GC Pro Helps Church at Viera Keep Up with their Fast Growth

Standing in front of the Allen & Heath dLive S7000 at Church at Viera are (left to right) Pastor of Worship Arts Trevor Hislop, Technical Director Doug Schaefer, Production Director Eli Higginbotham, and GC Pro Account Manager Jeffrey Aldrich. The church recently expanded their audio systems in both their main auditorium and youth sanctuary with the help of GC Pro.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, February 8, 2017 -- Located in Melbourne, FL, Church at Viera is growing quickly. With the help of Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business solutions division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts, the place of worship met their goals of expanding their live sound systems on time and under budget.

The church recently worked with GC Pro’s Jacksonville-based account manager Jeffrey Aldrich, who specified and assisted with the installation and setup of an Allen & Heath dLive S7000, the largest of the company’s dLive family of control surfaces, along with a DM64 MixRack processing and audio I/O stage box. At the same time, new stage trussing was planned and installed.

“I just don’t have the time to deal with all the install logistics,” says Church at Viera Production Director Eli Higginbotham. “I’ve got to prioritize my time and attention to production. Jeff and GC Pro worked directly with the installer and handled the integration. He arranged for the gear to be shipped in advance so there would be time to configure everything and troubleshoot the system. All I had to worry about was learning new gear.”

Higginbotham also pointed out the biggest benefit of the DM64 MixRack, which was the doubling the number of output busses from 16 to 32. For the new stage trussing, GC Pro specified Global Truss for its reliability and flexible designs.

Church at Viera's main auditorium, featuring recently upgraded audio systems specified and provided by GC Pro along with their installation affiliate Stellar Audio Visual.

Aldrich, working with GC Pro installation affiliate Stellar Audio Visual, was happy to help. “This upgrade to the church’s systems was on a very strict timeline. There were events upcoming that meant the entire systems had to be done quickly, so we had the gear shipped from the manufacturer directly to our Orlando store. The church schedule had to stay seamless to not interrupt ongoing services. By having the gear arrive early and held on station in one of our Orlando store locations, it allowed the client and the installer to operate without downtime.”

Church at Viera continued its growth over the course of 2016 when Aldrich and GC Pro also assisted Church at Viera on the expansion of their youth sanctuary with new PA and lighting systems. Aldrich recommended loudspeakers and subwoofers from Electro-Voice, including the EKX-15P, ELX-112P, and ELX-118P. The church chose Shure QLXD as their wireless microphone systems for the sanctuary, as well as high-quality Jands Vista lighting systems.

Church at Viera's youth sanctuary was upgraded with new PA and lighting systems with the help of GC Pro.

Higginbotham continues, “We just came out of the busiest part of our season, December. All the stuff that Jeff was able to do for us put us in a position to host our largest crowd in 25 years, with over 3500 people in attendance. The entire process of working with GC Pro was very, very smooth. The integration of our systems was superb. Jeff made it very easy to perform all the services. I should add that the new system is also volunteer-friendly, which is important to a church like ours.”

Aldrich adds that GC Pro offers a tremendous advantage for houses of worship under typical challenging circumstances. “It’s more than a matter of selecting the right mix of products and arranging for installation. We are often tasked with working within volunteer schedules, taking pre-production time into account, and doing everything possible to not hinder normal church workflow. The only way this can be accomplished is with the flexibility and operational power offered by GC Pro.”

Mic Choice and Techniques for Live Sound

Live sound venues and events can be a chaotic environment where things that seem to work just fine in one place don’t work at all the next night in another venue (or ten minutes after sound check in the same venue). Having a number of microphones and techniques for using them in your bag of tricks can prevent a whole lot of panic when you need immediate solutions.

The overall goals of miking techniques for live sound are easy enough to understand: get a good sound on the source that you’re miking, avoid picking up other sound sources in close proximity and prevent feedback. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? It turns out that choosing and using microphones is both an art and a science that can take years to fully master. Here are a few tips to get you started.

