Behind The Mixer

Learn Church Audio Artistry | Church Sound

Topics: ,

Do you load in and load out your system every weekend?  Does your church meet in a school, movie theater, community center, or other location that requires the church to provide the gear?

Portable churches have unique audio gear needs and the below highlights three custom systems, by budget range, and the reasons why specific gear is selected in each system.

This list was designed around budget and tech skill set.  Some churches need to be portable out of necessity, not by choice, and that plays into their budget.  Equally, there are portable churches just starting out that don’t have a ton of money to throw at a sound system. I’m also going to assume that the volunteer that’s going to run this has no experience with a sound system.

The Three Custom Audio Systems

There are three categories of portable audio system and there’s nothing wrong with being in the first one – everyone starts somewhere.  Consider each a custom system:

  • Bare-bones minimalist (1)
  • Value-oriented (2)
  • Future-growth optimized (3)

The differences between the 3 options are simple:

  • Option 1 is geared to get something in the church with the knowledge that due to the extreme budget constraints, is only going to last until the church grows to the point where they can afford a proper system.
  • Option 2 is geared toward a church that’s in the second phase of their development, which while having tithes coming in, doesn’t leave much room for equipment.
  • Option 3 is for the decently-funded church that’s close to getting into a permanent space and wants to plan for the future or for a church that is looking to expand into a secondary venue.

You can make arguments that Option 1 and 2 are throwing money away but the reality of those churches in these situations is that if they didn’t get the most affordable option available they wouldn’t have a sound system.  Also, keep in mind that as a church grows it will need more than one sound system so these options are geared to being re-purposed in different rooms.

OPTION 1: Bare-Bones Minimalist.

Budget: $1,000 – $3,000 (if you’re lucky).

Avoid purchasing used equipment.  Used equipment means you’re rolling the dice. As tempting as it is to purchase, keep in mind that NEW equipment comes with warranties and you’ll definitely want those.

Portable Sound System (two types):

Speakers:

  • Mackie Thump, SRM, QSC K, JBL Eon, Yamaha MSR, EV ELX
  • Price range: $299 – $499 per speaker

In-Ear Monitors:

  • Rolls PM, Behringer HA, Art HeadAmp
  • Price range: $25 – $39 per monitor. Don’t forget the cables to go to the snake!

Audio Snake:

Microphones:

  • Shure, Sennheiser, Samson (incredible bang for the buck), Audix
  • Price range: $49 – $99.

Wireless Mic:

Power Protection:

  • Rack-mountable Furman or similar power distribution unit. You’ve got a lot of expensive equipment to protect. Plug everything in the booth into this. Don’t use it for the speakers but get a Furman on-stage surge protector for those.

Brand and Model Notes

While I would love nothing better than to recommend pro-level manufacturers and models, the fact is cash-strapped churches can’t afford them. So, in the interest of outfitting these less-fortunate ones, I listed several brands and models can be found in any online or MI (music instrument) store – I have experience with them and while they aren’t near as good as the mainstream pro-level stuff, they are solid enough and quality enough that they serve this model of church well.

There are brands and models I deliberately avoid recommending, even if they are cheap, because the build and sonic quality are as cheap as the prices.

Warning

One other thing that porta-churches fail to consider is that someone is going to be humping all the equipment in and out of a building every week. Think of it like you’re touring and every week you’re setting up and tearing down. Compactness and lightness are your friends. Get solid road cases for everything so the equipment lasts. Don’t get a big mixer because someone knows someone who has a used one for cheap. Setting that up every week will get old really quickly.

OPTION 2: Value-Oriented

Budget: $3,000 – $10,000

At this budget level, you can still put together a decent portable sound system as above, especially if the needs are small (piano, spoken word, maybe a guitarist) and your room size isn’t huge. But, with a contemporary music structure with a band, you’ll need to go to this next step.

If you started with a system such as OPTION 1, then I would add the following:

1. House Speaker Management:

  • dbx Driverack or Driverack PA. Pretty standard unit and easy to use. Decent build and sonic quality. Has house EQ functions, delay function, feedback suppressor.
  • Cost: $299 – $399.

2. Subwoofer:

  • A 15 – 18 inch model unpowered matched to a separate amp or powered models that match your top speakers. Try to keep the speaker manufacturers the same and better still keep the models the same, especially for powered models. They have built-in crossovers and amps that are specifically matched to the output characteristics of the sub. Probably don’t need more than one initially.
  • Cost: $800 – $1,500.

