If a bass guitar, snare drum, or singer is overpowering your mix, your first thought might be to add a compressor to that channel. This will of course turn down those loud moments when the musician gets inspired or blessed or just flat out stops trying to blend with the rest of the group.

A compressor, though, can also be used to increase volume when used correctly. Because a compressor decreases the range between the loudest and softest points (the dynamic range), it will then allow you to turn up the entire channel and increase the average volume for that input. Remember though, that a compressor is working best when you cannot hear it!

Ever been to a soundcheck for another band other than the one that sings in your church every Sunday? Show up early to club show, sneak in mid-day to a tour stopping through your city, or pay attention between bands at an all day festival, and the first thing you’ll likely hear for sound check is… kick drum, then snare, then hats, etc. Watch the other musicians on stage and you’ll see them speaking in sign-language to the monitor engineer trying to communicate. “I need more.” “It sounds flat.” “Can you make it punchier?”

As an audio engineer, your job is to take all of the material from the band and singers, and assemble it all together to make 1 collective piece… like a puzzle. Too often though, the “pieces” we’re given are from totally different puzzles, so you end up trying to get them all to fit together the best you can in the 4-minute soundcheck you have, right before the service… all while trying to change batteries in the wirelesses, tape down the cables running across the platform and setting up the audio-to-video recording feed.

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.

I guess I’m lucky. My church has 2 services on Sunday morning, and the band shows up an hour early to do a full blown sound check. This morning I posted a pic and comment on my Twitter about sound checking, and I got a reply that there are churches out there that do NOT sound check. How is this possible? I mean, my church doesn’t even use monitors and we take an hour! Yep. You read that correctly. We go old-school. Southern gospel style! Our main speakers are on the back wall, so everyone on stage uses the house mix as their monitors. Do I recommend this? No way!