Choosing the Right Mics
Choosing microphones for live sound has different criteria than that you’d use for studio recording. Your first big choice is the main classes of microphone types: dynamic versus condenser. Dynamic mics are more rugged and more likely to handle the rigors of live use. They also handle higher SPL (sound pressure level, a.k.a. the loudness of the signal) better than condenser mics. However, condenser mics as a whole provide a much higher degree of sensitivity and fidelity to the original signal, along with extended high-frequency response.

The most classic live sound reinforcement microphones are the Shure SM58 and SM57. Used on everything from lead vocals to snare drums to guitar amplifier cabinets, nearly every venue, live band, and touring company has a good number of these relatively inexpensive, reliable tools for live sound.

Giving Direction
Each microphone has a specific sensitivity to sound coming from various directions, known as the mic’s polar pattern. In most mics, this is permanently built into its design, while in others, different types of directionality can be selected on the microphone itself.

The main types are omnidirectional (which pick up sound equally in a 360-degree radius) and unidirectional (which pick up sounds from certain directions while rejecting others). These mics have polar patterns like cardioid, super-cardioid and hyper-cardioid. This can be tremendously useful in a stage setting. Let’s say you’re miking a horn section, but the guitar amp is nearby. Simply using a mic with a cardioid polar pattern instead of an omni mic will help reject the guitar from bleeding into the horn signal.

This graphic, courtesy of Shure, shows a 3-D representation of omni, cardioid, and hypercardioid polar patterns. You can see the direction from where each pattern picks up and rejects signals.

Pad It Down, Roll It Off
Some mics have a built-in attenuator (“pad”) that allows you to instantly lower the signal by a preset amount, which is handy when dealing with loud sources like kick drum. Some mics may also have a low-frequency filter which helps to reduce the inevitable background noises—feet stomping on stages, wind, audience sounds and more. Pads and filters can really come in handy in a live setting.

Danger Zones
There are some common problems in live sound that are based on the way you use microphones. One is proximity effect, where a mic behaves differently when positioned very close to the source. When you do a sound check with lead singers, make sure they are using the mic just as they do during the performance.

Another caution area is using multiple mics. Unless you have a good understanding of mic placement, you may run into audible issues like phase cancellation and comb filtering. Problems generally occur when two or more mics are placed on the same source at different distances. Use only the mics you need. Learn the “3-to-1 rule,” which says that the distance between the mics should be three times the distance to the source.

General Good Ideas
First, never point a microphone in the direction of a PA or monitor speaker, which is the fastest way to cause feedback. Second, use directional microphones whenever possible, since you can orient them toward the source, helping to get a good signal, reject leakage from other sound sources and avoid feedback.

Perhaps the most important concept for live sound miking is that even a slight repositioning of a microphone can make a big difference. Don’t be afraid to experiment by moving the mics slightly to solve issues.

Quick Mic Choice and Technique Guide

Vocals: Dynamic mics are still the most popular choice here, and there are a wide variety of impressive handheld vocal mics from manufacturers like Sennheiser, Neumann, Electro-Voice, Beyerdynamic, Audix and Blue, in addition to the ubiquitous Shure SM58. Since every vocalist's voice and mic technique is different, it's good to keep a variety of mics available.

Some live sound vocal mics include the Beyerdynamic TG V96c, Sennheiser e965, Shure KSM8, Audix OM11, Blue enCORE 300, and Electro-Voice RE16.

Drums: While kits can be miked effectively with as few as three mics, you'll get better control over the overall sound with a pair of condenser mics as overheads, and closely placed dynamic mics for the rest of the kit. The kick drum needs a mic that can stand up to very high SPL. The snare mic is the one most likely to be inadvertently hit by the drummer, so make sure it's something especially sturdy, like a Shure SM57. Usually the snare mic picks up enough of the high hat, but you can supplement that with a small-diaphragm condenser for extra sizzle.

