okay, this is the fourth in a series of posts that will cover a variety of church audio fundamentals. this stuff will really only appeal to our beloved tech folks. but it wouldn’t be a bad idea for our ‘talent’ types to peruse this info as well. who knows, might come in handy someday.
so, let’s review some church audio fundamentals …
four basic steps to a church sound check
- make sure it works
- set gain structure
- set monitors
- set house
okay, for this post we finally get to make loud noises come through those big speakers. it’s about time…
first, make sure everything sounds good by itself. that means using our ‘solo’ or ‘cue’ button on the console to go through our channels one at a time and see how they sound in isolation . and don’t use headphones. no one else in the room is going to be hearing this through headphones, so what it sounds like there isn’t important. most larger consoles have a function that will direct the output of whatever you have solo’d directly to the main outputs. this is super handy so long as you remember to turn it back off before ‘show time’. [the big analog desks i used to use had this switch under a cover like a missile launcher and they'd flash really annoyingly when they were in this mode. beats putting on the headphones and cueing up the bass not knowing you're providing the same bass solo to everyone in the house. not that i ever did that. but i did.]
then, build up a mix. every FOH guy i’ve ever seen starts from the drums and builds up from there. don’t. fight the urge to be all ‘left-to-right’/'bottom-to-top’/whatever. i learned a long time ago [when i was working for solo artists and they were literally signing my paycheck] to start with the lead vocal and build my mix around that. people rarely come to hear the drummer. right or wrong, they come to hear the singer. and, even in church, they come to hear the song, not the band. so start with the lead vocal and then build your mix around that. you’ll find you have a much easier time making everything else sit properly when you do it that way.
finally, some tips and tricks
- watch how you set up your inputs on your console. i’ve always patched my desk so that i can reach everything i need to adjust often without moving. that means i start with drum overheads in channel one, not the kick drum. and i make sure my vocal channels are right there in the middle where i can fiddle with them easily.
- build your mix around the stage volume rather than trying to overcome it. churches aren’t concert venues. overpowering those drums is gonna hurt down front. keep your levels reasonable and everyone will thank you for it.
- remember that you may have to ‘thin out’ some things to make them sit better in the total mix. for example, guitars and vocals are always fighting for mid-range space, so you might have to lose a bit of that almighty tone to make both play well together.
- put your subs on an aux send. this one is an old trick, but very handy. you can send just what you want to the subs. you can also give them a little boost to give a feeling of power without actually making things all that loud.
- get it right and LEAVE IT ALONE. if you’ve done the mix right, you should only need the occasional tweak for a solo or to turn down that pesky guitar player who keeps turning his marshall up.
- recheck your mix constantly. while you should fight the urge to adjust constantly, mentally go through and listen for each instrument. if you can go through each person on stage and hear them clearly, you’ve pretty much accomplished your goal.
yeah, 6 tips is a nice arbitrary number, so let’s stop there. thanks to all for hanging with me though all of this. i can assure you that, as long as these posts have been, i’ve deleted more than i’ve included. so if you have specific questions. please don’t hesitate to drop me a note and ask.
bfn,
brian
