Taking the time to engage more fully with our technology and understand its capabilities makes us better in our craft. Time spent here is an investment in ourselves and it allows us to use our talents to engage others more effectively. It allows us to minister better.
Here are three capabilities that I generally see underutilized--or that are even unknown to many operators serving in our churches.
1-Multiband Compression
Multiband compression is, in my experience, one of the most useful tools for mixing audio in the production world. Yet, it's probably the one feature that I see on digital consoles that people most often don’t know about or know how to use.
... it's probably the one feature that I see on digital consoles that people most often don’t know about or know how to use.
For those unfamiliar with this concept, multiband compressors allow you to simultaneously apply different amounts of compression to different frequency bands of the same signal. For instance, using this type of compressor would allow you to use one band to limit the high frequency harshness of a vocal when it gets too loud, while at the same time using another band to bring up the lower frequency warmth when it gets too quiet. Both of which could be happening simultaneously.
I recently helped out a new-to-me church by mixing a set of services for which they were struggling to find coverage. During the mid-week rehearsal, while working with a vocalist who was presenting balance issues, I pulled up an advanced processing page on the desk to insert a multiband compressor. Upon seeing this the technical director, who had been watching, stopped me to ask what it was we were looking at. As it turns out, the church hadn't known about that feature set and had been running their desk without the benefit of things like multiband compression, dynamic EQ, etc. It was neat to see everyone get so excited about this revelation and the set of tools that they didn’t know they had. The very next week their teams were playing around with it, investing in the skills God gave them.
2-Side Chaining
Side chain assignment ... can come in very handy when instruments are competing for the same sonic space, or for dealing with bleed.
Assigning the side chain of a gate or compressor to another source is a capability that seems to get lost in the mix (pun intended). Side chain assignment allows you to drive a processor using the input signal of another source. This can come in very handy when instruments are competing for the same sonic space, or for dealing with bleed.
One area where I have found this to be very effective is when dealing with drums that bleed into other stage mics such as a choir, etc. In this case putting a compressor on the choir mics and assigning the sidechain to the snare mic will cause the choir mics to be pulled back every time the snare hits, hence, reducing the effects of the snare bleed.
3-Bus/Group Compression
Many consoles come with some form of bus/group compression, and quite a number of them have specific bus compression emulations for that task. Many operators know about using compression to control the dynamic range of individual inputs, but most don't know or consider that their desks allow them to do the same on their main bus or subgroups. This can help with controlling dynamic range of an output after your inputs have been stacked together. In addition, many times bus compression will bring a tighter cohesion to your mix elements. Wanna get crazy? Some desks will allow for multiband compression on your mix busses. Try it, it’s fun.
Into Perspective
In concluding, it's important to point out that your specific console may or may not support some of these features, and to be honest, whether or not it does really isn't that important. What is important is that we as operators know what it is that our consoles do support so that we can make the best use of them. Doing so not only allows us to better steward the resources that we have been given, but it also allows us to grow in our personal giftedness, which is something worth getting excited about.
