There comes a time when the church’s front of house console has either grown a little long in the tooth, needs to be upgraded to meet the needs of a different space, or simply doesn’t work anymore (with maladies ranging from a few bum channels all the way to “just won’t turn on anymore”). We all occasionally face the reality of choosing, purchasing, and commissioning a new (or new to us) mixer. I’ve been asked my opinion on this topic before, and I’ve realized that my thinking has evolved a bit over the years. For example, in years past, I was open to the consideration of either an analog or digital console, but now in 2022, I just can’t imagine recommending an analog console anymore.
At one time, digital was the spendy option and analog was the budget option, but now there are marvelous, powerful digital mixers all across the price spectrum, so budget is no longer a legitimate rationale for choosing analog over digital. Moreover, there are numerous technical benefits accruing to digital that just don’t happen in the analog domain. As a result, our discussion here will be restricted to digital mixers only, and I’ll reveal some of the other changes in my thinking as we go along.
When to Make the Move
A key consideration is knowing when to replace a mixer. A malfunctioning mixer that is otherwise getting the job done may just need to be repaired. Retiring a repairable mixer that’s sufficient for the job is not the best stewardship of the church budget. But if the necessary repairs are going to cost a pile of money, it might be worth considering a new purchase. Moving an older mixer on to less strenuous duty could make some sense. For example, the kids’ ministry could benefit from an older, less-than-perfectly-functional mixer with enough channels to accomplish their goals. And shuffling hardware in this way allows for planning — we get by with the older mixer in the main sanctuary while sorting out the financial details of acquiring a new one, and once the new one arrives, we can get it integrated early in the week, test it out, and have it ready to go for next Sunday without a hiccup. Problems arise, however, when the mixer has a major malfunction that cannot be resolved in time for the next service. This is why it’s a good idea to procure the new mixer while the current one is still functional. Being forced to get a new desk because its predecessor is completely nonfunctional is not a good place to be.
Working with the Tech Staff
A major factor that should be considered early on is the experience level of the folks who will be using the mixer. If you’re employing paid professional audio engineers (and will continue to do so into the future), the user-friendliness of the console is a bit less important. But since a large proportion of church mixers are operated by volunteers, it’s likely you’ll want a mixer that is easily handled by people who have little experience and likely no formal training at all. And while it’s true that even sophisticated mixers can be configured in a way to simplify operation for neophytes, if a problem arises requiring a dive into menus for signal routing or other more complex operations, untrained volunteers will probably find themselves very much out of their depth. And even if the mixer can be configured for simple operation (think single-layer, mute button, fader-moving simplicity), navigability is important. Complex menu-diving can quickly confuse a non-professional, and it seems that many of the issues requiring such digging tend to be emergencies that need a rapid solution. Ease of operation is a relatively important factor to consider, so make it a priority.
Channels… Lots of Channels!
Another fundamentally important factor here is channel count. This is another area in which my thinking has shifted a bit over time. I used to recommend that a church count up the total number of channels used during the largest, most sophisticated services of the year (typically during the holidays), then tack on 50% more to allow for productions that are more sophisticated than ever before and allow for future growth. Now I believe it’s a good idea to literally double the number of channels.
A good quality mixer will last for many years, and outgrowing a perfectly functional mixer due to an insufficient channel count is an avoidable problem. Choose a good solid unit with substantially more channels than currently necessary, and grow into it as your worship service grows in sophistication, rather than being forced to make another purchase only because there aren’t enough channels to get the job done. And aside from the number of simultaneous channels the mixer can blend, I/O is also a major consideration. If your mixer can handle 64 channels but you only have 32 physical inputs, you’re not maximizing its capacity. Make sure you have plenty of physical inputs, plenty of internal channels, and also think about physical outputs. Obviously, we need enough outputs to feed front of house, but you will also likely need a few for common areas, cry rooms, and so on.
Networking
Another important factor in the modern age is the mixer’s networking capability. While it’s unlikely that a small church will deploy a dedicated monitor mixer, it has largely become a foregone conclusion that the church will stream services. Prior to the pandemic, only larger churches with greater sophistication were streaming, but that has all changed now, and the expectation is that a majority of churches will provide a stream, whether they’re large or small. There are several ways to go about deriving a mix for the stream’s audio component, but increasingly, even small churches are leveraging the somewhat more complex solution of splitting the input signals off to either a mixer or a DAW that facilitates the creation of a discrete mix for the stream.
Smaller churches that would have never dreamt of doing so are now deploying networking solutions like Dante. It is more affordable than ever now, and makes a big difference. If you’re streaming, it’s worth looking into a mixer that natively offers a network connection or at least a card slot that facilitates adding that capacity. It also opens the door to the potentially desirable option of a dedicated monitor mixer.
Monitoring
If a dedicated monitor mixer is not desired or plausible, then the ability for musicians and vocalists to mix their own IEMs becomes an appealing feature when looking at new consoles. Ease of operation for volunteers is a factor here too — the last thing we want to do is to ask an inexperienced FOH volunteer to also handle a half dozen monitor mixes while trying to focus on the FOH mix. A healthy number of affordable but capable mixers offer the ability for those on the platform to install an app on their mobile devices and get their in-ear mix exactly the way they want it, leaving the volunteer at FOH to remain focused on what the congregation hears. There are yet other benefits that accrue to this feature — it’s nice to be able to walk the room with a tablet in hand, touching up equalization and other attributes of the mix, or to ring the system out from locations other than FOH.
Modern digital mixers offer substantial features that their predecessors did not, and at more reasonable prices than ever. For example, it’s getting harder all the time to find digital mixers that don’t offer good quality DSP onboard. In addition to high quality per-channel EQ and dynamics, we are now seeing de-essing, multiband processing, and other more sophisticated options. Reasonably-priced mixers are also offering high-quality reverbs, delays, and other modulation effects. The purchase of a new mixer may also facilitate the replacement of older outboard processing gear that may be hobbling along, in need of an update. This also points to the notion of a smaller physical footprint. It’s nice to have a powerful modern mixer with a small footprint in place of the massive old mixer with its attendant racks full of compressors, gates, limiters, and effects processors.
The Price Tag
I’ve saved for last the discussion of price. When the purchase of a new mixer comes up, it’s very likely that those who hold the purse strings will make price their first question, and while it’s obviously a very important factor, there are numerous other factors that must be considered. Invariably, we’ll be asked if we can get by spending very little money, but over the long run, buying cheap gear almost always results in more frequent replacement and expenditures. My advice is to make sure that the folks in charge of the budget are aware of this. Help them understand that purchasing a quality mixer with room to grow will result in a longer period of time before we come back to them asking for another expenditure. There has never been a time in which the quality-to-price ratio has been so high, so take time, plan carefully, and acquire a mixer that brings value and will serve for a long time to come.
John McJunkin is the chief engineer and staff producer in the studio at Grand Canyon University.
