Instructions and recommendations for operation of the GCC soundboard.
Main fader at -10.0
Reasons why:
- Other faders can be run at or near 0.0 which makes for best control for mixing.
- Fast peaks of loudness won't be overpowering when they happen
- Mixing mistakes will be harder to hear at lower levels. Mixing mistakes are easier to hear at 0 or +3.
Monitors at -5.0
Reasons why:
- Loud enough that singers can hear themselves
- Avoids feedback loops with the Beta 87C stage mics
Narthex at -5.0. This might need adjusted in the future.
ALS mixbus at 0.0
Reasons why:
- The volume of the assisted listing system can be adjusted to taste by each individual.
- The bus is only for pulpit speaker and pastor mic pack. You can add stage mics on the fly by pressing Fader Flip.
Quantitative rule of thumb: The recommended loudness for our style goal is to have fast loudness peaks at 85 and slow loudness somewhere between 78 to 83 dBA. Also consider there are lots of little ears in the room so please stay well below 90 dBA.
Descriptive rule of thumb: Imagine hearing anything on stage naturally with the gentle aid of amplification. Try to keep the amount of boost from the PA speakers at or slightly above the original source. Worded another way, it is easy to create a big loudness gap between what a PA speaker is pushing out and the original sound source; our style goal is to get that gap to be as small.
Sermon should peak at 82 dBA or less so that congregational ears are not fatigued.
These were maximum fast peaks measured during a real service that sounded good.
| Part of the service | Decibels (dBA) |
|---|---|
| Song 1 | 83 |
| Song 2 | 85 |
| Song 3 | 84 |
| Sermon | 78 |
| Song during distribution of the bread 🍞 | 82 |
| Song during distribution of the wine 🍷 | 81 |
| God's blessing | 79 |
These measurements are all A-weighted (dBA), which means the frequency curve of the device are adjusted to the human ear's response, which means the low end rumble will not affect the measurement. We want to measure loudness of things that are around 500 to 4000 hz (human voices) and don't really care how loud the low rumbles at 200 hz and below. If we did then we would measure C-weighted loudness instead of A-weighted loudness.
Pastor fader should be run at 0.0. Adjust higher or lower as needed for announcements, communion, etc. Run it as quiet as possible without making it hard to hear what is being said.
The preamp gain can be lower than the gain we use for the stage mics because the pastor microphone is close to the person's mouth. This results in an excellent signal-to-noise ratio. I typically run the preamp gain so that the pastor is peaking at the top of the green zone (-18 dBu). Use the dynamic compressor to reduce the maximum amplitude by 6 dB during energitic moments of the sermon. On the dynammic compressor is a setting labeled Gain or Makeup gain. Set it to a positive number so that you can comfortably keep the fader at 0.0. The quiet moments are still audible in the PA speakers.
Pastor microphone is a Shure QLXD1 bodypack. It is an over-the-ear microphone. The bodypack might have a gain adjustment on the pack. We never change it. The paper manual is in the tech desk. It has the frequency response printed in it.
Cardiod mics are used for vocalist mics. Beta 87C stage mics to be exact. These reject rear noise, which is good because we are using stage monitors.
When the mics are held closer to the mouth, the bass frequencies will be greater. This is known as the proximity effect. Note the dotted line on the frequency response graph of the microphone.
Turn the key to shutdown the amps BEFORE turning off the mixing console. This will prevent audio pops being sent to the PA amps. 🙉
Mute guitars when they are being plugged in and unplugged. Loud pops are unplesant. 🙉
On the equalizer of a guitar, a gentle cut of about -4 dB in the 1000 hz range to make it easier to hear vocalists. You can slowly drift that specific parameter back to -0 during solos without vocalists but be careful because changes to guitar sound in the middle of a song can seem unnatural.
The recording can be set to record only the pastor mic channel or the entire main L/R output of the board.
Delete old recordings on the USB drive if there is more than two sermons. It is 2 GiB in size. Recording will stop if storage fills up. You'll have to do this on the Mac. You cannot delete recordings from the board UI.
You can play back recordings of a sermon from the USB but only with deliberate effort. This is disabled by default to prevent playback during a service 😱.
The USB L & R playback faders are kept at negative infinity ⬇ and muted 🔇. These faders can be found by pressing the Aux In USB button, on the left under the Inputs 17-32 button.
