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Thank you for taking the time to learn the Audio Mixing course. The world of church audio is a place of great awe and wonder. It is a place of great responsibility where you are called to serve on His behalf to serve the congregation.

Church audio is more than adjusting volumes and setting up microphones. There is teamwork, servant-hood, creativity, and scientific knowledge. This course is intended to for you to learn all these important aspects of church audio and how you can become a great audio tech for our church.

PURPOSE

The purpose of church audio production is;

1. Supporting the pastor, the worship leader, and the musicians in accomplishing their goals
2. Taking into consideration the needs & desires of the congregation
3. Balancing all of that with proper live audio production processes and procedures.

Your purpose is not to mix the way you want. Your purpose is not to mix regarding only one or two of the three purpose-points. Your purpose is mixing with all three points in mind all the time.

ROOKIE MISTAKES

Starting out in church audio, we might think the purpose is to support the musicians, the leaders, and the congregation equally. That’s impossible. Whom would you follow when there are differences of opinion. We can think to mix the way it should be done. But what if someone disagreed? Then what would we do?  These are called rookie mistakes.

Rookie mistakes, as it relates to purpose, are usually one of these;

1. I’ll mix the way I want because I’m the one mixing. This doesn’t benefit anyone and it builds animosity between yourself and the worship team.
2. I’ll do whatever you say. This one will be covered in more detail at the end of the chapter. In short, you are the best person for the job. That’s why you are in the sound booth.
3. It doesn’t matter, because no one notices. The mentality is that “it’s just church.” Yes, it’s church where we recognize we aren’t perfect creatures. However, we are new creations in Christ and it’s where we worship the Holy God. Doesn’t it make sense that we give him our best?

Rookie mistakes are rookie mistakes. It’s ok if you make a rookie mistake. We all have our own share of these. Push those mistakes aside and look at your real purpose in church audio. Fulfilling this purpose, you are ultimately presenting your work to Him as your own form of worship.

PURPOSE IN PRACTICE

The purpose does not give much of the details on how to handle every situation. So how would you server this purpose in practice?  Here are a few examples:

1. Showing up on time and working responsibility
2. Maximizing the speaker’s speech intelligibility. This means you mix their voice in a way so the congregation can clearly hear the message
3. Working proactively to prevent problems. They need to know the equipment is going to function as expected and if there are problems, you can resolve them quickly, efficiently, and without completely spazzing out!

Working in live audio production for all these years, I’ve heard a lot of comments from church sound techs that go along the lines of these three points;

1. They won’t let me run the sound level high enough.
2. Mr ‘X’ says I have too much of the drums in the mix.
3. The musicians always want “more me” in their monitor

Look at each of these sentences in light of the purpose of church audio production. How does the purpose shed light on the comment?

Let’s start with the first one; volume issues. You might be limited on your volume because that’s a level the congregation deemed appropriate. It might be the congregation, as a whole, doesn’t worship fully when the volume exceeds a specific level. You are supporting the goals of the pastor and the congregation, not mixing for your own aural pleasure.

Next, “too much drums in the mix.” Again, this could be a pastoral or congregational issue. The congregation demographics might trend towards an older crowd who don’t like the loudness drums can bring to a mix. You might have someone that came from a musically-conservative background and the idea of drums is near-revolting to them. It could be the worship leader has a musical arrangement so the drums are supposed to be quieter in the mix. Again, how does the purpose line up with your personal goal in mixing?

Finally, the good old “more me in the monitor” issue. It’s here where your purpose might not reveal itself in the way you expect. A response of total servant-hood to the musician is to continue raising their volume levels in the monitors until they are satisfied. However, as you’ll learn in later modules on stage volume and proper monitor usage, raising their volume could be the worst thing you could do for them. The inexperienced musician needs to be educated in proper monitor levels and what they need to hear in their monitor. It’s your job to educate them and provide them the appropriate monitor mix so they can best play or sing on stage. You are supporting their purpose by educating them. Reviewing these three points, you are fulfilling your purpose by obeying volume restrictions, by mixing so as not to offend the congregation, and by educating the musicians.

