2015/01/19 08:16:37
gswitz
Having just posted that the mic for the choir is only needed before communion begins and the mic for the celebration circle is only required after communion, I wonder if maybe I could use the same mic for both and simply move it. I was thinking that if I had a little battery operated pre-amp running to a wireless thingy that sends the signal to the board, the whole thing might be very portable, even in the middle of the 'show'.
 
I know my RME Preamp can be run off batteries, but I've never done it.
2015/01/19 09:13:38
Guitarhacker
I've been in churches where they have mics permanently  installed hanging from the ceiling..... and others where they were on stands and were portable. Each has pro's and cons.
 
If they are not going to give up the organ, there isn't much that can be done. Pipe organ's are inherently loud. they are designed to fill huge spaces with music.  Especially those low notes.....
 
The other option if you can't lower the pipes is to bring the other things up..... but that can easily become a runaway train.....
2015/01/19 16:16:25
tlw
Yes, it's a tricky situation, and obviously has lots of competing factors, sound-wise, presentation-wise and quite possibly church politics-wise as well. Maybe it's one of those situations where if everyone (or enough people) agree things do need a bit of improving in terms of the sound balance they'd be amenable to altering the staging and presentation (for want of better terms) as necessary to make it work.
 
Overheads might indeed make sense, but positioning overheads so they don't boost up the organ might take a bit of thought and experimenting.
2015/01/19 20:26:49
Paul P
 
I appreciate your giving us the play-by-play Geoff, and would enjoy you continuing to do so.
I can't be of much help but I'm interested in the outcome.
 
2015/01/19 21:07:42
Jablowmi19
A special organ? Hard surfaces? 
 
Hang on while I put the softball up here on the Tee...
2015/01/20 17:51:21
mettelus
Pipe organs like that are a work of art. The only one I have seen in real life is similar, but the pipes are on the opposite end of the church (very similar layout to the church). 522 draw knobs and 796 total controls?? I have seen soft synths with fewer options!
2015/01/20 21:30:22
Paul P
mettelus
but the pipes are on the opposite end of the church



Can you say latency ?
 
2015/01/21 09:27:25
mettelus
Paul P
mettelus
but the pipes are on the opposite end of the church

Can you say latency ?



I honestly do not remember the acoustics of that church well, but the pipes essentially straddle the pulpit. The Naval Academy Chapel is a beautiful building but is a very somber place for me personally, as I only went there to bury classmates. I did attend a couple marriages following graduation, but my memory of the building is more grim (never attended services there), and I have not been inside it since.
 
An interesting historical aside is that this is the "church" referenced in "California Dreaming," as one band member did plebe year at the Academy before leaving.
2015/01/21 15:15:29
tlw
Latency, slapback delay and phasing issues from pipe organs in big echoing churches is a subject in its own right.

Here in the UK we still have lots of them in churches, cathedrals and Victorian era concert halls.

I've never played one myself, but according to someone who has latency (in a similar sense to latency in DAWs) can be a real issue with some of them. The complex mechanical couplings and air valves can mean that the organist is actually playing ahead of what is coming out of the pipes. Which besides being tricky in itself means that if the organist makes a horrible mistake they have time to realise exactly what they've done and that there is nothing they can do about it but cringe waiting for the mistake to boom out of the organ.

Incidentally, before pipe organs became the fashionable thing to have church music in England was mostly made by local musicians who'd be located in the church' west gallery. A typical mix might be fiddles, sackbuts, a serpent or two and so on. Whatever instruments the locals could play or owned, and not necessarily in that order.

The novelist Thomas Hardy was a west gallery musician (and a third generation fiddler who also played dance music and left us a very significant manuscript collection of traditional tunes). If he is to be believed west gallery musicians were not always as respectful of their surroundings as they might have been, and had ways of letting the Vicar know if the sermon was boring or the reverend was going on for too long.

Which might in part explain the fashion for the organs which replaced the musicians.
2015/01/21 19:42:15
gswitz
TLW, how do you learn this stuff! It's awesome and so completely believable!
 
I'm totally in favor of musical feedback for the sermon!
 
I'm thinking right now of Jerry Garcia who used to say 'The stage is not a pulpit' as a mantra when people wanted to use their gear to get a message out.
© 2025 APG vNext Commercial Version 5.1

Use My Existing Forum Account

Use My Social Media Account