Mute groups allow you to unmute entire groups of faders all at once. If you wanted you could simply press mute groups 1 through 4 and be mostly ready to go for practice.
| Mute Group | Description |
|---|---|
| 1 | Inputs 1-8, instruments |
| 2 | Inputs 9-14, mostly vocal mics |
| 3 | Inputs 15-16, Pulpit mic and wireless pack |
| 4 | Stage Monitors |
OBS sends stereo audio to YouTube.
The Routing > Card settings, for the Klark Teknik DN32-USB 32x32-channel card, is sending a copy of Analog Outputs 1-8 out for Card Outputs 1-8. Card Ouputs 1-32 go to the Mac. OBS reads channel 1 and 2 and ignores all the other 3-32 inputs.
| Card Outputs | Inputs |
|---|---|
| 1-8 | (Analog) Outputs 1-8 |
| 9-16 | AES50 A 9-16 |
| 17-24 | AES50 A 17-24 |
| 25-32 | AES50 A 25-32 |
This is what you would use if you wanted to record all 32 tracks in a DAW. This configuration is available in Experiment Claudy (Scene save slot 12).
| Card Outputs | Inputs |
|---|---|
| 1-8 | AES50 A 1-8 |
| 9-16 | AES50 A 9-16 |
| 17-24 | AES50 A 17-24 |
| 25-32 | AES50 A 25-32 |
If you want to record 24 tracks of audio to the DAW, say for a special service. Configure the card output to be the following:
| Card Outputs | Inputs |
|---|---|
| 1-8 | (Analog) Outputs 1-8 leave this alone |
| 9-16 | AES50 A 1-8 change this |
| 17-24 | AES50 A 9-16 change this |
| 25-32 | AES50 A 17-24 change this |
In the DAW on the Mac, start your inputs counting at 9. You'll have to do mental math of -8 to go from DAW input to soundboard's channel number.
💡 Maybe we should use this for all our services. The benefit is that we would have the option of mixing down after service or disposing of the recording. Plus then we would have a recorded track of the sermon onto which FX could be applied, adjusted, before rendering/exporting.
These signals go to the amplifiers for the PA speakers🔊. For years, a copy of these are also sent over the Klark Teknik DN32-USB.
- Main L
- Main R
- Monitor L
- Monitor R
- Monitor Piano
- Montitor 4? (I forget)
- Narthex
- ALS
If I turn up bus 5 all the way, it becomes audible from the main PAs. 😲 I think I was hearing mixbus 5 in the main PAs. I don't trust it now because I don't understand why that would happen.
Scribble strip display for bus 6 is broken. The channel works fine despite the lack of text in the scribble strip.
It is analog-to-digital and is terribly noisy. The output from a mono aux jack (Aux Out 5 if I recall) being input via a 3.5mm mic input was not as good an idea as I thought. Clipping was an issue. Use it only as a last resort backup.
There exists a copy-paste functionality in the config menu. First opt-in to copying speific properties from a channel. Then select the channel you want to copy. The properties copied become a "snippet" stored in memory, ready to be applied ("pasted") into another channel.
In the FX section of the board is ability to simulate great classic compressors like the 1176 and LA-2A. 🤩 There's also classic pultec amplifiers, guitar tube amps, de-essers, and reverb effects.
Must watch guide to M32 FX inserts
Click the Library button to see the current FX racks in use. Then ▶ on the direction buttons. Use one of the knobs to select the kind of FX outboard gear to put in the "FX rack".
For FX bus sends... FX 1 sends is Bus 13, FX 2 is bus 14, and so on. You can control the reverb coming back by controlling the bus fader. Remember that you will need to adjust the bus send of the channel.
For FX inserts... choose a channel you want to have competely affected and insert the FX unit into the channel signal flow, on the config page of the channel.
Bonus points: Multi-band compressor FX insert
No guide is complete without some flowcharts. Find where FX are applied in the flowchart.
Look at the Assign section of the soundboard. These four encoder knobs ("infinite pots") are customizable to be anything. Compressor attack and release...Settings on FX rack compressors...settings on the de-esser, etc. Map these by pressing view button in the Assign section, then choosing the button or encoder knob you wish to map.
In theory, one can adjust settings on the main. Just because you can doesn't mean you should. 😏
How (Not) To Test Your Plugins, 1h 13m, really neat analysis of graphs of audio output from plugins.
M32 Feature Tour, 38m, details on all those menus we never use at church
We use rechargeable AA batteries. They charge at the front right of the sanctuary.
Before each service, check the wireless handheld mics, pulpit mic pack, and pastor mic pack for battery level. Anything less than 50% should be swapped out with full charge batteries.
Decide what your aim is, take one action, assess if it got you closer to your aim. This is a process for making audio changes.