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Non-technical tips and guidelines on how to make a broadcast-quality tape recording, ministry tapes, or broadcast your service live
Church
Worker Handbook
What You Didn't Learn in Bible College and Seminary
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| This chapter is based on 26 years part-time broadcast radio experience, four years Internet radio experience, eight years experience in recording church services for later broadcast, and three years experience as manager/sound man for a regional Gospel singing group. |
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Warning: This chapter is not intended to replace the operating instructions provided by your equipment manufacturers. This chapter should be reviewed by the sound person (or committee) to assure that it is consistent with your church's equipment and policies. If this material is out-dated or incorrect regarding the equipment your church is using, this chapter should yield in every instance.
Introduction
These guidelines will help you make a broadcast-quality tape recording or live broadcast for use on your local radio station. They will also help you make a quality master when duplicating cassettes for your tape ministry. Of course, you can broadcast your service live by letting the radio station run a phone line into your house sound system. That connection may be adequate for preaching but will not be satisfactory for congregational singing.
Committment and effort are required to make broadcast-quality recordings for either broadcasting or sending out your tapes in a tape ministry. If you are going to charge people for the tapes you make, you are also responsible for exercising good Christian stewardship. You should do all you can to make the quality of your recordings as high as possible.
More about quality later.
Terms
and Procedures
If you are not familiar with certain terms and procedures
used in this chapter, please consult Chapter 8: Using Mikes
and Using a Sound System. Chapter 8 includes an extensive Glossary of terms
at the end of the chapter.
You
may be surprised at how economical it will be to start a radio ministry. You will
need at least the following items to put a taped or live worship service on the
air, or to make quality master recordings for your tape ministry.
A free-standing CD Recorder. [Not a CD burner that requires a computer.] Such a device should cost under $300 and will enable you to record up to 80 minutes onto a standard CD with excellent fidelity. Caution: Such a recorder uses Music CD-R recording blanks, not to be confused with CD blanks to be used in a computer CD burner. Two-tray models will enable you to duplicate CDs, also. All radio stations will be able to play your CDs.
Or, a high-fidelity stereo cassette deck, a DAT (digital audio tape) deck. Of course the DAT deck will give you the best results with CD-quality sound. However, not all radio stations are equipped to play back DAT tapes. Look before you leap, into DAT equipment. This item may not be essential for a live broadcast.
A
mixing board for mixing the output of your house sound system with at least two
house mikes and one piano mike. I have a small recording studio in my home so
I bought a 5-channel Realistic mixer (three mike channels, one Tape channel,
and one AUX channel) for about $100 at our local mall Radio Shack. Avoid battery-powered
mixers; get one which plugs into an AC outlet.
High-speed
Tape Duplicator. [Not needed unless you have a tape ministry.] If you are able
to make a stereo master recording, make sure you duplicate your copies in stereo,
also.
The
fact you are "on the air" should never interfere with the way the Holy
Spirit works in your worship. However, you can use some common sense rules to
make your service sound better:
All
speaking should be done at a microphone. Even though the live congregation may
be able hear off-mike speaking, the radio congregation may not be able to hear
at all or may hear hollow or barrel-like sound.
All music and special
activities should be announced. People who attend can follow the order of service
in the bulletin, but members of your radio audience may have no idea what is happening
without verbal announcements.
All
participants should start to speak/sing within seconds after their activity is
announced. If the activity is music, the accompaniment should start immediately
after the announcement. To avoid dead aid between the announcement and the start
of the activity, have all participant sit within a short walk of the mike they
will be using, and/or start moving to the mike in time to arrive there seconds
after the announcement has been made. This rule is more important for radio than
for TV. With TV, the audience can see pending action.
Recording
Engineer
You will need a full-time "recording engineer"
any time you are making a quality recording or broadcasting live. This is a full-time
job while you are "on the air" and can't be done while you are running
the house sound system, also. Such a recording engineer should have experience
mixing sound or should be trained by someone who has sound mixing or broadcast
experience.
Your
recording engineer needs to wear headphones and watch the levels of all inputs
at all times. Your church may have been sending out tapes for years without a
recording engineer watching the levels while a recording is being made. Now is
the time to change all that.
Run
patch cords among your house sound system, your mixer, and your recording tape
deck. Most likely, these audio devices will have RCA phono jacks on their input/output
panels. If they do, you can use the garden variety audio cables which come with
audio devices. If there is a combination of types of audio hardware on the jack
panels, you may need to buy patch cords with the right male/female hardware at
each end.
Run
patch cords as follows:
From House Sound System Line Out
To Mixer AUX In
From Mixer Line Out
To Record Tape Deck Line In
or To the radio station for a live broadcast.
