with a guitar. Guitar was always frowned on. Anyway, they used to have a mic to the side, but now you stand at the podium - great sound (not). Audio in the church is the worst. Add the podium and maybe a lousy singer and you got a true sleeper. All that and no one applauds. You could be Whitney Houston and silence. What a joke.
I played guitar often in sacrament mtg. I'd bring my mic for the guitar on a boom stand, and plug it into the testimony mic jack, then use the podium mic for the vocals. I got a nice clean sound that way. I actually loved the acoustics in our chapel. My impression was the church invested in some pretty nice sound equipment in their chapels and cultural halls. The mics in the library were EV's..not cheap radio shack equipment.
Some singers in church, however are oblivious to the fact that they are singing way to close to the mic and are distorted.
We used to have this sister who was an opera singer and she ALWAYS sang at Stake Conference. She didn't even use the microphone and she made the lights shake. I remember hearing her at my first Stake Conference, 'our' missionaries sat with us (the ones who baptized us) and as she was shrieking/singing he leaned over to me and in his cute southern utah accent said "Gaw-lee! Imagine when she yells at her kids?" and I cracked up. Well years later in a completely different stake when I had new visiting teachers for some reason that story came up during a visit to me and one of my new teachers very politely said "Oh. That was MY mother." I thought she was joking and I said "Ya RIGHT!" and laughed some more. And she looked me straight in the eye and said "I'm not kidding. That's my mother..." O.M.G. I could have crawled under the couch!!! LOL!!!
one christmas an exchange student from germany sang silent night in german. she wasn't a member. apparently nobody told her there would be no applause at the end. when she was finished (it was beautiful) she stood there and waited for applause. finally she came off the stand looking totally humiliated. she left the chapel crying. excruciating.
Someone really should get up and sing "House of the Rising Sun" with organ accompaniment. I know, they would not last long before getting kicked off. But it's a fun thought.