Guest Editorial


When we considered guest editors who have ‘been there and done that’, we thought of Curt Taipale right away. A musician and recording engineer, he has been active as a consultant to churches since 1980, helping with audio challenges, designing sound, video projection and theatrical lighting systems, advising on equipment purchases appropriate to their needs, and providing private training for their technical ministry teams.

Many of you also know Curt as the man behind the discussion site Church Soundcheck.







1. Thinking That Buying Equipment Will Solve a Particular Problem
A seemingly natural tendency of some churches is to simply go buy something, anything to solve a particular technical problem that they are experiencing. Their research for the solution amounts to plumbing trade magazine ads, sales flyers and the Internet, and talking with their friends down the street or across the country. Of course they buy the cheapest piece of equipment they can find in the spirit of good stewardship. They try it for a year, finally realize that it really didn’t solve the problem as they hoped, then repeat the cycle again and again.


I know a church that has a dozen or so gooseneck microphones gathered over the years and now collecting dust because someone with the best of intentions (but lacking the knowledge) just went out and bought “something” to improve the sound pickup from the pulpit. Does your church fit that description? Take a look at your sound system storage closet, and if you find a bunch of old cheap sound gear stacked up collecting dust, you’re in good company.

The reality is that had these churches done some research, maybe picked up the phone to talk with a consultant (by definition: someone who doesn’t sell gear) for help with making that choice, they might have found the best piece of equipment for their application, and truly enjoyed the results. You may need to spend a little more than you expected at first, but a wise purchase could ultimately save your church hundreds if not thousands of dollars over time.

2. Neglecting Soundchecks
Soundchecks are a pivotal step in the pursuit of technical excellence, and yet it is surprising how many church musicians neglect them or don’t take them seriously. Any church sound tech can and should do a line check prior to the musicians arriving, confirming that all inputs are in proper working order. As the musicians arrive for a rehearsal, they should value the time spent working hand in hand with the sound tech to confirm that the gain structure is right, that an appropriate sound character has been achieved, and that the player has a good starting point for their monitor mix. Only then can the rehearsal proceed in an efficient and effective way.

3. Neglecting Rehearsals
What do rehearsals have to do with achieving great sound? Everything. Look, I know that everyone has a busy life these days. But if you want great sound, if you want technical excellence, if you want to put your best foot forward for your congregation, then you’ll find a way to have frequent, effective rehearsals.

Clearly the extent to which this is critical depends on the complexity of your services from a technical perspective. If your services are highly predictable and truly simple, for example - an organist, pianist and choir, then skip to the next topic because these suggestions don’t fully apply to your situation.


If on the other hand, you have a contemporary music service with a rhythm section, vocals, and maybe other players, then this section is crucial to your success. In your case, all the players as well as the lead sound tech must attend those rehearsals. You may also find it highly important for the video projectionist and lighting operators to participate in those rehearsals as well.

Here's a good example:
Several years ago, a worship pastor called me to say that he wasn’t happy with the sound that his techs were achieving. His perception was that they had an ‘attitude problem’ so he invited me to a group meeting to sort it all out. I listened to both sides express their concerns. The players were all trained musicians, and in fact several on the team had made their livings as professional musicians. The sound techs were all volunteers with no formal training in sound.

As we talked about it, I found two fundamental sources of the problems they were having:
1. The sound techs weren’t taking the rehearsals seriously, and didn’t see the value in attending them. And
2. the musicians were only rehearsing one night per month.

I was taken aback by both of those statements. The sound techs didn’t see the value in attending the rehearsals because apparently things were so loosely organized that they couldn’t do anything more than make sure the mics were turned on. The worship team wasn’t taking their music (or musicianship) very seriously, even though the songs they chose to play in fact required some serious practice.

My solution? That the worship team should start rehearsing at least once each week, for two to three hours at a time, and the sound techs should be an integral part of the rehearsals.


I spoke with the team a couple of months later and was pleased to hear everyone report that things were sounding much better. What surprised me the most was that the musicians seemed astonished at the effectiveness of weekly rehearsals. Again, several of these players had invested much of their careers as professional musicians, but apparently they had forgotten about the value and importance of rehearsing.

4. Not Knowing Your Equipment
In my garage I have a hammer, a handsaw, and a few other tools. I have no earthly idea what brand those are, how much that hammer weighs, or any other detail about them. But then again, I only use them once a year, if that.

Yet I would be able to tell you the manufacturer and model number of every microphone and direct box in the mic closet at church, the operating frequency of each of the wireless mics, every important detail about the mixing console, what loudspeakers I’m using, what amps are driving them, what DSP is feeding them, and so on. I wouldn’t be able to tell you from memory the sensitivity of each mic, but I could certainly tell you what the polar pattern is and be able to relate stories to you of how I’ve successfully used each mic in various applications.



As a part of my work as a consultant, I visit with a lot of church techs every week. And in far too many cases, the tech volunteer can’t tell me what microphones they have to work with, or what loudspeakers are currently installed, and so on. They often have to dig deep to find any details about those devices. It raises the question – how can someone place a microphone on an instrument in a reasoned and deliberate way if they don’t know at least what its polar pattern is and if it’s a condenser or dynamic mic?

Please, do me a favor, if you don’t know your mics very well, go grab every one of them and put together a spreadsheet of all the mics you have, listing the brand and model, polar pattern, condenser or cardioid or ribbon, and maybe even its sensitivity rating. The next time you grab a mic, you’ll know what you’re holding in your hand and how best to use it.

5. Neglecting Equipment Maintenance
It’s going to break. You know it is. One day when you least expect it, the thing just won’t turn on. The console power supply just won’t supply a thing. Or you’ll see blue smoke.

I love sharing stories. So here’s just one example to illustrate the importance of regular maintenance and having spare supplies on hand.

One Easter season I was mixing FOH at my church, and the Executive Pastor happened to notice that the projected image on the house right video screen was flickering a bit. He asked the tech director at the church about it. It was determined that the lamp in the projector was on its last legs and failure during the Easter service wasn’t acceptable. So the lamp was replaced. Let me correct that – the $20,000 lamp was replaced. This monster of a video projector, in the days when 15K ANSI lumens really was something to behold, took a lot of money to feed.

So may I humbly suggest that you count your blessings if your projector lamp only costs a few hundred dollars to replace, and if it is anywhere near time to replace it, that you go ahead and spend the money now so you can have it in inventory and at the ready the moment you need it.

I also figure that you can’t have too many spare mic cables, speaker cables, guitar cords, connectors, bulk cable of all common types, adapters, special use cables, batteries, gaff tape (the good stuff), solder, soldering iron in good condition, proper tools for minor repairs, lamps for theatrical lights, and so on. As my Dad was fond of saying, “It doesn’t cost any more to keep your gas tank full than it does to keep it empty.” So keep your supplies cabinet well stocked all year.

Curt Taipale has decades of experience in audio as a recording and live sound engineer, a consultant, educator and author. His book, “The Heart of Technical Excellence,” has been well received by church techs and pastors across the US. He also contributed three chapters to the Yamaha “Guide to Sound Systems for Worship”, and has written numerous magazine articles.

Curt and his wife, Jeanna, launched their ministry web site, ChurchSoundcheck.com in 1997. Their ChurchSoundcheck Discussion Group brings together thousands of people located throughout the world on a daily basis to help each other achieve technical excellence in their local churches.

Contact Curt via email at curt@churchsoundcheck.com.