Digital Surfaces Digital Signal Processors (DSP)

[Anonymous067]

Personally, in my experience with church budget committees and such, they aren't going to like this "well we need to replace it, but let's replace it on the assumption that we're getting new speakers and a new console next year." What happens when plans change? What happens when you move on to a new venue? What happens when they find a new company and they spec a new DSP? I don't think we're looking at the big picture here, and doing spotty replacements of certain system components isn't going to make the budget committee happy when they find out what you're up to. If you really need new speakers, they tell them. But WHY do you "need new speakers"? If the answer is "because you can", then you've got the wrong mindset. Don't fix what isn't broken.

I don't mean to be rude, but I've yet to see the motive for replacing this gear. The motive, if any, just seems to keep changing with every post. Sorry, but this is just what I'm seeing, and I'd really hate to see money wasted due to poor planning.

 

[DiscoBoxer]

Museav, you bring up some great points that are very important in determining if this is the right way for him to move forward or at least consider.

In the LCR config that I use at my home church, I almost never pan vocals for the exact reasons you noted. However, I do at times bring in vocal reverbs panned hard and almost always will moderately pan my rhythm and lead guitars or keyboard and synth. I do not pan snare, kick, or bass guitar but will do so with toms.

As you mentioned listener perspective, when I pan say: hard left, a seat in the house that is far right of center is going to have a loss in the sound and it will sound more extreme than say a seat that is slightly off center. This is why I still maintain some of the source in the right speaker with more going to left. In doing so, I gain intelligibility by alowing the source "more room" to have a presence in one speaker over another.

It is common in our house that we have 4 vocalists, 2 guitars, piano, synth, bass, drums, sax, and sometimes violin, harmonica, and choir. As you know they can compete heavily for space in the spectrum and while highlighting certain frequencies and removing others helps, positioning them in the array also helps to create space.

Anonymous067, I don't know Brents role, but in many churches that reach a certain size like 200 total people or more, those churches become busier and begin to move into a stage where they need to consider having dedicated staff to handle tasks. Even in smaller churches, they begin to depend on volunteer techs who have knowledge, to lead them in making appropriate decisions on the growth of their "tech" areas. Not everyone "gets it" and a lot of the smaller churches do not have the funds or the experience to plan a growth budget or hire a consultant.

To fix his current problem to make the system operate at full, he just needs a crossover. Depending on the church style and how they are growing (hopefully they are growing), will set the tone for how important they should be planning on upgrades.

A realistic solid long term plan, IMO, is very important. Without it, could lead to unneccessary expenditures and a system that will not be smooth in operation as they grow through the stages. Plans do change but you can only negotiate with that as they come up. A good system design that fits the vision of the church should be adaptable in phases. Even though I agree with your logic to deal with the issue at hand, I think Brent is also correct in the need to consider the future as a part of his search.

 

[BrentR678]

I think im starting to understand what all of you guys are saying. If there is no real reason to change things, fix just what is broken. And if we were to change everything, more planning is needed then just looking for suggestions.

While I would love to turn into a digital system, I might as well just replace the crossover and be done with it. I really appreciate all of your support as I tried to understand more about this! Thanks again!!!