The Fundamentals of Sound for Volunteers

It's been a little while since I posted, as my job (the real one) has kept me busy, as well as brushing up on the fundamentals myself with my all-time favorite resource, the Sound Reinforcement Handbook, by Yamaha. It got me to thinking about how I learn this stuff, and I concluded that the most difficult thing is there are many technical papers and such that give good info, but I'm a volunteer guy, and everyone else isn't really even interested in the technical stuff. However, I need all of us on the same page. So I guess I'll be the one to write the how-to book without all the technical jargon.

I'm thinking about covering the simple stuff, like how a main speaker on one side of a room can't be adjusted as if it were the monitor for someone sitting on the other side of the room. I've come to believe people don't understand the whole thing about the directionality of speakers and such, but don't need a bunch of graphs to get the general principles. I haven't found a resource that I think does what I need it to (get to the point clearly, and concisely, but is short enough for people who have other things to do). So maybe instead of rambling here I will start working out some ideas(in even shorter form).

I hear the applause in your head about me not just rambling. Go ahead and let it out.

The Coolest PC's

A guy at work the other day brought it his Mac Mini, and I just kept looking at it because it was, well, so mini. I was thinking about getting another computer just because it looked so cool (never a good reason, at least on my budget). Then, today, I ran across some sites talking about a new MiniPC, obviously a catch-up move but intriguing. Seeing as how I live in a Windows (primarily) and Linux world, this is just the thing I need to fit the bill.

The tech booth at church is small, but one of these can fit on a little slideout shelf right under the counter, making my current tower look like a behemoth. I don't know how quiet it is, but there is enough noise where I am that no one will notice. If they are quiet enough, a church wanting to minimize their setup but still do some cool things might look into these. I have ideas in my head for how these little things could be built in mini cabients that fit right in with the aritechture anywhere. A small LCD screen would make this a great setup. This would also be good for churches who use laptops now (and wish they didn't) because they want to be able to move it to a new room and connect it to, say, a smaller system in the fellowship hall and back again. Now all the power of a full computer can go with you. (This doesn't allievate the fear that the computer can "grow legs" though, so you'll have to figure a solution for that).

Just thought I'd mention it, 'cause I thought it was cool.

Recording Progress

This week, one of the guys in the church asked me to help record his group singing a couple of demo tracks for an event booker to hear. I must say that it did turn out better than I thought, but obviously not up to the standard I desire, as we have nothing close to a recording setup. By some anomoly, I actually could use the faders on the main house board to set the recording mix (while the main and monitors for live reinforcement are fed from aux -- some outputs don't work correctly) but mixing anything on the fly in that environment is challenging.

It did, however, give me an idea of just how close we are to being able to do some "for real" multitrack recording, even in our confined space. Now all I need is a multitrack recorder (sigh).

Many churches, even small ones, can get something basic going. I just took the outputs from the main mixer and ran it through a compressor, then through a mini desktop mixer which served as the interface with the computer and allowed more flexible monitoring options. Then I connected those outputs (compressed and level-matched) to a computer (2.7Ghz Celeron, 384MB of memory, stock audio card) recording with Audacity, which also allowed for editing and and adding basic post-production effects (I can't get enough of that program). That's all there is to it.

I'm excited that technology is moving in such a way that it doesn't take thousands of dollars anymore to create something basic and decent. And let me not forget my greatest find of all, the Epson R220, which lets me print direct-on-disc labels to add a layer of professionalism.

I'll probably start a little sidebar of my favorite gadgets here, now that Blogger has added some cool new features to make it easy. My hope is that if you're looking for ideas on what to use, you can get them here (and if you have ideas, please put them here).