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combfilter · 26th November 2009

Hi everyone!

Next month I've been asked by a rock band to engineer their Christmas concert, which will take place in a church.
The premises, to be honest, are not the best, especially because of the location which is a bit problematic.
This church, although it is a modern building, has no acoustic treatment whatsoever, it's quite small but has a big reverb (did not make any test yet, but a handclap has a decay time of 4/5 seconds), parallel walls and reflection problems, the concrete ceiling is a bit low and I'm told low frequency resonance is an everyday issue.

Normally I would have thought about it twice before accepting, but these guys are good friends of mine so I'd like to give them a hand.

The band is comprised of five elements, drums, bass, keyboards, guitar and a singer, plus a choir of 6 elements.

Any tips (miking, placements, PA adjustments, pretty much anything comes to mind), considering the venue?
I'm not exactly new to concerts, but honestly I never did a rock band in a church!

I'd like to keep things simple, DI what can be DI'd, keep volumes as low as possible (maybe adding 2 delays about mid-church in order not to push the main PA too much);
What about the choir? Two SDC in like AB or XY would be the first thing that comes to mind, but I fear they might give me feedback problems there. Six dynamics?

The drummer says he could play a regular acoustic kit as well as an electronic one.
(How about a mix of the two? Sampled kick, snare and toms but real hi-hat and cymbals. His hi-hat and cymbal pads are of pretty bad quality.)
Acoustic kick and snare are quite a problem there so maybe using samples could be easier.

Any other ideas, suggestions, things I should or absolutely should not do?

26th November 2009	#1
combfilter Gear maniac Join Date: May 2009 Location: between the land of pizza and the land of chocolate Posts: 210 Thread Starter	Rock band in a church Hi everyone! Next month I've been asked by a rock band to engineer their Christmas concert, which will take place in a church. The premises, to be honest, are not the best, especially because of the location which is a bit problematic. This church, although it is a modern building, has no acoustic treatment whatsoever, it's quite small but has a big reverb (did not make any test yet, but a handclap has a decay time of 4/5 seconds), parallel walls and reflection problems, the concrete ceiling is a bit low and I'm told low frequency resonance is an everyday issue. Normally I would have thought about it twice before accepting, but these guys are good friends of mine so I'd like to give them a hand. The band is comprised of five elements, drums, bass, keyboards, guitar and a singer, plus a choir of 6 elements. Any tips (miking, placements, PA adjustments, pretty much anything comes to mind), considering the venue? I'm not exactly new to concerts, but honestly I never did a rock band in a church! I'd like to keep things simple, DI what can be DI'd, keep volumes as low as possible (maybe adding 2 delays about mid-church in order not to push the main PA too much); What about the choir? Two SDC in like AB or XY would be the first thing that comes to mind, but I fear they might give me feedback problems there. Six dynamics? The drummer says he could play a regular acoustic kit as well as an electronic one. (How about a mix of the two? Sampled kick, snare and toms but real hi-hat and cymbals. His hi-hat and cymbal pads are of pretty bad quality.) Acoustic kick and snare are quite a problem there so maybe using samples could be easier. Any other ideas, suggestions, things I should or absolutely should not do?