Building a New System

You might be able to skip option 1 and go straight to this option.  I would start with a digital board. I recommend one because of the functionality built into the board. Most digital boards allow you to save scenes, individual channel setups, have built-in effects, and a significant number of the value-oriented digi-boards allow the worship team to control their own in-ear mix through a smartphone app. Additionally, these boards also allow use of a tablet to remotely control the board from anywhere in the room.

Audio Mixer:

  • 16, 24, 32 channel digital board
  • Behringer X32, Midas M32, Allen-Heath QU and GLD series, Soundcraft SI series,
    PreSonus StudioLive series.
  • Cost: Ranges from $1,699 – $5,000 and up.

Audio Snake:

  • Digital Snake compatible with your digital board. The reason? 1 or 2 LIGHTWEIGHT CAT-5 STP CABLE compared to a 75 POUND STINKIN’ RECALCITRANT-WHEN-IT’S-COLD, BULKY analog snake. Trust me it is so worth the additional cost.

Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS):

  • Get a decent one. Tripp Lite, Cyber Power, APC are well-known brands in the server world and are designed to sacrifice themselves before surges get through. They will also have a battery that will keep your mixer running in the event of a power spike and provide a steady voltage stream going to your mixer.

Speakers:

  • Depending on your situation the ones from Option 1 may be all you need. If you’re a full contemporary worship band that’s electric guitar driven you want more.
    12 inch mains with subwoofer(s).
  • QSC K or KW, EV ELX, Mackie SRM550, PreSonus StudioLive (especially if you have a PreSonus StudioLive mixer due to the unequalled integration)

In-ear systems:

  • Aviom, Allen-Heath ME1, Elite Core, Behringer P16.
  • This is another area that is rapidly changing. There are new contenders coming out every month so research and match them to your needs.
  • Do not let the musicos use cheap earphones. At this stage you want well-fitting isolation-type high-fidelity earphones. Set up an ambience mic at the center front of the stage or a LR combo if you have a couple of spare channels.

Microphones:

  • Wired and Digital Wireless.
  • Shure, Sennheiser, Audix, Audio-Technica, AKG.
  • Cost: $100 – $500

Brand and Model Notes

The X32/M32 are identical operating systems. The X32 currently delivers the best bang for the buck. With digi-boards things are constantly changing. So much so that by the time this article is 6 months old things will have already changed.

Powered speakers will help with setup and teardown and reduce the complexity and time. Keep in mind that you need an electrical source close to the speakers or that you use a heavy-gauge/heavy-duty extension cord. Plug them into a Furman on-stage surge protector strip. Do NOT plug them into a Furman or similar rack mount power unit. You’ll probably draw more power than the unit will tolerate without shutting down.

You can’t go wrong with any of these mic brands. Stay away from the bargain side of the models though. I read somewhere that 90% of all the world’s music facilities are tuned for the characteristics of the Shure SM57/58 models. They aren’t sexy but they are dead-nuts reliable and you should always have a couple in your mic locker. The Sennheiser E385 is another venerable mic. Try to avoid using a condenser or ribbon mic on-stage except for overheads. Condensers are extremely sensitive and while they can sound incredible they will pick up EVERYTHING around them.

Look to digital wireless microphones because digital doesn’t compress the signal and you get a wired dynamic range without the wire. They also operate in the 2.4Ghz range and are pretty interference free. It’s another area in a major state of expansion so do your research. Same brands are above.

OPTION 3: Future-Growth Optimized

Budget: $10,000+

At this level, most techs know what they’re doing and have a pretty good handle on the technical needs of the church. You’re either re-purposing parts of Option 1 or 2 are building a Pro-level system.

Audio Mixers:

Digital Snake:

  • These boards have corresponding digital snakes.
  • Cost: $3,000 – $5,000

In-Ear Systems:

  • Same as OPTION 2 (Aviom, Allen-Heath ME1, Elite Core, Behringer P16) but usually running in stereo mode. Quite likely you’ll be using the systems in conjunction with wireless in-ears from Shure and Sennheiser.
  • Cost: $2,000 – $5,000

Microphones:

  • Any Pro-level model. At this stage you should know what mics works for you.
  • Cost: $100 – $900.

