In its simplest definition: Equalization involves selectively boosting or cutting bands of frequencies to improve the performance of a sound reinforcement system.

Like many other audio technologies, EQ was born in telecommunications, where filters were used to restore and flatten all frequencies, so that response to all frequencies would be equal – hence the label “equalization”. Hollywood came on board in the early 1930s with the emergency of ‘talkies’, but it wasn’t until the late 1950s and early 1960s that Texas academics in the field of Physics did research that led to precursors of today’s pro audio technology. By the 1980s, graphic equalizers on our home stereo systems were the portals to EQ and many of us had a good time adjusting the sliders.

In the natural world, the sounds we hear are incredibly complex.  As we walk down a city street, we hear the rumble of a subway train, a police siren, the boom-boom-boom of an enhanced bass car stereo passing by or the voice of the person walking next to us.  But in a live sound or recording situation, none of us wants the listener to either cover his ears or struggle to pick out a specific sound source.

What equalization can do when used properly

• Noticeably, but not dramatically, improve the naturalness or intelligibility of a sound reinforcement system by emphasizing the frequency ranges most critical for speech.
• Noticeably, but not dramatically, increase the overall output level of a sound reinforcement system by reducing the system’s output in the frequency bands at which feedback occurs. These frequency bands will differ from system to system based on many variables, including room acoustics, microphone placement/design, loudspeaker location/design, even air temperature.

 Expert Tip #1

“When running live sound, I occasionally run into a feedback situation. When this happens, I quickly determine the frequency that’s feeding back, and by that I mean, ‘Is it high-end feedback? Mid-range feedback? Or low-end feedback?’ Once I’ve identified that, I turn down the appropriate knob on the EQ. It’s fast. It’s easy. And it works every time.”

- John Chevalier

What equalization can’t do

• Make a poorly designed sound reinforcement system work satisfactorily. Every sound reinforcement system is subject to the laws of physics.
• Improve intelligibility problems caused by reverberation, reflections, mechanical vibration, high background noise levels, or other problems caused by the location or physical design of the room. These problems are acoustical in nature and can’t be solved electronically. They must be resolved with acoustical solutions, such as sound absorbent panels and heavy drapes.
• Improve intelligibility problems caused by the talker being too far from the microphone.
• Improve the performance of sub-standard audio components in the sound reinforcement system.
• Eliminate distortion or noise problems caused by mismatched audio levels between system components.
• Improve echo return problems in teleconferencing systems.

How to approach equalization

FOH engineer and touring pro John Mills likes to think of each song as a line, with each instrument making up part of it.  If there are too many instruments or frequencies taking up the same space, the line gets bumpy and the mix gets muddy.

Expert Tip #2

Here are some general guidelines to consider when you’re trying to find your space.

20Hz to 80Hz: This is your sense of power in an instrument or mix.  It’s the stuff you feel more then hear.  The kick drum and bass guitar are down here in this range.

80Hz to 250Hz: The area where everything comes together.  This is where a lot of things can go wrong and too much in here will make a mix sound sloppy.

250Hz to 2kHz:  Most of your fundamental harmonics are in this range.  These are some of the most critical frequencies to building a solid mix.  Learn what instruments are most dominant in these frequencies and clean up around them.

2kHz to 5kHz:  Here you will find the clarity to almost everything.  But be careful, too much of a good thing can start to sound harsh.  This is an area where subtly is the key.

5kHz to 8kHz: Mostly sibilance and “s” sounds.  Much of the vocal consonants are defined in this range.

8kHz to 20kHz: Brilliance is the word here, the top end of cymbals.

“Becoming a master of EQ is like becoming a master painter.  Sometimes you just have to throw some paint on a canvas and see how it works.”

- John Mills

Approach equalization gently and slowly! After every adjustment, listen carefully to the resulting sound. The goal is to improve sound quality as well as increase the gain before feedback. When the system is loud enough and/or clear enough, stop equalizing! Also, stop equalizing and examine the complete sound reinforcement system in detail whenever the equalization causes degradation in the sound quality.

