No surveys, pictures, or innuendo (well, not much)
That's right, ladies and gents, a real entry.
The next couple days are going to be insaaaaane. With Rich and Tris getting married Saturday evening, everything is stepping into high gear. Today they ripped apart the sanctuary and turned it 90o counter-clockwise. This process was mostly complete before my arrival shortly after 3:00 (I got up at 2:15 -- I overslept -- and got some food after showering). I helped with the wrapping up of the tearing apart by moving stuff out of the musicians' area (most of which was mine).
The stage is quite interesting. It normally has four sections, but there are others in storage. They pulled those out and used them, with great effect. The stage was now concert-ready. I wish I had thought to take pictures once we were finished.
Anyway, after moving the stage and the drumset, I had to get the sound board ready. Our speakers are mounted to the ceiling, but we don't want the sound coming at us from the side. So what do we do? We pull the speakers out of the Bookmobile and have fun.
Except I couldn't find the keys. Someone had moved them. I tracked down someone whom I thought might know where they were moved to. she didn't, but she had an idea which turned to be gold. Keys in hand, we got the speakers (something like this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Kustom-KPC12-12-PA-Speaker-Cabinet-with-Horn?sku=600815) and a speaker stand (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ProLine-Speaker-Stand?sku=454311) out (the other was in this lady's office). I could now do set-up.
Problem. We're supposed to be borrowing Don's snake (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Live-Wire-16x4-Combo-14XLRF-Input-with-TRS-Return-Snake?sku=331090). But he wasn't here yet, and we needed to get it set up so I could do some tests and make sure everything was working before service. So I stole the one from the new chapel. And encountered a new problem. The monitors.
We run our monitors through a seperate power amp. The problem was, the leads on the snake aren't long enough to let me plug in the house speakers and the monitors at the same time. I tried not going through the amp, but our monitors are passive -- they need a powered signal coming through. I had to find some way to connect the snake's leads to cables coming from the power amp.
A quick trip to RadioShack later, I had two 6' audio cables and two female-to-female couplers ("butt connectors" -- http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Monster-Cable-14-Female-Mono-to-14-Female-Mono-Inline-Cable-Coupler?sku=330044 . Kat gave me funny looks at that term. I told her I could call it something else, but then she'd smack me). I can now link everything together and get the monitors working.
Except, one monitor channel on the snake wasn't. Crap. I test to see if I've got a bad cable. Nope; everything works fine. So I have to go back and check the cables in the sound booth.
"Stupid! Moron! Idiot!"
In order for me to get the monitors to work, I had to pull the normal output cables and use their jacks. I did that on the Monitor 2 sends, but failed miserably on the Monitor 1 sends. Instead of unplugging the output cable, I unplugged the input cable. A couple quick swaps and everything was working.
Finished set-up by hooking up the mics (Kat plugged the mics into the snake and I plugged the snake into the board), and then I had a stroke of genius: we need to make sure the piano is plugged in.
Yes, I know a piano is an acoustic instrument, and perfectly capable of projecting without an amplifier. However, I had several people and a drumset between me and Shelby, and we needed the piano in the monitors. So I grabbed my direct box (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Live-Wire-Solutions-PDI-Double-Shielded-Heavy-Duty-Passive-Direct-Box?sku=150439), plugged in the piano (it had a cable just for this purpose), and plugged it all into the snake. Success! We were now ready for worship.
Except for the projector, which Rich had a devil of a time getting set up. The (portable) projector wouldn't recognize the laptop (the same laptop which is always used to run it). But he eventually got it figured out, and it looked great. Now we're ready for worship.
It was good. Tristan had a great set (could have been better, but that's only because there was one song she wanted to lead that hasn't been added to our set. Yet), and I was digging the lay-out (again; wishing I'd taken a picture).
After youth, we started working on the sanctuary some more. We removed the piano, subwoofer, and some other stuff, then moved the risers over next to the stage (looong story). In the process I dropped one of these said (heavy, well-built) risers on my big toe. Fortunately is was the small riser, and I was wearing combat boots. But still -- OW!!!