But then it happens…you get a request that you don’t like.

HANDLING DISAGREEMENTS

In a perfect world, the pastor, the worship leader, and the musicians have a foundational knowledge of audio and default to you for making judgment calls based on your knowledge of audio. However, in the real world, you will find yourself working with people with a variety of knowledge, experience, and attitudes so let’s talk about disagreements. Disagreements arise when one person believes in an idea and someone else thinks the idea is bad. This is true of church audio. Here are just a few common categories of disagreements that come to mind;

1. Point of View. Someone on stage says the house mix needs more or less of something. They might think the guitar EQ is off but they aren’t hearing the sound from the house speakers so you disagree with their idea, and rightfully so.
2. Style differences. The worship leader asks how it sounds and you say the violin sounds out of place in the bridge of the song. They say “I think it works.” Who’s right in this case?
3. Cutting-edge ideas. “I want a running water fountain to be put on the stage after the worship band plays for my sermon illustration.”
4. Process and procedures. This one sticks out in my mind thanks to my sixth-grade math teacher. She would say “it’s my way or the highway.” I’ve rarely seen a process that couldn’t be improved. And in some cases, I’ve seen procedures that were just plain wrong!

There are some occasions when I thought the idea set forth by someone was completely ridiculous and without merit. This is where you need a few rules to live by. Follow these and you’ll do fine;

1. The pastor is always right. If they are set on wanting something done a certain way then do it. After the service, evaluate the results. Did their idea work? Did it not? If not, remember it in case they ever bring up the idea again. “The last time we tried that, it didn’t work out so well.”
2. If escalating the disagreement before the service will negatively impact anyone (which could impact the service), then do what you are asked with the stipulation that you wish to discuss this further after the service or at a later date.
3. If the request of the person will jeopardize someone’s personal safety then you need to consult with someone above you. For example, if a guitarist insists on using an effects processor with loose wires and it’s an obvious safety hazard, then talk with the worship leader about your concern.
4. Know when to let it go. A wacky idea may sound like the dumbest thing you’ve ever heard…yet the inventor of the Pet Rock became a millionaire and reality TV has its own cable channel. Maybe their idea just might work.
5. Some disagreements arise because the other person doesn’t have the knowledge that you have. For example, the people on choir side can’t tell you how to mix because they can’t hear what you hear. Also, the guitarist might not understand how all the different instruments have to work together in the mix, so when you tell them they need to take
6. out a little distortion from their overdrive pedal, they think you are crazy. Educate people in a kind way and often you’ll win them over.
7. Don’t take disagreements as personal attacks.
8. When in doubt, refer to your purpose.

Let us be clear, We are not saying it’s ok to disagree whenever you see fit. There are times when you need to call an idea into question and there are times when you just need to let it slide. If you are relatively new to church audio, then you should consider putting in 6-12 months behind the mixer before you start questioning anyone. Working with great leaders and musicians, the teamwork mentality will make those disagreements seem like simple exchanging of ideas.

BACKGROUND

I have been involved with the church audio system since 1996 when we separated from our sister church in Farmer’s Branch. Then our congregation was small and we had a newly installed audio system that was close to where the choir stood. It was easy to mix as I was part of the choir. We moved to the Carrollton facility in 2006 and the sound booth was at the back. We now need coordination between the audio engineer and the musicians. However, our needs were simple and the system was good enough to operate. Then by 2012 new members from other areas joined and they demanded more sophisticated mixing from the audio engineers.

The youth group also played an important role as they started to take a greater interest in the worship and music. We upgraded our audio system with more inputs, monitors, and microphones. Now the system became more complex. There was no clear vision on how to bring all of these together, how to communicate with each of the organizations and how to best use the system we have.

