Adrian Goodall
From Bookham Baptist
Hi there,
I'm in charge of a small volunteer sound team. There are four of us who do our best to make the different worship bands sound great. However the four of us are stretched over 3 services each Sunday.
The entrance to the Sanctuary is right by the desk (Soundcraft Live 8) and most look at the thing with "Crumbs look at that mess of controls"
I've always found recruitment a waste of time as no-one ever want to be involved.
I was wondering if anyone else has some good advice on demystifying the desk and how to ask for help?
All the best,
Adrian.
Thanks Michael,
Its actually ideas for the appeal at the front I was really thinking of. I done notices....they don't get read.
Hi Adrian
From experience, unless people are a bit techie to begin with, and are wired that way, they generally don't volunteer.
We've had most joy inviting people to help once or twice, and then inviting them onto the team. You can always offer training to anyone who feels a bit undercooked.
I'd be thinking that a personal invitation to people, 1 on 1, will be best for you there. And ask the musos to look out for techs for you. Or get them to volunteer people who are interested in being on the worship team, but they're not sure about yet. Can bill it as one way of hanging about with the worship team a bit more, but also getting to see things from the other side.
To add to Joe's post, we've had most success with our young people. A personal invitation is always best, even if it is for a trial. We have found that shadowing works really well - gradually the newbie understands and takes control until they are ready to go solo!
Also young people are less afraid of technology, older generations are more wary of technology with a 'well it my go bang, or break" mentality, so the younger the volunteer - the more open they are to te(a)ch.
With our P.A team, we sit next to the visual guys so there is always a crossover between P.A and visuals - sometimes they might get to do some words or fade some lights... This can help also!
D
P.S. If you can get members of the music group on the P.A team, they generally have the better ears, and will help packing away and setup also!
Use what you've got, pray for what you need. :)
I would strongly recommend that you try to document and simplify your set-ups so that the learning curve is lower and hence it is demystified. If you operate in the same building and have a "fixed" set-up then you can go a long way to have a good starting point for a mix by doing things such as:
1) Use the same floor boxes/cables for common instruments. For example, I have got four DI boxes wired in at all time - one each earmarked for bass, electric guitar, acoustic guitar and keyboard. I also have got four singers mic cables labelled up left hand, left middle, right middle and right hand which live in the floor box and come out when required. Similarly for flute, clarinet, piano. I rarely use all of them together but they are ready to go.
2) Similarly, use the same channels on the desk for the common elements. That way the channel gains, EQs and group allocation are in a good place to start with.
3) Work out what channel gains work well as a starting point for your set-up. As a starting point, we set our channel gains so that most inputs peak at -9dB for example. Use the desk VU meter to instrument levels such as foldback, hearing aid loop, overflow systems etc.
4) Document all of the above. Also include some wiring schematics, instrument set ups, hints and tips, fault finding lists.
5) Have a system for any recording temporary changes to the standard set up - that way if someone forgets to put them back again at the end, the next operator has a clue!
We normally have two services on a Sunday shared between 4 different worship groups. By having a "system" we manage to set up with just one PA operator within about 15 mins each week, hence reducing the size of the team (I have got 5 operators of varying ability - we normally do one week each per month). I do accept that we have the huge advantage that we don't have to knock it all down each week,
Hope this helps
Thanks Guys,
I thank you all for your great suggestions. I've since had a chat with one of the ministers and they will get some youngesters to try it out alongside the rest of us for a month. That will be their project.
I will also speak at the front this coming Sunday to ask people if they'd like to understand how it all works. They might then be interested in having a go at a rehersal.
We have a permantly fixed desk and stage sockets so I like your suggeston Wilt.
I'm helping out at Soul Survivor Week C with the sound team to learn more myself.
All the best,
Adrian.
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If people really are scared off by the big desk, start off with a smaller one, a folio notepad for instance, and show how the bigger one is really just the same, but, well, err, bigger.
In all seriousness though once I've explained to people that each strip does exactly the same thing but for a different channel, and most of the knobs in the strip do the same thing but for different frequencies, they're pleasantly surprised.
If it's a struggle getting people involved at all I wonder whether it's a wider issue than just thinking it's a bit complicated though - have you tried putting notices in a service asking if people want to get involved, offering training sessions at times they can make, easing them into it or that sort of thing?