Behind The Mixer

Learn Church Audio Artistry | Church Sound

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Each channel on a mixer has a little button labeled something along the lines of "Pre/Post."  This one little button can affect the stage monitors, nursery speakers, hearing impairment equipment, and even your recording devices.  Let's explore the functionality of this button so the right people and devices are getting the sounds they need.

Pre and Post Sends are auxiliary sends.  That is to say, they control the sound sent to objects like nursery speakers, stage monitors…anything other than the main house speakers.  

What is a pre send?

A pre aux send delivers the signal out of the mixer BEFORE it passes through the channel fader; pre-fader.  Therefore, you can move the volume fader all you want but it's not going to affect the volume going to that auxiliary unit.  

What is a post send?

A post aux send delivers the signal out of the mixer AFTER it's gone through the fader; post-fader.  Therefore, when you move the volume fader, that aux send volume is equally manipulated.

What devices are affected by its use?

The devices effected by the use of the pre/post aux send could be monitors, nursery or hallway speakers, a recording device, in short, anything you have hooked up to the mixing board as an auxiliary send.

What do I set to pre and post?

The rules on this are not cast in stone but the guidelines will get you far.  

Pre Aux Sends (signal before fader)

  1. Monitor mixes.  This way, if you fade down the music such as when a singer is reading scripture or speaking, the monitor volumes for the musicians do not change.  This way, they still hear everything they need.
  2. Multi-track recorder for later editing.
  3. See #1.

Post Aux Sends (signal after the fader)

  1. Nursery / hallway
  2. On-air broadcast
  3. Recording device
  4. Think of it like this…if you want the listener to hear it "as if they were seated in the sanctuary" then it's Post.  

One word of warning…

Concerning those stage monitors with the Pre Aux sends; you don't want to broadcast a player tuning or adjusting a microphone during a quiet portion of the service.  As long as those channels are on, it's possible such noises could be heard by the congregation as it came out the stage monitors.  Therefore, you have a few options.  1) Mute the channel, 2) Turn down the channel aux send, or 3) turn down the master aux send.  Mixers can work differently in how they turn off/mute a channel so test it before the service to see which works for your mixer.

Summary

The pre/post button can easily be overlooked.  While it's a small button, it's quite mighty and gives you yet one more way to get sound to the right people in the right way.

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Comments

  1. You may or may not respond in time, no worries. Tomorrow I’m going to my brothers church to help work out some stuff with their system. I went tonight to get an idea ofwhat I was working with. They are not using the previous for their auxiliary sends so the fader controls everything in the sanctuary. I’ve never seen it done this way. Is there any benefit to doing it this way? If I change it, will it greatly change what they hear from their monitors? Any help is appreciated.

    Reply

    • Carrie, if they have a band with floor wedges, those aux sends need to be set to pre-fader. If the sound tech lowers any instrument in the mix, or a singer, the band will notice it. I’ve seen a singer turn hostile after a service because of it. Set them pre-fader. If they’re worried about the monitor volume, then that problem might be related to something else – like they have to run it overly loud..to make up for the post-fader setting. :)

      Reply

      • Thanks for the quick reply! I had already sort of decided to change it but wanted to back up my decision. They have no capable sound person (my brothers words) so they can’t really do much with it but it’s a really nice system. Not sure how much one Sunday of tweaking will help but I’m willing to try.

        Reply

  3. To the people wondering about effects and whether to go pre/post:

    A very flexible and artistic way to use reverb, delay, and more is this. I use this method both in the studio as well as when I mix FOH.

    1. Set an aux as your dedicated delay send. Route the aux output to your delay/reverb unit.
    2. Route the output of that delay/reverb unit to an open channel strip input on your console.
    3. For the vocals and instruments you wish to use that effect on, set the aux send to PRE-FADER.
    4. Make sure your aux master send is at 100% and then start sending some of the individual instrument/vocal down that aux and check for peaking/clipping on the effects unit. Set it so that you don’t have any clipping.
    5. Make sure the new channel is routed to your L/R bus and master fader.
    6. Simply push the fader during the parts of the songs that you want the effect. Don’t show all your cards at once and save the effect for a vocal line where the band drops out, etc.

    This is a great way to use effects only at certain times and have an even more creative/artistic role in the mixing of the music. Experiment during practices. Or, solo up that effect channel and preview in your headphones before pushing the fader up for the whole room to hear.

    Reply

    • Josh, thanks for the great tips. Using a fader for this reminds me of organ players with all types of effects and slides. The sound board is like a giant instrument.

      Reply