JOHN CHEVALIER is a pro audio/video expert, writer and speaker at InfoComm, NAB and other industry events.

JOHN MILLS is a touring FOH engineer and the expert behind the TechTraining101 site offering sound advice for engineers at all experience levels.

But this summer, he delivered the goods to over 1 million fans during the 23-city Kenny Chesney/Tim McGraw “Brothers of the Sun” tour where he was Audio Systems Crew Chief.  The tour ended with two sold-out shows at Massachusetts’s Gillette Stadium where over 110,000 fans broke all records for the most concert tickets sold in New England history.

We’d heard that there were over 69 tractor-trailers needed to move the extravaganza from city to city, so we asked John about that.  The truth was even more jaw-dropping: 22 tour busses, 39 trucks for staging, 40 gear trucks and 10 trucks of terraplast flooring to cover the grass in sports arenas.  That’s a total of 111 vehicles.

A sound crew of 11, including John’s crew of seven and Chesney’s team of FOH and monitor engineers, kept the audio worthy of the thousands of dollars some ticket scalpers were getting for front row seats.

John Mills

A lot of trucks, a lot of dates, a lot of crewmembers and a lot of sound checks. Since most of our readers aren’t traveling with that kind of entourage, we asked John to share his thinking on sound checks for non-globetrotting musicians and their sound people.  Sure, the scale is a little different, but the steps are the same whether the gig is at a local club or Mile High Stadium.

Now back in his Nashville office as Vice President of Morris Light and Sound, he broke it down for us into perfect thirds:

Line Check is when the engineer and a friend verify that everything is plugged in correctly and each wireless mic, personal monitor, monitor wedge, main speaker, subwoofer, etc. is working.  Engineers, we should do this before every performance, and it should be done BEFORE the band arrives.

(Editors’ Note: You can find a preflight checklist in an article titled “Check/Re-Check” on www.TechTraining101.com)

Sound Check is all about the engineer.  Band, we need you to play a small sample of what you are playing or singing that day… no 50% volume here or timid “check 1, 2, check 1, 2”. We really need a decent version of what you’ll be doing.

This is where we set things like gain and EQ, the two most important considerations to a musician.  If you check too quietly, we’re likely to turn you up, but when you give it your all in the show, we will have to turn you down. Therein lies the problem with most monitor mixes.  If you give me quality input level checks at this time, it’s likely that your mix will not change in the live performance.

There are other pitfalls here, too.  For instance, a lot of times I’ll ask the drummer to just play all his drums for a minute.  Most drummers will unconsciously play softer if you just ask for a kick, then a snare, etc.  When it comes to vocalists, I will already have checked the acoustic or keyboard and will have them start the chorus of an easy song so they don’t feel so silly singing all alone.

Once we’ve made it through most of the inputs, I’ll have the band play a short chorus of a song where everyone is playing and singing.  This is often the exact same song every day. When you find one that has everyone playing and harmonizing, it’s a good idea to use it all the time because everyone gets used to it. Keep in mind we have not really adjusted monitors yet. At this stage, I get a chance to see all inputs and make any quick final adjustments to gain levels.

Then I ask who needs what in their monitors and I make those adjustments. If your band is on personal mixers, now is the time to make any adjustments.  Musicians, if you make adjustments to your mix before I’ve had a chance to settle in on gain structure, your mix will change.

The FOH engineer needs to be clear about being finished with this step, letting them know that you’re ready for them to work on their mixes.

Also, when you’re setting gain and rough EQ during this sound check, take no more than 10-15 seconds per input.  Have this discussion, and expect that they’ll give you a reasonable level, then set the gain quickly, grab a quick listen to the EQ and the MOVE ON.

The band loves it when we move fast.  You can always come back during the next section and make more tweaks.  If you spend 10 minutes getting the “perfect” kick drum sound, no one will be interested in helping with the rest of this process. 

Rehearsal. Tell the band “I’m finished adjusting the major components, so does anyone need any adjustments to their mix?”  If the answer is yes, make the adjustments and have the band do another short chorus, ask again, and if everyone’s satisfied, say “Thanks for taking the time, I’m now in tune and can confidently respond to the house mix and any needs you may have.”

