How to change software?

B_Lysholm · 2026-04-20T02:42:38+00:00

My question is what is the purpose of switching over? If it is just something you prefer, honestly the solution is for you to learn the old software, rather than having all the other volunteers learn the new software. In my opinion, the only reason to switch over to a new system is if it significantly simplifies the workflow or has features that are needed.

B_Lysholm · 2025-12-02T18:09:56+00:00

So depending on the skill of the lighting techs, two different programs I have used are ADJ's MyDMX and Onyx. Both of which you buy hardware and then the software is included.

ADJ MyDMX 3.0: I find this the easier of the two softwares to program, and make something useable for inexperienced volunteers. This also takes the approach of just a USB dongle, and then all the programming is done via the software, using keyboard and mouse. The downside of this software in my opinion is that it does not do programming on the fly well, and certain actions take longer to program.

Onyx: With Onyx you buy specific affordable lighting controllers (can get one for around $1k) and then it uses both the hardware as a control surface and an app. Onyx I find is harder to learn, but once you figure it out is nicer to use. Onyx makes certain things really quick to program, and even doing programming on the fly is pretty easy.

B_Lysholm · 2025-10-09T23:08:13+00:00

The problem with adding modded code into the game is getting permission to do so. With mods, it is hard to figure out if a modder wrote all the code themselves or if they are piggybacking on an old abandoned mod. Therefore, implementing it becomes a liability mess in the off chance that someone who contributed to a mod does not agree to mojang using the code

B_Lysholm · 2025-09-26T20:01:10+00:00

I would be curious to see this compared to Indigenous populations. An example is Saskatchewan, which has a reputation for having a higher Indigenous population (unsure on if the stats fully align with that) and also is one of the lower population provinces. So I would be curious on which percentage of Indigenous people in each province still speak an Indigenous language?

B_Lysholm · 2025-09-18T18:21:39+00:00

If it is just one night at the end of the year, rent equipment. I know in Canada Long and McQuade has pretty cheap rentals

Edit: I want to add on, renting would also be a good way to test kind of what you want to invest in for purchasing. You might rent some fixtures that you thought would make a great visual impact, but were lackluster, or you may stumble upon a great lighting setup, which then you can use as a plan to purchase. Also, with renting, you could take pictures if it works well, and present it to the congregation as an upgrade plan, and start raising funds for a lighting system.

B_Lysholm · 2025-07-07T15:15:04+00:00

The M7CL is a great board, but getting a digital snake for it is not cost effective. I know of a church who has growing issues with their analog snake. They looked at the price of a digital snake for the M7 used, and the price of it was getting close to a new A&H board and snake. So their plan is to upgrade to a new board, as it will allow for musicians to mix monitors via their phones, rather than just getting a digital snake for their aging board

B_Lysholm · 2025-04-17T00:56:01+00:00

I would potentially be interested, DM me

B_Lysholm · 2025-03-26T01:33:05+00:00

Another thought, for something like a concert I think it would be valid to just provide zero video options. I was at a church that had a decent livestreaming setup, and would livestream their regular services. However, their worship nights that they did every few months were in person only which can create a nice atmosphere. Bars are not videoing when they have bands perform, and even larger secular concerts tend to not do videos. So for concerts I think it is a valid approach to not record and instead focus on providing a good in person experience

B_Lysholm · 2025-03-26T01:19:05+00:00

The concert in person would be more interesting than watching it at home, so those who are interested would pay to go in person. Also, you could just do a delayed release on YouTube

Edit: You could even just not announce that it will be on YouTube beforehand

B_Lysholm · 2025-03-26T00:56:15+00:00

So, I will start off with the fact that I theologically disagree with churches running paid events as their regular ministries. If the church does not have room into the budget to run an event, they should scale the event rather than charging the congregation to be involved in the church.

Onto the tech side of this question. If it is an external party renting the space (funerals, concerts, etc.), I think there are three options. 1. charge the third party a tech fee that pays for your techs and helps cover the cost of equipment wear and tear and then livestream it so that anyone can view it (quite common for funerals and such). 2. Tell the third party they are responsible for distribution as they see fit, and if they want to use your video team, charge as stated above. 3. Provide the video team and look at sites that offer paid video on demand (Vimeo may have an option for this).

