Jim Weiveris
"If your band is using on stage amplifiers and/or monitors do not let them "fire up" the on-stage stuff until you have house levels pretty well set. If the house is not up, they turn up their monitors and amplifiers to be able to hear, then once the house is up, they need "more monitor" to hear over the house level. This leads to a lack of ability to control a mix and a "muddy" sound due to competing reinforcement.

Oh yeah, the band and vocalists need to do an entire song, not just three measures to accomplish this. Sometimes picking a familiar (or the same one always) warm-up song can work."

Kent Morris
"The biggest mistake churches make in doing sound checks is to start with the monitors and then add the main speakers. By doing so, the entire burden of the mix falls to the small monitor wedge, with both it and the house mix suffering as a result. If the reverse order is used, the house system, which is more substantial, can be set quickly and then each monitor becomes a "what's missing" box as intended.

The monitors can then be set to fill in the details not conveyed by the mains, primarily with vocals and some pitch and timing reference such as keys and hi-hat. Most church monitor systems are taxed beyond their ability in a failed attempt to produce broad-spectrum sound from a compromised enclosure. The result is feedback and harshness. By converting to a "house first" method, sound check can proceed efficiently and without annoying feedback."



Jim Weiveris
"Know that most musicians and vocalists will not give it their all during a sound check, or even a rehearsal or run through. Be prepared to turn them down once they "get into it" during the actual event."



Chuck Harris
"There are ways to approach a sound check. The biggest mistake that a church can make is to not have an organized method that is clearly understood and agreed upon by the audio team and the worship team alike.

It usually entails a clear flow of communication between the FOH and Monitor engineer (when a separate monitor engineer is used) and the worship leader or musical director. And then the rest of team. It also entails an order of what is done in what order, and whose voices are primary in the process."



Jeff Urke
"One mistake that people make in the sound check process is setting the monitor levels with the house sound off. In giving priority to the monitor mix, it forces the FOH engineer to work around the sound that is already being produced by the monitors instead of vice-versa. In addition, musicians will often need less volume and/or different mixes in their monitors once the house is fired up.



Jeff Urke
"In the sound check process it can be extremely helpful for sound techs to go up to the stage (while the band is playing) and hear what the musicians are actually hearing. This not only promotes unity within the team, but can improve communication between techs and musicians when they’re working on monitor mixes."

OUR EXPERT PANEL

Chuck Harris
Chuck Harris spends most of his time in the recording studio producing, tracking and mixing. He's also toured internationally as FOH engineer with a wide variety of artists, and was, for many years, Chief Engineer at Integrity Music.








Kent Morris
Kent Morris is a live sound engineer for Tommy Walker, Paul Baloche and Israel Houghton as well as a senior pastor. Additionally, he is an audio/video system designer with Cornerstone Media. He is the technical editor and advisor for several magazines including Worship Leader, CCM, Your Church, and Technologies for Worship.






Jeff Urke
Jeff coordinates the Music in Worship degree program at Biola University where he teaches sound and production courses, oversees outreach worship bands, and coordinates on campus worship and technology events. Jeff also leads worship full time for Pathways Church in Irvine, California.







Jim Weiveris
Jim most recently served as Tech Director of Bayside Chapel in Barnegat, New Jersey and is a contributor to Shure Notes for Houses of Worship. You can find an interview with Jim on the subject of Digital Signal Processing here.