The biggest hiccup of the evening came during our announcements. Kat had an announcement to make about Saturday. See, we'd previously gotten approval to leave the sanctuary in the turned position until Monday. The ceremony starts at 7 pm, and none of us are really going to be in the shape/mood to put everything back at 10 pm. But our associate pastor (the groom's father) was really wanting everything moved back by Sunday morning.
Well, evidently he got his wish. We have to put it all back after the reception Saturday night. Kat's announcement was to let everyone know that we really needed help doing that.
At the moment, I'm more than a little irked about that. You see, there's only a couple of us who know -- really know -- how all the sound equipment is hooked back up. After moving everything (and hooking it back up) for a KidsQuest, and again for the Glow Nite, and again for the wedding, I figure I'm ranked number 3 or 4 in that department. If there's someone besides Pastor Wes and Don who know more than I do, they're keeping a low profile (and I don't blame them).
Don's out of town. Pastor Wes (associate pastor) will be there, but he'll be supervising the entire reassembly process. Which means I get to make sure the sound is put back right. And I'm going to be exhausted.
Oy.
Tomorrow I have to get up early to do a couple things: I have to run by Columbia River Music and see about renting a hand-held wireless system (something that we all thought of today, while looking at the stage and thinking that we want to hide as few cables as possible). Then I get to go up to the church by 2 pm and try to get the upper field (where the reception is being held) clear of goatheads and other debris. A few of us will be doing that. In potentially triple-digit temperature. And then we get to mow it. And then I get to work Thursday night.
Friday the rehearsal will be late morning, meaning I don't get to go to bed until after that's done (maybe later if I go to the lunch afterwards). And I work that night, meaning I'm going to be very, very tired by the time 7 am Saturday rolls around.
Saturday I need to be up at the church fairly early (around 5:00) to do all my final checks and get into my tux (yes, the sound guy is wearing a tux). And then the wonderful evening of watching Rich and Tris getting hitched, and then the reception. And then the royal pain in the butt of putting the sanctuary back together.
*sigh*
Maybe they'll leave it alone once they see how nice it looks this way?
Oh, and props to you if you read it all.
The next couple days are going to be insaaaaane. With Rich and Tris getting married Saturday evening, everything is stepping into high gear. Today they ripped apart the sanctuary and turned it 90o counter-clockwise. This process was mostly complete before my arrival shortly after 3:00 (I got up at 2:15 -- I overslept -- and got some food after showering). I helped with the wrapping up of the tearing apart by moving stuff out of the musicians' area (most of which was mine).
The stage is quite interesting. It normally has four sections, but there are others in storage. They pulled those out and used them, with great effect. The stage was now concert-ready. I wish I had thought to take pictures once we were finished.
Anyway, after moving the stage and the drumset, I had to get the sound board ready. Our speakers are mounted to the ceiling, but we don't want the sound coming at us from the side. So what do we do? We pull the speakers out of the Bookmobile and have fun.
Except I couldn't find the keys. Someone had moved them. I tracked down someone whom I thought might know where they were moved to. she didn't, but she had an idea which turned to be gold. Keys in hand, we got the speakers (something like this: http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Kustom-KPC12-12-PA-Speaker-Cabinet-with-Horn?sku=600815) and a speaker stand (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/ProLine-Speaker-Stand?sku=454311) out (the other was in this lady's office). I could now do set-up.
Problem. We're supposed to be borrowing Don's snake (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Live-Wire-16x4-Combo-14XLRF-Input-with-TRS-Return-Snake?sku=331090). But he wasn't here yet, and we needed to get it set up so I could do some tests and make sure everything was working before service. So I stole the one from the new chapel. And encountered a new problem. The monitors.
We run our monitors through a seperate power amp. The problem was, the leads on the snake aren't long enough to let me plug in the house speakers and the monitors at the same time. I tried not going through the amp, but our monitors are passive -- they need a powered signal coming through. I had to find some way to connect the snake's leads to cables coming from the power amp.
