Every church wants a deep “bench” of people who can run sound, but they also want the audio mix to be the same quality and experience every week. But then they realize everyone mixes and hears worship differently.
The question is: Can consistency come from multiple people running sound? Can it be consistent enough that the average person has no clue it's a different sound engineer from week to week? The answer is yes. In this article, there are a few tips to help churches have a strong team that can create a consistent mix on Sundays.
Create a Baseline Template (and leave it alone).
One of the most frustrating dynamics of having a digital console is that multiple sound people will have their own “scene” for Sunday, so they can get back to “their” mix. But since the goal is no longer “their” mix but the church’s mix, the baseline should be the same every week. The baseline should consist of specific EQ settings, compression, routing, gates, and anything else that makes the service function. If an EQ needs to be adjusted that week, the sound person can make the adjustment but shouldn't save it to the baseline mix without talking to either the production director or the rest of the sound engineers. If the goal is consistency, an EQ shouldn't be adjusted unless it will make it more consistent with what the mix normally sounds like.
By focusing primarily on gain structure and levels, it's shocking how consistent the mix will sound from week to week without tweaking anything.
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Teach the Team to Start with Gain Structure.
Sound engineers are people, and people don’t approach jobs the same way. It’s the same with sound engineers. Most of them don’t approach mixing the same way. Some start with EQs, others start with dynamics (compression). However, when multiple engineers are working off the same baseline mix or scene, they should all start by making sure the pre-fader levels are where they need to be on everything from drums to vocals. By focusing primarily on the gain structure and levels, it's shocking how consistent the mix will sound from week to week without tweaking anything. Train your engineers to start there, and then change other things only if needed.
When we put guidelines on sound engineers, it’s not to “handcuff” them or to say their mix isn’t as good as another person’s mix, but to say the team wants to strive for excellence --- and in thes case excellence means consistency.
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Require the Team to Use a Quality Decibel Meter.
The two most helpful things a decibel meter can do are: First, it tells the sound person how loud the average and peaks of the worship experience are. Secondly, it can tell them the speaker and subwoofer balance. Bouncing between A and C Weight on a dB meter tells the audio engineer roughly how much the low end is impacting the mix. Some churches may want a 10 dB difference (this is pretty normal for contemporary churches), some may want more or less. Regardless, both measurements should match a standard that is set by the church. Whatever the balance is, if it's paid attention to during sound check it will make the room sound significantly more consistent from week to week and service to service.
When we choose to put guidelines on sound engineers, it’s not to “handcuff” them or to say their mix isn’t as good as another person’s mix, but to say the team wants to strive for excellence— and in this case excellence equals consistency. For the sake of the congregation, let's make a consistent church experience.
