Best Mixing Console for Church Volunteers 2022

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[jbonhom]

I love this conversation. I had to step back from our audio ministry because no one would come in and get trained so I was the only one. I wanted to train others so that no one had to be there all the time. I studied prepped and no one showed. It wasn't until I left the ministry altogether that someone wanted to learn what I had been doing. I hated having to force their hand to learn, but even the Pastor wasn't taking it seriously. I worked with the X32 and got it set up with scenes that allowed volunteers to simply walk in and check/load the scene and go right into the service.

[bradenbrewer]

The Yamaha TF does have custom control. You can create a custom fader bank if you want, and adjust the EQ to whatever you want, but use know to turn it up or down. Super user friendly but still very reliable and has pretty much all the functionality as the M32 or X32 boards. Best board for church volunteers IMO.

[LiebJohnson]

If you're transitioning a team of operators from a small analog console, the Presonus StudioLive series III is a good choice. And also.. train them. We found that the Berhinger / Midas and Yamaha digital consoles were just too different from what our volunteers knew.

[jordanmiller]

There is a way to move the faders on the Yamaha TF, they have a custom layer and 32 channels have 5 bands of eq and you can turn off the "auto mode"

[ChrisGill]

I've been helping churches transition from analog to digital consoles for 10+ years and the PreSonus StudioLive consoles have been the ones that volunteers seem to understand the quickest.

[truce]

Kindly suggesting turning the background LED light away from camera lens. I try to ignore it but it pulls my eyes away from the focal point in multiple videos. Maybe turn LED to face backwall for natural diffusion? Keep up good work

[davidbuchanan]

The TF has plenty of control if you need more than the one knob control we rarely use the one knob feature except for gain

[garrettbaudioandvideo]

The X32 is one of the more common consoles, thus being the reason most many people might say it is one of the easier consoles.

[andrewpotter]

100% agree. Every time I see this question on Facebook my suggestion is to go try different consoles and find the one that fits your desired workflow. Go to churches around you and ask them to show you their consoles, then rent one or two and try it out for a couple of weeks before making a decision. Once you buy one set it up in another room with tracks for a few weeks for the volunteers to get some training time on it before installing it. You only get a week or two in a main room for everyone else to decide if the purchase was worth it.

[lfisher]

One of the key elements to making a mixer suitable for everyone is having a robust permissions capability to quickly give people the ability to do what they need to do & prevent unintended consequences such as changing routing. Having different levels of permissions based on skill/trust will really help. On the SQ you can manage access and functionality at both the user and scene save/recall, including what can be changed will the scene, which is very helpful. As the "Admin" of the SQ permissions is a relatively straightforward thing to do.

[andyjdhurley]

This is great advise BUT a lot of churches (particularly the smaller rural ones in the UK) do not have anyone to do the training or take any kind of responsibility. Everyone who uses it are volunteers with little or no spare time to do any learning and yet are expected to mix services, livestreams, songwords etc. If we are lucky we have one person to mix, cue words, run a livestream and adjust cameras, one person with very little experience or training. We are currently looking to replace our mixing desk (Yamaha LS9) since the potential volunteers are just scared by it and won't come forward. We also want to replace our aging (and failing) stagebox with a digital one - the only way to do this with the LS9 is to buy 2nd hand equipment. We are looking at the Allen & Heath Qu series because most potential volunteers have some experience of analogue desks and this series seems to hide most of the complexity (indeed it seems to be quite low on features but that could be a good thing for us).

[johnregan]

Yes! Adam, yes! Train train train. Stop just throwing a volunteer in the deep end and wondering why the mix wasn’t good.

[SarahPoulin]

Any recommendations for a USB mixer with at least 4 inputs, but at least 3 inputs that have mute buttons, at least 3 inputs with gain, either aux send or some kind of monitor mute for some inputs to be sent to computer for livestream but muted on speakers (such as a mic for congregational singing), at least 1 input with phantom power, and is portable because we rent? I found the Presonus arc 8 channel, but it's $700 here in Canada. I especially need the mute buttons to make it easier for the people operating it. We actually don't have a fancy setup. A condenser mic for congregational singing, a dynamic mic for those without a lavalier, and a wireless lavalier for the pastor. No instruments and no performances except maybe a keyboard for congregational singing during occasional weddings.

[kylefolger]

Stock is currently the biggest issue with Yamaha consoles. It would be good to dive in to the TF series before trying to discuss it with authority. Others have mentioned the custom fader level. There are also DCAs and you can turn off the one knob. However, it’s not as fast as the QL/CL in terms of response.

I had an LS9 for over 12 years at my church before upgrading and that was only to get native Dante without a card. I had zero issue while a friend of mine sent back over 4 X32 consoles. He has a live production company. I know that Behringer has improved, but Yamaha does have the longevity on digital consoles and we’re one of the first to introduce flying faders. The reliability has been there.

At this point, anything with a digital scribble strip is far more useful than a console without. The LS9 had a custom fader bank, but had no scribble strip so a custom fader bank isn’t very useful for a typical volunteer. You can only have so many rows of board tape.

[lmadrigal]

TF series is easy in that it is fairly featureless. I set up the board for my volunteers every week and they just need to focus on levels and maybe playing with the wet effects.

[chuckthompson]

I like my soundcraft si40 most intuitive board I've worked on data processing is a bit of a pain to set up and route but one and done use your snapshots and all most volunteers need to do is push a button at the right time and maybe boost a fader .

[kevincothron]

Our church bought the M32. I kept asking them during this. Ok way to go guys but, who is going to be able to run this after you set it up and get the routing setup? I wasn't included in the decision making process. I worked on analog boards for years in the Nashville music biz. I am learning more and more because the answer to the last question was nobody. It is not the easiest board to work on with people that really aren't engineers or musicians that understand a mix and levels. I play on stage so I can't play and also mess with the engineering side all at once. I am trying to get more involved since we don't have competent people week to week running the system.

[RoshansundasOfficial]

Thank you Brothers for the information

[LakeSailor]

Thanks for the video guys! I am loving our SQ5 board. I'm still learning, and part of that is watching many of your videos over and over esp the Mixing for Worship series. Learned some new tricks last night and going to pass that on to my team.

[odiecoyote]

If it wasn't for inflation, I'd recommend the Digico S-21 / S-31