Paul Dexter Blog

Headed to Dallas tonight. I don’t fly weekly like I used to. I used to really enjoy than- like clooney in Up In The Air. Now it is just a pain. They cancelled my flight becase there weren’t enough people going, so I am waiting for the last flight out, and thinking about all the flights I have ever been on. Also thinking about how many nights I have slept on these chairs, while listening to the public announcements.

This week I was helping a small church put together a portable system in a muliti-purpose meeting room. This room would seat 100-200 people, and they wanted great, smooth sound, but at a very soft volume. The job of designing a sound system that sounds good at low volumes is easy. But, as we talk a lot about here on ChurchMix, playing a CD through a system and having a band play are two different things

In a room of 200 or less, the band is essentially self-amplified. Putting them through a sound system only makes matters worse. So this job of designing a sound system for them became more a job of working with them on instrumentation, methodology, and philosophy. That is a lot more than they thought they bargained for when they hired me to build them a sound system. But that is exactly why 90% of churches don’t sound very good when you walk in. The church hired someone to design and install a system, and that designer normally wants to build the nicest system they can, even if it is better suited for a U2 concert than for that particular church.

More positive changes can be made to church sound BEFORE you turn the equipment on than in sound check. In this case, since they do not want rock and roll, but rather soft, sweet sounding worship- we navigated decisions about their band and setup. These are limitations, but for the good. By staying away from electric guitars, full drum sets played with sticks and the number of musicians, we create a palate that will allow them to achieve the sound they want- Smooth, clean and low volume. A worship leader on acoustic guitar, a keyboard player, bass player (going direct), a backing vocalist, a cajon or djembe player (or a small drum kit played with brushes). This is their palate and it will work great.

You might say “Yeah, but we want to play a rock worship song with electric guitars and drums, but just turned down- we need that”. You really need to think about what ROCK is. Rock is loud. Playing rock quiet is silly. I love rock worship. I love churches that play rock loud. But rock played quiet is opposite of rock. Play those same songs acoustically, and worship can flow. Keep in mind, this is all about a church that wants to be SOFT. This is not reflective of a majority of churches that desire a moderate (or I call Disney) volume. Rock songs can work at a Disney volume just fine. This is for the portion of churches who really want it SOFT.

Happy Mixing, Paul

If you can’t improve your service, make customers happy, and raise awareness of your brand, consider a new logo. It is far less expensive than correcting your problems, and says to the world “see our cool logo?” Just drove by a Union Bank and a Wal Mart.

Just saw Julie and Julia, and it reminded me to write something on my block so I can get a huge book deal. So far my book is erratic and will help or entertain no one but my mom.  Still, I write because I know someone out there need to read this.  Had I been able to talk Kim into seeing Informant! I would not be having this problem right now. I have to admit though, that I LOVED Julie and Julia.

Signing off.

This morning I was recording vocals for a worship CD. The singer I was recording was saying what a busy weekend it would be leading one service tonight and two Sunday morning.  We needed to schedule another session for Monday, but decided on Tuesday since they didn’t know if they would have a voice or not depending on their monitor mix this weekend. What a funny role we play as church sound mixers. We have the capability of preserving or harming someone’s voice based on how well we do our job. This is the importance of what we do, and I assume this is why you are a part of ChurchMix.

Providing good clear sound for both the congregation and musicians, while keeping feedback and other distractions at bay is always a challenge for mixers. This has not gotten easier for me either, possibly by choice.  What I mean is- I started mixing when I was 14 at my dad’s little church on a 4 channel Peavey mixer. This was 1980.  Once I started mixing well, and grew into mixing for 40,000 people in an arena, you would think that it would come more naturally. But I continued to be so focused and concerned about anything going wrong. If someone is having a conversation behind me at an event I always make sure they have it somewhere else, so that I am not distracted from the task at hand. In church, it seems the powerpoint guy always wants to make little jokes. I am always the bad guy that quenches it because I can’t seem to be able to joke around AND get the balance between the vocal and reverb just right- how silly of me.

My point isn’t to take all the fun out of mixing- I think I have a LOT of fun mixing. It just isn’t a social event DURING the service. It is very social before and after, and there is a lot of laughter (mostly aimed at me!) But if we don’t give the service every bit of our attention, it would be like the pastor updating his facebook from his iPhone while giving his message. (Something I am sure has happened somewhere!).

So, for the sake of the worship leader I worked with this morning, I hope THAT mixer will be on their best game, and focused on the task at hand. This way, I can have my vocal session on Tuesday, and all will be at peace.

Today we remember the 9/11 tragedy of 8 years ago. I have to admit, until I started seeing commercials for TV specials recently, it was out of my mind, and I feel bad about that. Being in California I am pretty removed from Manhattan, but a few months after the tragedy I did visit the site while doing a concert in New Jersey.  I remember that day more than the day of watching it happen on TV. Being there when it was still a mangled mess with dust everywhere made it real. I felt the lives lost in a real way that I could never place on TV, where we see fake lives lost every day. So I hope I don’t begin to forget it again.

Sitting in the waiting room while my dad has prostate surgery. Not sure why we have a prostate when we all have to have them removed, but I am sure there is a reason. Things seem to be going ok with it so far.

Heading to NewSong Chruch for their opening weekend of their new building. Sound system powered by yours truly.