J & J Production Studios Blog

Just a quick note to not go through the motions when a problem pops up. I once worked at a bike shop and a customer came in and said his headlights didn’t work. The tech spent an hour and a half tearing apart bodywork, harness/plugs and switches. Finally the boss came out and said, “Did you check the bulbs?” Ouch. That can happen when you hear noise on a channel and you think, oh it’s a bad channel or it’s a bad cable. Start from the source and check everything thoroughly and find the problem. It could be that that new guitar just has a bad jack.

Scales are good, even if you’re not a fish. I love to play music. I was recently playing keyboard with some friends and we started to play some spontaneous stuff. It was awesome. One thing that made it awesome was that without playing the same chord over and over, we were able to play with the scale of the key we were in. This opens up a while new world when it comes to music. A good knowledge of scales is a massive help when in spontaneous worship. But if you don’t practice your scales, you won’t be able to play them like second nature when you have to. Always remember, even though it might seem boring to play scales by themselves, it builds part of the foundation that a great musician stands on. So go ahead, be scaly.

In America today, there are countless bands out there. Between iPods, Internet radio, satellite radio, local radio and our CD collections, we have plenty of music to listen to. In a sea a music, you can still easily identify the bands that excel. That rarely comes quickly. Even when you have great musicians, they don’t always mesh well together. When you practice your instrument, you practice alone. So, you already have ideas of what you want to sound like when you get with the rest of your bandmates. The key is coming together. That takes practice and getting to know each other musically. When that develops, you can feed off of each other and it will become second nature to read one other. I’m stressing the importance of playing together as a band because there is a difference between just rehearsing your songs and practicing together. Rehearsing (or just running through) your songs can refresh your memory of those songs, but it doesn’t give time to really “tighten” your sound or create great arrangements. Practicing together (going deeper with the songs and playing original music) will give you the ability to play beyond the music and gel together during spontaneous moments in the set. You will quickly see your band do things they have never done before. So take the time and put the effort into going deeper with your music. As the saying goes, practice makes perfect.

A quick note about floor noise, or the noise floor. This is all of the unwanted noise in a line that lays beneath the signal. It comes out when signal is low, and you accommodate by turning up gain. Be careful not to take the lazy way out and crank the gain up to high without boosting the signal level, because you will boost the unwanted floor noise with it. It’s always best if you can get a good amount of signal to work with closest to unity gain as possible. There should be a good signal level to work with, or you might be turning up more than you want to.

It’s been said, you need the right tools for the job. There’s nothing better on a job than having the appropriate tools to work with. Our philosophy is this: buy the correct equipment the first time instead of buying the wrong equipment, then having to buy the right equipment anyway. That’s one of the advantages of starting from scratch. However, most churches have been established for quite some time, so when it comes to sound systems, you already have one in place. That’s where we can help. We don’t just set up new systems, a lot of what we do is make the systems you already have work for you. Even if you have to purchase a few things for maintenance or updating, we found that most churches have decent equipment, but it may not be installed or set properly. It seems to be, that the first thing sound techs blame when it comes to sound problems, is the equipment. That’s not usually the case. It’s intimidating to talk about sound in churches, because most people have limited knowledge about sound and the budget is small to none. You also realize the importance of your sound system, because there’s no part of the service when you’re not using it. We can help you where you are. We’ve vastly improved sound systems just by setting proper gain structure and other key elements to great sound. So, if you’re wishing your sound was better, let us help you by not only setting the equipment and mixer correctly, but by giving you the knowledge and tools to succeed after we leave.

Sometimes people do other people favors. No strings attached, just random acts of kindness. As a business owner, I have done this. Sometimes it is for good business, and other times it is just because. As a tech, you might want to do this once in a while, it will show your customers your a nice guy. Sometimes the innocent favors you do for people are misconceived as ulterior motives for something else. Believe it or not, there are still some nice people in the world. The next time someone does something nice for you, just say thank you, and the next time you do something for someone else, do it with a smile, even if you don’t get one back.

Today I once again learned the value of going the extra mile. I quoted a customer a price, and the job took 3 times longer than I expected due to circumstances beyond my control. I told the customer that I would honor the original price I quoted him. He was grateful. Keeping your word can mean much more than making a few extra bucks. Always remember, customers will call you first next time they need work done. It is a good thing to go the extra mile for your customers.

It pays to stay connected with your industry. I know some people who got into a technology field and became good at it. But then they grew stagnate in that field and although maybe they have not quite lost the passion for it, they started to slip behind. When you do not stay updated in the field you are in, you can cheat your customers out of the latest and greatest technology. Although you can do what you always do, and it works, it might not work as well as new methods or technologies. Keeping up to date will also keep your passion up for what you do as well as bring opportunities to network with some new people. Training days can also be a fun way to learn, relax, and mingle with your peers. Not to mention CEU’s if your license requires them. So go ahead, update yourself.

It’s natural for most people to like certain genres of music. We all have our favorite bands, songs and styles that we like to listen to. What’s wrong with that? Nothing at all! Nobody likes ALL genres of music. Musicians themselves tend to be particularly snobby about this sort of thing. I know – I am one. That can lead to something else: Just like we listen to certain styles, we like to play only certain styles. It’s great to develop your own style (I’m not talking about being a copycat), but it’s easy to get stuck that way. I would encourage you to listen to and try playing different styles than you’re used to . You don’t have to play jazz all the time if you’re used to playing pop. It’s just a chance to expand your scope and ability. That doesn’t mean you have to start playing in that style regularly, but you can learn things from that style and incorporate that into your own style. Besides, you might like it and if someone ever asks, “Hey, can you play this?”, you can say, “Why, yes I can.” As a musician, I’m always looking for ways to take it to the next level. So, go ahead – listen to and play your normal stuff, but don’t be afraid to try something you normally wouldn’t have tried before. Something different.

Be nice to your worship team. As a sound tech and a musician, I know the demands of both. Just a plea to be patient with your worship team, sometimes they don’t realize that there are only one of you and many of them. Unanswered request can cause stress and aggravation for both parties. Stress leads to rushing and rushing can lead to errors. It’s best to resist the temptation to scream, “I’m only one guy!!!” and take the repeated request with a grain of salt. This will get you some mileage with the team. Take care of request one by one as quickly as you can, and let God do the rest. You will be amazed at the results.