Choices in drum mics include kick drum mics like the AKG D12VR and the Heil PR48. A longtime go-to mic for toms is the Sennheiser MD421.

Some snare and tom microphones can be easily mounted to the drum shell or other convenient attachment point, like the Sennheiser e604, CAD TSM411, Audix D2, snd Audio-Technica ATM230.

Guitars: For electric guitars, a unidirectional dynamic mic placed 1–4" from the grill is standard. Close to the center of the cone gives you more highs, and you can mellow a "spiky" amp by moving the mic towards the edge of the speaker or using a modern, sturdy ribbon mic. For acoustic guitars without built-in preamp/pickup systems, try a small-diaphragm condenser about 6" from the sound hole, slanted towards the top edge of the fretboard. Bass guitars are frequently covered with a D.I. (direct injection) box, but if miked, the same type of mic used for kick drum would be preferred.

There are many mics that can be used for miking guitar amplifier speaker cabinets, like the Royer R-122 MKIIL and the Sennheiser e906. Miking live acoustic guitars is a little more challenging; try out the Shure SM81, Neumann KM 184, or the Mojave Audio MA-101fet.

Piano: To cover the full range of a grand or upright piano, you need a pair of mics, usually small-diaphragm omnidirectional condensers. Best placement is inside the lid, about a foot from the strings and about the same distance away from the hammers, one covering the bass strings and the other handling the treble strings. Remember the "3-to-1 rule" when placing these mics.

The final tip is to use your ears and adjust mic positions to try and solve problems before resorting to EQs or plug-ins. The better you get it to sound without adding processing, the better the final sound will be.

Stage Monitoring for House of Worship

This "Application Series" article gives advice toward the specific areas of business serviced by Guitar Center Professional, including studio recording/film sound, live sound, house of worship, clubs/restaurants, business sound/lighting systems, and more.

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Unless you’ve spent some time onstage playing in bands of the spiritual or secular variety, the whole concept of stage monitoring might be hard to understand. The most simple way to get it is that if a musician or speaker can’t hear themselves (or other members of their band or choir) while onstage, it’s terribly difficult to put on a top-notch presentation or performance. Therefore, you need a solution in your house of worship that allows musical performances or spoken word presentations to be heard onstage as well as in the audience.

There are two general categories of stage monitoring systems: speaker monitors (also known as floor wedges) and in-ear monitors (IEMs, sometimes called personal monitors). Traditional stage monitors are wedge-shaped speakers that are placed toward the front of the stage, facing back toward the performers. In-ear monitors are exactly as the name implies: like the ear buds in an iPod, they fit into the external ear canals of the person addressing or performing for the audience.

Some worship facilities use a combination of traditional floor wedge stage monitors along with in-ear monitors for the best of both worlds. St. Andrews Presbyterian Church (Newport Beach, CA).

Houses of worship that opt for in-ear monitors (IEMs) over stage wedges enjoy a clear, uncluttered stage that can be an advantage for both performers and audiences. Grace Family Church (Lutz, FL).

Wedges vs IEMs
Floor wedges have been around for decades and are very simple in design; they are merely speakers that connect via audio cables to a mixing surface. There is an inherent level of reliability with this low-tech (but time-proven) solution. In choosing between floor wedges and IEMs, be aware that some performers simply don’t like the aspect of having things tucked into their ears while they play. They might find it too isolating from the natural acoustics of the stage and the room as a whole.

But in today’s world, it’s hard to pose an argument against in-ear monitoring. Using them, the performer gets a level of control of volume, panning, and other elements that is simply not possible in wedge monitors. In-ear monitors will never be a cause of feedback, which is always a danger when you have live speakers on stage that can direct sound back into open microphones. Finally, since most IEM systems are wireless, those performers can move about the stage more freely, since their mix is always right there with them. This can be especially good for dramatic performances.

Guitar Center Professional’s account representatives are experts at specifying monitoring systems for houses of worship. In many cases, they can even visit your place of worship to determine what will work best for you.

