I recently spec'd two Tascam DM-4800s for a system install. One for recording and one for the FOH.  After some fine tuning on the budget the church decided to drop one the the boards. We decided to use the remaining board as the FOH board and the church will get the other board later.

We are installing a complete Live Recording - Tracking studio for Christ Life Church in Tacoma, WA. They are upgrading their existing live sound system to accommodate live audio recording and live video recording.

This church is blessed with remarkable musical talent. They have produced and recorded their own CD's (in a recording studio) already and now they what to capture their live performance.

What are the pros using for live recording (bands)?

Things have changed rapidly in the way that we record live. We used to use a separate mixer and get a feed from the direct outs of the FOH mixer to record the performance. That practice for a long time only changed slightly when digital multi-track recorders became available. Pro-Tools has become the digital recording program of choice for many years, only because it established a foot hold early. Now things have got real interesting as far as new things to come along.

Digidesign has released the live/recording consoles (The Venue Series) which give Pro-Tools users a real good way to mix and record live, of course this would be at the high end.

Are you having issues with muddy sound from your subs?

Here is a tip:

If possible wire up your subwoofers from a post fader aux send on the board to a graphic EQ then to the subs. See diagram below:

Quantify whether you have the ability to do a rear projection system.

If you can do a rear projection system anything above 2000 lumens will work. Provided the space behind the projector is enclosed and ambient light can be controlled in that enclosure.

What to look for in a projector:

I recently when to a church service where they had a new McCauley M Series system installed. The configuration consisted of  7 x M-90 modules, 1 x M-120,  2 x MS1 and 1 x AC355 per side. The sanctuary is a 80' x 80' x 26' (WxDxH) with a balcony.

The 2 MS1 cabinets where flown in a separate array next to the main array. I noticed some interesting things (no mids) with lots of sizzle in the high end. They had an acoustic guitar player as well as an electric guitar and you couldn't hear either one. The vocals where not very clear either. Because they did almost 90 degrees of vertical coverage they had some slap back and early reflections in the seating area.

When you are ready to start "Live Recording" you will find in your research that you have a lot of options. Which one is the best? First you need to put together a couple of lists. One being the intended audience for the final product (target quality), and how to distribute it (internet, CD, DVD, DVD ROM, etc). Once you got that figured out you can start looking at what equipment and process it would take to do that type of recording. So lets look at an example:

We want to record the pastors message and put it on CD and put it up to the Web Site.

Target Quality: CD = 44KHz / 16 bit  Internet = mp3 format   Studio = 48KHz / 24 bit

Have you noticed that if you put your cell phone up to the ear that you don't use, it doesn't sound right. That's because your mind has trained your ear to use the right filters to compensate for the sound that your cell phone puts out.

1. The pastor better be a pastor, someone who loves people, a people person.

2. Grounded in the word

3. Have a great sound system

The last one may sound funny, but it is very, very true. If the congregation can't hear the word, or the vocal intelligibility is poor, the church will not grow. I have a good case in point. A baptist pastor called one day and asked if they could improve the vocal intelligibility of their system because the older members were having a hard time understanding the pastor's preaching.

How does a Microphone Hear?

The way a microphone responds to sound and the way we hear are vastly different. Understanding this difference will help you understand how to use microphones properly.

Human Perception of Sound

God has blessed most of us with an incredible mechanism to perceive sound We perceive a wide variety of sound characteristics such as:direction, loudness, pitch, etc. We can make mental choices of what we desire to listen to. This allows us to focus our hearing on what we choose to listen to.

Microphones Response to Sound

In contrast to the human hearing system, a microphone is a crude and simple device used to pick up sound vibrations. Actually a microphone only contains one faction of the human hearing mechanism, just a diaphragm which converts sound vibrations to electrical energy.