1. Listen to the original recordings – Listening to the recordings can be very beneficial to the sound guy. It gives him something to base his mix off of. Instead of trying to guess what sounds right, he knows what the band wanted when they wrote the song. At eFree we use a service called Planning Center Online. This is a service for churches to go in and plan out the schedule each week and send emails to the people involved in the services. We have 3 groups of people we send the emails to: Audio/Visual, Band, Vocals. Each person then can go in and look at the schedule and listen to the .mp3 files our worship arts pastor @kentsundberg uploads each week.

2. Find your main instruments and vocals – This can be a great way to start in the balancing of your mix. Vocals: When starting with mixing the vocals, find your lead singer. This should be easily determinable, but if you do not know, just go ask. For us, it is mainly a male, and after finding the lead singer, find your next dominate voice. For me it is normally the dominate female singer. I set the levels so that your lead singer is always heard and the next main voice is just under that volume. You want to make sure that if your lead singer drops out, you have your next main voice there to back them up. With the remaining voices, set their levels under your two main voices as a fill. You want to make sure that they can be heard but not overpowering your two main voices.

3. Main Instruments – I start my mixing process in this order: (Balance overall drum set then pull out of mix, start with acoustic guitar, lead electric, bass, re add drum mix, electric guitar, keys.) This is going to be different for each church setup and for the feeling of each sound guy. For most of the music that we play on a Sunday morning, acoustic is the main instrument. And there are some tips that I have learned to help set the instruments individually to keep a consistent mix with good quality. When starting out, I try to set the high-hat of the drum set and the acoustic guitar to the same audio level. With the electric guitars, I try to just match the volume. The lead and rhythm guitar are constantly switching between the two, so to help ensure they are heard, I match their volume when starting the mix. I save the keys for the end of the mix because this can be a difficult instrument to hear in the mix. I save if for last and when I have a majority of the mix in balance I over power the keys and then pull them out until I almost lose them. This helps me find them in the mix and make sure that they fill the empty spaces in the overall mix of the entire worship team.

4. Practice – Go to all the practices the worship team has. This was a huge benefit for me when I mix every week. Our second service team practices every Thursday night around 9:30. I try to never miss a practice because I am able to learn how they music will sound in the Worship Center and gives me tips on when an audio level needs to be adjusted in a part of the song and make notes. Also try to find times to work with other sound guys at practices and see how they run a service. I have been working with our first service sound guy on tips on mixing a drum set. If there is something that you do well in mixing, go to the other volunteers and help them to bring the best product possible to the congregation.

5. Learn – Learn your instrumentalists/vocalists and the music they play. Over time I have learned how most of the music should go and how it should sound. Now with that, I still listen to the songs at least once every week before Thursday’s practice. But something that has helped me tremendously was learning the individual players and their styles. For our second service drummer, @aaronasay, I have learned how he likes to play, his style, and the force that he hits is drums. I know when I first get there and start mixing the drum set, he is up there tuning his in-ear monitors for himself. This gives me a great time to get his drums set, for the most part, and move on to the next instrument. For an example of a singer, Karah likes to have a little reverb when she sings a solo. I know each week when she is scheduled, I need to make sure that I have that ready and that her mic is eq’d to her voice. Knowing what your instrumentalists and vocalists like to have will allow them to be more comfortable on stage and bring the best they can to the rest of the worship team and the congregation.

6. Ask – If you don’t know how to do something, ask someone. This can be very important when trying to eq your individual channels. This is an area I still have some difficulty in doing well. Like I stated before about Karah, I have learned where her voices sounds best in the eq. If you don’t know how to eq well, i recommend that this is something you allow a professional to do for you, or ask for tips to do it well. If this isn’t done properly, it can make your mix sound a lot worse. Also, if there is a problem and something is not going right don’t try to guess what is wrong and possible risk making things worse. If you don’t know, always ask someone who might have a better idea.

Running sound can be a very difficult task for volunteers and can take a lot of work. With these tips and more, you can ease the process of running sound and make it a more enjoyable time for you, the worship team, and the congregation that listens to it. Now, do you have any tips you think can help? Do you disagree with my tips? Please leave a comment and help me and others in this field of work. I am also planning on adding more, smaller, tips over time as I think of them.

-Scuba Steve-