Mega workshops go from strength to strength
Published: WORSHIP
MALAYSIA: Further Mega Sound Workshops were held during May in Petaling Jaya, the eighth such series since its inception 10 years ago by the organiser Mega Chinese Methodist Church (MCMC). Trainer Robert Soo, who met MCMC in Singapore in 2000, once again took charge of proceedings.
What started out as three full-day basic sessions – covering all the important fundamentals of sound reinforcement systems ranging from microphones, mixers, loudspeakers and basic system setup to conducting sound checks – has now been extended to include an additional three full-day session in the form of an Advance Module, according to Mr Soo.
This module covers the ‘next level’ of topics such as setting proper system gain structure, calculating system power requirements, setting the parameters of various signal processors for system setup and live sound mixes, setting up systems with loudspeaker management systems and setting up and operating digital mixing consoles.
‘These topics are designed to equip sound technicians who already have a good grasp of the audio system basics, and are now ready and eager to progress on to more technically challenged tasks,’ said Mr Soo.
The Advance Module also puts the trainees through a session where they listen to many different musical programmes and have to analyze each piece, identifying music genres, instruments used, playing techniques applied by the musicians and even down to identifying what types of sticks were used by the drummer! ‘If you want to be good at sound mixing, there is no short cut,’ added Mr Soo. ‘It’s not something you can read from a book. You will need a lot of guidance, a lot of critical listening, a lot of practice and a whole lot more understanding and appreciation of all sorts of music out there.’
Much of the audio equipment used at the workshop, such as Allen & Heath mixing consoles, QSC loudspeakers, Ashly processors and Aviom personal monitors, was sponsored by Sindo Exports Pte Ltd from Singapore. The export company has been very supportive of the training programme since the last workshop held in 2010. MCMC hopes to continue organising the series in the years forthcoming, and is considering the possibility of sessions at Sabah and Sarawak in East Malaysia.
Mr Soo is a trainer and consultant based in Singapore, specializing in church AV systems, and has worked with churches in Singapore and abroad for more than 20 years. For information on future Mega Sound Workshops, please contact Patrick Tan on +60 12 334 2730, or at the email below.