Managing Creatives is Tricky...

Photo courtesy of Robert Huffstutter

Creative people can be a hard lot to manage. And I say that as a creative person who has also had to manage other creatives. Part of the problem is that most of us tend to assume that other people are like us. So, if you’re a left-brained analytical person, you tend to assume that everyone else is similar. As such, walking into the tech booth and saying, “It’s too loud,” or, “Can we kill the haze,” or “I don’t like that background for the second song,” seems like a perfectly logical and non-offensive thing to do. And it would be; if your tech booth was populated by left-brained analytical people. But it’s not. So your words have far more meaning than you think they do.

I was reading an article in Fast Company a few weeks ago. They were doing a feature story on the head of J. Crew. Now, even though I’m normally pretty fashionable in my tech standard-issue black t-shirt and blue jeans, I normally don’t pay much mind to J. Crew. But the article caught my eye so I started reading. One quote from the young president, Jenna Lyons, really resonated with what we do in the technical arts. She says:

“When someone creates something and puts it in front of you, that thing came from inside them, and if you make them feel bad, it’s going to be hard to fix, because you’ve actually crushed them.” 

This simple, run-on sentence really helps clarify why we feel so hurt by a simple, “It’s too loud” comment. I think it perfectly illustrates the disconnect between most church leaders and their technical staff. Leadership tends to think that the tech people are left-brained analytical people who just happen to understand technology better and know how to push the right buttons at the right time.

To be sure, some of us are like that. But the best technical artists I know are just that; artists. Mixing a worship set isn’t just bring up the faders to unity and turning the pastor’s mic off. There is as much artistry going on behind the mixer as there is on the stage (sometimes more; but that’s another post). The best lighting guys don’t just turn on lights—they carefully choose colors, angles and intensity to appropriately convey the mood of the song. The presentation tech picks backgrounds that go with the lights and the song. It’s all art; varying degrees, but still art. 

So what the left-brained person thinks is a totally neutral, fact-based comment is actually much more. Walking into the booth and saying, “It’s too loud,” or “Can you turn the guitar down?” and leaving is not at all unlike throwing a hand grenade into the booth, then leaving. You thought it was a statement of fact, but it’s more like tearing up your 4-year old’s painting in front of her.

Now to be sure, we artists need to develop thicker skin. We are in a service business and ultimately we need to serve our leadership and their vision of the church and service. It’s important for us to recognize that our leaders aren’t intending to crush us with their comments. They are pointing out a problem that they see needs to be solved. And as problem-solvers, we should be good at this. 

But somehow, we need to develop better methods of communication between the artists and thinkers. Church leaders need to understand that we’re not picking values at random—a lot of our hearts and soul goes into whatever we’re doing. At least it should. The danger comes when the artist gets so beaten down that they give up and fall back to, “Whatever you want” mode. 

And while the left-brained types think it would be much better for everyone if they didn’t have to deal with those “out there artists,” the reality is, they don’t want that. Because a purely intellectual expression of the Gospel is an incompletely expression. The church needs artists, desperately. God himself is the ultimate artist, and when we as artists express what is in us, we are all better off for it. 

Somehow, we need to figure out how to get along, and how to better communicate with each other. Only then will the church be all it can be.

CTW Review: myMix Personal Mixing System Pt. 2

Last time, we looked at the basic components of the myMix system. Today, we’ll put the system together and see how it sounds. 

Configuration

Once I had the system wired together (which was very easy—no manual needed), I wirelessly connected to the myMix PLUG for configuration. The PLUG is a small computer and wireless access point that serves as the interface between the user’s browser and the myMix network. I did need the single page “manual” for this step, but only to get the IP address to hit with my browser, and to learn the username and password. Once connected, configuration was pretty easy. myMix uses a straight HTML interface for configuration, which is both good and bad. It’s good because no additional software is needed; you can hit it from any browser.

The downside is that you’re limited to HTML-accessible controls, which means buttons and drop downs. The layout is not the prettiest, and it takes a little bit to get the lay of the land amongst the rows of similarly sized buttons. Once you get it, it’s pretty easy to get around on.

