I have found that blogging about church life is generally a very slippery slope. What I mean is that last week was both good and bad for the companion blog, the Peanut Whistle. I wrote a couple of posts that I felt were necessary. My family is transitioning to a new church home that we are very excited about; I wanted to chronicle the thought process that went into making the decision to leave a congregation and denomination where my wife and I shared deep roots. We met there, fell in love and had two of our babies dedicated there. Change is a process. This one is for the better.
Watch for new posts on what I continue to learn in church sound beginning my venture volunteering in an audio department that is now fully integrated with digital technology. When I began nearly thirty years ago the state of the art was analog; trending to using tracks on cassette, letting the piano collect dust. By the mid 90’s CD’s were used for soundtrack accompaniment. Note here that I always felt that live musicians were superior to canned music in worship. Tracks seemed too karaoke. I don’t want to offend an entire industry built on producing these recordings but they kill spontaneity. Not to mention the poor audio quality of the cassettes in the eighties; tape hiss was my constant nemesis. Although CD’s sounded better than tapes, the instruments needed playing again. Good news is that this new church has some talented musicians and singers playing 100% live.
Houses of worship are now using digital technology for visual presentation very effectively. That’s uncharted territory for me and quite an opportunity to learn something new. Running a board and mixing I can do, but lighting and video presentation are my weak points. I am nothing if not flexible, so please teach an old dog new tricks.
Stay tuned