If
you can get a second Line Out signal from the cassette deck which plays your sound
tracks, run a patch cord--
From
Sound Track cassette deck Tape Out
To Mixer
Tape In
By
having independent control of the sound track, you can achieve a better balance
between the track and the voices during special singing.
Patching
in a Guest Sound System
Your guest singers may have a mixer or sound
system they prefer to use. Such a patch may be made directly to your house sound
system or to your radio mixer. Even though your guests plan to use their own amplification,
your recorded sound will have broadcast quality if you patch as follows:
From: Guest Sound AUX, LINE, or TAPE OUT
To: Mixer Tape In
Caution: When you use the Tape channel to receive AUX, Line, or Tape signals, make sure the mixer for this channel is switched to Tape and not Phono.
Note:
The input/output jacks on these audio devices may be labeled AUX, Line, or Tape.
As a general rule, these terms mean the same thing as far as audio device compatibility
is concerned.
Setting
Up House Mikes for Ambient Sound
If you want a stereo effect for ambient
audience sound, you'll need one mike for the left channel and one for the right.
Mount them as high as you can and as far apart as is practical. Set the pan pots
on a stereo mixer to send the sound on the left side of the house to the left
channel and vice verse.
Don't
count on the pulpit or choir mikes to provide a good level of ambient sound with
nice overtones of reverberation and resonance. Without mixing in the ambient sound
of house mikes, the song service will likely sound like a concert by the worship
leader, instead of a round, full sound of hundreds of people singing. To achieve
this effect, you will need a mix ratio of about 10% worship leader and 90% house
mikes. More on this later on.
Author's note: I originally wrote these procedures for recording our 8:30 Sunday morning worship for broadcast Sunday afternoons 3:30-5:00 P.M. Our sound booth is equipped with a 16-channel mixer for recording purposes only, in addition to the house sound board. The recording mixer has separate channels for pulpit mike, piano, organ, choir loft (4), orchestra, special singers, cassette sound tracks, CD sound tracks, and so forth. You may not have this flexibility. Therefore, I have adapted these procedures to the 5-channel $100 mixer I described above. If you are able to run a separate mike to the piano and jack that into mixer channel 3, you will have a little more flexibility.
If you are running a CD Recorder instead of tape deck, replace each reference to tape with CD.
Setup.
The first time you start the tape for a particular service, have the deck in record
mode with the pause button engaged, and have the mixer's master volume all the
way down.
Starting
the Tape:
1. Release PAUSE.
2. With tape rolling, increase the master volume to normal broadcast level. For the first start in the program, this master volume increase may be gradual. After a short stop for a break in the service, the increase should be rather swift.
3. Start the clock.
Making
a brief stop in the tape:
1. Swiftly move the mixer's master volume to OFF.
2. Press PAUSE.
3. Stop the clock.
Restarting
tape after a brief stop:
1. Release PAUSE.
2. Swiftly increase the mixer's master volume to broadcast level.
3. Start the clock.
Always
follow this sequence each time you start/stop the tape. This procedure will make
it less likely that anyone will notice a break in the action, especially if you
increase/decrease the mixer's master volume smoothly but swiftly.
Wearing
Headphones
Headphones should be worn at all times it is necessary
to mix and balance sound. It is impossible to mix sound effectively by watching
meters only, or listening to house sound.
Watching
Meters
Volume level meters should be kept near 0 level at all times. If two recording
devices are being used, such as a reel deck and a CD deck, it would be ideal to
use a test tone to set the record volume of both at 0 level. It is better to have
meters peaking at +0 occasionally, than to have them consistently at -0 level.
Congregational Singing and the Worship Leader
Special note: All references to ON and OFF relate to the recording level volume control. On means level up to correct level for this part of the service. OFF means level all the way down.
After
the song has been announced and as the pianist/organist plays the introduction
to the song, cross fade the pulpit [AUX] all the way down and both left and right
house mikes up to 0 level. The only sound of the worship leader's voice should
be what is picked up by the radio house mikes from sanctuary house speakers. The
Pulpit mike [AUX] should be OFF (volume all the way down) before the congregation
begins to sing.
Exception: if the worship leader is teaching a new chorus, perhaps as a solo at first, leave the pulpit mike [AUX] up as the chorus begins. As the congregation picks up the song, gradually increase the house mikes volume and decrease the pulpit mike [AUX], until the pulpit mike [AUX] is off.