What we just did by taking a few minutes (FOH folks, I mean a few minutes — less than 10) is that we have tuned our instrument and can confidently hit the first chord. There may still be a bunch of little adjustments to the mix, but for the most part, you should be in the ballpark.

Performers: during rehearsal, the sound engineer reserves the right to really mess with the house sound.  Sound people, please take the time to mute the mains and see how loud the stage sound is, turn up the harmonies a little too loud so you can get the right blend and then set them back down in the mix.  Turn the drums on and off, turn the subwoofers on and off.  Take some time to see how your instrument is responding.  But do this as quickly as possible, since we also we want them to be able to rehearse.  Finish rehearsals with the house sound on.  Many of their monitor mix adjustments will be very different if musicians don’t hear the house sound blending with their wedge or ear monitor sound.

Once you get gain structure set, don’t change it, especially after sound check and especially, especially (did you hear that?) not after rehearsal.  Unless something is about to explode, do not mix with the gain knobs; doing so will adjust everything downstream, including the bands monitors.  Let me say it again: Unless a signal is about to pop the top off the little red clip LED, leave it alone.  This is why it’s so important that we got the gain right during sound check, and that the band gave us real world rehearsal signals.  If you constantly adjust the gain during the show you’re changing performers’ mixes, especially if they’re on “ears”.  There are these little slider things closer to your hands that we should be using now to balance the mix. That may sound a little sarcastic, but some of us need to be reminded.

What else can change a musician’s mix?  The room and the audience.  Sound check is always different than the show.  I recommend running sound check a little louder than you will run the show. It will honestly seem just a little louder without bodies in the room even with no changes to any faders or gain knobs.  This is because the human body is made up mostly of water (and one of the best sound absorbing materials is big bags of water). It’s normal for sound check/rehearsal to sound louder than the live performance. Making it a little bit louder will also help you establish any feedback issues that may flare up in the show.  When the audience comes in, they absorb some of the sound, so if you have audience mics that the ear monitor folks are relying on or if your band is mostly on wedges, the change in sound when an audience fills the room will change the performers perspective on their mix.

Now that you have run sound check/rehearsal a bit loud, back that main fader back where it belongs.  You have established a max volume as well as knowing you are stable feedback-wise.  Do not “gain up” any inputs, or push the main fader above this point.  You run the risk of not only feedback, but also splash back on the stage that will overtake the bands monitors.  You know you hit this mark if the band is on wedges and they all start asking for monitor changes.

And last but not least: If you’ve had (and especially if you have not had) a good rehearsal, never make any changes based on what you remember you wanted to change.  Meaning —  if the band has left the stage, don’t think “Oh, I needed some gain on the acoustic guitar and I didn’t want to mess him up in rehearsal…. I’ll add it now.”  Stop right there… go back to Line Check in this post and read it again.

About John Mills:  John is a 20-year veteran of live sound. In addition to his work with touring acts, John is Vice President at Nashville’s Morris Light & Sound www.MorrisLightAndSound.com, writes regularly for Worship Musician and is a great resource for church tech teams with helpful advice on his TechTraining101.com website.   He’s also a featured speaker at many pro audio seminars across the country.

We tend to think of him as “friend of Shure Notes John” but to the larger audio world, he is FOH engineer extraordinaire, audio tech advisor in his popular TechTraining101 site, frequent contributor to Worship Musician plus pro on the bus and at the board with this summer’s Brothers of the Sun tour featuring Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw. 

We’ve been turning to John for practical advice on everything from critical listening to mixing tips for many years now, so when we decided to tackle the topic of tape ministry recording, we didn’t have to look very far.  We tracked him down in cyberspace ‑ somewhere between Paradise Island and Tampa ‑ at crunch time: the start of a 25-city tour.

Before we get to actual recording, let’s touch on a subject that’s rarely mentioned. Recording rights.

