Mixing FOH (Front of House)
Copyright 2000, Sound Expressions
As discussed in several other articles in this set,
developing operational skills take time and practice. In addition, there is
an element of personal taste involved along with listening skills. As the
'mixmaster' for a church service, it's not uncommon to get a request to make it
louder and softer from two persons sitting a pew apart. "Some like it
Hot" as they say while others want all music to be at the level of the background
music at the office. Below are some suggestions in this process of
determining how loud is too loud. Note that these are my opinions ... your
experience may vary once you have developed your own process to set and control the mix and
overall level.
First, I try to run at a safe level which means less than 100db at all
times. But as a target for a church service, I try to keep it around 85db average during the praise team.
Note that there are several key factors that can affect this. I've measured
the following several times.
- 75 Db - the level before the service while people are coming into the sanctuary, talking etc (for a normal 'healthy' contemporary church, there is a lot of talking going on in the sanctuary before the service.)
- 65 Db quiet points during the service
- 75 Db during the main sermon
- 80 Db - 95 Db during the worship music sets
A Suggested Soundcheck Process:
- Control the level of the drums! This may a significantly affected by the size or acoustics of your room. But note that a drummer can easily push 100 Db by him/herself in either a small room or a very 'live' room with mostly reflective surfaces. Enclose the drummer in one the clear plastic enclosures with sound absorbing material on the back side if you have to. If the drums are too loud you will never get things in balance. The same would be true of any other instrument you can’t control from the sound console.
- All instruments with their own amplifiers (e.g. elect guitar/bass/synth) should set their amp facing them (away from the congregation) and only set loud enough to hear themselves. Unless informed of your sound control process, many guitarists will place their amp, on the floor facing the congregation. Most of the guitar sound is directed from the guitar amp directly at the audience. The guitar player has to turn it up too loud just to be able to hear themselves. Simply changing the location and even tilting the amp back will make a significant difference.
- Assuming #1 and #2 are ok, now you can mic the instruments and have total control over the house mix and overall level. Mix the instruments (or set their subgroup) to a comfortable level such as 70-75 Db. Even if you may want the instruments to be louder, this is a valid checkpoint. If you can’t manage the instruments at this level, you don’t have adequate control over the mix. In this case more changes need to be made as described in #1 and #2.
- Pull up the melody vocal to a comfortable level making sure the melody can be heard to lead the congregation. Actually many sound technicians will tell you to do the lead vocal first, then bring in the instruments. That is fine … whichever works for you knowing your musicians, the response of your system, and your room. However, I like to first know that I can manage the instruments, then I know I can bring the vocals above them.
- Balance in the rest of the harmony/back-up vocals.
- Now you should have achieved a good mix and still have some head room to manage the overall level as desired.
- If the congregation sings along with enthusiasm (as we hope they do ... that's the idea) you may find that you have to bring up the levels to keep pace with the congregation in the auditorium. This is the case where you may be peaking up or over the 100 Db I mentioned. At this point, I feel that's ok since the congregation is also contributing to the louder overall level. We did an experiment one Sunday where we intentionally kept the volume at a very low level (about as low as possible). The result was that the congregation also sang softly ... an apparent unconscious following of the worship band's lead. I thought this was a very interesting experiment. It became apparent that both ends of the scale have limits (too loud and too soft). As in most things moderation is the key within some general guidelines.
As you can see here, the keys are:
- A. Control: the sound tech must have the control. One loud instrument and the control is either gone or you can't balance the mix the way you would like.
- B. Mix: Mix is most important. Hear the vocals and keep the overall level within safe acceptable guidelines.
- C. Dynamics or Headroom: You want to be able to regulate the dynamics both louder and softer. Make it louder if the congregation is singing loud or you want to generate the energy that goes along with the 'kicker' songs. But, you still need to be able to lower the level effectively prayer-type songs etc.
Hope this helps. As always, your questions and suggestions are welcome.
Gale Horst
Sound Expressions
