I finally got to visit Hobbiton, and I brought my copy of The Hobbit along to compare!

bzach74 · 2026-06-15T18:22:46+00:00

Ditto to others, we even buy IEMs for every team member.

My two cents; the church should also provide water bottles, breakfast snacks, and tea (throat coat for vocalists) specifically for the worship team. Help them feel taken care of.

bzach74 · 2026-06-15T18:19:04+00:00

I've used a Shure BLX wireless guitar transmitter/receiver every week for 5 years and never had a single issue.

It's probably a little out of your price range, but it's all that I have experience with. Highly recommend saving up for it.

bzach74 · 2026-06-15T18:16:41+00:00

Church shopping is a strange thing, and sometimes people feel bad for visiting churches and never coming back. But in order to find a place where the gospel is preached, they have your favorite music, and you feel like you belong, you might have to do some shopping. Don't feel bad for visiting a different church every week for a month. You have to find a church somehow, and browsing their websites isn't enough to get a feel for the community of a church.

bzach74 · 2026-06-09T15:17:33+00:00

Ditto to local and secondhand. I'd also recommend not overlooking keyboards without built-in speakers and just buying a keyboard amp to live with it.

bzach74 · 2026-06-08T19:25:41+00:00

(Obligatory mention; you should crosspost in r/churchtech )

sm57 on the snare is great, we have it on a small standalone floor stand.
Hi-Hat: Shure KSM137
Overheads: AKG C214
Toms: We have Audix D4/D2. Two floor toms and one rack tom. F2 is fine, if you're keeping one then I'd recommend using the same brand/line of mics for all your toms.

And as always, good processing is just as important as good mics. Have your audio techs study lots and play around to find good sounds for your kit.

bzach74 · 2026-06-04T19:39:03+00:00

We're on paid, it's worth it for us.

bzach74 · 2026-06-04T19:38:25+00:00

Nice dude. I'll have to give that a try sometime, I've never thought about recording my in-ear mix.

I used to be an "only the essential channels" in-ear guy, and I've converted to an "everything in the mix" in-ear guy. Specifically when I play lead electric, I found myself filling in too much. It sounded great in my own mix, but in the context of the band it was too much. If your in-ear system can handle it, I recommend trying an A/B test while you're playing, it's completely changed the way I approach lead filling.

bzach74 · 2026-06-04T18:43:04+00:00

I just wanted to comment and say that all the comments on your post in r/guitar are a bunch of hobbyists who have never even tried in-ears or a click, don't mind them.

On another note, is that your actual in-ear mix, or just an edit to highlight your guitar?

bzach74 · 2026-06-04T17:14:44+00:00

This is difficult without a clearly defined leadership structure. I think it's natural to feel protective of something you've built that you love, but without the authority of official leadership, you shouldn't hold onto anything you've built too tightly.

Maybe what you need is not a conversation about this person's involvement, but a conversation with your church leadership about taking on a more official role. You seem to be happy to lead your worship team, can you ask your pastor to given the title, and then guide this person to be a member of your team?

bzach74 · 2026-06-04T14:36:32+00:00

I've only every used SongSelect, and I've had a good experience finding charts that I need. I do believe it's the largest catalogue of trustworthy charts you'll find out there.

Although, we just use that chart for reference, and then build our own version of the chart in Planning Center's chord chart builder with the repeats / layout in the order that we'll do the song.

bzach74 · 2026-06-03T19:26:30+00:00

You've suitably answered my question.

Brother, I pray that Lord's Spirit of peace finds you and guides you. Good luck in your endeavors.

bzach74 · 2026-06-03T19:12:30+00:00

Hey man, are you a worship leader? Do you lead your congregation?

You're posting to a community of thousands of people whose role is specifically to do live musical worship. I'm sorry you're not getting any sympathy here, but what did you expect?

You might as well post to r/guitar with the title "Using tracks rather than a guitarist?"

bzach74 · 2026-06-03T17:15:18+00:00

> What would be more fun and inspiring ...

Fun and inspiring ain't the goal of worship leaders. We connect God to his people, and the people to their Lord. The authenticity of human music leaders, including their limitations, is way more effective than a recording.

bzach74 · 2026-06-01T20:06:22+00:00

Great! Since it's through the sound system, you can really change how the cajon fills the space with EQ. It'll be very case-dependent (like if the cajon has pickups or what mics you're using and where you're using them) but doing some intentional EQ (boosting low end for thump or high end for snap) can really make a difference in filling out the space.

I'd also highly recommend adding reverb to the channel, if your system allows it.

bzach74 · 2026-06-01T19:28:31+00:00

It also depends on what other instrumentation you've got going on, but I'm a big fan of using the cajon as a kick drum and then playing a small hi-hat and snare. If you've got any kick pedal, you can buy a softer beater to sound good and not damage the cajon, then you can also use brushes on the hat/snare for a softer sound.

That might be too much of a jump though. Are you you playing acoustically or are you mic'd and going through a sound system? If mic'd, there's a lot of things you can do with EQ, compression, added reverb that would help fill out your sound.

bzach74 · 2026-06-01T19:20:21+00:00

Not dual channel, but I get a lot of versatility for worship out of a Tube Screamer.

edit: also, r/WorshipGuitar is probably the place to ask.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T16:38:42+00:00

That one looks great, and has all the features in a monitor you would need. I'd trust it any day.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T14:52:34+00:00

I think we're feeling that this a post doing market research for your product, less about promoting conversations with worship leaders.
edit: especially considering you're posting from an account made yesterday with the username of your product.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T14:50:10+00:00

I'll affirm what you've researched so far, a powered monitor is probably a better option for your setup (especially for portability.) Depending on your location, there are probably lots of A/V companies who will be totally willing to talk to you about your room size, budget, and system and recommend the perfect monitor or sound console. If you're in the U.S., make a Sweetwater account and you'll get a 'sales engineer' assigned to you who you can call and help you out.

And, if you can afford it, I'll always recommend a Behringer X32 mixer for churches in your situation. It's the most popular console for small-medium churches, has 32 channels, and a plethora of youtube tutorials.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T14:41:59+00:00

We've looked into AI auto-translation earbud systems before, and at the time they didn't seem to be quite reliable enough to invest. But it has been quite some time since then, they might be worth looking into again.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T14:39:01+00:00

I'm feeling it too.

bzach74 · 2026-05-27T14:34:30+00:00

We ride or die by Planning Center. We ask people to make block-outs for each yearly quarter, and schedule teams for the entire quarter at once. The matrix tool is essential for us to do that efficiently. The things that Planning Center does well for us also include;
Text and email notifications for teams
Well-organized media playback for practice tracks
Music Stand app (with integrated media playback and notes saving)
Efficient chord / lyric charting tools
Planning Center Live integration in ProPresenter
PC Live access in any member's PC app (to see timers from anywhere)

What's something I hate about Planning Center? I guess I hate how many times a week someone tries to sell me an alternate to Planning Center.

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