Hello,
I'm looking for some help/validation with a few sound issues we've been having in our church.
Some background - our sanctuary is a gym with a stage. So as far as size goes, the seating area is exactly the size as a basketball court. About 2-3 feet of clearance on each side of the court boundry lines, and I believe we seat around 600 people. The only acoustic treatment we have, is a bit of the 'cheapest option' fiberglass on the rear wall (does not even cover the entire wall) and the chairs/people that attend every Sunday. One of the biggest debates between our music director and me (tech dir.), is db. He wants it run louder -avg 95, but I'm much more conservative and protective of my own ears, so I tend to mix between 85-90. Any louder, and it does sound a bit more balanced because of really loud drums, but to my ear it just gets too much in such a small space, and the sound becomes unclear since the treatment isn't very good.
He also wants more 'house sound.' He wants to hear the congregation singing in both the recorded mix (for the live stream) and wants me to put our house mics into the house sound. I'd love to be able to get this, but whenever I try anything, for the house sound I get feedback before I get any useable sound. And for the recording mix, I get a sound that sounds like mic-ing speakers in a gym. So I'm looking for some validation - that trying to get a good 'crowd noise' recording from an untreated gym is just not possible. Or, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to try and get something to work. I've thought about switching our house mics from overheads to a couple shotguns at the front of the stage, but I'm convinced that because of the size of the house and poor treatment, I'll still be getting more slapback from the rear wall than usable crowd sound.
I'm also looking for general help with our recording mix. We use an M7, so I run the recording mix completly seperatly from the live mix. I have little recording experience, so the whole mix really doesn't sound that great, but I'm having the hardest time with the drums - I think it's just because of acoustic treatment/isolation, but I can't get a good presence out of the drums. They always sound far away from the mix. Here's the link to some recorded streams if anyone wants to take a listen.
[="http://www.ustream.tv/user/Bay_Area_CC"]Bay_Area_CC @ Ustream.TV - . Free .TV shows, LIVE Video Chat Rooms.[/]
So, in summary:
Smaller untreated spaces: Rule of thumb for dB?
Mic-ing the house: Possible? Best way?
Recording: Any suggestions from listening to our streams?
Thanks in advance for any help!
I'm looking for some help/validation with a few sound issues we've been having in our church.
Some background - our sanctuary is a gym with a stage. So as far as size goes, the seating area is exactly the size as a basketball court. About 2-3 feet of clearance on each side of the court boundry lines, and I believe we seat around 600 people. The only acoustic treatment we have, is a bit of the 'cheapest option' fiberglass on the rear wall (does not even cover the entire wall) and the chairs/people that attend every Sunday. One of the biggest debates between our music director and me (tech dir.), is db. He wants it run louder -avg 95, but I'm much more conservative and protective of my own ears, so I tend to mix between 85-90. Any louder, and it does sound a bit more balanced because of really loud drums, but to my ear it just gets too much in such a small space, and the sound becomes unclear since the treatment isn't very good.
He also wants more 'house sound.' He wants to hear the congregation singing in both the recorded mix (for the live stream) and wants me to put our house mics into the house sound. I'd love to be able to get this, but whenever I try anything, for the house sound I get feedback before I get any useable sound. And for the recording mix, I get a sound that sounds like mic-ing speakers in a gym. So I'm looking for some validation - that trying to get a good 'crowd noise' recording from an untreated gym is just not possible. Or, if anyone has any suggestions, I'd be happy to try and get something to work. I've thought about switching our house mics from overheads to a couple shotguns at the front of the stage, but I'm convinced that because of the size of the house and poor treatment, I'll still be getting more slapback from the rear wall than usable crowd sound.
I'm also looking for general help with our recording mix. We use an M7, so I run the recording mix completly seperatly from the live mix. I have little recording experience, so the whole mix really doesn't sound that great, but I'm having the hardest time with the drums - I think it's just because of acoustic treatment/isolation, but I can't get a good presence out of the drums. They always sound far away from the mix. Here's the link to some recorded streams if anyone wants to take a listen.
[="http://www.ustream.tv/user/Bay_Area_CC"]Bay_Area_CC @ Ustream.TV - . Free .TV shows, LIVE Video Chat Rooms.[/]
So, in summary:
Smaller untreated spaces: Rule of thumb for dB?
Mic-ing the house: Possible? Best way?
Recording: Any suggestions from listening to our streams?
Thanks in advance for any help!