Take it to the Next Level

This article gives you a lot of great information but it’s nothing compared to the step-by-step guide:

A Final Note

My experience has shown that through evaluating a church’s expectations against their budget, these three outlined systems meet the common needs of most portable churches.

This list is by no means exhaustive but is meant as a general high-level guide to get you thinking about your unique needs. The brands and models I’ve mentioned are ONES I’VE USED OVER MY CAREER AND TRUST. There are other brands and models that are equally good that I haven’t used. So, do your own research and base your decisions on the facts and not the marketing hype. I’ve linked out to a few brands and models in this post to get you started.

The Next Step

For more details on the equipment, like the number of microphones and the reason for my digital mixer recommendations, check out:

Reader Interactions

Thought? Questions? Comments?

Notify me of followup comments via e-mail. You can also subscribe without commenting.

Comments

  1. Can you tell me if this is to much for a sound system for church that seats 1200 people. Wiring $40,000 and the system with installation and materials $127, 000 totaling $167,00.00. Please I know this is to much for an top of the line sound system with live streaming etc. Please reply.

    Reply

    • You could build a custom desk using 3/4-inch plywood and either wood or 6-inch PVC pipe for the legs. There’s nothing wring with plywood. You can away hit the edges with a router to curve them all the way around – just work slow and shallow with the router until you get the depth you want.

      Reply

  3. We have a 24 metre by 12 metre hall with the ceiling 3 metres high we run kids camps and want to know what size powered speakers we would need. We play music clips for worship and movies. We don’t have a band or musical instruments. We have between 120 – 250 people in the hall.

    Reply

  4. Another speaker consideration if you are using the X32/M32 infrastructure are the Turbosound iQ series speakers which are integrated like the the Presonus speakers are integrated with the StudioLive Boards. With that said, I am still a huge fan of the QSC speakers. They sound so amazing that you truly only need to do a little EQ for the room and you don’t really have to EQ the cabinet. For portable situations, this is extremely beneficial. Plus, the built in DSP prevents you from accidentally killing them. IMO, most of the decent speakers with DSP largely eliminate the need for the Driverack (unless you have a lot of strange things going on in your speaker setup. Many boards now have options for delays and crossovers as well.

    For IEMs, many of the digital boards have a LOT of outputs. If you have enough return snake channels, you can just use a simple cheap little soundboard (Like the Xenyx 502) for a headphone amp. Works great!

    Reply

  5. About Option 2. I’m considering a Studiolive RM32ai for future upgradeability, but I’m not sure on the speakers. You mentioned the Studiolive speakers for unparallel integration. Can you be more specific? I don’t know of any specific integration that makes it better than QSC K12s for example. The built-in DSP in the speaker itself of course is an advantage, but how is that integrated into the mixer products? Do you have a specific series of wireless mic systems? 3 handheld and 1 headset for the pastor. I’m used to Shure systems so considering – Shure BLX24/SM58, but I really like the “look” of the Sennheiser. Not so bulky looking. Thanks!

    Reply

    • Hi Jeremy!

      They integrate as part of a “system” approach. Other than the StudioLive having settings built-in for them that’s about it. The QSC K12s are awesome speakers and if you’re considering going with them you won’t be disappointed. I find the PreSonus speakers not as powerful as the QSCs.

      I like the way Sennheiser handles the companding of the signal better than the Shures at that price point. I think they sound better.

      Reply

  6. I’m looking for advice a little wider (forgive me if this isn’t a good place for that, I’d appreciate any better forums for it) – we are a small (~120) and mobile church with a small typical band-size (4-5). We have a setup of Wharfedale powered speakers (used for house and monitors) from a Yamaha desk with 16 inputs (not all usable through snake, being RCA, etc.) and three AUX outputs, all though a 16+4 snake. We use a variety of DI boxes for instruments and a few mics.
    In general it works pretty reasonably.
    I’d like to improve the monitoring, since most days we run only one monitor output (and can only run two through the snake, plus the two house speakers). My ideal would be something where every musician can control their mix of every signal (a bit like the JamHub, I guess), but failing that I’m looking at giving each at least a ‘more-me’ option – using Rolls PM351 for singer/players and PM50 or cheaper Behringer MA400 for singers or players who don’t sing.
    This looks reasonable, but (a) I need to split the monitor to each of these boxes, so I need another box for that and that’s a whole lot more leads around the place to set up and break down each Sunday. Also those need power (why, oh why couldn’t they be powered from Phantom 48V?), so that’s more leads (if I went for Rolls I could use the PS16 for splitting and powering which helps a little). It begins to feel like overkill for our small-time situation.
    Is there a better solution out there, am I missing something?