“Any time you press record on an audio or video device, you need to make sure you have the rights to record the music. Recording the Pastor’s sermon is perfectly fine because technically he is the copyright owner of his sermon. Music is another story entirely.

If your worship team is singing another worship leader’s song, or a classic hymn for that matter, you can pretty much count on the fact that there are restrictions to pressing that big red record button.  Even if your church isn’t producing CDs to make a profit, the rights aren’t as hard to understand as you might think. For a thorough understanding, you can find detailed information at these websites like these.”

Christian Copyright License International

Music Services Organization

Now that we’ve covered the fact that you really DO need to have the rights to record, let’s talk about actually pressing the RECORD button. 

“Many churches simply hook up the tape recorder to the left/right output of the soundboard. That, as I’m sure your readers are aware, is going to sound pretty bad from a mix perspective.

What is coming straight off the board is often very unbalanced for the recording. It sounds great in the room because you’re hearing the trumpets fine without having a mic on them, but the recording is suffering because it doesn’t ‘hear’ the horn section, or whatever instrument(s) you choose not to mic. “

Many of our Shure Notes readers volunteer or work part-time in churches that don’t have mega-church budgets.  What advice do you have for them?

“Here are some No Budget tips:

• Put a mic on anything you’re not satisfied with on the tape. I can hear the folks in the front row now … “We don’t need microphones on the drums, they’re already too loud.” Tip two will answer that complaint.
• Set up your recording device to take a feed from a pre fader auxiliary send. This will allow the FOH engineer to mix what is needed in the house, while having a completely separate mix for the tape. Yes, this does mean a little more work, but it will give you the ability to mix things differently for the tape.  Make sure your aux sends mutes when you engage the mute on the main channel.  If not, you’ll have stuff going to tape that you really don’t want there.

For those folks in the front row concerned with the volume, tell them not to worry; those mics are just for recording. If you put those extra “recording” mics on pre fader aux sends, you don’t even have to push up the fader for that channel. So if they’re really concerned with the volume, take them to the board and show them that the drum mics aren’t even on in the house.”

OK, what if you have some money to spend?

“A really neat trick on the last install I did was to use a separate Aviom system for the recording.  If you’re having trouble with monitors and recording services, this may be the way to go. We installed an Aviom system (www.aviom.com) for the band to run their own monitors. Then we took an extra control surface to a room just behind the stage. We hooked up the output of the Aviom to the input of the tape deck and monitored it through a set of computer speakers. This gave them the ability to have a pseudo-recording room for a pretty reasonable budget.”

Let’s take a flight of fancy and assume that money is no object.

“If you are really serious about recording music the best way possible, you’ll need a separate engineer in an isolated room with a separate console. It’s really the best way to get amazing mixes.”

We know that not every house of worship has a professional staff.  What’s your advice for the church with a semi-pro crew?

 “Any mix is only going to be as good as the sound person behind the board. If you have only one good audio tech, I wouldn’t spend $100K on a separate recording room. I’d spend my money on educating some of the other audio volunteers. I’ve heard mixes from the simplest of setups that blew away the recordings done by multi-thousand dollar remote recording rooms, because they had a better sound person.”

What separates good recordings from great ones?

“The biggest key to a good recording is making it sound like you were there.

Start with a good, clean, balanced mix of all the instruments. It’s not uncommon in a smaller building to have six or more additional mics on instruments that aren’t even going to the house speakers. They’re just for the recording setup that I described before.

Now that you’ve built a good mix with whatever system you’re using, here are some additional suggestions:

