We believe that clear expectations are a critical component to building confidence wherever you serve, so let’s make our expectations for you super clear! For the next three months when you serve, we want you to:
- Learn the Worship Center and M32 mixing console.
- Start adjusting gain with us during soundcheck.
- Develop your ability to build a fader mix and execute cues on our Service Order during the gathering.
Everything else is up to your producer while you are cementing these fundamentals of audio mixing. We’ve talked about the vision of our gathering and started diving into the tools of the trade for audio—now let’s talk about that third goal: fader mix and Service Order cues.
Fader Mixes & Cues
A fader mix is just what it sounds like: using the faders on the mixing board to create a mix for the congregation. Once your gain structure is right, a fader mix is pretty simple.
- Use the faders to balance the different band instruments and voices.
- Mute and unmute channels and groups as needed so that what’s needed for the cue on the Service Order is audible at the right time. This means knowing what each cue needs: a song needs the band and the vocalists—a video needs the ProPresenter tracks unmuted—the welcome time has the speaker and the keyboardist padding underneath them—and obviously the pastor’s mic needs to be ready when it’s time for the message!
Your producer will be helping you with cues and feedback on your mix as you go—that’s what they are there for! Over time, you’ll get better and better at this.
Priorities for Mixing at RP
A good mix is clear, compelling, and beautiful—and it prioritizes the right sources at the right times. Here’s our priorities for our audio mixes:
- Voices: Vocals and Speakers are always top priority. They need to be on top of the mix, they need to be unmuted right before someone is ready to speak or sing, and they need to sound energetic and clear in the room. When we’re singing, we want to hear the worship leader clearest as much as possible! [Notice: not necessarily loudest, but clearest whenever possible].
- Keys: The keys are usually playing behind a speaker to help the vibe in the room stay the same throughout the service. Keys are important to our sound!
- Band & Loudness: We want the band to feel energetic (read: compelling) in the room, but loudness doesn’t always equal energy. We aim for a mix between 95-100dB, well within the safe zone for people to hear, but feels good and engaging. That takes time to learn how to do!
- Transitions: It’s possible for us to eliminate that feeling where someone tries to speak into a muted mic—so we really want to try and stop that from happening! That means being actively aware of what’s coming next and what mic is being used—and it means communicating well pre-service so speakers know how to handle their microphones! [The weight of that is on our producer, don’t worry!]
What you’ve learned so far is really how to “start” a good mix. You can lean heavily on your producer to help you mix here at the beginning. Next level, we’ll focus on signal processing to really help nail a good mix.
Myths about Mixing
Let’s get a few myths out of the way now.
Myth #1 — “I gained the system last week so it’s good to go this week.” This just isn’t how sound physically works. Different musicians bring different instruments that sound different—different drummers play the same drums differently—different people’s voices sound differently from one hour to the next! That’s why we check gain and tone every week at rehearsal and on Sunday morning.