want it, add effects back in one at a time, dialing each until you LOVE the tone.

For “The World Will See” my signal chain typically looked like this: Guitar (Gibson Les Paul, or Fender Stratocaster) -> EQ -> Ibanez TS-808 Tube Screamer -> BBE Sonic Stomp -> Peavey Classic 50/50 Tube Amp at full volume -> 1×12” Cabinet in another (padded with foam!) room -> Sennheiser e906 mic about 2 inches from the speaker -> Protools.

For most parts, this was it – if I wanted something to sound a little thicker, I just recorded the same part several times, sometimes with both guitars. For reverb I mostly just used Protools plugins after laying a part down dry. In “Almighty” and “For The Joy” I used a dot-eight delay from the digital effects section of my Digitech GSP2101. Several other songs have a quarter note delay, also from the GSP2101. Delay doesn’t really change tone – it just duplicates whatever you’re playing at a certain time interval.

Just a quick word on recording your amp with a microphone – have someone else move the mic around in the isolation room while you play and listen in the control room with headphones. An inch can make a huge difference! The center of the speaker is going to sound a little brighter, and the edge will sound much darker. People have come up with tons of rules on proper mic technique, but the only rule I really abide by is if it sounds good in your headphones in the control room, the mic placement is correct.

By the way, I highly recommend the BBE Sonic Stomp for any guitarist or bassist – it simply corrects a time-delay issue that is created in the higher frequencies of amplified sound – something called “envelope distortion.” Basically this means the lower frequencies will reach the listener’s ear before the higher ones, causing a “muddy” perception. The Sonic Stomp corrects this.

While recording our album I started using my simplified setup regularly for live performances – a little extra reverb, compression and overdrive can definitely help fill the sound out with a band, but I don’t change much for either live or recording applications. Great tone is great tone, whether live or in the studio – and it all starts in your fingers on your guitar.

-Travis

Key takeaways:

• Use a click track
• Pay attention to tuning
• Pay attention to dynamics (and arrangements in general)
• Pay attention to transitions
• PREPARE

Check out the list.

I use a Peavey Classic 50/50 amp. It’s all tube, 50 watts per channel if I’m running in stereo. I run it into two Mesa 1/12″ speaker cabinets and mic them with two Sennheiser e906 mics (the BEST guitar amp mic I’ve ever used!). I absolutely love how this amp sounds, but it’s gotta be cranked up pretty loud to take advantage of the tube sound, which creates too much sound for our stage.

I add to this volume problem by slamming the input on the amp with a huge amount of gain out of my Digitech GSP2101 preamp – this then saturates the tubes further, causing that warm even order harmonic sound that tube amp enthusiasts love.

My solution is to put things backstage. I set up my gear in the hallway behind our stage, and send in my guitar signal from the stage. I then rely on the sound person to route the guitar into my monitor on stage. Lately I’ve also been running my guitar wireless using a Shure SLX wireless system. I was a little nervous to go this route because of the added compression to the initial guitar signal that wireless inevitably adds, BUT I was pleasantly surprised at the newfound smoothness of the tone. I highly recommend it.

There are so many directions to go in choosing your rig. You can reference my article on guitar amps for more detailed information. Since writing that article, I’ve landed even more solidly on the side of the tube amp because of its natural warmth and fullness of tone. I love the sound of the larger Mesa and Marshall amps cranked up, but these aren’t that useful in church situations. There’s a ton of other smaller amps that can sound really good when cranked and miked, such as the Vox AC30 or AC15, Crate Palomino V32, etc.

In the past while leading worship at the Rock, I focused more on a heavy rock/metal side of playing, but lately since becoming our church worship director (i.e. Sunday morning service!) I’ve had to dial it back a bit and have found a more blues/rock oriented tone suits this style of music better. Think U2 – lower wattage tube amp, (In the Edge’s case, a Vox AC30) some reverb, a little delay, (or a lot, depending on the song) and that’s about it. I add some compression to lead parts, but mostly leave it off my main tone. Simplicity rather than complexity is what I’m leaning toward – pull all the effects off the guitar (including distortion!) and set the main EQ at the amp to sound as good as it can possibly sound, then start adding effects one at a time.

