Ask ten sound volunteers how to set the EQ for a church service and you will hear ten different answers. Some are right. Most are right for someone else's room, someone else's microphones and someone else's voice.
What holds up across rooms is smaller and more useful: understand what digital and analog mixers each give you, fix feedback at the source before you reach for the EQ and treat any EQ number you read, including the ones in this article, as a place to start listening from.
Key takeaways
- A digital mixer's main advantages for a church are saved scenes, built-in processing and remote control from a tablet. An analog mixer is simpler and has a control for every function.
- Feedback is mostly solved by microphone distance, aim and the number of open mics. EQ gives a limited extra margin, between 3 and 9 dB according to Shure.
- Moving a microphone from 2 ft to 1 ft from the source adds 6 dB of gain before feedback. Doubling the number of open microphones takes away 3 dB.
- EQ ranges are starting points. Cut before you boost, and trust your ears over a chart.
Digital or analog: what actually changes
Sweetwater, a major pro audio retailer, describes the difference like this. An analog mixer has a physical control for each function. It is simple, direct and tactile, and its signal flow is easy to follow. But it has limited or no onboard processing, so you often add outboard compressors, effects and graphic EQs, and it cannot save your settings.
A digital mixer converts the signal and does the processing inside. That gives you channel EQ and dynamics on every input, effects, flexible routing and the ability to save and recall settings. It is generally less noisy, and many models can be controlled from a tablet over Wi-Fi.
The trade-off is that a digital mixer is more complex. Sweetwater notes that you often edit one channel at a time, that faders may be layered and that every console is laid out differently. A volunteer who has never used one will need training.
| Analog | Digital | |
|---|---|---|
| Controls | One per function, all visible | Menus, layers, one channel at a time |
| Saved settings | None | Scenes and snapshots |
| Processing | Basic EQ; outboard gear for the rest | EQ, dynamics and effects on each channel |
| Remote control | No | Many models, from a tablet |
| Learning curve | Short | Longer |
Why scenes matter for volunteer teams
A church repeats itself. Sunday service, midweek, wedding, funeral. Religious Product News points out that an analog console has to be reconfigured knob by knob each time, while a digital one can recall a scene for each type of service. It also describes using "recall safe" on key channels, such as the minister and worship leader microphones, so they stay as set when a different scene is loaded.
For a rota of volunteers, that is the real benefit. The person on duty starts from a known setting, not from whatever the last person left.
If you are weighing specific consoles, we compared two popular ones in Behringer X32 vs WING for churches.
Feedback: fix the source first
Feedback is sound from the speakers re-entering a microphone and being amplified again. Shure's guidance on it is consistent: most of the gain you can get comes from placement, not from processing.
Distance
Shure's technical guide explains that every time you double the distance between a microphone and its source, you lose 6 dB of gain before feedback. A microphone 1 ft from an instrument that moves to 2 ft loses 6 dB, and at 4 ft loses 12 dB. Moving it from 6 inches to 3 inches gains 12 dB. This is why Shure calls placing the microphone as close as practical to the source the single most significant factor.
Fewer open microphones
Gain before feedback falls by 3 dB every time the number of open microphones doubles. Mute microphones that nobody is using. Use one microphone to pick up one source when you can. Shure's three-to-one rule says to keep the distance between microphones at least three times the distance from each microphone to its source.
Aim the microphone's quiet side at the monitor
A cardioid microphone is least sensitive at the rear, so a stage monitor should sit directly behind it. A supercardioid microphone has its best rejection to the sides of the rear, so Shure recommends placing the monitor about 55 degrees off the rear axis. Check your microphone's polar pattern and test the position.
Use in-ear monitors where you can
Shure lists in-ear monitoring among the ways to reduce feedback, since it removes the stage wedge from the microphone's path.
How to ring out a system
Once placement is right, "ringing out" finds the frequencies that feed back first.
- Mute everything except the microphone you are testing, and bring up its level slowly until feedback starts.
- Find the frequency and cut it on an equaliser by about 3 dB.
- Raise the level again until the next frequency rings, and repeat.
- Stop before you over-equalise. Shure says an equaliser can provide only 3 to 9 dB of extra gain.
Shure also gives rough guidance on what you are hearing: a "hoot" or "howl" is often in the 250 to 500 Hz range, a "singing" tone may be around 1 kHz, and "whistles" and "screeches" tend to be above 2 kHz. It adds that feedback rarely occurs below 80 Hz or above 8 kHz.
