Waco Texas - October 30, 2005: A young pastor steps into a baptistery to perform a baptism. Once he steps into the baptismal waters, he sees that the wired microphone on a stand is pointing away from where the baptism is going to happen. He reaches out to adjust it, and when he grabs the microphone, he is electrocuted. 800 people are watching, and they just see their pastor die within moments. I wasn’t there, and I am not for sure where the breakdown was in how he was electrocuted, but I do have some theories and some advice to throw out there:
These types of items can cost someone their life. I have seen this kind of stuff used in many churches as a quick and lazy way to kill hum in a sound system. These are installed by people whom just know enough about electricity to be really dangerous. Does it work? It can. Will it kill you – yes, in a “heartbeat.” The problem with using these devices, is that you lift the ground from the amplifier to its’ main power source, and so if there happens to be a short, instead of the electricity bleeding to the ground pin of the main power source (which you just lifted), it will instead be passed to the chassis (ground), then to the ground of the audio cable's connector, straight through the cable; to the microphone of the performer. When someone steps into a baptismal, that water is touching plumbing, which is indeed grounded. So when the person in the water touches the “live” microphone, the current shorting to the ground of the microphone body flows through their arm to the water – and the heart happens to be in the way. Another Thing to Consider You may be in a really old building. A lot of really charming churches were built a long time ago. Standards and methods for electricians back in the day were different than they are now. Many churches are wired with no ground conductor, and therefore leave room for an accident to happen. You may be thinking to yourself, “well what do we need to do?” You need to go through all of the power connections in your church to make sure everything is rolling with a ground connection. If you are in an old church with no ground conductor to the electrical sockets, a qualified and licensed electrician needs to be called. “But that could be expensive.” Not as expensive as someone’s life, and then later being sued by the grieving family (which happened in the above mentioned case). And While I'm At It Another way someone can be electrocuted are by instrument amplifiers. For instance: Allot of guitarists love vintage tube amplifiers because they can sound really great, but the problem with allot of these amps, is that they were wired with only a two-prong power cable. In these amplifiers, they have something that is called in the industry, “the death cap.” When this capacitor gets old and leaky, current is then passed from the circuit to the chassis, and in a tube amp, this current can average around 450 volts! Now the performer becomes the ground for the circuit because the electricity goes from the chassis, to the ground of the ¼” plug, to the guitar’s ground which is connected to the bridge, and what rides on the bridge? Metal strings. 450 volts can do the following to you: A. Make you lose control of your bowels. B. Kill You. C. Make you lose control of your bowels & kill you. This makes for a really bad day. Hey, for you visual learners, here is a video from some dude on the internet: If you have one of these amplifiers (which doesn’t have to be a guitar amp – it can be any vintage amplifier) – you really need to have it repaired by a qualified tube amplifier repair specialist. Poking around in a tube amp without knowing how to discharge the filter capacitors safely, can kill you, even with the amplifier unplugged. I myself have been repairing tube amps for years, and so I know how to really respect them and be sober minded when opening one up, but if you don’t know what you are doing, or don’t understand how a tube amplifier works, you can be in for a really bad fatal accident (this is my disclaimer). So, back to the original story. How do you make sure your pastor or others are not electrocuted during a baptismal service? Always use a wireless microphone(s) when doing a baptism. A wireless microphone usually runs on anywhere from 3 vdc to 9 vdc = non-lethal voltages. So The Rule Is: Never have any wired microphones by water whatsoever. How to keep water away from a wireless transmitter: A common place to put the transmitter pack, is in a top shirt pocket (if it has a button to hold it in), or on the back of the collar – clipped securely. Some other cool articles and other bits from around the web regarding this topic: http://www.audiosys.com/safety-circuit.html - A guitar safety mod A Cheaper, but Okie Dokie Hum Eliminator Hum Elimination on the Power Side http://www.rane.com/note151.html - Rane notes still rock (after all these years) http://www.rane.com/note110.html - Rane again http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Receptacle_tester - These can be handy to test your receptacles