FAQ
How many floor wedges or IEM systems will our house of worship need?
The answer is dependent on several factors, including the size of the stage and the number of performers/presenters that will using them at once. With wedge monitors, each monitor will disperse sound over a certain area of the stage. In a typical worship band-type music event, it’s a good idea to have at least three wedges at the front of the stage for singers and instrumentalists, and more near the back for drummers, keyboardists, backing vocalists and the like. With in-ear monitors, the answer is more simple: each performer will require his or her own set of IEMs.

Is it complicated to set up and use a wireless IEM system?
No. It can be set up quickly and easily. However, making the most of an IEM system’s advantages (like setting up personalized levels and other settings for each performer) requires a level of aquired skill. In the professional live sound world, there’s a role called a “monitor mixer” whose sole job is to do just this. Your GC Pro rep can assist you in getting your IEM system set up and ready for use.

If we’re building a new facility from the ground up, is it important to take stage monitoring into consideration?
Stage monitoring is of vital importance to the quality of the performance or presentation, and therefore impacts the experience of the audience as well. It should be thought of on an equal degree of importance as your facility’s main PA system, lighting, and more.

What if we can’t afford our stage monitoring system all at once?
First, Guitar Center Professional has excellent financing programs tailor-made for houses of worship. Second, with both wedge speakers and IEMs, your monitoring system can be built and then added to as your budget permits.

Suggested Products

Yamaha CM15V 15” 2-Way Club Concert Series Monitor Speakers

Electro-Voice TX1122FM Tour-X Floor Monitor

Shure PSM 300 Wireless Personal Monitoring System

Sennheiser ew 300 IEM G3 In-Ear Wireless Monitor System

Audio-Technica M2 In-Ear Wireless Monitor System

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

University of Chicago Lab Schools Turns to GC Pro

The University of Chicago Laboratory Schools Digital Music Lab, featuring gear sourced through Guitar Center Professional. Photo courtesy of Francisco Dean. © 2015.

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, December 7, 2015 — Francisco Dean is a music instructor at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, a pre-K-through-12 private school affiliated with the U of C that is considered one of the top preparatory schools in the U.S. He’s also a long-time client of Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the business-to-business (B2B) division of Guitar Center providing highly customized service for professional accounts; about two years ago, a trip to the nearby Hobart, Indiana Guitar Center location resulted in the store’s equipping the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools’ brand new Digital Music Lab with most of its gear – more than 100 items of equipment in all.

“About two years ago I needed a small MIDI controller and went to [GC Pro Account Manager] Ryan Nigh for assistance,” said Dean. “I got to talking to him, and when I told him I taught music technology to high school music students and was looking for gear for our not-yet-built Digital Music Lab, Ryan told me about GC Pro’s educational program. I knew then that it was just what we needed. The timing was perfect, as I was working on the school’s syllabus for the upcoming year and the planning for the lab.”

GC Pro works directly with people like Dean and offers special educational discounts. In addition, students can get the benefits of the GC Pro program, such as discounts and free shipping from their local store no matter where they live.

The U of C Laboratory Schools’ Digital Music Lab features 16 independent workstations where students can compose and record music. The workstations are equipped with AKAI Professional MPK249 Performance Keyboard Controllers, AKAI APC Mini Compact Ableton Live Controllers, Focusrite Scarlett 6i6 USB audio interfaces and more. Each workstation is linked to a central USB hub and their computers are linked to the Lab’s local area network via Ethernet. If desired, a single workstation can be moved to another location for remote recording.

Since live recording is a key focus of the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools’ music program, GC Pro supplied a variety of dynamic and condenser mics from Sennheiser, Rode, AKG, Shure, SE Electronics and Electro Voice. “Our students learn how to mic and record everything from vocals to brass, woodwinds and percussion, so we needed to build a mic locker that would include mics for all applications,” said Dean. A selection of Sennheiser headphones, KRK Rokit powered studio monitors, cables and other gear rounds out the Digital Music Lab’s equipment complement.

