Reflections of a Hard-working, Music-loving Sound Engineer

Serving in worship can be grueling. No matter what role you play, I think you’ll find encouragement in reading Audio Coach Tony Guyer’s story. Sit down with a coffee, maybe even from Papua New Guinea, and let his reflections inspire yours.

God is a God of connections, of threads, interweaving people, experiences, skills, and gifts together for His purposes. 

And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12 ESV

Because we, in our humanity, are bound by time, we often default to a view of our situation and surroundings that is almost two-dimensional. We evaluate our successes and failures based on what we notice directly in front of us. We judge our daily lives based on what we can see and comprehend.

We are about immediacy.

God, however, is not bound by time. As He works, He is constantly connecting threads.

A study of the scripture brings this to light. As we examine the Old Testament and how it sets the stage for the New Testament, it is e p i c.

Why are some dark and complex stories included in the Bible? Because God is connecting threads, establishing His plan.

The lazy theologian only looks at the surface, but there is no better depth perception than the LORD God.

The art that affects me is art with depth. I am fascinated by pictures that have layers. We see the foreground, but what is happening in the background?

When mixing, I always seek to create and facilitate depth - layers that reveal themselves over many listens. It is why we love reverb and delay. We also use low and high frequencies to create d i m e n s i o n in a mix.

Recently, I was reminded how God is weaving threads in my life to create a tangible, captivating picture of how He raises people up.

I was providing production support for the Atoma Conference in Willow Street, PA. It was an incredibly fulfilling and demanding weekend. I got to mix Vertical Worship Band on Friday night and Outpour Worship on Saturday morning.

My team was firing on all cylinders. We brought a new sound system and tuned it for the acoustically challenging room. The bands responded well to the attention to detail that the purposeful production provided. The energy level was very high. We were all enjoying the beauty and power of music at a louder, more celebratory level than the average Sunday morning church service allows.

The church had hired me to model what it looks like to bring art and science together to serve people with production executed to a high standard, so their volunteers could experience it firsthand.

After the conference, we loaded the gear and joined them for the church’s Saturday evening and Sunday morning services, helping them transition back to their existing sound system.

I had the privilege of interacting with Nick Ventresca, one of my former students. He had recently been hired as Tech Director for the church. It is not easy to move from the mountaintop experience of enjoying music performed to a high level on optimized equipment and then return to the limitations of the church’s sound system. But Nick and I were up to the challenge, and with waning energy and lack of sleep, we did our best.

One of the most challenging tasks a sound operator has is to get the fullness and accuracy in a mix while maintaining yet not exceeding established sound levels appropriate to the culture of that particular church community. And this while often working with equipment far from optimized for the acoustic challenges of most churches’ aural architecture!

The congregation’s differing preferences are made more complex and substantive by the broad generational provisions needing to be considered.

While wrestling with these concepts in my weary brain, during four services, I happened to look on stage and see a beautiful, red Gibson ES335 played by an older gentleman. He looked …familiar.

And sure enough, I had met Ed Roland 26 years earlier when he was leading Soul Patrol, a Southern Gospel band of retired police officers that toured locally in Lancaster County. Soul Patrol was looking for a sound operator to do a few shows a month, and although, at the time, I had minimal experience, they were willing to take a chance on me.

I was not into Southern Gospel music, but I liked the harmonies and was a music lover, so I gave it a shot. This experience started my education in mixing as I would seek to hear the harmonies and blend the vocals and instruments to the appropriate levels for that genre.

The band was so humble and generous, and I loved being a small part of what they were trying to do. Along with allowing me to mix, Ed introduced me to Clair Brothers, and I got my foot in the door with some temporary work preparing a system for the Sultan of Brunei.

As I reflected on all these foundational memories, I became emotional, moved to tears, and almost had to take a walk to maintain my composure. I was struck by the threads that were interwoven into this mundane convergence. If it wasn’t for Ed Roland supporting me in my early journey into sound mixing, would I have ended up 26 years later serving Grace Community Church?

And even more remarkable, would I have gained the skills and experience needed to teach Grace Community Church’s newest tech director, Nick, the necessary skills to win the job so he could serve and provide support for Ed and the rest of the Grace Community team?

At a time when I was laboring over the complexities of intergenerational preferences in style and volume, frustrated with the hard work of serving everyone in the church community, it was like God revealed His heart and reminded me of how He likes to make connections. Ed Roland, Tony Guyer, Nick Ventresca, a cord of three strands not quickly broken. 

-Tony Guyer
(purchase our book, "Worship Fertilizer: (the first hundred)" HERE)

Reflections of a Hard-working, Music-loving Sound Engineer (Nº 182)