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For larger applications, the Digico SD5 can mix up to 124 channels to 56 buses. There is a 24x24 matrix and enough built-in processing to keep it all under control.
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Soundcraft Signature Series of analog consoles feature the company’s Ghost mic preamps and Sapphyre Assymetric EQ. They also include a wide variety of built-in Lexicon studio-grade reverb, chorus, modulation and other effects and dbx limiters on the input channels.
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The 32.4.2 AI from Presonus is a 32-channel, 18-aux digital mixer with four subgroups. Using QMix iPhone app musicians can control their own monitor mixes. Just download the free app, connect to the same network as the mixer, and start mixing.
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Yamaha’s new TF Series consoles feature the company’s TouchFlow Operation that allows sound engineers to quickly respond to the music and artists on stage. It also features 1-knob Comp and 1-knob EQ for volunteer-friendly sound control.
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The Mackie DL32R has 24 XLR inputs and eight combo XLR/1/4-inch inputs for a total of 32 inputs. All the inputs run on Mackie’s new Onyx+ series of preamps. Beyond that, everything is controllable wirelessly via iPad.
The audio mix console category has been exploding in recent years, a collateral effect of technological advances and the fact that live-event production, from concerts to Cadillac introductions, has come roaring back.
A combination of how digital technology has remade the work surface into one that's configurable both for the newbie and the veteran, how digital's economics have continued to push prices down and make more complex consoles more affordable, and the dynamics of a crowded market that compels manufacturers to design desks that are aimed increasingly at niches (like houses of worship) has created a kid-in-a-candy store effect. It's one that's palpable at every professional AV, where mixers are often the stars of the show.
Thus, choosing the right FOH console for your church has become more complex, because there's so much more to choose from and because the feature sets have become so nuanced.
Perhaps the most fundamental decision to take these days is whether to go the digital or the analog route. Digital offers far more choices and those are expanding every day, though manufacturers haven't given up on bringing new analog consoles to the market, such as the Signature 22MTK and Signature 12MTK analog mixing consoles that Soundcraft introduced at the January NAMM Show in Anaheim, Calif. But the momentum has been trending digitally for some time. Greig [sic] Hess, a veteran FOH (front-of-house) mixer in the church market, and now the worship arts pastor at The Springs Church in Cedar Springs, Mich., and before that at Crestview Church in the Denver area, has seen that trend develop distinctly in recent years. “At this point in time, to choose an analog console you're either going to be at the very low end of the spectrum due to severe budget constraints, or you're going to be at the very high end, almost vintage, because that's your preference and you can afford it,” he explains. “Otherwise, I've been seeing the move to digital consoles across the board, from the largest churches to the mid-sized and smaller.”
It's worth pointing out some of the fundamental differences between analog and digital mix consoles, because these differences manifest themselves in several ways, including in how they affect issues such as maintenance and ease-of-use. Composed completely of physical components, analog mixers will have a tactile control for every function, from signal routing to volume levels—whatever you need to do, there's a knob or a button or a fader for it. In that sense they're highly intuitive and straightforward to operate.
Digital mixers are essentially computers, and as such much of their user interface is virtual. As a result they can integrate the kind of signal processing such as reverb and delays, that analog consoles need outboard processors to do. They can also offer lots more channels in a smaller footprint because channels can be layered on the work surface, letting the user keep the most active ones handy while hiding the rest. However, that can make for a more complex operation, especially for users who have spent most of their careers on analog desks. And digital consoles don't so much have their components repaired so much as they have them replaced, making their maintenance routines closer to those of computers. And they fail like computers—that is instantly and spectacularly, versus analog's tendency to warn you with a buzz or a hum as pots and caps slowly degrade. On the other hand, as a culture we've become far more complacent with shelling out for a new hard drive or adding memory than we've remained conversant with soldering irons. So digital has that on its side, too.
The Basics
There are plenty of things that need to go on any console checklist, regardless of what kind of venue it's to be used in. These include:
Choosing the right console for your church has become more complex, because THERE ARE so many more choices and the feature sets have become so nuanced.
• I/O and Channels — How many microphones will you need to connect? A mic'd drum kit can easily use up ten or more inputs all by itself whereas an electronic kit can mix itself down to a stereo output. In fact, stereo I/O is important for synths (and some overly obsessive guitarists). And whatever you know you need now in terms of channels, get a few more. Sixteen should be minimum; 24 or 32 is typical for mid-sized and some large churches.
• DSP — EQ, compression, delay and reverberation effects and so on. In the analog realm, temporal and spatial processing were all done outboard. On digital consoles, all that and more are available as integrated software, which also contributes to digital's smaller form factor.
• Directs Outs/Inserts, busses, etc. — If you're sending out monitor mixes, recording feeds, and external effects mixes, then you'll need enough aux sends to handle the demand.
