A while back, a friend approached me after I finished mixing FOH at a large church. He said, “I loved your mix today. When you mix, I can hear everything on stage!” I thanked him for the compliment, but in my mind, I was thinking, Well, today you could hear everything...
Having worked with dozens of churches and worship teams, I’ve come to realize that a choir is essentially a microcosm of the church itself. Every personality—good, bad, and everything in between—is represented. Some members are joyful, eager to serve, and ready to...
As we closed the books on 2024 and stepped into 2025, like most people, I’ve been reflecting on the work I’ve done and the lessons learned during this season. I never set out to track my “at-bats,” but as part of my weekly audio work for a large church, I keep a...
An accordion player, a banjo player, and a trombone player finally got a paying gig at a small bar on New Year’s Eve. To everyone’s surprise, the trio was a hit! The crowd loved the show, and at the end of the night, the pub owner said, “We’d love to book you again...
I have a good friend who works in the film industry as a colorist. He spends his days refining every single frame of a movie or show, making sure that each shot has just the right tones, shadows, and highlights to match the director’s vision. Nearly everything you...
It’s that time of year again—the season that comes around with clockwork precision, yet somehow always feels like it sneaks up on us. For those of us in church production, the question looms: are we ready? Does the thought of another Christmas season conjure up the...
If you ask a church audio team what would help them the most, the answer is usually more time. I covered this in a previous article on the ever-shrinking soundcheck time churches are willing to allot. To be fair, some engineers pushed back, arguing that their churches...
At this year's CFX 2024 Conference, I’ll be speaking about "How to Choose an AVL Integrator and Manage the Process." As a companion piece, I thought it would be good to share some thoughts on this forum. Having spent many years working within church AVL integration...
Over the last several years, there’s been a noticeable shift in the role of acoustic guitars in modern worship music. In many churches, the acoustic guitar has been sidelined or even muted entirely in the mix. This trend has even become the subject of jokes among some...
Church audio engineering is both an art and a science, requiring a blend of technical skill, musical intuition, and a deep understanding of the worship experience. However, the approach to managing this critical aspect of worship varies widely among churches. Some...
Whether you're a church audio engineer—Broadcast, Front of House, professional, or volunteer—this article is for you. I know my content occasionally stirs up controversy; after all, I’m just one voice sharing my experience. Disagreement is fine, but here’s one thing...
Most modern churches invest substantially in creating welcoming lobby or foyer environments. Spacious layouts, lots of seating options, coffee bars, or cafes are all designed to make guests and regular attenders feel at home. This has almost become the standard over...
“Old drummers never die, they just become audio engineers,that mix really loud.”-Anonymous. I grew up in an environment almost predestined to produce a musician with a passion for audio engineering and production. My mother was a self-taught musician with a beautiful...
For good or bad, audio engineers typically judge each other based on their drum sounds. It just comes with the territory. When I'm at an event I rarely think to myself, “Wow, that guy is really bringing the thunder with that mandolin tone.” If I find myself having to...
Not long ago, I had a conversation with a young church Tech Director. He said their auditorium had some audio issues, mostly dead spots in the coverage, so they scheduled a contractor to re-tune the PA and remedy the issue. This brief discussion reminded me that there...
Recently I polled a number of church production forums with the question: Who uses the scene function on your digital audio consoles, versus those who mix their entire service manually? For the uninitiated, scenes, (also called snapshots by some manufacturers) are...
Everyone knows as we age it's natural to lose some hearing. Those of us who rely on our ears for a living, or for our service to the church, think about this a lot once the mirror starts reflecting more salt than pepper. Like most audio engineers and musicians, I am...
When it comes to church PA systems there are several commonly used designs and multiple variations within those designs. Engineers and audio experts all have their individual preferences. As with so many issues we discuss here, there are always proponents of one side...
We've all experienced attending a group event when someone is taking photos. After the event when you see the pictures, what's the first thing you look for? Yourself, of course. We all want to feel good about our presence in photographs. Some want to blend in, others...
One of the first pastors I worked with used to say, “serving in church is a grind, and it's not for everybody”. As we recover from the post-Easter-hangover, I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on the grind and discuss how we can protect ourselves from two of...
Recently Bridgetown Church in Portland, Oregon, announced that going forward they were only going to stream the teaching portion of their services. I respect their decision. I believe every church should be intentional with their use of technology as a reflection of...
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