What a Difference a Week Makes

I took a vacation from my day job last week. It wasn't your normal vacation though. I spent two days on yard work and pressure washing decks and siding. A day at a local amusement park with my family and one day preparing for Sunday morning services.
I spent two and half days at the church trying to remedy the fiasco of last Sunday(see Planning, Preparation, Practice) by ordering replacement cables, connectors, adapters etc. And the big item of stage snake. I cleaned, organized and took an inventory of all the audio equipment. All that work plus planning and preparation made a big difference for the concert we had last night.

I started off in the wrong frame of mind because after spending a chunk of change on preparing for an outdoor concert the decision was made to bring it indoors because of the intense heat. My natural reaction is to resist change. So naturally I was a little testy with the musicians and singers but a good friend of mine recognized my anguish and calmed my brewing storm. After all, the musicians and singers showed up when I had told them to show up and were set up and ready to do a sound check right on time. Plus we had a lot less set up by being indoors where we are mostly set up already. We were able to conduct a text book sound check, work out some bugs, mix the house sound and give the band a near perfect monitor mix. The lead guitarist and the worship leader were both pleased with the monitor mix at the same time. All of this using two stage wedges. The Lord was definitely at work here.

This was really my first solo somewhat large scale mix. I had a blast and learned a great deal. I experimented with drum micing and it turned out pretty well. I only used two mics. I had originally placed two Shure SM94s but when I was tearing down I noticed that one of the 94s had been replaced by a SM57. Don't know who or why but I guess they thought they knew best. I know SM57s is recommended for toms/snare but I received a much better response from the SM94 on the tom side. Maybe it had something to do with the acoustically live room we were in. I just don't know. I wish I had mic for the bass drum though and I think overall if I could've done a XY configuration with my mics it would have been better too. I see a purchase of some versatile mic stands in my future. As you can see I have a lot to learn about micing drum sets and I hope to learn the best mics and configurations soon. Hint: enter your comments please ;>)

The hour and a half concert was awesome. We had the biggest crowd for a Sunday night that I had ever seen since I have been at this church. Seeing a bunch of Southern Baptist erupt in praise and worship was something to behold too. The young and the old alike enjoyed the experience. Oh, there was free homemade ice cream too.

It was a great day yesterday at FBC. There was planning, preparation and practice, not only for the concert last night but also for our morning worship services. We strived for excellence and everything was darn near perfect for all services and the concert.

How fitting that the sermon yesterday for the morning services was titled "The Purpose of God's Gifts for Us". Read Ephesians 4:7-16. All glory to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He gave His everything and we gave back and we were all blessed yesterday. I thank the Lord for the gifts that He has given so many in our church and I pray that we always offer those gifts back to Him!