Imagine yourself going to a restaurant where the cook is in the back preparing food with no clue on what kind of customers are seated and you don’t have a menu to know what food you can order because there is one type of food that is served there. This is like the “Thattu kada” style restaurant in some of the remote parts in Kerala. It has worked great for decades and is still applicable in some of those parts. Our church has grown beyond those needs and we now have a need to provide better customer service to our congregation. This training course is intended to prepare our church members to serve those needs.

Cables

The golden rules on cable use:

1. Always use the shortest cables possible for improving safety and securing them with gaff tape when in foot traffic areas.
2. Use color-coded cables to easily trace them.
3. After use, promptly wrap them for easy storage.

The list below shows the typical cables used in our church. Click on the small image on the left column to enlarge it.

XLR Cable

TRS Cable

TS Cable

RJ45 Cable

DI Boxes

DI, pronounced “dee eye, “stands for direct input, direct injection or direct interface depending on your source. It’s commonly called, simply, a DI box. Putting it in simple terms, a DI box enables you to convert a variety of different signal strengths and cable types into a common output type for sending to the mixing board.

There are two types of DI boxes; passive and active. Each has its own unique benefits and requirements. A passive DI unit typically consists of an audio transformer and is used for a single job. Passive units are simple in their features either having no settings or a limited few. The limited features can include a ground lift switch (to remove ground loop hum) and a pad switch (to reduce the input level of different source levels). An active unit can control signal strength, advanced sound coloring options such as a mini-EQ, and signal phase control. The active DI unit contains a preamplifier and requires a power source, via batteries, phantom power, or a standard AC outlet connection. Our church does not use active DI boxes.

In the Advanced course, you will learn about how DI boxes handle unbalanced signals and impedance mismatches. The diagram below shows how DI boxes are often connected to keyboards.

Microphones

Handheld Wireless Mic

Lavalier Microphones

Wired Microphones

Gooseneck Podium Microphones

Hanging Microphones

Microphone Directionality

Stage Box

Analog Stage Box

Digital Stage Box

The Mixer

Digital Mixer

The heart of audio mixing is the Digital Mixer. An audio mixer is a device with the primary function to accept, combine, process and monitor audio. Mixers are primarily used in four types of environments: live (at a concert), in a recording studio, for broadcast audio, and for film/television. An audio mixer can come in either analog or digital form. Digital mixers perform the same functionality as analog mixers but are loaded with lots of conveniences.

The biggest advantage they hold is instant “recall.” This means a mix (or setup) can be reloaded to the exact parameters from when it was last saved. Every knob, switch, button, and fader will snap to its saved position. Analog consoles have to be recalled manually, meaning each knob, button, switch, and fader has to be documented and returned to its original position by hand. This can be a time-consuming and tedious process.

You will learn the basic functionality of the mixer in the next module. The Advanced course will take you to more complex audio mixing scenarios.

Amplifiers

The diagram shows one of the amplifiers used at our church. There are currently four amplifiers in use. They feed outputs to:

1. Two main speakers inside the sanctuary,
2. Monitors for Choir and Altar,
3. One Sub-Woofer
4. Two Speakers in the foyer area
5. Two Speakers in the fellowship hall.

Amplifiers boost the signals output from the mixer and send it to the speakers. The speaker rating and the amplifier’s rating need to match.

Speakers and Monitors

Bose 502-A

These are the main speakers inside the sanctuary.

Bose MA24

This is the subwoofers that is hidden on the top left side of the altar. Subwoofers produce low-frequency sound which travels in all directions. Hence they need not be placed directly facing the congregation.

Bose 402 Series II

These speakers are used as monitors for the Choir and the Altar area.

Bose 302 A

These 70V speakers are placed in the Foyer area and the Fellowship hall.

Layout

Audio Rack

Wireless Headset

Camera

Computer

Audio Drawer

Battery Charger

Turning On

Shutting Down

The Mixer Setup

Controlling Audio

The Checklist

Pastors and Leaders

Malayam Choir

English Choir

Contemporary Service

Special Occasions