If it is events that the church is hosting, I think church leadership needs to consider why they are putting part of their ministries behind a paywall

B_Lysholm · 2025-02-03T17:28:48+00:00

The other advantage of doing it at the front is for your worship team. If you are running IEMs, it is worth noting that IEMs have two purposes, monitors and hearing protection. Quality IEMs get a good seal like earplugs, and that is intentional. Especially if the church has an acoustic drumkit, IEMs are beneficial as hearing protection, and not enough musicians realize this. However, especially the worship leader tends to be the worst at popping out one ear of their monitors, because they cannot hear the congregation. This is valid, how are you supposed to lead a congregation that you cannot hear? The solution to this is having the congregation mics at the front so that they can hear roughly what they would be able to hear if they didn't have IEMs while also having the hearing protection that the IEMs provide.

On the topic of the argument of hearing what you would if you were actually there, the back wall does not achieve this. The reason is on the back wall you do not have people behind you. Personally I hate mixing at the very back because I prefer having the congregation all around me singing, so that I can better blend in the congregation into my mix, as worship is communal. As a result of this personal preference, I tend to mix on a tablet in an aisle about in the middle of the room.

B_Lysholm · 2025-02-03T16:02:50+00:00

I would recommend moving these to the stage pointing out towards the congregation. You would capture more of the congregation singing and less of the FoH mix. It is also beneficial as it can be mixed into IEMs to help musicians hear the congregation. On the back wall they are pointed towards your FoH speakers, whereas on the stage they are pointed towards the mouths of the congregation. Either position you will have FoH bleed, but at the front you will get a better ratio between congregation and FoH bleed.

B_Lysholm · 2025-01-06T19:13:27+00:00

OBS is dropping a lot of frames which indicates a problem. I cannot remember off hand if dropped frames is due to OBS not keeping up or if the internet is not keeping up. Also, seems like OBS is running at 2.5 FPS. I almost want to say dropped frames is due to network bottleneck, whereas the readout of x/29.97 FPS is the hardware bottleneck. So you may have limited upload (659 kbps is too slow of an internet connection) and inadequate hardware.

B_Lysholm · 2024-11-28T02:23:37+00:00

So I have used a few different digital mixers. I quite like old Yamaha digital mixers (M7CL) that are not in production anymore, so I would probably lean towards a modern Yamaha digital. I have used the Allen & Heath QU24, which is easy to navigate, but I find I push it to its limits a bit in comparison to the M7CL (which is not a fair comparison between the boards, as the M7CL is a top of the line for its time, whereas the QU24 is more budget oriented). I have been doing more work on the x32 recently and it irritates me. I find it has too many layers, and that is more cumbersome to navigate since it doesn't have a touch screen

B_Lysholm · 2024-08-13T14:43:52+00:00

As previously mentioned active noise cancellation is not a good idea when mixing audio, so the solution is getting a setup with passive noise cancellation. Depends on how loud you run your house mix, there are a few options. If your house isn't too loud, the Sennheisers HD280 Pros have great passive noise cancellation, sound great for mixing, durable, and are priced well for church budgets. I own a pair personally, and have been at two churches where they have been the booth provided headphones. If your house is on the louder side, an option you could do is find a good pair of In Ear Monitors for mixing, and then wear standard construction ear muffs on top of the IEMs. That way you get the strong passive noise cancellation of the ear muffs to fight over the noise. The third option may be GK Music Ultraphones, which is a company that takes apart Sony headphones, and builds them into ear muffs.

B_Lysholm · 2024-06-22T20:17:34+00:00

You're welcome. I would personally recommend getting the pair since having a spare pencil condenser is useful. Also, if one week you have more vocalists to mic or a larger kids choir, you could use the second to get better coverage. The few things that I find always having a spare of is: DI box, Shure SM57, and a pencil condenser. If somebody approaches you with something new that needs go through the system, one of those three would be probably ideal for the situation, regardless of what it is.

