Saturday, August 21, 2010

It's been a year?

That wasn't the pre-arranged title for this blog, but, seeing as how I haven't posted in literally a year and a day, it seemed appropriate.

Quick run down of whats happened in that year...

I turned 21
I got married to Amanda
I got a new job that I absolutely love, it's seriously been my dream job since I was 10.
I got a cat named Bones.
Bones has separation anxiety, so we got another cat named Toby.
I got a custom made overdrive pedal with my name printed on it. It's bitchin.


Beyond that, I remembered that there is only so much that I can post on fudgebook before someone notices that there is a liberal asshole on their church staff. I guess I should take the link to this off of there...

I've been doing pretty well with the new job, I love doing it, I get to make my own schedule, unlike that old crappy version of "making your own schedule" at the collections place.
Amanda and I both get a day off together, which is nice, considering how much she hates her job, and would rather be at home together watching movies.

My biggest dilemma at this new job, is the old/current Sunday morning "sound guy" you know the one that shows up some where and says "Don't worry, I got this, I run sound at my church"

(To make a note, the only reason I don't mix on Sunday, is because I play in the worship band, and any time that I walk behind the board while this guy is there I get shoved out of the way. Even though I was hired as the Audio/Recording studio engineer. I've got freaking business cards that say it!)

Fits the stereotype, almost to a t. His ears are about as useful at the board as a lighter at the bottom of the pool.
The guy uses headphones to mix the house, not to EQ individuals, actually to mix the house. Because in his words, "If it sounds good in bose headphones, it sounds good in the house"

WRONG

He's been running sound here for about a decade if I can remember correctly, I lost a few years in there somehow. It's sounded bad for exactly.........All of those years, however long it may be.
Recently to show my disapproval of this, along with his other mad church sound guy skillzzzzz, I threw a picture up on gaybook. Anyone else that I know that has stood behind, or even to the side of a desk went off. It's kind of annoying when you drop a couple grand on compressors, and they're not even being utilized, because the old audio consultant, the church used before they hired me, got them set up, "So they don't ever need to be adjusted again".

Right. Because people don't ever change the way they sing, and they've sounded the same for the last 10 years.
This on top of the tin ears, and the incredible lack of utilization of the crappy board that he told the church to buy has gotten me to the point where I've just started correcting all of his mistakes while he isn't there.

The general rule of thumb for the worship team at the church is, if you don't show up for practice, you don't play on Sunday morning, it seems logical. If you don't know what the hell is going on, you shouldn't be there to screw it up on game day. The same thing should apply to the FOH desk. I'm there, along with a volunteer, (who also gets shoved out of the way on Sunday mornings, unless the mighty sound warrior has somewhere else to be) and everything is mixed down to a point that we're both happy with. I even stopped zeroing everything out after, and would leave it set for the services, so all he had to do was flip the on switch and let it ride.
But, it seems that putting all the guitars in the VCA that says "GUITARS" on it, doesn't work for him, nor does the VCA that has the grand piano and both keyboards in it that is labeled "KEYS"
along with the last group labeled "LEAD VOX" which coincidentally contains the three worship leaders on Sunday mornings, not to be confused with the BGV's group or the Head Sets group.
I don't know if I could actually make it any easier. I do all the work during the week, run the practice, and it all gets blown up when it actually needs to be run the right way. We've even had people, like the senior pastor, who is almost 80 years old, come up and compliment the way that it sounded when the volunteer that I had to re-train, was running sound by himself on a Sunday morning. It's kind of funny that, that has happened every time this kid, or myself has run the board in the last 6 months, and hasn't happened for the 10 years prior.

But, alas. Every week I hear complaints along the lines of "It hasn't sounded this bad since I before I started running sound" or "I wish the person who screwed up the way I have this set up had to run sound for service"

In all reality, as stated by common consensus, and compliments from the stiffest people in the place, about how it finally sounds nice in here, along with other musicians noticing a huge difference, and me saying that I would run the desk on Sundays, if he would stay out of the way. I still find myself in a bind of how I am supposed to actually do my job effectively. I'm still searching.

As a closing note, remember that almost 80 year old Senior Pastor of the Church?, who is also a Bishop, within the denomination, the guy I'm talking about, is his son in law.