How can I improve our Church's sound?

For performing musicians and engineers: stagecraft, engineering and gear.

Moderator: Moderators

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by Murray B »

There is one more reasonably valid argument for having DI boxes for your Bass and Acoustic guitars which is user error. If the bass player / guitar player walk to the end of the cable and it's plugged directly into the mixer then could damage the the input socket. This can be avoided by having them plugged in via a DI.

It's certainly not necessary though for the system to work and if then have a tuner in line on the way to the mixer then it wouldn't be an issue anyway.

I do tend to agree with all of the comments previously regarding getting some advice and an initial set up from an experienced sound engineer. One of the strengths of the digital mixers is that they can store settings. You could have you system tuned to the venue, pre set channel eq, gate, compression and effects settings that should work with your musicians and then only really have to mess with the input gain (perhaps not always) and faders to get everything sounding as good as it can once it's up and running.

Either that or commit yourself to some studying of manuals, theory and tutorials + time spent on the system applying what you've learnt.

Another advantage of your mixer is that you could learn to record the band and then soundcheck with the recordings, this will give you an opportunity to practise the skills you are learning.
User avatar
Murray B
Regular
Posts: 390 Joined: Mon Nov 28, 2011 12:00 am Location: Staffordshire

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by AlecSp »

Jeffrey Gian wrote:So you mean plugging both bass and acoustic to Channel 1 and 2 that'd be line level as theres no instrument level in Ui the other option is to turn on Hi-z which according to shufflebeat isnt a major problem. So you suggest with and without is it?

Hiring a pro will be the quick way to improving your skills.

In the absence of that, stop asking questions and just experiment (but not with a live audience). See what the impact (if any) of trying the instruments in the Hi-Z and the regular line inputs - if there is no audible difference, then you've answered your question. You'll learn a lot more this way.
AlecSp
Frequent Poster
Posts: 669 Joined: Tue Nov 16, 2004 12:00 am Location: Herts, UK

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by Jeffrey Gian »

Murray B wrote:There is one more reasonably valid argument for having DI boxes for your Bass and Acoustic guitars which is user error. If the bass player / guitar player walk to the end of the cable and it's plugged directly into the mixer then could damage the the input socket. This can be avoided by having them plugged in via a DI.

It's certainly not necessary though for the system to work and if then have a tuner in line on the way to the mixer then it wouldn't be an issue anyway.

I do tend to agree with all of the comments previously regarding getting some advice and an initial set up from an experienced sound engineer. One of the strengths of the digital mixers is that they can store settings. You could have you system tuned to the venue, pre set channel eq, gate, compression and effects settings that should work with your musicians and then only really have to mess with the input gain (perhaps not always) and faders to get everything sounding as good as it can once it's up and running.

Either that or commit yourself to some studying of manuals, theory and tutorials + time spent on the system applying what you've learnt.

Another advantage of your mixer is that you could learn to record the band and then soundcheck with the recordings, this will give you an opportunity to practise the skills you are learning.

Thanks MurrayB I'll deffinelty consider those points:)

AlecSp wrote:
Jeffrey Gian wrote:So you mean plugging both bass and acoustic to Channel 1 and 2 that'd be line level as theres no instrument level in Ui the other option is to turn on Hi-z which according to shufflebeat isnt a major problem. So you suggest with and without is it?

Hiring a pro will be the quick way to improving your skills.

In the absence of that, stop asking questions and just experiment (but not with a live audience). See what the impact (if any) of trying the instruments in the Hi-Z and the regular line inputs - if there is no audible difference, then you've answered your question. You'll learn a lot more this way.

Thank you AlecSp i will keep those in mind
Can you guys recommend a book that'll help me with everything from start to end speaker placement and what not.
Jeffrey Gian
Poster
Posts: 20 Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 4:43 pm

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by shufflebeat »

Most people seem to start or end up with the Yamaha Sound Reinforcement Handbook for general principles. You do need big hands:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sound-Reinforc ... 0881889008
shufflebeat
Jedi Poster
Posts: 9092 Joined: Sun Dec 09, 2007 12:00 am Location: Manchester, UK
“…I can tell you I don't have money, but what I do have are a very particular set of skills. Skills I have acquired over a very long career” - (folk musician, Manchester).

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by Hugh Robjohns »

Jeffrey Gian wrote:Can you guys recommend a book that'll help me with everything from start to end speaker placement and what not.

In addition to the other recommendations, I have to add this:

Image

US Amazon site:

https://www.amazon.com/SOS-Guide-Live-Sound-Live-Performance/dp/0415843030/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=The+SOS+Guide+to+Live+Sound%3A+Optimising+Your+Band%27s+Live-Performance+Audio&qid=1621244409&sr=8-1
User avatar
Hugh Robjohns
Moderator
Posts: 38836 Joined: Fri Jul 25, 2003 12:00 am Location: Worcestershire, UK
Technical Editor, Sound On Sound...
(But generally posting my own personal views and not necessarily those of SOS, the company or the magazine!)
In my world, things get less strange when I read the manual... 

Re: How can I improve our Churchs sound?

Post by Drew Stephenson »

I have a copy of that ^^^ on the shelf behind me.
:)
User avatar
Drew Stephenson
Jedi Poster
Posts: 24450 Joined: Sun Jul 05, 2015 12:00 am Location: York
(The forumuser formerly known as Blinddrew)
Ignore the post count, I still have no idea what I'm doing...
https://drewstephenson.bandcamp.com/

Re: How can I improve our Church's sound?

Post by Jeffrey Gian »

Thank you everyone for sharing your experiences and knowledge i have found this community to be extremely helpful and I'll surely check those book out, thanks again:)
Jeffrey Gian
Poster
Posts: 20 Joined: Sat May 15, 2021 4:43 pm
Post Reply