Kickin’ It Old School

Last Sunday was my first mixing at North Point. We rocked the west auditorium(there are two, and I’ll explain that at some point). It was a challenge for me not just because it was the first time mixing in a new room in two years, but because the FOH console in the west is a Soundcraft Series 5. I had never mixed on the desk before, and it was my first time mixing analog in a year.

While the room and PA took some adjusting to, the biggest thing for me was just doing everything analog again. No snapshots. No mute groups. Nothing. I missed a couple cues here and there, but I had some helping hands at FOH this week to dig me out which was a relief because I’ll agonize over that kind of stuff.

One thing that helped is how smooth Sundays feel from a production standpoint. There is a cool vibe to the thing. I think the fact that we roll so early has a lot to do with it. I’m there at 5:30am getting things ready for the crew to arrive by their 6:15 call. I was apprehensive at first about showing up that early, but it really goes a long way in keeping the tension down on Sunday morning. Things still come up, but that extra time allows for the inevitable issues that arrise in trying to mount church production on the scale we’re doing it at. The vibe makes things much more flexible and seems to enables the crew to roll with things and create solutions as a team. It’s a very cool dynamic so far. As I figure out more of how this vibe works and is created, I’ll be posting about it because if one other person out there can benefit it will be worth it.

This weekend is gonna cook. I know because I was at rehearsal last night. Some might think it’s the band or the song choices or the passion of everyone involved. That’s all fine and dandy and will help, but don’t be fooled. It’s all because we swapped the compressor plugins on the kick and snare. I’m kicking myself because I didn’t try this a year ago. They were alive last night. Mmmmmmmmm….