“We were building the lab from scratch and had never done anything on this scale before,” noted Dean. “Ryan Nigh was invaluable in giving us the advice we needed regarding which products would be the best for our needs, and offering the tech support we needed to make everything work together. Usually I would just tell him what we needed in terms of what the products had to do, and Ryan would make recommendations based on which products would best serve our requirements.”

“In working with Ryan, I had the peace of mind that I was getting unbiased recommendations, not a sales pitch that would be forgotten the minute I walked out of the store. Because he’s in the field making recordings and doing mixing on his own, Ryan knows how equipment works in the real world.” Since the Digital Music Lab went into operation, everything has been working without a hitch.

Dean likes to stop by his local Guitar Center frequently for the music supplies he requires for his classes – and because like most of us, he’s an inveterate gearhead. “Having Ryan around is like having my own personal tech support assistant. Ryan and GC Pro really made it as easy as possible for us to set up the Digital Music Lab in providing their expert assistance on this project.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

Central Baptist Church Gets a Makeover with GC Pro

— GC Pro Account Manager Brad Lyons and GC Pro Affiliate Program Member Commercial Sound And Video take Central Baptist Church into the era of contemporary worship with new sound system including digital audio console, in-ear monitoring and upgraded backline —

WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, October 29, 2014 — The last time the Central Baptist Church of Americus, Georgia, got a new sound system, the church’s music was focused around the traditional elements of choir and organ. Times changed, and so did the church’s style of worship, which has expanded to encompass more contemporary forms of praise and worship music, with electric guitars and drums joining the joyful noise. These changes, however, made the inadequacy of the original sound system readily apparent. That led the church to Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users.

Atlanta-based GC Pro Account Manager Brad Lyons spent time listening to the needs of the church and helped design a completely new sound system, including connecting them with locally based AV systems integrator Commercial Sound And Video, which provided installation services. And it was a big project. Lyons summarized the situation: “Some areas were too loud, others you could barely hear anything at all, and no bass response,” he says of the sanctuary’s sound system. “On-stage monitoring for the band was a hodge-podge at best. We transformed their entire sound system, customizing it to the unique challenges in their large worship space, but we also re-designed the stage layout and provided a state-of-the-art personal monitoring system for the large praise team and orchestra.”

A new system using four Electro-Voice EVF1152D 15-inch cabinets was flown above the main floor in a 90x60 coverage pattern, and each with an Electro-Voice EVU1082 8-inch downfill cabinet mounted. A total of eight Electro-Voice EVU1082 fill cabinets were placed in the balcony, four per side. A pair of Electro-Voice EVF2151D Dual 15inch subwoofers fills the entire sanctuary with powerful bass. The power amps are Electro-Voice CPS-series power amps, with control using an Electro-Voice DC-ONE system processor. The existing 48-channel analog mixer (with 16-channel auxiliary mixer) was replaced with a 64-channel AVID S3L console with four independent stage boxes. Three racks on-stage and one at the FOH booth completely bypass the original analog patching system, providing a superior upgrade in sound and eliminating cable mess on the stage. The AVID S3L also provides 64-tracks recording to Pro Tools connected via CAT5 to the supplied Apple iMac computer and Glyph hard-drive, designed for playback in virtual sound check mode. This allows them to record rehearsals, then play the tracks back to fine-tune the individual channel settings for a better mix.

“With the S3L there is full recall of all settings and scenes,” stated Lyons. “Every Easter they have a big production and this will allow them to have total control of the production.”

Based on Lyons’ design, Commercial Sound And Video installed a PIVITEC 32-input personal monitor system controlled via Apple iPad Minis with a total of nine independent mix stations and the ability to add as many more as they wish. There were many custom touches, with the goal of making the operation as simple as possible. One such feature was a customized patch panel consisting of eight XLR Male and eight SPEAKON connectors that took the guesswork out of connecting a stage monitor into the system.