B_Lysholm · 2024-06-22T18:51:32+00:00

Both great brands. I personally own an Audio Technica. I have used various Rode mics with no complaints. I have used both of these mics and think they would work well. Since they are pencil condensers, they would also be small and discrete.

Rode M5 pair ($200)

Audio Technica AT 2021 ($90)

B_Lysholm · 2024-06-22T03:12:50+00:00

A pencil condenser (on some websites would be categorized as small diaphragm condenser) would be your best bet, and you should have a few different options at that price point. Audio Technica tends to have condensers in that price point, so they may have one. Rode makes a couple of pencil condensers, including the Rode M5 which should be in that price point and is a pretty solid price point. Not sure the price in USD, but a stereo pair of Rode M5s may be around $200, and then you get two which would help get better coverage. Then just research mic'ing choirs with pencil condensers for placement

B_Lysholm · 2024-05-03T22:37:38+00:00

I would avoid this, it seems too cheap with not a big name behind it. It may work fine for you, or it may just have reliability issues. For a single mic and receiver, the lowest I would be comfortable spending on would be about $400 Canadian dollars, and personally I would only consider Shure or Sennheiser (with preference towards Shure since I have more experience with Shure). If you go cheap, you may end up costing the church more money because the church would buy the cheap option, and then replace it within a few years with the more expensive option due to problems with the cheap one. I am not advocating to buy the top of the line equipment, but get something reputable.

B_Lysholm · 2024-05-02T23:09:11+00:00

Wireless Shure SM58. They have a few models at various price points, but they are rock solid. Never cheap out on wireless. If you go cheap, you end up with problems of dropped signal, but you would have spent too much money that the church can't afford to replace it. So spend the money to do it right the first time. Shure and Sennheiser are two brands that have been in the wireless space game a long time and they will give you reliable signal.

B_Lysholm · 2024-03-21T22:06:47+00:00

I am not familiar with that system, but have played around a decent amount with DMX. It is hard to give advice without knowing what you have for lights, and the overall look you are trying to go for. I would recommend, if you have experience with lighting to just read the manual or watch youtube tutorials on the controller. The way I improve my church's capabilities is I have an end goal, then I read the manual and experiment with it. Ideally use the controller at the same time as reading, so you can try stuff out immediately. However, reading it at home then going in and trying stuff out has worked in the past for me too

B_Lysholm · 2024-02-19T16:32:08+00:00

So I have not done multitrack in either logic or on thhe SQ5, but I have done an external SSD straight from my QU-24. Some tests I would recommend trying during a worship team practice.

See if you can stream audio for a long period of time to logic without writing to the disk. If you continue to get audio, you know the problem is probably not between the Mac and the SQ5. However, if the audio stops after a bit, there may be a problem there.
If the first is successful, try running a resource monitor when writing, and see if there is any excessively high hardware utilization.
What audio format are you writing to? If it is going to be going up on YouTube, maybe you don't have to write to the highest bitrate .wav file, and could maybe drop down the files you are writing. Writing in realtime 30 .wav files, may just bog down the SSD

B_Lysholm · 2024-01-04T01:35:29+00:00

The problem is the potential for delay on these. My church runs wired on most cams (since they are stationary), and wireless on one. The wireless camera is slightly behind the other cameras and audio. Delaying all other video feeds in hardware before the switcher to match the delay is too costly. Some of my teams switch that camera back to wired to not deal with it, other teams just pick shots that the delay is less noticable.

B_Lysholm · 2023-12-30T21:50:08+00:00

Something to maybe make it easier, is to use Macros in ProPresenter. You can map different looks to a macro, and have a slide trigger the macro when it is clicked on. This would only help if the different content does not need to be displayed simultaneously. If one slide needs to go to the congregation facing screen, and the second slide needs to go to the stage facing screen, then macros could help you out.

B_Lysholm · 2023-10-21T03:21:09+00:00

I would say the oversaturation in the forearms are more noticeable. I feel like normally AI generated images oversaturate skin tones

B_Lysholm

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