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Seriously. Save your money for things that really count. Here is a nut-bar product to blow your hard earned money: Power Cables - ATTENTION: A fancy power cable with pretty ends, gold connectors, and sheathing on the outside, is not going to make your audio sound better than a regular power cable. Why? Because what is hidden behind your wall, and in your attic, is this kind of stuff: Do you see that white and yellow wiring in the above pictures? This is what is supplying your fancy cable you just wasted serious money on, the power it needs. The trade name of this stuff in your walls and attic is Romex. It's not worried about sounding good, looking good, or allowing you to hear the flutter of angel wings in your audio. It's made to get power to the sockets and switches in your house as cheaply and efficiently as possible. And if that's not enough - lookie here: Right here you have this "premium creosote infused wood fibrous ground insulator power carrier" (aka telephone pole) delivering your next heavenly audio experience. Just for fun, you might call the power company and ask them if they could upgrade their cabling to a premium audio-grade cryogenically frozen copper, and while you are at it, you may also want to ask if they can switch the direction all that power cable is running so that everyone's audio will sound clearer with more robust lows. Finally, just to make sure you are getting your money's worth: Yes, you too can make your own fancy shmancy cable for about $12 - but it's not really necessary. You can always go with old faithful for about 4 bucks:
It was 2001, and I was one of two FOH engineers for a medium sized congregation here in south Louisiana. Me and the other guy would alternate Sundays engineering, and this one particular Sunday it was my turn. I find out the day before that we are going to have a "Youth Sunday" at our church where the youth group took over the main service. Because of this, I decide that I'm going to get there early to make sure everything is rolling well. To my dismay, I find out that someone in leadership gets the bright idea that they don't want the youth group to use the house system. Instead, they bring out an old portable system they had in storage. Mixer, Speakers, Snake, Microphones...everything. Not only that, but they also decide that at the last minute, they are going to slap together a separate sound booth. I walk into the new booth to find out what kind of gear I have to work with, and to my dismay I find this Ross powered mixer: Except the one I had, had about 20 years of dust on it, some of the knobs were missing, and I am pretty sure that when I turned it on, it coughed like a 70 year old chain smoker. I ask a volunteer there, "Hey, do we have an extra graphic EQ I can borrow?" Then the dude looks at me and says, "You don't need one, it's built right into that there sound board." I start to panic and go see what they have me running for speakers - Oh yea baby, Audio Centron all the way. The 1980's value brand leader! 100 ft. speaker cables under the chairs; nice and thick to handle the 200 watts of Ross chest thumping glory for about 400 people. Microphones were of the Asian variety, & each with a "handy dandy" switch on them. Drum set was a 1980's something or another, and the guitars were rather pointy. To make matters better for the devil himself, the youth band get there late, and start "sound checking." Then, about 5 minutes later, the congregation files in. Off we go! How exciting. The band starts playing, and it sounds like a blend of Sandy Patti, The Ramones, and Yoko Ono. Not just stylistically speaking, but as if 3 different songs are being played at the same time. About five minutes into this onslaught sonic fury of geriatric terrorism, an armchair engineer comes up to offer me some "much needed" advice to the tune of: "Oh my God, what are you doing?"
Audio is a really tough gig. When everything goes splendidly, you rarely get any credit, and when it goes terrible, everybody and their grandmas will tell you what you need to do, and how bad it turned out. This audio engineering gig has been a really long ride, but it still is very rewarding. You sooner or later will get to the point that it really doesn't matter if you are recognized for your work or not. I'm not saying that it isn't deserved or that it shouldn't be appreciated, but what matters is being recognized by our Father. We as audio engineers in the church serve God by serving people. We really have an audience of One. When things get rough & heated & stressful (which will happen), we all have to remind ourselves that people are more important than our reputation as audio professionals.
