I've been a soundman for a number of years. The first day I took over I was taken into a corner by the keyboard player and his wife. I was told that my position was critical to the moving of the spirit. That if I didn't have it loud the spirit would not move..........WHAT ARE YOU SMOKING!!! That was the question I was thinking. Instead I asked them did I then have the power to "make" a service? Oh yes they said. I left that meeting and proceeded to do everything in my power to destroy that mindset. Within a month the audience was telling me how nice it sounded, how their ears didn't hurt, how they didn't have headaches anymore when they left church. I took that and basically told everyone short of the pastor that I was cuttingthe strings the platform had on the the soundman. If they had a problem with it they could take it up with the congregation. The preacher was still a problem though. I simply informed him that from now I would be refering all complaints about how loud he was to him. It didn't take much of that till he left me alone about his mix. Not many could get away with such a hardline stand. Lucky for me I was the only one who knew what he was doing so they were pretty well stuck with me.
