[MusicTlk] Playing guitar at church and a question about music mixing

[Mike Jolls]

OK, I need some opinions.

I play electric guitar at our church.  We record our band and show the videos on YouTube.  In the past, I’ve tried to use the YouTube videos to see how I’m doing, how I’m sounding, etc …  BUT, invariably when I listen to the videos, it’s very difficult to hear myself.  You can hear the acoustic piano, the leaders electric piano, the drums, and the singers.  When those instruments go up in volume and the vocals are going, all of the guitars (electric as well as acoustic/electrics) get lost in the mix and it’s very difficult to hear what I’m playing.

For those interested, I play a Gibson Les Paul electric guitar through a Line 6 Helix which is fed to the sound board in the back of room.  They mix it and record from there, and what they mix gets sent out to YouTube.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m no egotist who wants to be the star of the show all the time.  I get that, especially in a church environment, the vocals MUST be heard over everything else.   The words of the song are the whole point.   But if I have $2500 worth of gear on the floor and I’ve put my time in practicing, I want to be at a volume where I can be heard on the video.  If I can’t hear myself on the video, I question whether I can even be heard at church.  When I’m not heard, I get frustrated.  it’s like … “what’s the point if I can’t even hear myself?”.

An interesting thing is that our church doesn’t appear to be alone in this.  I’ve listened to other churches in our area that record their services and post them on YouTube.  They have the same issue.  The guitars get lost.  I’m just wondering (I say this in jest) if there’s a Church 101 music mixing class that all sound people go to that tells them to turn the guitars down!!??  Perhaps they just automatically think that electric guitars are going to be too loud so they have to turn them down.

My opinion of this is that the people at the mixing board already know what they want things to sound like and they keep our volumes low.

Let me also say … don’t tell me to turn my volume up.  I’ve already tried that with no results.

OK, with all that said, what I’d like to know is whether any of you musicians play guitar at church and have you had the same issue?  And if so, have you resolved it?

Also, are any of you involved in mixing music if you go to church?  I’d like to hear comments from both sides of the fence.

Thanks for letting me blow some steam.  I won’t take comments personally.

Mike Jolls




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