Disclaimer: This is not about analog vs. digital. Don't read into what I am not saying. I love digital consoles, and I can run them with the best of them, but... I have been worried about a trend I have been seeing in the church audio tech community. Without finding out each congregation's needs and challenges, I have seen my colleagues blindly recommend purchasing a digital mixing console. Most churches in America average around 200 members or less. Worldwide, this number is allot smaller. Because of this, a majority of churches do not have a pool of technically proficient people to pull from that is wholly committed, and shows up on time. If this sounds like the type of church you attend, here are a list of reasons why you may want to remain with an analog console: 1. An analog console does not have anywhere near the learning curve a quality digital console has. For instance: I have a technically proficient friend that purchased a very simple inexpensive digital console a year ago, and is still trying to figure out all the ins & outs to it. On the other hand, I have personally taught countless volunteers how to run an analog mixing console in less than an hour. 2. If your engineer doesn't show up on a Sunday, will "Uncle Earl" know how to run a digital console? "Hey Uncle Earl, I need you to patch something in for me on this channel." Don't worry, we bought an easy to use digital console: 3. Are digital consoles extremely powerful? Yes. One of the perks of a digital console is the ability to patch in any effect or numerous effects on any channel. Most worship leaders of medium-sized churches would say this is not necessarily a positive thing when thinking about who's in the booth every Sunday. "Oh look a flanger! That would be cool on the worship leader's voice!" 4. When something goes wrong on a digital console: a. It is typically very difficult to find anyone local in most cities certified to repair a digital console...and not only a digital console, but your particular brand of console. b. You usually have to send it to another state to have it repaired. This is called DOWNTIME and it's not fun! I guess in that case, you'll just have to do without? c. This is a picture of an analog Allen & Heath GL Series mixing console I repaired recently. It took me one hour to repair 3 faulty channels (someone had dropped coffee on one channel, and something very heavy had dropped on 2 channel's faders). There was also an auxiliary master control in the master section of the console that was out. Take note: The console was still functional and useable even though these items were faulty. You see that nifty white flat thing running the length of the console in the middle of the picture? That's called a ribbon cable. You can take out a module for repair, and the whole console still functions. One of the faders had to be ordered (it was cheap). After I fixed most everything on it, we turned the console back over and prepared it for their service coming up that night. Once the fader came in a week later, I soldered it in-between services. They had ZERO downtime. BTW: This console was about 10 years old. It's not obsolete. Never needs a software update. It just works.
5. No Firmware, Software, or Drivers to download, update, or flash on an analog console. No software component to freakout mid-service. No Lockups. No hours on a phone with tech support. I am only bringing this up because I have seen numerous complaints about this type of behavior from affordable digital consoles. 6. Most churches in this country cannot afford a quality digital console. So, they'd have to purchase an affordable digital console. An affordable digital console may have allot of bells and whistles up front, but typically won't remain a solid mixing platform you can rely on in the long haul. If you gave me a choice between an X32 digital console (a budget conscious digital console) and a ZED analog console (budget conscious analog console), and told me it would have to be solid for the next 5 years, I'd much rather go with the ZED. The ZED is $600 cheaper to boot, and I know that it would be reliable. 7. But wait! What about recallable scenes to help someone use on Sunday? They probably wouldn't know how to access it anyway, and it takes more than just recalling a scene to mix an entire service. Furthermore, an analog console's "scenes" don't change. No scene to recall...it's already there from the previous Sunday. It's called real knobs, and it wouldn't take that long for someone to know how to use them. I want someone to be focused on mixing music and the message, rather than getting lost in technology. We are missing the main point when this occurs. In closing - I love digital consoles. I've been running them since they first came out, but I just don't think they are a right fit for most congregations. Every tech/engineer should have a plethora of tools available to them at all times. Engineering is more than just pushing buttons and pushing faders. You need to learn all facets of your gear, and how to service and maintain it all. Bad stuff can happen at the worst moment possible when running sound. Are you ready for it? Here is an exhaustive list of supplies that every sound man/woman should have in their arsenal for such occurrences: 1. Cables - All Kinds!
2. Connectors, Adapters, Mics, and Direct Boxes
3. Testers, Meters, Analyzers
4. Various Hand Tools
5. Wire Management
6. Solvents and Lubricants
7. Manuals To All of Your Gear & Other Reference Materials
Well that's all I can think of for the moment. If any of you have anything I forgot, please feel free to comment! Much Love!