Monitors
Brad Duryea, director of audio technologies at one of the largest churches in North America, the 16,000-seat Lakewood Church of Joel Osteen in Houston, says the number of ins and outs on a console becomes more critical for churches that mix their stage monitors from the FOH console, a practice he says is very common in houses of worship. “Whether you're using wedges or [in-ear monitors], or some combination of them, you'll need more outputs to feed the monitors and you'll want more flexibility in how you're able to route them using the console's buss structure,” he explains.
That brings up another feature of digital consoles that helps churches that use their FOH deck for both applications: wireless remote operation from a tablet. A feature that's becoming more ubiquitous on even mid-level digital desks, Duryea says it's one worth having, because it lets the FOH mixer spend time on the stage up close and personal with musicians and performers. “It re-establishes that very personal bond between them; it can make them feel very taken care of, which is important,” he says. “Mixing monitors from the front-of-house console can seem kind of distant emotionally.
Recording Interface
How a console interfaces with a recording system has become more important in recent years, as live music and live-event production have surpassed recorded music in sales and interest. And the practice in secular settings of using multi-track recordings as virtual sound checks is also migrating into the worship space. When he was the worship minister at Crestview Church in Boulder, Colo., Greig Hess chose a PreSonus 24.4.2 digital console in part for those very reasons. “We use the Capture function on the console to record a multi-track of our live service,” he explains. “With a volunteer staff, it's great because when you are training a new sound guy you can use it to show them how to run the console, how to add effects, what different things sound like. And you're doing it in an empty room, without the pressure of a live service. It's also great for rehearsals—we use it to control the mix from the stage, which enables us to schedule rehearsals without having to have a sound guy present."
Duryea concurs, adding that the ability to perform a virtual sound check is important not just for the efficiency it brings to a busy church, such as by being able to store snapshot set ups for recurring performers, but also as a tool to help mixers—especially volunteers—sharpen their skills and better learn the console. “It's something we do at Lakewood all the time,” he says.
Troy Bartholomew, weekend technical director at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington, Ill. is also enthusiastic about virtual sound checks. “For volunteers who are new to digital, or even to audio, this provides a great opportunity for learning at their own pace without a service looming ahead,” he says. “In our main auditorium, we've been using virtual sound check to dial in the FOH mix for large events like Christmas and Easter. Having a focused time on mixing and processing allows scenes to be built for very specific moments of the service, something that can be challenging to do while in a live rehearsal.”
More Than One
In the event that a church has to buy more than one console—and that's more and more of them, as churches extend AV into more corners of their building and campuses, or as they add satellite locations—it becomes important to try to buy from a single manufacturer, for a variety of good reasons: it makes maintenance simpler, and it's easier for accomplished and volunteer operators alike to learn and become expert at one manufacturer's interface. That may entail some compromises, however—depending on how broad a range of console sizes a church might need, staying with one vendor could limit choices and thus limit some features. The good news is that console makers have been broadening their range of products, in some cases by acquiring other manufacturers. If your choices are limited by this criteria, it won't be by that much.
Jeff Baggett, director of audio at the 2,200-seat First Redeemer church says he'll be keeping that in mind as he prepares to acquire three additional consoles for new children's theaters that the church plans to open next year on its Cumming, Ga., campus. Baggett says he understands the synergies of buying from a single brand, and he's been pleased with the Avid Venue Profile console in use in the church's main sanctuary. “I like the idea that even if we're using a different Avid console in these new spaces, we'd still be working with the same software,” he says. “On the other hand, we don't use that many volunteers, compared to staff, so that might not be as big a consideration as it might be for some.”
Baggett says there are some new aspects to digital audio that impact the console, most notably the rise in use of digital audio networking. He says compatibility with Dante, the current market-share leader in that category, would be important in any console decision, and would support his plans to link the church's recording studio with the sanctuary stage and FOH console. Troy Bartholomew likes Dante's ability to integrate sanctuary and campus. “It increases our routing flexibility and speed at which changes can be made,” he says. “With the launch of the willowcreek.tv website last October, a future upgrade will need to integrate into our recording/archiving process.”
In fact, FOH consoles are being asked to do more than just run house sound these days. Mark Sepulveda, global tech director at the Second Baptist Church in Houston, notes that their recently added Digico SD5 FOH and monitor consoles in the church's 5,000-seat in-the-round worship center on its West Campus also play a major role in the church services' weekly broadcasts. “The broadcast engineer takes direct feeds via tracking of the overall mix as well as 12 to 16 of the individual [pastor and worship leader] and room-mic channels for the broadcast mix that is edited and mixed at the Main Campus' [Woodway] broadcast studio,” he explains.
Console choices are more complex now because consoles are being asked to do more diverse tasks—and simply because there's a lot more to choose from. The good news is that overall capability, particularly of digital consoles, has been steadily increasing, while a combination of chip-based technology and inevitable Moore's Law economics holds prices in check.
