I want to discuss a technique that appears to be fairly simple, yet can lead to frustration. The basic concept is to create a mix that allows you to hear everything you see on stage. The concept is simple enough- Look at each input on your console and ask yourself if you can hear it in the mix. If the answer is ‘yes,’ then move on to the next channel. If the answer is ‘no,’ then the fun begins! Rather than just push the fader up until you can hear that specific input, I’d quickly ask yourself a few questions to help you determine how to best address the issue.

To start, I’m writing this blog for Steve W., who posted a question on the Facebook page for A Sound Church. If you have questions, ideas, suggestions or just want to stay in touch, I invite you to that page, and also my Twitter. Being relevant to what you want to know is my #1 goal, so bring on the interactiveness.

A channel EQ will typically be either a 3-band (Highs, Mids, and Lows) or a 4-band (Highs, Hi-Mids, Lo-Mids, and Lows) EQ. The confusion starts when your board has 4 bands, yet there are 6, 8, 12+ knobs. Look at the photo in this post. This is a 4-band EQ. There are 2 knobs each for the highs and lows (red and black knobs respectively). There are also 3 knobs each for the high- and low- mids (green and blue knobs respectively).

My guess is, if you’re reading this, that you are the type that always readjusts the treble and bass in your car, trying to find that ideal setting. If you understand treble and bass and how it affects the sound, you can start to build on that and adjust the mids, or high and low mids as well.

Have you ever seen one of these charts, showing you where different instruments live in the audible frequency range? I include this graph in my workshop workbook, but it’s included so we can talk about the bigger picture. After my last post on frequencies, I wanted to mention and elaborate on these commonly-seen, and deceptive graphs.

Here’s the scene. You’ve been helping out at church for a few months. By now you’re comfortable setting up the stage, hooking up the monitors, making sure the mics are all working, and you’ve even had to troubleshoot some problems along the way. You’re getting comfortable behind the board, understanding the aux sends, assigning your inputs into the subgroups, and even figured out how to hook up the recording CD deck by the RCA plugs instead of 3 sets of adapters coming from some random aux send. Are you ready for the next step that 99% of church sound guys never take?