I got into the input expander and quickly named the channels and set the stereo pairs up. That took about 3 minutes. I then started configuring the myMix mixers. It didn’t take long to get my inputs assigned; the biggest challenge (which wasn’t really that hard) was figuring out where to turn off the built-in inputs so I could access all 16 inputs from the input expander (hint: it’s in preferences; select “None” for the built-in inputs). With that done, I put on my headphones and built my mix.

Sound Quality

I noticed this at NAMM, and it was confirmed again in the studio—these sound good. The headphone amps are very, very stout, and easily drove my Heil ProSet 3 headphones very loud. I tried my Ultimate Ears UE900s and UE7s, and had to turn the unit down. So volume will be no problem. The sound is also very clean. The audio is 48KHZ, 24-bit, and it sounds like it. Even when I clipped the inputs (you see clipping when the channel names turn red), I heard no distortion. 

The sound quality gets a two thumbs up rating from me. It’s easy to set up different configurations on the unit, and save them as Profiles. This can be accomplished through the Control software interface, or on the units themselves. One feature that was very handy was being able to set up a profile on one unit, then quickly copy it via the web interface to another. You can also save profiles, and upload those to other units via the web interface. It would be very easy to build multiple starting configurations and upload them for each musician as needed. 

You can also adjust the individual mixes on each unit using the web interface, but you probably won’t want to. This is one of the big limitation of the HTML interface. To set the volume of a mix channel, you select from a drop down menu that gives you volume values in .5 dB increments. Panning is the same way, only you select items like “72% L / 18% R.” And once you set all the levels, you hit apply to make the changes stick. Building mixes on the mixer is much, much faster. 

On the other hand, the cool thing about Control is that you can put it on a network and access it literally from anywhere. In fact, if you visit mymixaudio.com, you can log into their myMix network and see that input expanders and myMixers they have plugged in. This could be useful for troubleshooting. 

You can also select various parameters to lock the user out of. For example, if you don't want the user changing channel selections, you can lock that feature out. The list of lockable parameters is quite extensive, so you have very granular control, which would be nice for keeping musicians out of the configuration pages.

Conclusion

As I said at the start of this review, I was initially not that impressed with the concept of myMix. But as it’s grown up and more features have been added, I think it’s a solid system. Price-wise, you’re looking at just under $800 each per mixer. The input expanders run about $1,000 (add $300 to include the ADAT ports). The POE switch will set you back $200-800 depending on model and number of ports (they recommend various models from D-Link, Cisco and Netgear). Finally, the myMix PLUG is just under $700. 

So it’s not a low-budget option, but it’s a highly flexible one. Cost-wise, it’s on par with Aviom, but it’s far more capable and sounds a lot better. You can save and pre-build mixes like we do on the Roland M-48s, though it doesn’t have the channel count or mixing ability (the M-48s can mix 40 channels into 16 stereo groups). 

And we didn’t even talk about the ability to record multi-track audio of all 16 channels on the system at any or all of the mixers on a simple SD card. What a great way for musicians to be able to listen to and critique their playing (and hopefully get better). 

Overall, I’d say it’s a pretty robust and capable option.

Today's post is brought to you by CCI Solutions. With a reputation for excellence, technical expertise and competitive pricing, CCI Solutions has served churches across the US in their media, equipment, design and installation needs for over 35 years.

Church Tech Weekly Episode 147: Vocalists Don't Pan A Lot

It's all about monitors this week! We delve into the various monitor options that we can choose from; mixing from FOH, a monitor desk, personal mixers, iPad options and even hybrid solutions. Plus, In The News.

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Today's post is brought to you by the Roland R-1000. The R-1000 is a multi-channel recorder/player ideal for the V-Mixing System or any MADI equipped console or environment. Ideal for virtual sound checks, multi-channel recording, and playback.

CTA Review: myMix Personal Mixing System

Sixteen channel personal mixers are not new, nor is there a shortage of them. However, the myMix offers an interesting take on the concept. Introduced a few years ago, I was initially excited about the system. But then I learned that the only way to get inputs into the system was to plug into each individual mixer, two channels at a time. I liked the interface, but that mode of inputs just didn’t work. 