Decibels (dB) - a reprint from an article on our website Simply stated, the decibel is the measurement of how loud something is. The human ear can only handle so much volume until it becomes damaged. This is especially true regarding being in a loud volume environment for long periods of time and consistent exposure to high decibels. I have friends of mine that have played music professionally for many years, and a lot of them have Tinnitus or permanent hearing damage. Not fun. Music can be really great when it is loud. There's a power to it when you are pushing the volume envelope, but when it boils down to it, you have to be sober minded of when too loud is just too loud. All of us sound engineer folks hate this conversation because almost every Sunday, someone will come by to complain that it was "just too loud." Yes, yes - I know...it could be barely distinguishable, and somebody is still going to complain. What I am talking about here is a predetermined dB level that you won't go beyond. This predetermined level along with a good decibel meter will really be helpful to avoid future gripers and the like. If you keep it anywhere from 85 to 95 dB, you'll be in better shape. 100 dB is pushing it. Old folks will come out of the woodwork to tell you it's too loud. I've been there. One time I was pushing 110 dB easy and an old lady came up to me and said, "it's soooooooooooooo louuuud!!!!!," and I said, "I KNOW, ISN'T IT GREAT?" I had to yell because she couldn't hear me over the chest thumping glory! I'm sure she left at that point. The hard truth is, is that she was right, and I was wrong. We cannot forget what we are there for as live sound engineers. We are there to serve God through serving the people. I also want to mention perception. What I mean is that most of the time, you will be located in the worst mixing position possible in regards to being able to actually hear what is going on. Case in point: One time I was hired to do live sound for a women's conference in the early 2000's. The only place they agreed to put me was down low on the floor, and there were no speakers flown. Just some cheap speaker stands. I had some EAW LA325's and some of the house system (something made by EV), and off we go. The band is worshiping their faces off, and my mix is sweet. Well of course, just about that time, I had a lady come to the "booth" and say, "Can you please turn it down, it's really loud." At first I thought I'd use my favorite line, "I know, isn't it great," but decided I better go check it out because between me and the boxes were about 2000 ladies with big hair & big dresses. That's a lot of sound absorption going on! Ha! So, I go up there to hear what they are hearing, and she was totally right. I could have sworn I saw the women's hair up front being blown back from the onslaught of sonic fury. ASK YOURSELF, "IS THE CONGREGATION HEARING THE SAME THING I'M HEARING?" Sometimes it'll do you good to walk around every now and then to make adjustments. As a matter of fact, you should do this on a regular basis as it will really aid in your mixing decisions.
Let's talk about the frequency 7 Khz:
Need more "snare" sound from a dead snare - boost 7 Khz. Need more "sizzle" in cymbals - boost 7 Khz. Need less sibilance from vocals - cut 7 Khz (this can really be anywhere from 4 Khz to 9 Khz...but 7 Khz is the most common denominator for sibilance. Need more "grit" in an electric guitar - you guessed it, boost 7 Khz. Note: 7 Khz is the general area where these characteristics hang out. Your mileage may vary according to the instrument, but overall, the above will get you very close. One of the most versatile and affordable condenser microphones you can purchase, is the Audio Technica Pro37. It truly is a jewel of a mic! This microphone excels on almost anything you throw at it. It is a killer microphone for electric guitars, snares (yes, it can take the db), acoustic instruments, drum overheads, piano, etc. Not only is it killer for so many things, but it is also very affordable for the quality and versatility you get in return. At $129, it truly is a steal!
If you look closer at your reverb processor in your rack, you will notice that there is a control called "Pre-Delay." Pre-delay on a reverb is an extremely useful control for tweaking how fast or slow the onset of reverb happens. If you find that the reverb you are using smears too much of the image of your instrument, thus losing definition, you can tell your reverb to wait a few moments before actually kicking in and being heard. This will allow the initial transient of the sound source to come through, and then the reverb will start..thus preserving the clarity of your instrument, but having the sweetness of verb as well (kind of like having your cake and eating it too! Lol!). A good place to start is anywhere from the 30ms - 100ms. Remember, that in a real world situation, sound travels at about 1 foot per millisecond. So, if you want the reverb to behave as if there are walls 100 feet from the sound source, then you can set your pre-delay to 100 ms. This in turn will make the reverb behave as what you might hear in a real situation...where the sound wave will travel 100 feet before it bounces back and the onset of reverb happens.
There are a ton of good kick mics out there like the Shure Beta 52, Audix D6, the AKG d112 & D12, EV Re20 (not just a kick mic), Audio Technica AE2500, etc, etc, etc... I've actually used all of these microphones, and yes they are great kick mics, but what about some unsung kick drum microphone heroes? Some of these are true sleeper mics! Here Are Some Of My Favorites: (Click on Picture For Descriptions) |
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