1. A mix straight off the board will never sound completely live because it is getting a tight sound directly from the instruments. You need to add back in some ambience with audience and/or ambience mics. Remember, audience mics are a spice: add too much and it sounds unnatural. Get a good mix of the instruments first and then add in just enough audience so that listeners know that they’re there. I usually start my recording with the audience mics considerably back in the mix. I wait until the middle or end of the first song to decide how much I need. That gives me a few minutes to make the mix as clean as possible before adding the spice.
2. Also of note it’s best to EQ out as much of the low frequencies as possible in these mics.  If I have a variable High Pass filter on my soundboard, I may set it as high as 200Hz.  If you only have a button, engage that, and then take your low frequency shelf filter all the way down.  This lets the warmth of your dry mix come through without muddying it up with a bunch of low mush that the ambient/audience mics are picking up.
3. If you have a stereo aux send then definitely do the mix in stereo and feel free to pan stuff around. Your brain loves to hear things with space in between and around it and stereo audience mics are always going to sound more real. They really add a sense of dimension to the mix.  If you have a little more budget available, the Shure VP88 is one of my favorite stereo mics. Either way, when you add more than one audience mic to the mix be sure to pan the hard left and right so that the listener gets that natural sense of space. “

Final thoughts?

“Live worship recording is an art and a science. It begins with a celebration of faith – the goal is capturing that experience in a form that can be share with the world.”

About John Mills:  John is a 20-year veteran of live sound. He’s toured with some of the biggest names in Christian music – Chris Tomlin, Shane and Shane, Lincoln Brewster and Paul Baloche and is currently on a summer tour with Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw.  John writes regularly for Worship Musician and is a great resource for church tech teams with helpful advice on his TechTraining101.com website.  We’re also crazy about John because he says things like this: “I don’t want to turn around one day and look to see what I’ve accomplished in my life and realize that it was only running good sound at this or that concert. I remember promising God when I first started that if he allowed me to use my talents at this, I would be faithful to share that knowledge.”

A History

Whether you believe that Todd Rundgren, Stevie Wonder, or the Steve Miller Band was the first to pioneer the use of in-ear monitoring systems, one fact is indisputable: this represented a breakthrough in live sound.

With the earliest systems carrying a price tag — $65,000 by one report — placing them far outside the reach of anything but a globe-trotting touring act or a national sound company serving those artists, their adoption by houses of worship didn’t begin until the late 1990s when Shure and other pro audio manufacturers introduced affordably priced systems.

Fast-forward almost fifteen years and you’ll find personal monitors in wide acceptance, with a wide spectrum of features (full-rack form factor, diversity receivers, auto-scan, with stereo being the standard) at a fraction of the price of their vintage ancestors. There are personal monitors (bodypack receiver, transmitter, and earbuds, but in mono) on the market today for less than $400.

Let’s look at the benefits of personal monitor systems:

• When the entire band or praise team is on “ears,” there is no monitor feedback.
• The absence of clunky stage monitors makes for a cleaner stage.
• Performers can customize their own mixes and hear their own performances much more clearly.
• Stage volume is lower (no more turning up the stage monitors), helping to preserve the performers’ hearing.

Not Just for Vocalists

Personal monitoring offers a degree of control that just isn’t possible with traditional floor wedges: the power to pan, adjust volume, and, in some cases, to choose between multiple mixes on the fly. Wireless systems are more costly than wired systems, but have the added advantage of allowing performers to move freely around the stage.

Along with being able to hear better and control volume, the advantages of in-ear personal monitoring include the ability to individualize what each musician hears on stage. With personal monitors, each musician can have the mix that makes them most comfortable onstage, which makes for a better performance. Best of all, each player can hear his own mix, as loud as he wants, without blasting the other musicians onstage.

“The accuracy in monitoring helps vocalists improve pitch, drummers improve time, guitar players improve tone, etc. You can hear everything — the good, bad and the ugly — and that provides the best platform for improvement.” – Jeff Urke

Drummers with personal monitors tend to play quieter. When the loudest instrument onstage gets quieter, everything else can follow suit. Some churches take this a step further by using electronic drums that create little, if any, acoustic noise. Another option for drummers is the throne- mounted ButtKicker; it allows drummers to feel low frequencies without boosting sound pressure levels.

Bass, keyboard, and, electric guitar can also be taken directly into the mixer if the praise band is using personal monitors, eliminating the need for onstage amplifiers. The end result is a cleaner, more controlled congregation mix.

Many other uses are possible for personal monitors. Choir directors use them for cues and also to hear the pastor more clearly.