Lyons adds, “Although the PIVITEC in-ear system was an amazing upgrade for the worship band, we still needed to provide traditional monitors to the choir, instruments, lead vocals and other musicians. Typically I would have to go find a speaker, a power amp and the cables, route a channel out of the console into the amp, connect a speaker cable to the speaker, and so forth. But here I designed the panel to take any confusion or error out of the situation. The process is simple really — I designed eight specific outputs from the VENE S3L console for MONITOR MIX OUTPUTS, labeled MONITOR 1 through MONITOR 8. Patching into any of the XLR Inputs of the panel fed directly to a specific amplifier channel on the Electro-Voice CPS8.5 power amp (eight channels at 500-watts power per channel), and that speaker output then fed back to the SPEAKON out below the XLR connector. You can simply plug in a speaker cable to the desired speaker, and voila!”

The result was a total success and everyone associated with the church is extremely happy with the new system.

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.

GC Pro Is a Great Fit for Fit Revolution

Fit Revolution, an indoor cycling studio and “boot camp” fitness-training facility in the Boston suburb of North Reading, featuring a new A/V system spec’ed and installed by GC Pro.

— New Boston-area fitness center relied on GC Pro to outfit it with the best sound for spinning —
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA, February 6, 2013 — Fit Revolution, an indoor cycling studio and “boot camp” fitness-training facility that opened last September in the Boston suburb of North Reading, keeps its hundreds of members in great shape with 22 stationary bicycles in its 800-square-foot studio. It also is one more example of how Guitar Center Professional (GC Pro), the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users, has helped a wide range of establishments, from restaurants to retail, get the right AV systems that fit the way they work and help boost their business.

GC Pro Senior Account Manager PK Pandey was referred to Fit Revolution Owner Michelle O’Connor by a colleague for whom GC Pro had recently installed a new sound system. “PK and I talked a bit about what I wanted to accomplish, and he seemed to understand it perfectly,” says O’Connor, who was also the PT Director at the Reading YMCA for four years. “I told PK that I had a budget to work with but that I was willing to pay for quality. I just trusted him to know what had to be done, and it turned out perfectly.”

Says Pandey, who heads up GC Pro’s Boston location, “Michelle and I had one meeting and we hit it off. I knew exactly what she was looking to do and how to help her achieve that. She now has the best sound system in a fitness club I know of. It sounds amazing.”

At Fit Revolution, GC Pro spec’ed and installed four Electro-Voice® EVID™ 8.2 Ceiling Series speakers and two Electro-Voice EVID 10.1 subwoofers, all powered through an Electro-Voice CPS2.6 amplifier and controlled via a Yamaha MG12 mixer. In addition, GC Pro installed a pair of American DJ® Mega Bar™ LED lights. “I liked that PK chose to use ceiling speakers,” O’Connor points out. “I’ve seen other fitness installations where the speakers are put in the corners and that tends to look cluttered and take up valuable floor space. PK recognized that floor space is part of the business model for a fitness center, so putting the speakers in the ceiling was the best way to go.”

O’Connor says the feedback from her clients about the sound quality has been great, as has GC Pro’s follow-up. “If there’s ever an issue, PK is right here with the solution,” she says. “It’s been a great experience working with GC Pro. I’m glad someone recommended them to me, and I’ll be happy to do the same for someone else.”

For more information, please visit www.gcpro.com.

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About Guitar Center Professional/Guitar Center
Founded in 2001, Guitar Center Professional is the outside sales division of Guitar Center that focuses on the needs of professional users. Its clientele includes recording studios, audio engineers, producers, recording and touring musicians, live sound venues, post production facilities and more. Emphasizing extraordinary individualized service via local account managers, GC Pro offers expert consultation and a comprehensive selection of the world’s finest equipment for music and audio professionals. More information on GC Pro can be found by visiting www.gcpro.com.