A parametric EQ gives more precise control than a graphic one, because you can set the width and depth of the cut. A narrow, cut-only "notch" filter removes the ringing with minimal effect on the sound around it.
Automatic feedback reducers
These devices find and notch feedback for you. Shure notes two limitations. They cannot distinguish a sustained musical note from feedback, so for musical performances it recommends locking the filters after the initial ringing out. And they cannot go beyond the physical limits of the system. In Shure's DFR22 manual, the point of diminishing returns is usually reached after 5 to 8 filters, with an improvement of around 6 to 9 dB. If many frequencies ring at once, change the placement of microphones or speakers.
EQ starting points
A caution first. There is no preset that works for every voice, every microphone and every room. Treat the numbers below as a place to start, and move from there by ear. Sweetwater says the same of its own frequency charts.
Start with high-pass filters
Sweetwater's advice is that if your mixer has a high-pass filter on each input, use it on most of them. Almost no source other than the kick drum benefits from the extreme low end, and removing it early keeps low-frequency build-up under control.
Vocals
Sweetwater's general guidance:
- Under about 80 Hz is rumble, handling noise and proximity-effect boom.
- Up to about 400 Hz is the range where room reflections and mic bleed make a voice hollow or muddy.
- Around 500 Hz and just below, a cut tames the boxy sound.
- Just above 1 kHz is where a voice becomes nasal.
- Above about 5 kHz you reach sibilance.
Its cheat sheet for church sound is more specific. It suggests high-passing male vocals between 120 and 150 Hz and female vocals between 175 and 200 Hz, with a wide cut around 200 to 250 Hz for plosives and proximity effect. It also suggests a wide cut at around 2 kHz for harshness, while warning that the warm body of a voice sits between about 400 Hz and 1 kHz, so cuts there should be gentle. And it says to avoid feedback by cutting what you do not want, not boosting.
The method matters more than any single number. Raise the high-pass until the voice starts to thin, then back off.
Instruments
- Electric guitar: high-pass at around 80 Hz. The body is between 100 and 400 Hz and the main resonance between 400 Hz and 2 kHz.
- Piano and keyboards: Sweetwater suggests a high-pass between 80 and 120 Hz for a keyboard that is the main instrument, with a boost of 3 to 5 kHz for presence. Keep keys and guitars from covering the vocal's warmth between 400 Hz and 1 kHz.
Check the vocal against the band
Cut a little in the instruments where the voice needs to sit, not only in the voice. Speech clarity is the point of a church mix, and the congregation hears the words before they hear the EQ.
A routine for a volunteer sound team
- Start from a saved scene if you have a digital mixer, and check the channels that are marked as safe.
- Check placement: mic distance, aim and monitors.
- Mute unused channels.
- Ring out microphones that are new, moved or in a different room.
- Soundcheck the speaker as well as the band, with the person who will actually speak.
- Walk the room or use tablet control, so you hear what the congregation hears.
How Planify can help
A good mix depends on the person at the desk being prepared. Planify helps with the people side.
- A sound position with a coordinator. Create a sound position in your media department, so the person in charge of audio knows who is assigned.
- One-tap confirmation. The volunteer confirms with a tap on WhatsApp, so you find out early if the sound operator cannot come.
- Replacement from the same position. If someone declines, Planify can ask colleagues who cover that same position.
- Fair rotation. The monthly planner takes unavailability and fairness into account, so one person is not on the desk every week.
Which features you get depends on your plan.
Read next: media team scheduling: why sound, cameras and slides can't be swapped.
FAQ
Is a digital or analog mixer better for a church?
A digital mixer gives you scenes, built-in processing and remote control, which suits teams that repeat services and rotate volunteers. An analog mixer is simpler to learn. The better choice depends on your volunteers' training and your budget.
How do you stop microphone feedback in church?
Place microphones close to the source, use fewer open mics, aim directional microphones so that monitors are in their quiet zone and ring out the system. EQ and feedback reducers add a smaller margin on top.
Where does feedback usually occur?
Shure describes howls around 250 to 500 Hz, singing tones around 1 kHz and whistles above 2 kHz, and says that feedback rarely occurs below 80 Hz or above 8 kHz.
What EQ should I use on a church vocal?
Start with a high-pass filter, cut mud gently and check harshness around 2 kHz. Sweetwater suggests high-passing male vocals at 120 to 150 Hz and female vocals at 175 to 200 Hz, but you should set it by ear for each voice.