“Personal monitoring can provide the band flexibility to incorporate extra elements such as loop/click tracks, and even talk-back mics for band communication.” – Jeff Urke

The isolation provided by personal monitors can be of great benefit to organists, especially when they are located at the opposite end of the sanctuary from the choir. Timing can be an issue due to the often- lengthy delay times caused by this separation. If the choir microphones are fed into a personal monitor system worn by the organist, the time delay is eliminated, and the organist is able to remain in sync with the choir.

For pastors who want a monitor, in-ears are also a viable option. Lavalier microphones, as well as gooseneck microphones found on pulpits, are especially prone to feedback issues with a floor monitor due to their increased sensitivity and greater distance from the sound source. A personal monitor will eliminate those concerns.

What Happened to the Audience?

Let’s talk about psychoacoustics since it’s a factor here.

Here’s a simple definition: it’s the way our brains process and perceive sound, based on spatial information.

“The average in-ear personal monitor can offer anywhere from 7 to 45 DB of noise isolation, which can make you feel just that: a little isolated.” – Jeff Urke

One hurdle that personal monitor systems need to clear is the loss of psychoacoustics – producing an uncomfortable sense of isolation. That’s a problem on the club stage or in the sanctuary where communicating with the audience demands interaction with the audience. Many performers need to recover some natural ambience.

Here’s how to do it:

Ambient microphones are typically placed in a fixed location. They are distant from the listener’s ear and the levels are controlled by the sound engineer instead of the performer. The directional cues provided by ambient microphones (assuming a left/right stereo pair) are dependent on the performer facing the audience. If the performer turns around, the ambient cues will be reversed.

Ambient earphones More natural results can be obtained by using a newer technology known as ambient earphones. An ambient earphone allows the performer, either by acoustic or electronic means, to add acoustic ambience to the personal monitor mix. There are two types:

Passive ambient earphones have a port, essentially a hole in the ear mold that allows ambient sound to enter the ear canal. While simple to implement, this method offers little in the way of control and could potentially expose the user to dangerous sound pressure levels.

Active ambient earphones use tiny condenser microphones mounted directly to the earphones. The microphones connect to a secondary device that provides the user with a control to blend the desired amount of ambience into the personal monitor mix. Since these microphones are located right at the ear, directional cues remain constant and natural. Ambient earphones not only provide a more realistic listening experience, but also ease between-song communication amongst performers.

Happily Ever After: Five Ways to Get There from Worship Director and Educator Jeff Urke

So how do we get the most value out of this versatile tool? Here are five tips that may help you in the transition:

1. Give it some time. The most important thing in making the transition to in-ears is getting adjusted. This could take weeks or months of consistently using them for both performances and rehearsals. It sounds simple but the more you use a tool, the more accustomed you are to it and the more valuable it becomes to you.

2. Use both ears. One of the worst things you can do with in-ear monitors is to use just one ear. This is the common misconception: if I only have one earbud in, I can still hear the congregation. In this case, your other ear compensates for the loss and you end up perceiving the monitoring ear as being too quiet causing you to turn it up to dangerous levels.

3. Don’t skimp. “You get what you pay for.” Generally true with in-ear monitors. One way to avoid dealing with an unnatural, overly contained sound is to purchase some higher quality earbuds (ideally with a dual or triple driver) that produce a fuller, more accurate and open sound.

4. Dig those good vibrations. One of the biggest losses that drummers and bass players experience with in-ears is the loss of the low end “punch” or “rumble” they feel from their kit or amp. There are actually products available now to simulate this vibration and can be mounted to a drum throne or placed on the floor so that they can feel the vibration of their instrument (formerly created by an amp or stage monitor).

5. Use house microphones. Aiming microphones at the congregation is the best (and only) way to keep from feeling disconnected and isolated from the audience.

Depending on the room, this may be a shotgun mic, a large diaphragm condenser, or a small omni mic. I’ve used everything from a Shure KSM 32 (large diaphragm condenser) to a small homemade omni condenser. There are many options and many preferences. This is ideal: two microphones (on either side of the stage) facing the congregation.