I hope this has been helpful. Remember as you work with your pastors, congregation, sound people, band members, etc, that you are there to serve. Let every effect you choose, every amp setting you pick, every microphone you set up reflect the glory of God to those you are leading in worship. He is the only reason we buy amps, play guitars, and sing songs. It’s all for Him.

• volume levels
• styles of music (hymns vs. contemporary songs, and blended services)
• instrumentation (electric guitars, acoustic drum sets, pianos, three pianos, how many singers)
• how to choose music that makes everyone happy, etc.

I would argue, however, that none of these issues is the most difficult issue to deal with as a leader of a music ministry.

Our toughest job is to understand what God wants from music at our church, to be convinced of it, and to not let the desire to please people sway you from pursuing the vision God has given you for music.

A tough questions to ask:

What is our mission?

What are we trying to accomplish at our church? Who are we trying to reach? What age group? What style of music is “popular” in this area? This is a missional issue. In our service, music accounts for a quarter to a third of the service. That’s a large chunk! Are we “speaking the language” of the culture that surrounds us? If we were a church in Nairobi, we wouldn’t be singing in English, and we likely wouldn’t try to force our U2 style of praise and worship on them. We would play something that is culturally relevant (though I’m not exactly sure I know what that would be.) That wouldn’t be wise.

So why is it that we oftentimes try to force a completely unintelligible musical style (or lack of style) on our community?

If your community is a predominantly college town, ask yourself, what do the college kids listen to? What does the music sound like in other contexts of live music in your area? (Visit a few local venues or clubs to find out). If you live in a town with lots of retired people, what kind of music do they listen to? A more traditional style of service may be in order.

This is always an issue of outreach. There is no such thing as a sacred style of music.

Too often, our musical style, song selection, and production is driven by hard-hearted complainers in the church, rather than those with a vision for outreach.

People might leave the church when you take a strong stance on music. Let them go.

Some Warnings

It is incredibly easy for music leaders (especially one with strong preferences like me) to let their vision be clouded by their preferences. This is the other side of the spectrum and is just as bad as striving to please people. An abundance of counsel is necessary to make sure your decisions are guided by more than preference.

Jesus is responsible for the direction of your church, the pastors are responsible for leading under Jesus’ direction, so submit to your pastors. They have the deciding vote when it comes to these issues. However, if they have appointed you as music leader, advise them! Be aware of what is going on musically in your community, and be a part of it. But ultimately, obey your leaders. They are the ones that will give an account and not you. Do this cheerfully (Hebrews 13).

Music is an amazing opportunity for a church to influence people for Christ. But too often that opportunity is squandered by selfishness or complacency – selfishness on the part of the music leader or on the part of the loud, influential members of the congregation; complacency on the part of pastors and music leaders who don’t take the time to discern God’s will in this area and who don’t have the guts to stick it out through the complaining.

Well, the solution was to put the band behind the screen and just have Dennis lead worship sitting on a stool in front of the stage near the audience with just a mic, an acoustic guitar and a floor monitor.

So herein lies the challenge: the band is crammed behind this screen in the dark, nobody can see the worship leader and the worship leader is all by himself out with the audience.

Like I said, Dennis was leading worship on this particular evening, when just a few months ago Travis had him lying on the floor with his hands on Dennis’ stomach teaching him how to breathe with his diaphragm so he could start singing for The Rock. Now Dennis is leading worship as the only male vocal without being able to see his band. Wow Dennis. The band was behind that screen the whole time just playing, never seeing the audience, completely disconnected from the whole room.

The feeling in the room that evening was incredible. During the last song (Agnus Dei) probably 90% of the audience had their hands in the air. I’ve never experienced worship like that before. Props to Dan for mixing so wonderfully, the sound was amazing.

