Bittersweet…

Good Luck, Tanny!
Originally uploaded by cccaudio.

Today was one of those Sunday’s you really have to fight for to get happening. The mix on Thursday night’s rehearsal was pretty shaky. This weekend we had baptisms which neccessitates a different setup than usual. Our baptismal is located in the middle of the stage, and they like to close the curtain between the baptisms and the rest of the service so the band has to sit in front of the curtain which means they are just about at the edge of the stage.

Thursday night the drums were backed right up against the subs on one side of the stage so I couldn’t get the kick happening without inducing a ton of feedback. Add to that the bass player was a last minute replacement so he was unfamiliar with the worship set so the bottom end just wasn’t coming together. I guess the quickest way to handicap me is to kill my bottom end because when I can’t get the bass or drums working nothing seems to work. I recently started taking a pre-fade/processing tap off the master bus to be able to playback stuff through the system to listen back to what’s happening when I’m not trying to mix; this has been a cool tool to use while we’re waiting for budget to add a Pro Tools rig. Anyway, the playback Thursday night after rehearsal just wasn’t happening so I was a little apprehensive coming in this morning. Even with full recall on the desk, I knew I would be starting pretty much from scratch this morning which isn’t my favorite thing to do when I can avoid it.

On top of Thursday not happening, we had Superchick in for a concert last night so the stage was completely cleared Thursday night, and the monitor desk was essentially zeroed. Even with settings noted, I knew the monitor engineers would also be starting almost from scratch which wasn’t a big deal because monitors weren’t happening on Thursday either.

God bless our music director because he decided to move the band around for today and repositioned the drums so that I could use the kick drum. Once we got rolling things started falling in place, and it all came together in the end. I thought it turned out to be a great service. One of the baptism stories in the second service was one of those great moments where you can really feel how big God is, and the power He has to change lives.

Yet, this morning was bittersweet because it was our Tech Director’s last Sunday with us. Tanny and his family are heading west where Tanny is taking over as TD for Calvary Community Church in Westlake Village, CA. So if you’re in California make sure to pay him a visit–he’s the guy in between myself and our worship director Leo in the picture. And if you’re out there looking for a home church to serve in, check out Calvary Community because Tanny rocks! It has been a tremendous blessing serving alongside him for the last two years, and he will be dearly missed here. Good luck, Tanny!