Mixing Dos and Don’ts from Pro Engineer John Mills

DO use a separate monitor board and operator if you plan to have more than one person on ears. If the cost is prohibitive, consider one of the new personal monitor mixers such as the AVIOM®, MyMix, or EliteCoreAudio systems.

DON’T use just one earbud. When you have one ear monitor in, you actually have to turn it up about twice as loud to overcome the ambient sound coming in your other ear. One of the key benefits of personal ear monitors is hearing conservation. By wearing just one, you could be causing damage to your plugged ear.

DO mix in stereo , and pan. When you listen to personal monitors in mono, it’s sometimes tough to distinguish between similar-sounding instruments. In stereo, you have the option to pan them a little left or right. The pros know that when you pan something, you make room for something else. Plus, on stage in a live setting, it can give you a very nice “feel” for where that person is standing.

DON’T be afraid to pan something all the way to the left or crank up the audience. The best way to learn something is to grab that knob and twist it. The great thing about a knob is that you can always twist it back. Remember: less is more. Start with an ample amount of your voice and instrument, then fill in the other instruments under those. That way, your stuff stays on top.

DO put the audience in the mix. Add just enough, but remember, like reverb, too much sounds bad. Make sure you can always hear the drums well over the clapping because the audience is almost always off tempo.

A Final Thought

While personal monitoring is no longer new technology, the pain of change is still a factor. Your praise team may have some difficulty adapting to “ears” after years of performing in front of stage monitors.

Then there’s cost. Even though they’ve decreased dramatically, a pro quality wireless system — including a transmitter, receiver and earphones — can cost anywhere from several hundred to several thousand dollars. And if you already have stage monitors, there may be a sense that personal monitors fall more in the “nice-to-have” than the “need-to-have” category.

It doesn’t have to be an all-or-nothing proposition, and while less than ideal, one way to get started is to introduce personal monitoring gradually — one member of your praise team at a time. You’ll eliminate at least one floor monitor, contributing to a quieter stage, and give others performers (at rehearsal) a chance to try them out and experience the difference.

The bottom line: The advantages of personal monitoring extend well beyond the benefits to the performer. They can have a tremendous impact on the overall quality of the service and the worship experience.

About Our Contributors

JOHN MILLS is a veteran of the road and a graduate of the school of hard knocks, providing front of house mixing, road manager, system tuning, and audio training services to the Christian music community for over 20 years. He is currently out on the Kenny Chesney country music tour as systems engineer. To read about his adventures out there, visit www.JohnDMills.com. If you are looking for down-to-earth training for your volunteers, check out his other website www.TechTraining101.com

JEFF URKE is a faculty member at Biola University in southern California, where he oversees worship ministry bands, produces conferences, and teaches sound production courses. He is also the worship director for Pathways Church, a young church plant in Irvine, CA. Jeff has a passion for excellence in worship ministry and technology in the church and hopes to help the church become better prepared to produce authentic, God-centered worship services without distraction.

Let’s start with the most famous question that sound people are asked. “Do you really know what all those knobs do?”

If you can answer that question, you may also know every frequency and its equivalent musical notes. Maybe you know the exact crossover point of every driver in your system, and you might even have calculated the RT60 of the main sanctuary, youth room and gymnasium.

Or maybe not. Whether you’re the person who actually DOES know what every knob on the soundboard does, or you are just starting out, the real question is: “How does it sound?”

Starting Out

When I first began doing sound, I bought a great set of headphones. I thought to myself – if I’m going to be expected to make something sound good, I should probably know what I’m shooting for.

So I started listening (like crazy) to CDs. Not just bands or styles I liked, but anything and everything I could get my hands on. I listened to the lyrics, chords, melodies and harmonies, but also to how it all fit together. I concentrated on the space that each instrument was taking up.

I noticed that certain instruments seemed always to be sitting in a certain spot — not to where they were panned, but to the frequencies they occupied.

Instrument Frequency Response

How To Get There

When building a mix, we need to think of the song as a line. Each instrument makes up part of that line. If we have too many instruments or frequencies trying to take up the same space our line gets bumpy and the mix gets muddy.