    Sorry for the long ramble – I love the site and the resources are helping a lot, especially in explaining things to people. Thanks for all your shared experience, keep it up!

    Reply

  7. Great article.

    Looking forward to the discussion on in-ear monitors, especially regarding set ups for those of us who are in the “learning more” category as techs.

    Regarding the suggestion for the Rolls PM, Behringer HA, Art HeadAmp… I have two questions stemming from other online commenters advice:
    –is “brick wall limiting” a necessity? The very popular Rolls PM50 doesn’t have this, for example.
    –And is a stereo a necessity? (The concern apparently being that the musicians will have a harder time adapting without the ability to pan instruments.

    Thanks!

    Reply

    • Brick-wall limiting (in my opinion only) is not a necessity. While I agree on the principle, the bottom line is that for some band members the limit is going to be too low and then they are adjusting everything up to the limit and causing you lots of issues because they can’t hear the things they need to hear.

      That being said, no band member should ever have their in-ears so loud that if they’re out of their ears you can hear them in a quiet room!

      Stereo is a necessity for some members. Unless I’m mixing a pro group most worship teams are content to have a mono mix. The advantage of a stereo mix is that the band members have the ability to pan the various sound sources in their in ears. The problem is that a stereo mix takes 2 aux channels on the aux buss which takes away the limited number of auxes that your board has.

      Reply

  8. Thanks for developing this guide! I have a question regarding Option 2… would you still recommend a dbx Driverack (or something similar) for those using powered speakers with internal DSP/crossovers and running a digital board that can delay specific outputs? I suppose the Driverack would still provide Auto EQ and feedback suppression.

    What are your thoughts on purchasing the rack equipment vs. paying a professional to come do a system setup/optimization using the various processors in the digital board?

    Reply

    • Seth, the driverack will have its most utility if your are using passive speakers and potentially mismatched subs. Higher levels of the driverack can also be very handy for permanent installations (multiple delays, separate eqs, etc). With that said, if you already have a digital board, an experienced consultant can help you get more out of your sytem than you will likely get out of the drive rack even if you did have one. This is (in my opinion) especially true for portable churches where the setup may not be EXACTLY the same every week, and you rally never have time to use the dive rack to accurately tune your system once much less every week. All of this is somewhat contingent upon your digital board however as not all boards are created equal.

      Reply

      • I’ve had the Driverack by DBx in 2 systems I’ve been involved with over the years. One in a southern gospel quartet and the other in our church sound system. I wouldn’t use any other system. Very easy to use. I would purchase the microphone that is used with the system, especially if you are going to be using a system in a porta-church system. Unfortunately it’s not included. This system is a plus especially if you are going to a porta-church system in a school cafeteria or a store front. Things can change from week to week and within 2-3 minutes you’ll have your room EQ’d and ready to go.

        Just a thought!

        Reply

    • Seth, I agree. For about $300 you’ve got a room equalizer and speaker delay system that, for portable systems especially, comes in handy.

      BONUS:

      If you’re have a problem with feedback from vocal mics and have a Driverack device that lets you build in speaker delay (not effects delay) if you add in a 6 millisecond delay to the whole mix you should be able to reduce or eliminate a substantial amount of feedback. The delay causes the speakers and the mics to be out of sync and the 6 mil delay isn’t enough of a delay for anyone to notice.

      Reply

  9. Great article Chris! One recommendation I would add is that if at all possible, invest in really good speakers at the earliest point possible. I am a huge fan of the QSC series, especially the KW153 and I am sure the Presonus AI series are likely in the same category. I used to think a speaker was a speaker and that with enough processing you could make anything sound good. While that is still true (to an extent), a high quality speaker will seriously simplify setup time and is an investment that can be repurposed throughout the life cycle of the church.

    Reply

  10. Thanks to Tom for pointing something out, via email, that I forgot to mention!

    In Option 3 I said that the Digital Snake option ran from $3,000 – $5,000. That is list pricing for some of the higher-end manufacturers. Street pricing will be considerably cheaper. I also forgot to include the Behringer digital snake in the price range which is significantly cheaper. So the range actually should start at around $1,000.

    Brian

    Reply