So really the whole purpose of this article is just an outlet for me to rant and rave about these amazing people whom God has allowed me to be involved with. The band was able to play near perfectly in a completely foreign situation in front of an abnormal audience for a Friday night. And they sounded astounding. Big thanks to Travis, Dennis, Katrina, Melinda, Chelsea, Josh, Jared, Rae, Kristian, Matt and Dan for allowing God to work through you so powerfully, and thank you for letting someone like me be involved.

It is a fairly common thing for me to be totally energized and geared up to run sound at The Rock. The whole week preceding, I’ll be stoked about running sound (There are three of us Rock sound guys here in Fort Collins, so I only get to run sound every three or four weeks). So I’ll be super excited when my week rolls around and I’ll do everything I can to prepare for the sound that week, including making stage plots and board channel layouts, going to band practice, everything. Friday will finally come and I’ll show up at the church ridiculously early (like 2:00 sometimes) and I’ll be all prepared and excited and then… it really doesn’t end up sounding all that great in there. Sometimes I feel like a failure, like I spent all this time and energy and passion on the sound for that night, and the end result was mediocre…Huh…

Now, I am very much aware of the fact that God being glorified doesn’t necessarily mean amazing sound. With my mere human insight though, I feel that the mix that comes out of the speakers on those nights was probably not as glorifying to God as it could have been, so I leave disappointed.

Enter Romans 9:16, stage left:

It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

ting! as the light bulb goes on, I get it! All of the effort that I put in to this is nothing compared to what Gods mercy can do!

Since reading that verse I have changed around my pre-rock prayers a bit, praying more now for God’s mercy upon me, that I may be used by Him.

This is a very enlightening verse to me; I shared it with Travis this last Friday before sound check, he liked it too, sometimes we as sound guys (and worship leaders) can get full of ourselves enough to think that our own motivation is comparable to God’s power over us.

The subject is absolutely huge, and there are many different perspectives and opinions out there, so here’s my two cents. But one thing I know for sure: this ministry is a lot more than moving faders and turning knobs. So here goes.

Spirituality

As awesome as it is to be a sound guy behind thousands of watts and tens of thousands of dollars worth of sound equipment, the job demands a great amount of responsibility and dedication. To be a sound guy means that you are able to completely screw up anything and everything that comes out of those speakers, potentially causing a lot of frustration to the church. One may ask: “How do I ensure that everything that comes out of those speakers is appropriate and good-sounding?” I have found a solution to this question, however (and hopefully I’m not the first person to see this):

All we need to do is desire the glorification of God above all else. With this in focus, humility and enthusiasm for sound and worship will be an immediate overflow.

This attitude doesn’t come overnight, but I guarantee that if you focus on God being glorified and getting yourself out of the way, God will use you. In my little experience, being used by God often means amazing mixes. A word of warning though, if God does use you and it sounds really, really good in there, don’t go running around afterward being prideful of your mix, it’s not your mix, it’s God’s. I myself have fallen into this trap numerous times. Pride is very destructive, stay away from it, pray that God would help you remain humble.

Here’s a bunch of pertinent verses:

If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen. 1 Peter 4:11

Young men, in the same way be submissive to those who are older. All of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another, because, “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” 1 Peter 5:5

For who makes you different from anyone else? What do you have that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, why do you boast as though you did not? 1 Corinthians 4:7

For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what he does not have. 2 Corinthians 8:12

Relationships with the Band

It is easy to feel very separated from the band sometimes, maybe you don’t hang out with them much, and maybe you don’t know a couple of the band members very well, and maybe you don’t really think of yourself part of the band. Well think again, the sound guy’s relationship with the band members is absolutely imperative to a strong worship team and a good worship service. It is especially important to get to know the band’s leader. As a sound guy at The Rock in Fort Collins, one of my primary jobs is to take Travis’ vision for a song and help make it happen. Travis is kinda like my “boss”, so my relationship with him is very important, the better I know Travis, the better I am able to understand what he wants and make it happen.

