Lesson Description
Front of House Tips and Tricks
8m 42s
In this lesson we go over a few common questions and pitfalls that arise when running audio for your service and how to get around them.
Video Transcript
Front of House Tips and Tricks
8m 42s
00:15
What is front of house?
00:18
Front of House, often abbreviated FOH, refers to the main loudspeaker systems (PA) that will reproduce sound for the audience in the venue.
00:27
The FOH engineer refers to the person who is mixing for the audience.
00:32
In a large venue, the FOH engineer and all the sound equipment he/she uses
00:37
would be positioned in the middle of the audience or perhaps further back on a large-format mixing console.
00:44
For the majority of House of Worship, mixing FOH will be a much different experience.
00:50
You see, 90% of churches are 200 people or less which means that their sound person will be mixing in a much smaller space.
00:59
So, this tutorial will be tailored for the 90% of churches.
01:04
Mixing in a large space or outdoors in the open air is often easier as you will be dealing with fewer or no reflective surfaces.
01:13
In smaller spaces, as is the case with so many churches,
01:18
the art of mixing involves managing the delicate balance between the natural acoustic of the room
01:23
and the sound reinforcement from your sound system.
01:26
It seems most people want to try fixing their audio problems with their sound reinforcement gear,
01:32
when in reality, many of these issues can only be treated by fixing the acoustic of their space
01:39
by adding acoustic treatment and diffusion.
01:43
A low cost idea here would be using pipe and drape or adding carpet to your floor.
01:49
This is a lengthy discussion for another time. But, needless to say, one cannot change the laws of physics.
01:57
Reflective surfaces wreak havoc on establishing a clear and pleasing mix.
02:03
With that said, here are some tips and tricks to help create an engaging mix with clarity and precision.
02:10
The following are some questions I’ve received from church sound people.
02:14
Question: My church is renting space on Sundays at a community center
02:19
and we aren’t permitted to make any acoustic changes to the hard surfaces in the room.
02:24
How can I make my mix clearer and more defined for the congregation?
02:29
Answer: Use distributed sound.
02:33
This means placing more loudspeakers around your room covering the entire audience.
02:39
Doing so, people will hear more direct sound from the loudspeakers at a lower volume,
02:44
which will greatly lower the reflected sound off hard surfaces.
02:49
This method involves distributed and delayed loudspeakers.
02:53
Sound travels at approximately 1125 feet per second
02:58
which means we will need to adjust the time delay in our delayed loudspeakers so that the sound from the house PA
03:02
and delayed loudspeakers arrive to the listeners ears at the same time.
03:11
Otherwise, there will be a distinct lack of intelligibility.
03:15
This can be done with QSC TouchMix mixers
03:18
and is also super easy to do right from the back of your QSC K.2 Series loudspeakers.
03:26
Delay times are displayed in feet, milliseconds and meters on your gear so you can choose which is easiest for you.
03:33
Question. How can I clear up muddy sounding vocals?
03:38
Answer:
03:39
Use a high-pass filter (HPF).
03:42
On a TouchMix it’s called “low cut.”
03:45
Use this on each vocal channel.
03:48
This will eliminate any low frequency information that’s not being used by the vocal.
03:53
This is a singing vocal EQ that I start out with on vocals in general.
03:58
Notice that I have the low cut set at 100 Hz.
04:03
I’ve also included a dip at around 200 Hz to eliminate chestiness and boxiness and a bump at 5k for more air and definition in diction.
04:13
Question. How do I deal with loud electric guitar amps?
04:19
An unexperienced sound person may believe that an electric guitar player is trying to show off by having his amp very loud.
04:27
There are two reasons why electric guitar players will intentionally push their amps:
04:32
Number 1. Valve guitar amps need to be push to a certain level in order to achieve the desired tone
04:40
And number 2. To reach the reference level they need to play well.
04:45
Here are some things you can try before asking the player to turn the amp down.
04:50
Using a guitar amp stand, tilt the amp facing upward so the people in the first few rows aren’t being hit so hard.
04:59
Try using baffles to muffle some of the noise or try miking the amp back stage or in another room.
05:06
With the last two suggestions, you will need to give the guitar player some additional reference back in their floor monitor or in-ear-monitors.
05:14
Having control of loud amps in a smaller space allows the sound person to turn up the electric guitar in the house mix,
05:21
which evenly distributes it to the audience.
05:24
Question. Why does my pastor’s lavalier mic always causes feedback?
05:29
Answer:
05:31
Feedback occurs whenever the sound entering a microphone is reproduced by a loudspeaker,
05:38
picked up by the microphone, and re-amplified again and again.
05:44
Most lavalier mics have an omni-directional pattern,
05:47
meaning they capture sound equally from all directions.
05:51
That coupled with the fact that the manner in which a lavalier is worn - not very close to the sound source-
05:58
cause them to feedback quickly when the sound person turns them up so they can be heard.
06:04
Lavalier mics are not recommended in live sound reinforcement for this reason.
06:09
If a person insists on using one,
06:12
make sure the QSC channel preset for lavalier is dialed in with the correct EQ for maximum system stability.
06:20
Otherwise consider using an over the ear headset instead.
06:25
When used with the corresponding QSC channel preset, you can achieve much more gain before feedback.
06:32
Question: What is the right volume level for my church?
06:35
Is it too loud? Is it too soft?
06:38
Answer:
06:40
This has been and will be a debate among AV church techs,
06:44
worship leaders and pastoral staff for all time.
06:48
But the truth of the matter is there is not one right answer.
06:53
The right volume for a church should be based on the general culture of the church along with the style of music.
06:59
For example a church that’s mostly made up of young people, will generally appreciate listening to worship at much louder volume
07:07
because they’ve grown up listening to their music in headphones at a loud volume.
07:13
A church that is made up of mostly seniors will generally appreciate listening to worship at a softer volume.
07:20
Sound systems weren’t even a thing when they were growing up in church.
07:24
And many seniors are dealing with hearing issues which make it difficult to distinguish sounds at a high volume.
07:32
A church that is made up of a mix of the older and younger generation will need to find a balance.
07:38
And how does one find that balance?
07:41
Listen to the needs of the congregation.
07:44
Believe me, those that are struggling with the volume will come up and tell you.
07:49
Sometimes it’s not a pleasant experience but it does help one gauge to some extent what the general volume should be.
07:58
This doesn’t mean, however, that you cater to the personal requests of every congregant.
08:05
It helps to have a point of contact for audio requests like these,
08:09
for example a pastor, that you can refer people to when they approach the sound booth.
08:15
If there’s one thing I’ve learned regarding this issue, it’s that you can’t make everyone happy
08:22
but, remaining sensitive to the culture of your church, the style of music
08:26
and the general audience response should help you establish a good volume for your church.
08:33
Well, that’s it for this video. I’ll see you in the next one.
Downloads and Links
Front of House Tips and Tricks
8m 42s