The Quest for the Quiet Stage

From just about the time that contemporary church services went electric, people – congregants, engineers and even audiologists – have been making a lot of noise about volume control.

How can your team get the best mix, the musicians and performers the best sound and everyone else, the best experience? The answer: The Quiet Stage.

It’s called by a few different names and no one really knows where this particular handle originated, but The Quiet Stage has come to encompass (mostly) the use of electronics to lower stage noise. It’s largely a function of:

• Personal monitors replacing floor or stage monitors
• Amplifier modelers replacing traditional amps
• Electronic instruments replacing acoustic ones – drums and keyboards, for example

To demonstrate the difference that these modifications could make, Shure joined forces with Yamaha and AVIOM to demonstrate The Quiet Stage at a series of Technology for Worship-sponsored events.

Here’s what happened:
The set-up used a variety of the three companies’ products to allow a live band to play without amplifiers or speakers. The idea was to demonstrate, in real time, the kind of impact that personal monitors and modeled instrument technology could have on a performance space.

The demonstration involved a live band performing through a front-of-house console generating a traditional in-air speaker mix. While the band was performing, the engineer lowered the front of house mix level until it was at zero, silencing the audio heard in the hall. The only audible sounds were the tap of drumsticks on the Yamaha electric drum kits – and of course, the vocals.

Worship teams were invited to participate by pre-registering for a 45-minute Quiet Stage “demo”. Here, praise teams were able to use gear supplied by Shure, Yamaha and AVIOM to experience for themselves the positive impact these technologies have on performance and the venue.

Getting Started

If The Quiet Stage is good for the audience, good for the performers and great for the sound, why aren’t more churches doing it? Cost is one reason. With existing floor monitors and amps already on hand, it’s hard for a church with a small budget to justify the additional expense. Behavioral change is another. People are accustomed to using floor monitors, even with their limitations.

 

Step 1: Identify a Champion

Going “Quiet” demands an advocate who can champion the cause with those controlling the purse strings, and if possible, demonstrate the audible differences of clearer, more intelligible sound at reduced volume levels. (Watch these pages for future presentations and demonstrations at events in your area.)

This person – you, maybe – will also be the one who works with your local sound contractor or music instrument retailer to develop a gear list and a budget. If you are a member or the head of the church’s worship or technical ministry and the person who will be wrestling monitors and amps from the strong arms of your performers, get ready for a little pushback. And prepare to be the trainer. You’re the expert. You’re going to make it happen, even if it will be rolled out over time.

 

Step 2: Eliminate the Monitors

This should be easy. But many churches are still using them since old habits die hard.

Personal monitors are a vast improvement over floor monitors.. They provide the ability to select which mixes the user wants to hear, and they allow the user to control the volume and balance of these mixes. Advanced systems let the users hear two different mixes and control the levels of these mixes. Also, when the musicians and others are in-ear, they enjoy high-fidelity sound at lower volume levels with less interruption from outside noise.

Personal monitors allow the performer to hear his mix accurately. Since the sound quality is so superior to the wedge mix he’s heard before, he is likely to focus on his performance as never before. Suggestion: Let performers create their own mixes with a personal monitor mixing system. That way, the audio crew can focus on the house sound.

Once you get your musicians to experience the benefits of personal monitoring – no one will want to return to the days of yesteryear.

 

Step Three:

Eliminate the Amps

and Speakers

Most electric guitar and bass players learned to play with the comfort of a nice little amp nearby. Anyone with a Hammond B3 has great affection for its massive partner, the Leslie speaker. Take these away and you’ve essentially exiled some old friends.

Here's what Chandler Collison had to say on the subject in the July/August issue of Technologies for Worship:
"Guitar and bass amp modelers, for instance, are very effective substitutes for traditional amps, and because the tones are generated digitally, high acoustic volumes are not required to get the tight sounds guitarists and bassists want from their rigs. The outputs of the modelers are run directly into the sound system, and because there is no acoustic sound, engineers have complete control over the levels in the house mix and performers all have complete and independent control over the levels in their monitor mixes. Thus, on-stage volume is dramatically reduced without detracting from the performers' experiences."

 

Step Four: What about the drums, the choir

and all the other acoustic instruments?

You’d never want to replace your vocalists with synthesizers. But so many improvements have been made in electronic drums that the house mix won’t be negatively impacted by this switch. Collison’s suggestion: “Mount a bass enhancer, such as a Bass Shaker or Butt Kicker to the drummer’s throne or to the underside of a small platform for the bassist. This will restore some of the low frequencies lost in the personal monitors and give the performers the feel of standing in from to a loud mass cabinet or playing a miked kick drum.”

Fact is, even if your congregation needs to build The Quiet Stage piece by piece, by eliminating amps and wedges one by one, the difference in the house mix and the overall quality of your worship events will have an audible difference.