Listen to each instrument and think of a space for it on the line. Keep other instruments away from it (EQ wise) and you will have an easier time hearing that instrument. You wouldn’t want to have a really bassy, heavy electric guitar because it would be taking up a lot of the space the bass guitar really needs. Try to keep each instrument in its place.

Think of each instrument as to what the fundamental piece of it is. For instance the fundamental of a kick drum will be low frequencies. That’s not to say you don’t need highs to make it cut, but there really isn’t much midrange going on with it. Try to carve out some of the midrange of the kick to make room for the low midrange of the bass guitar.

Another example is electric guitar. Many engineers mistakenly try to make the electric guitar huge to get a ‘larger than life’ sound, but if you really listen to a guitar on a CD and focus on what frequencies are really taking up space in the mix, you’ll be surprised at how small the range actually is.

I always tell new engineers never to be “done” with the mix. Listen for changes, and more importantly, listen to make sure that everything is in the mix and working together. Be attentive to the mix and what’s going on inside it. It doesn’t mean you have to constantly turn knobs. Focus less on the actual sound of the individual instrument and more on how it interacts with other instruments in that same range.

There are no “magic” numbers that work every time because all instruments are a little different. The equation gets more complicated when we use different mics or the instrumentalist changes patches on their keyboard, but trust me… none of that is really important. What is important is that you focus on getting a natural sound that blends nicely with the competitors for the same space.

Bridging The Gap

Here are some general guidelines to consider when you are trying to find your space.

General Frequency Tips

Instrument Frequency Tips

Trust Your Ears

The most important question is “Does it sound natural?” Does it sound like the CDs you’ve been listening to? More specifically, does it sound like you were sitting in front of the real instrument? I keep this in mind throughout the performance.

I constantly glance down all the channels and think about each input. Kick, does the kick sound right? Bass, does the bass sound right? Guitar, does the guitar sound right? Piano, does the piano sound right? Vocals, do the vocals sound right? Then I think about it all again and ask if the guitar and vocal are walking over each other. Can I hear the piano? Is it because the guitar has too much midrange near the piano part’s midrange? Try taking a little low mids our of the guitar instead of turning up the piano. I think you get the picture.

It’s almost impossible to make the initial adjustments to instruments or vocals in the mix with the whole band playing. Instead I try to have a snapshot of what I think the instrument should sound like.

Learning to EQ confidently means you know where you are heading. That’s why I recommend listening to CDs with a good set of full range headphones. No cheap earbuds here… you need a pair that will allow you to hear the whole frequency spectrum, and preferably a sealed set, like good earphones or sealed headphones. You’ll be able to form a mental soundscape of that you can use when you are back behind the console.

Turn, Turn, Turn!

Here’s a bonafide “trick of the trade”. Turn some knobs. I mean actually get in there and turn the heck out of the EQ knobs and listen to what they do.

Here is a simple technique to use in sound check.

Grab the gain (Figure 1) on the mid EQ of an instrument crank it up a bunch…

Now grab the frequency (Figure 2) of the mid and sweep it up and down.

You will hear a spot where it makes that instrument or voice sound horrible. Once you find it, take the gain back to zero, listen for a second again, and then cut out about 6db of it. You will be amazed how much better that instrument sounds when you “get the junk out” as I call it. This is an amazing way to learn what frequencies sound like and the technique will eventually train your ear to hear the junk without boosting it first.

Becoming a master of EQ is like becoming a master painter. Sometimes you just have to throw some paint on a canvas and see how it works.

About John Mills

A frequent contributor to Shure Notes®, John is an 18-year veteran of the road. He was a frustrated Electrical Engineer who hated college. He left school to pursue a career on the road as a drummer, ended up as a sound engineer and after being blessed to work for many of the top Christian worship leaders, artists and tours, has landed at a job as an audio engineer for a design firm. He says, “I guess Mom was right, she always knew I’d finally got a real job.” Check out www.EliteMultimedia.com and www.TechTraining101.com for more about what John is up to.