Amp Wars: A New Hope

I am part of an online community for sharing knowledge and resources about music and media in churches (see www.churchmedia.net).

What has troubled me lately is the number of posts about uncooperative guitarists and bassists and drummers and stuff who have to be 'louder than everything else' in order to be heard. On one level, this is a spiritual problem -a problem of humility and servant-heartedness that must be dealt with pastorally. On another level, there are ways around this problem which negate the temptation to sin.

Monitor Mix

Make sure your onstage monitor mix is relatively quiet. You should be able to talk over it. If not, you need to review your setup. Try and get a monitor setup that projects directly a each band member. This allows you to lower the volume to a level where they are not in competition with it.

Drummers

Need their own monitor. Beyond this, cost effective options are to angle the kit so it doesn't point straight out at the pews and for your drummer to use the lightest stick he can get away with. Drum screens and mic'ed setups are the perfect solution, but they cost a kidney.

Bassists

Most bassists will be happy going through a DI to the desk. Give them a little compression if your desk has that option, or if you have outboard effects. If they have an amp, like me, the best way is to go into a DI and split one send to the amp and the other to the desk. The amp is then turned up to be heard from out front, and the desk sends a monitor signal for the bass player to hear himself. Bass has some funky frequencies: very low frequencies take distance to form, so the bass player often can't hear how loud he is standing next to his amp. The sound will be great 20m away, so rather use that sound and give the bass a monitor mix. The bass amp is also probably better suited to producing and projecting these frequencies, so best use it and give your system a break. A thing to note is that lower frequencies have greater spread than higher ones, so you don't really have to worry too much about balancing around the room, and if there are problems you can always use the signal from the desk to even things out.

Guitarists

These guys can be the worst. I know cause I'm one too. Try these three hints: (1.) For any church setup, your guitar amp shouldn't be more than 50W, with a 1x12 or maybe a 2x12 cab. This allows the amp to be run at the sweet-spot, whilst giving good tonal rang and not blowing down the sanctuary. (2.) Aim the amp up at the guitarist, not at the pews. This way the guitarist will turn up his amp so he can hear it directly, instead of turning up the spill he hears from an amp pointing at the pews. I use an 80W Marshall in a church of about 100 people, and it is inaudible from the pews if it isn't pointing at them. (3.) Mic the amp. This is the only way to get good sound. A guitar into the desk will sound really pants for a number of reasons, and even your fancy speakers and amp and stuff won't reproduce a good guitar sound, because it isn't designed to. If this is impractical (feedback, etc.) then I suggest you get a Red Box DI from Hughes and Kettner (see your local music store or the HandK website) Used on countless recordings, it allows the amp to be routed to the desk for management and balancing through a speaker-emulated DI without the hassles of feedback, etc.

And above all, bear with each other in love. This isn't a time for you to jam, it is an opportunity to serve. Always ask the question, "Is what I'm doing really helping someone worship God sincerely?"