Holiday Mixer

I’ve seen my share of “surviving the holidays” articles around these days.

My tip: Don’t be afraid of the monitors.

Over the past weekend I had the opportunity to operate the sound board for our church Christmas concert. In retrospect, two things come to mind:

1) Some people just don’t want to hear themselves sing.

2) Life goes on.

The four-person (frequently four-part) acapella group that sings in front of church every week works hard on blending voices. Even though the sound engineer has ultimate control, a singer might sing louder or back off depending on his sense of where his voice blends.

This time we had amplified instruments. So, in order that the backup singers could hear what they’re singing, we brought in stage monitor speakers. These play back to the singers so they can hear themselves and the other singers. Helps them stay on key. Well, it threw a couple of people off and they thought they were singing too loud, so they backed off, and we had to REALLY work to pull in their voices over the public address. Tip for next time: in the monitor – bring down the voice of a person who you can’t hear. Play the monitor mix into some sound canceling headphones. The offending singer will think they need to sing louder and you’ll at least get their voice into the mix board. How much to give to the audience is once again under the control of the sound engineer.

Then, even if you try to fill in for the bass singer with your own voice, or, in attempt to bring in a 8-piece vocal ensemble from Escondido over a podium mike and generate a quick feedback whistle, life goes on. But hopefully learning took place. Both on stage and in support of the stage.