Important Note: You will not have a broadcast-quality recording if you have the worship leader singing at full volume doing the congregational singing. As a general rule, the pulpit mike [AUX] should be OFF when the congregation is singing. Mix in sound from the house mikes in lieu of the worship leader singing from the pulpit. Otherwise, your recording will feature a solo by the worship leader during the congregational singing. That may be good or bad, depending on who your worship leader is. [If I'm your worship leader, it will be bad!]
Smooth
Cross-Fading And Level Adjustments
All changes in levels should be
made smoothly with no audible seam in the source of sound. For example, after
the worship leader has announced a song, the scenario should be something like
this: Keep pulpit [AUX] at same level while bringing up house mikes from -30 to
+/-0 to pick up congregational singing. Then, turn pulpit mike [AUX] off smoothly
but quickly. By the time the worship leader sings the first note, the pulpit mike
[AUX] should be completely off, with house mikes carrying the bulk of recorded
sound.
Piano
Keep level of piano up to about -15 during congregational singing.
The headphones play a critical role in setting the piano level. The level should
be high enough to hear the sound of the piano tinkling in the background but not
loud enough to draw attention to the piano sound.
House
Mikes
The house mikes play a critical role in giving the recording
a live, stereo effect. This is true even during special music and the preaching.
With the house mikes set at low levels (but not OFF), your recording will tend
to have a natural resonance and reverberation.
The
following house mike levels are baselines and should be modified by what you hear
in the headphones:
Congregational singing -- +0
Special music -- -25
Applause, laughter, greetings among worshippers -- +0
Sermon, prayer -- -30
Opening
and Closing Announcement with Legal ID
Work with your radio station
to make an announcement to be recorded on a cart (radio version of an 8-track
continuous-loop cartridge). This announcement can be worded to be appropriate
for play at the beginning, middle and end of your broadcast.
The
FCC prefers thatstations give a legal identification within 2 minutes of
the top of the hour. A legal ID consists of the call letters plus the station
location, with nothing between. It would be a good idea to include a legal ID
in your announcement. Here are some examples of legal and non-legal IDs:
Legals: [Nothing separating the call letters and the location of the station.]
This is WJJR Mifflinburg
This is the voice of Eastern Pilgrim College at 90.7 on your FM Stereo dial: WABI Allentown
Non-legals:
This is WVMM at 90.7 on the dial, Grantham-Harrisburg
You're listening to WVMM, coming to you from the campus of Messiah College, Grantham-Harrisburg.
Selecting
the Tape
Use quality tape. Cheap tape may sound cheap on the air.
If you're taping a service which has to fit into a 60-minute time slot, it would
be ideal to have a cassette which runs for 60 minutes non-stop. However, such
cassette tape is too thin to be reliable. For broadcast work, use a C-90 cassette
which runs 45 minute on each side. If your deck is auto-reverse in the record
mode, it can be set to reverse and keep right on recording till the end of the
90 minutes.
Keep
Your Heads Clean
A tape deck's record and playback heads pick up a
film of oxide from the passage of the tape after extended use. This accumulation
can make your recordings sound dull and mushy. How often do you clean heads? I
clean the heads of each tape deck I use once a week, whether they need it or not.
You can use a cotton swab and a head-cleaning solution to clean the heads. Or,
you can buy a head-cleaning cassette at your mall Radio Shack for about $5. I
use one with three pads which you moisten with cleaning fluid: an oscillating
pad in the center for the heads and one on either side for the capstans. You'll
be surprised at how quickly these pads turn brown from the accumulation of tape
oxide. This cleaner is ideal for auto-reverse tape decks and it's essential for
cleaning the heads in your car's cassette deck.
Making
Your Tape Fit The Available Time Slot
You can get your tape to fit
into a 60-minute slot by using a stop watch to keep track of elapsed tape time.
Let's say a service runs 80 minutes from the beginning of the song service until
the end of the pastor's altar invitation. Your pastor has told you he wants the
altar invitation to be included in the broadcast. Before the tape is put on the
air, cue it to a point 20 minutes into the service. This point may be after the
congregational singing but before the worship choruses-- and the altar invitation
will be included. If you are able to stop the tape for the announcements or any
other segments of the service deemed less essential, you will be able to use that
much more of the congregational singing.
Audition
Your Own Broadcast.
Always make
a cassette recording of your service on the air. This will give you a chance to
hear yourself as other hear you and make necessary corrective actions.
If you are archiving your services for later listening on the Internet, spot check these archives to assure that your recordings are consistently achieving the standard of broadcast quality.
Church
Worker Handbook Table of Contents
Disclaimer
About the DiskBooks copyright
How
to Download Church Worker Handbook Files
Return to
Church Worker Handbook Home Page
Return to DiskBooks
Home Page
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