NOTE: This article originally appeared in Sweetwater’s Spring 2016 Worship Sound Pro directory.
Modern musical worship requires commitment, discipline, and, perhaps most of all, teamwork. Nowhere is that more evident than in Contemporary Christian favorite Chris Tomlin’s touring team. To get the perspective from both sides of the platform, we spoke to Matthew Gilder, Chris’s music director/keyboardist, and Front of House engineer Jeff Sandstrom. Each shared insights and tips from his own perspective, but both emphasized the importance of the entire team — and the imperative of the “worshipful heart.”
Jeff Sandstrom
Jeff Sandstrom, Front of House engineer for Chris Tomlin, knows how to make the band sound great night after night. He also sees what he does as part of the big picture. “My role is bigger than just creating a good kick drum sound. As important as that is, my role is to facilitate what the band is trying to communicate to the audience.” Jeff is also involved with weekend services at Passion City Church and North Point Ministries in Atlanta, GA.
How do you normally conduct a soundcheck?
There are three distinct aspects of the soundcheck process. The first is a line check, then soundcheck, then rehearsal. For our purposes, we have an input list or a stage plot from the band that lets us know what’s required in terms of inputs going to the soundboard. Before the band arrives, we’ll do a line check first to make sure all the microphone lines and direct boxes are working properly. Then we can start the second part of the process, the soundcheck. That’s where we get the band members’ monitor mixes dialed in so they can hear themselves properly — whether that’s in-ear monitors or speaker wedges. Then we move on to rehearsal. That’s the point at which the band can actually play a song or rehearse their material. I can start tweaking my mix based on what their program material is going to be.
Any advice on controlling stage volume?
In a 200- or 300-person church, stage volume is a big issue. The core is clear communication on what the goal is for the service, whether it’s a Sunday service or a conference or a concert. Let’s leave our egos at the door and be willing to compromise when we need to. It might be having the drummer feather the cymbals more, or maybe we put some plexiglass panels around the kit. A guitar player might put a load box with cabinet emulation on the amp, so they get the tone they want and can keep the amp backstage. Or, you might use a standard house setup for the guitar rig. Monitor-wise, think about moving to in-ear monitoring instead of speaker wedges, with ambient crowd mics fed into the mix to maintain connection with the audience response.
How do you utilize Virtual Soundcheck?
I think it’s one of the greatest tools digital consoles and multitrack recording have brought to houses of worship. So many digital consoles, even the small-format mixers, have multitrack recording support, and I would SO encourage people to have some way to multitrack record. For those who aren’t familiar, you have the ability to take a direct output from every channel on your console, record that audio and be able to play it back through the console unprocessed. So any dynamics or EQ will be replicated when you play it back through. This way, you can train volunteers on mixing, you can tweak your mixing, assess your mix, you have a way to archive and play back what really happened for your musicians. Let’s say you record a midweek rehearsal, and the guy who is mixing Sunday couldn’t be at the rehearsal. Then you have him come in on Friday afternoon or Saturday and he can play back the rehearsal and tweak the mix for Sunday morning.
It’s a great time for churches to put digital mixers to work.
There are several feature-packed digital consoles out there with a small footprint and at a low price point that are really accessible now to houses of worship. Now, you can get a 48-input digital mixer with full playback and recording, presets, EQ and dynamics on every channel, for the price you used to pay for an entry-level analog mixer. In terms of the novice mixer in the church world, something like a Yamaha TF Series mixer is great. It’s got a One Knob feature that allows presets to do things an engineer like me would tend to do to a certain channel most of the time.
How do you see the role of the FOH engineer as part of the worship team?
Over the years, I’ve had a the opportunity to mix in a lot of environments with a lot of different worship leaders, whether it’s Chris Tomlin or North Point Community Church or Passion City Church. I’m floored by the opportunities that God has provided. At the end of the day, the biggest thing that has helped me is seeing myself as a worship leader. My role is bigger than just creating a good kick drum sound. As important as that is, my role is to facilitate what the band is trying to communicate to the audience. And the biggest win for me is, if I can look around at people in the audience and see them engaged in what God has for them through the music, I know that I’ve done my job and that I’ve done it well.
Matthew Gilder
As musical director and keyboardist for the Chris Tomlin Band, Matthew Gilder serves as a seamless connection between the worship leader and the band, stays on top of program music, keeps rehearsals running smoothly, and much more. All the while, he never loses sight of what is important: sharing the message and helping to bring the gathering — no matter how large — together. It only works, he says, if the musicians, techs, and worship leaders come together and remember why they’re here: “Let’s love each other, like what we’re singing about.”
How do you run an effective soundcheck and maintain consistency?
It’s important to discuss ahead of time what we want to accomplish during a soundcheck. In a situation like ours with Chris Tomlin, I think we actually have it easier than preparing for a church service. In church, you’re having to coordinate a whole lot of musicians and technicians and get them super focused to accomplish what you need to in two hours. With Chris, we have less moving pieces (smaller band, consistent support personnel) and we’re not learning as many songs as a typical house of worship situation. But we still have to set expectations for the time or we won’t accomplish what we need to. We have fun (come on … it’s music!) but we strive to respect the technicians time and not goof off too much. We’re going to take the time we need to get it sounding great, but we strive to be professional. We’ve talked to plenty of folks about rolling that idea into a house of worship situation. The conversation ahead of time is enormously helpful. “Okay, guys, here are our five songs. We’re not going to be learning these in soundcheck. You’re going to learn these back at the house this week…” It’s important to set expectations and to know everything will go so much more smoothly if everyone comes in knowing their part.
How do in-ear monitors impact the way you work?
Working the way we do with Chris Tomlin, I don’t know how we would pull off all the stuff we do without in-ears, because so much of what we do is tied to the click track. Getting on in-ears tightens up a band because all of a sudden everyone can really hear what they are doing (which often was overplaying) and being able to really hear what your fellow band member is doing allows you to lock to them better. Also, utilizing video content the way we do without in-ears would be nearly impossible. You definitely want to find a talented monitor engineer when you move to in-ears, and we have the absolute blessing of Kyle McMahon touring with us. He’s the best monitor engineer in know!
How do you ensure clarity in your live vocals?
Chris’s voice has to be intelligible and clear, and it also needs to sound good. Jeff Sandstrom and Kyle use EQ and compression to carve out a great place in the mix for the vocal, so when Chris sings it’s crystal clear — even in the back of the house. We’re doing modern music with lots of synths and guitars. It’s a big wall of sound. So when we’re deciding on what to play live and which tracks we’re going to use, we’re concerning ourselves with not stepping on the vocal. We’ve all been in churches, theaters, and concerts where it’s like, “Man, the band is slamming. But I cannot figure out what the lead singer is singing.” For some styles of music, that seems to work fine. But for worship music I want to connect to the song. I want to know what this person is singing about.
Any advice for leaders and teams in smaller environments, with smaller budgets?
Work on your foundation! “Practice, work on your skills. If you’re a singer, take lessons. If you’re a guitar player, a keyboard player, take lessons.” When we’re working with other musicians and technical folks, let’s just drop our ego and our pride and show some humility. Let’s treat each other kindly. There will be times for correction and times to confront issues. But never do it in a shaming way. Let’s build a great team. Then, when we get a chance to pick up some new gear and dive into some technology that might enhance our worship service we’ll have a foundation to work from. Invest in your personnel. Get to know them, show them respect and love. We’re all going down the same road.