Do you set the mix once for the band and never touch it again? What do you do when the skill level of the sound techs greatly varies? Brian and I, Chris, have seen a lot of things done wrong and a lot done right regarding both questions. In this podcast episode (#31), we go deep as we answer these questions and even address worship leaders who think they know more about mixing than the audio techs. We discuss why this can happen and how much of it’s about their mindset – we’re not bashing them, but seeing things from their point of view.
(Sorry, no transcript on this one.)
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Larry says
July 12, 2018 at 8:16 pmWe have a base mix saved in our Barringer X32. We drop that in the board and then adjust for the band makeup that walks on stage. We do get a lot of variance based on who is mixing at the board. Our main sound guy (in charge) does a very technical mix. He has a much better trained ear. When I mix, I try to affect the room. At times I push the the kick or electric guitar, I try to affect mood with reverb, stuff like that. I have a older ears so I head bass more and am careful not to cut that too much. Our worship leader likes to do a “Sound Check” each Sunday. After while, I know about where the gains are going to be and set it on the fly. We are still waiting for our main sound guy and/or worship leader to schedule to make files for each singer and band member. So, we do need to adjust the eq for each person. We do that on the fly too. One of the guys that does the mix, he doesn’t know how to use effect, delay, etc. He only adjusts volume. It makes the music more stale, but we have a limited number of volunteers. The main guy and I do most of the sound each month. Probably the biggest challenge is keeping track of the output to the Livestream. We mostly just do volume for that. It really needs some work plus we are trying to get creative with doing a SAP. We are looking to do sermons in Spanish. Playing with the idea of broadcasting Spanish on left channel, English on right channel. I will say that I get a lot of compliments on the mix when I run it just because of the way I try to adjust the band to affect the feel of the song. Just started experimenting with added reverb to get the airy auditorium feel for songs with high vocal, minimal instrument sections. I find it a lot of fun to mix.
To your comments about singers, we never have only 1 person sing lead vocal. We typically have one of the ladies sing a lead or 2, then 1 of the young guys, then our worship leader will do 1. Some times the worship leader will do a couple of songs as lead, but he likes letting the others have that experience. And, just want to say, our worship leader has something like 5 or 6 Cd’s he has cut and his stuff is on iTunes, so it would be easy for him to feel entitled to lead all the time. In fact, I have played around showing who ever is in the booth that I can mute him and he still fills the house. He has strong vocals.
In summary, everyone mixing sound for us does it different and has different skill levels. It is not the main reason everyone is there, but it certainly sets the mood.
David Robinson says
July 12, 2018 at 10:09 amVery good discussion on this podcast!
Chris Huff says
July 12, 2018 at 10:15 amUmmm… thanks! (you’ll get that joke)
David Robinson says
July 12, 2018 at 10:29 amUmmm… It is interesting for us that our other sound guy is a chef. His analogy is that mixing sound is similar to cooking; each chef (sound mixer) seasons to taste and the menu items are based on what is available to the restaurant; seasonal vegetables, certain seafood, etc. So the sound mixer has to take what the worship team/band is sending him and mix (season) based on the room, crowd size, song style. That means that we are constantly making small changes to maintain a consistent experience. Praying that we always glorify God and allow the His Spirit to work through us in the process.