The folks at myMix heard that, and set off to develop an input module. Now that it’s possible to get 16-32 channels on the network using a module, now we have something to talk about. So to start off, let’s consider the components of the system. 

System Components

To get signal into the system, you can use the IEX-16L or IEX-16L-A input expansion module. Both feature 16 analog inputs on DB25 connectors; the -A model adds two ADAT inputs. You can mix and match input types in groups of 8; so 8 channels analog, 8 channels ADAT or all 16 via the same type—unless you don’t have the -A model, then it’s all analog. myMix sells some cool DB-25 break-in cables that conveniently include both TRS and XLR inputs on the ends. It makes for a slightly messy install, but having both cable ends eliminates a lot of adapting issues.

The big green lights make it easy to see signal flow into the A/D converter.

Once you have your 16 channels on the network (you can actually combine two input expanders on the network to put 32 channels on the digital network), the next piece of gear is a POE Ethernet switch. myMix offers a nice, 8-port Cisco version with two gigabit ports as part of the system. Finally, you use a Cat 5 cable to connect to the myMix mixer. At NAMM this year, they also introduced the myMix Control, which is a software that gives you networked control over all the input modules and myMixers on the network. More on that in a moment.

myMix took a whole new approach to the personal mixing interface. Instead of a blank panel punched through with encoders, there is a nice large LCD screen with a single large knob at the bottom. Four buttons along the right side select various menu elements, and two buttons below the screen mute or start and stop recording. That’s right, you can multi-track record your 16 inputs to an SD card using the built-in card slot. 

Initially, I suspected the single-knob approach would slow the user down, and make it harder to use. But when I played with it at NAMM, I actually found it to be fairly quick to get around on. That was confirmed when I set it up in the Palatial Studio. After configuring the 16 inputs, it didn’t take long to build a mix. Each input has level, tone, pan and effects send options. To use the mixer, spin the knob to select the input you wish to adjust. A single press brings up the volume. The four buttons on the right select the other options. When finished, a second press of the knob returns you to the overview screen. It’s all fairly intuitive and easy to use.

The only criticism I have up to this point is that the type on the screen is pretty small. We have some older musicians on our team and I suspect some would have an issue reading the channel labels. Since I lost my progressives a few weeks ago, I’ve noticed that small type is a bit of a challenge, so I put myself in this category. Thankfully, the screen is illuminated and sharp. You can also select a list view of the input channels, which makes the type a bit bigger. You do end up with a little more scrolling, however.

Each myMix mixer also has two XLR/TRS combo jacks on the back. These are inputs, that can be used for each musician’s channels, and/or sent out to the network. One model for use is to have each musician plug their instruments into the myMixers, then everyone on stage can select from everyone’s inputs. A “FOH” mixer could be used to dial up a house mix. In this set up, you wouldn’t even need an input module. It also assumes you’re not mic’ing the full drum kit with 8-10 mic’s.

I suspect that club bands would use this feature more than churches, so I didn’t play with it much. However, for a smaller student or kids venue, that might be useful… Another very clever design feature is the mic-stand mount. It neatly integrates into the bottom of the unit using a single captive thumbscrew. Once the mount is in place, you screw it to the top of any standard mic stand. If you want to set one on a desk, you remove the mount, and four rubber feet protects the surface.

So that gets us through the initial set up and basic components. Next time, we'll see how it works, and more importantly, how it sounds.

Today's post is brought to you by Horizon Battery, distributor of Ansmann rechargeable batteries and battery chargers. Used worldwide by Cirque du Soleil and over 25,000 schools, churches, theaters, and broadcast companies. We offer a free rechargeable evaluation for any church desiring to switch to money-saving,  planet-saving rechargeables. Tested and recommended by leading wireless mic manufacturers and tech directors. 

And by GearTechs. Technology for Worship is what they do. Audio, video and lighting; if it's part of your worship service, and it has to do with technology, GearTechs can probably help. Great products, great advice, GearTechs.