My relationship with the rest of the band matters in that I need to understand how they think, how they like their instruments to sound, how they like their monitors, etc. Here’s an example: I don’t play the drums, I like drums and I’d like to play them but I don’t. Jared and Chris are drummers for The Rock. Jared and Chris have a wealth of knowledge and experience about drums that they can give me to help me mix drums better, but how am I supposed to talk to them about drums and learn from them if I don’t have a good relationship with them already?

Also, your attitude behind the board will greatly affect the attitude of the band; remain composed and friendly even when things go horribly wrong. A frustrated sound guy makes for a frustrated band, and it’s really hard to glorify God when you’re frustrated.

In reality the sound guy actually is a member of the band even though we don’t stand on stage, the sound board can definitely be considered a musical instrument. It takes a lot of knowledge and experience to do it well and it greatly affects the songs.

Here are some practical applications: 1 Take opportunities to hang out with band members 2 Eagerly listen to band members’ opinions about the sound 3 Learn about their instruments (and if you have extra time on your hands, learn to play those instruments) 4 Go to band practice when you are mixing for the service that week. 5 If a band member sounds good or is playing well, tell them!

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. Philippians 4:29

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Ephesians 4:2

Production

One thing that The Rock in Fort Collins is big about is the production aspect of the Rock services. There are colored stage lights, big speakers, big sound, and usually we bring out platforms to lift the drum set and the other back row instruments up off the stage a little to be seen better by the audience. This all translates to a worship service that rides the line between church and concert. The danger here is falling too far on the concert side and losing the worship aspect, i.e. just turning it into a big show every Friday night. There are a lot of good things that come out of doing it this way though:

First of all, the music is loud enough that people in the audience can’t hear people around them singing; hearing the people next to you (or yourself) sing can be a big distraction to worship.

Second, turning the lights out in the house allows people to come out of themselves more and worship God more whole-heartedly.

Third (and my favorite), There is enough sound coming out of the speakers to allow everyone to really feel the music, this makes for a very intense, exciting, and real experience.

Obviously one concern of the sound guy should be peoples’ ears. We don’t want to cause permanent hearing damage to those that come to the service or to our own ears. So try to keep it at or below 105dB (that’s just the highs and mids, bass can be higher safely).

The production of the worship has the potential to be a very powerful thing, I remember my first night at The Rock, I was completely blown away, there were even people in the isles crying on their knees. I left thinking one thing: “Man, these people aren’t kidding around”.

Sound and Sound Gear

I constantly look at all the sound stuff that our church has acquired and stand in amazement at the fact that it all even works (probably only by God’s grace). Not that the equipment is of poor quality, but that it is just so complicated. Now the trick as a sound guy is to get it to all work together to form a good-sounding mix. Yikes, here’s another place where lots of prayer is helpful.

All of the money spent on all this sound gear was spent because someone believed that it was the best way to further the kingdom. It is good to keep in mind that the same money could have gone to feeding orphans in Zimbabwe, so try as hard as you can to use the gear you have in the best possible way. I’ll say it again: learn how to use all of the equipment to its greatest potential. And not just equipment either, use all of your resources, ask you leaders questions if you need guidance about sound related stuff, listen to band members’ opinions, listen to the opinions of people that come talk to you at the sound board, etc.

Remember also that it is impossible to please everybody. Travis has a lot of experience with this, he gets all of the complaints whenever a sound guy makes a mistake, and even when the sound guy didn’t make a mistake. People all have a different idea of what worship music should sound like. Your job as a sound guy is to follow the guidance of the worship leader, and to try to glorify God in the greatest possible way through your mix.

Okay, so there’s my two cents about sound for Rock worship. If you only take one thing away from this article let it be this: The purpose of worship is to glorify God, so that should be your purpose as a sound guy also. Worship will be our eternal occupation in heaven, so let’s concentrate on practicing hard now. Remember, even our best mixes here on earth just sound like emergency alert patterns compared to how the worship will sound in heaven. So let’s do our job with passion, enthusiasm, and desire, and let’s focus on God’s glory in all of this.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men. Colossians 3:23

Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58

So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31