A quick trip to RadioShack later, I had two 6' audio cables and two female-to-female couplers ("butt connectors" -- http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Monster-Cable-14-Female-Mono-to-14-Female-Mono-Inline-Cable-Coupler?sku=330044 . Kat gave me funny looks at that term. I told her I could call it something else, but then she'd smack me). I can now link everything together and get the monitors working.
Except, one monitor channel on the snake wasn't. Crap. I test to see if I've got a bad cable. Nope; everything works fine. So I have to go back and check the cables in the sound booth.
"Stupid! Moron! Idiot!"
In order for me to get the monitors to work, I had to pull the normal output cables and use their jacks. I did that on the Monitor 2 sends, but failed miserably on the Monitor 1 sends. Instead of unplugging the output cable, I unplugged the input cable. A couple quick swaps and everything was working.
Finished set-up by hooking up the mics (Kat plugged the mics into the snake and I plugged the snake into the board), and then I had a stroke of genius: we need to make sure the piano is plugged in.
Yes, I know a piano is an acoustic instrument, and perfectly capable of projecting without an amplifier. However, I had several people and a drumset between me and Shelby, and we needed the piano in the monitors. So I grabbed my direct box (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Live-Wire-Solutions-PDI-Double-Shielded-Heavy-Duty-Passive-Direct-Box?sku=150439), plugged in the piano (it had a cable just for this purpose), and plugged it all into the snake. Success! We were now ready for worship.
Except for the projector, which Rich had a devil of a time getting set up. The (portable) projector wouldn't recognize the laptop (the same laptop which is always used to run it). But he eventually got it figured out, and it looked great. Now we're ready for worship.
It was good. Tristan had a great set (could have been better, but that's only because there was one song she wanted to lead that hasn't been added to our set. Yet), and I was digging the lay-out (again; wishing I'd taken a picture).
After youth, we started working on the sanctuary some more. We removed the piano, subwoofer, and some other stuff, then moved the risers over next to the stage (looong story). In the process I dropped one of these said (heavy, well-built) risers on my big toe. Fortunately is was the small riser, and I was wearing combat boots. But still -- OW!!!
The biggest hiccup of the evening came during our announcements. Kat had an announcement to make about Saturday. See, we'd previously gotten approval to leave the sanctuary in the turned position until Monday. The ceremony starts at 7 pm, and none of us are really going to be in the shape/mood to put everything back at 10 pm. But our associate pastor (the groom's father) was really wanting everything moved back by Sunday morning.
Well, evidently he got his wish. We have to put it all back after the reception Saturday night. Kat's announcement was to let everyone know that we really needed help doing that.
At the moment, I'm more than a little irked about that. You see, there's only a couple of us who know -- really know -- how all the sound equipment is hooked back up. After moving everything (and hooking it back up) for a KidsQuest, and again for the Glow Nite, and again for the wedding, I figure I'm ranked number 3 or 4 in that department. If there's someone besides Pastor Wes and Don who know more than I do, they're keeping a low profile (and I don't blame them).
Don's out of town. Pastor Wes (associate pastor) will be there, but he'll be supervising the entire reassembly process. Which means I get to make sure the sound is put back right. And I'm going to be exhausted.
Oy.
Tomorrow I have to get up early to do a couple things: I have to run by Columbia River Music and see about renting a hand-held wireless system (something that we all thought of today, while looking at the stage and thinking that we want to hide as few cables as possible). Then I get to go up to the church by 2 pm and try to get the upper field (where the reception is being held) clear of goatheads and other debris. A few of us will be doing that. In potentially triple-digit temperature. And then we get to mow it. And then I get to work Thursday night.
Friday the rehearsal will be late morning, meaning I don't get to go to bed until after that's done (maybe later if I go to the lunch afterwards). And I work that night, meaning I'm going to be very, very tired by the time 7 am Saturday rolls around.
Saturday I need to be up at the church fairly early (around 5:00) to do all my final checks and get into my tux (yes, the sound guy is wearing a tux). And then the wonderful evening of watching Rich and Tris getting hitched, and then the reception. And then the royal pain in the butt of putting the sanctuary back together.
*sigh*
Maybe they'll leave it alone once they see how nice it looks this way?
Oh, and props to you if you read it all.