What I Learned This Week

Today was my first Sunday at North Point. It rocked! A couple of kickin’ bands and a great message. I really dig the kick drum Vance had dialed in this morning; this punchy, chewy, just right thing. Rock. What a great way to start the week.

Of course, like any first week it had its glitches that I’ll spend this week fixing. Here are some things I either learned or had reiterated during my first week on the job:

– My new favorite kick drum mic: the Sennheiser e902. Mix it with a beta91. Mmmmmmmm….

– Pro Tools and a Venue is an incredible, unbeatable combination.

– Sennheiser IE4’s are pretty good in-ears. My NPCC predecessor gave me a pair out of our inventory to check out, and I think I’m going to get my own. The bass seems a little hyped to me, but the point is it’s there. You can find these for $50-100. I’m not sure they are better than Shure E5’s, but they come close. If you’re moving to in-ears, check them out before you drop a bunch of money on more expensive buds. At any rate, they are better for your iPod than the stock earpieces.

– PCs will crash at inopportune times. Our PCs run Smaart, the Shure wireless workbench, the interface for our TC ‘verb, and iTunes for pre- and post-service music(much better than an iPod). The west auditorium’s hard drive died first service, and the USB ports in the east died second service. Not a showstopper, though.

– iTunes is better than an iPod for pre- and post-service music. I used to use an iPod for walk-in music, but at North Point we use iTunes. I’m liking it better, and here’s one reason why: this morning Andy wanted a specific piece of music to play at the end of his message to tie in to the the theme of the morning–we started a new series on the Star, the Cross, and the Crescent so he wanted some middle-eastern sounding music for the way out. We have a playlist for Sunday in iTunes for all the music. We just added the special music to the playlist and un-checked it. This way we can play it without worrying about it repeating and then it automatically segues into our chosen background tunes.

– Countryman microphones don’t work unless they are actually on the head of the person using them. During baptisms third service, the baptiser didn’t put his mic on which leads to the next thing I learned again….

– Backup microphones will save you. The mic mounted over our baptismal came through like a champ and worked much better than the PZM I’ve been using for the last couple years.

– Third time is the charm. Every missed cue was hit during the third service.

It is exciting to be here. Let the adventure begin.