Practical Music Ministry

Serving God Through Sight, Sound, and Song

Tag: analog console

Could your church benefit from a digital audio mixing console?

Recently, more and more churches are making the switch from analog consoles to digital consoles. They offer distinct advantages over their analog counterparts. For experienced engineers, or for churches with more complex needs, a digital console, such as the Yamaha 01V, may make for a wise transition. Here’s a look at the advantages of going digital:

They’re more compact. By keeping everything in the digital domain, rotary knobs can serve more than one purpose, thereby eliminating the typical channel strip. Also, users are able to switch between “banks” of channels, thus collapsing a 32 channel console down to only 8 channel faders. A traditional 32-channel or 40 channel analog mixing console may take up anywhere from four to six feet of desk space, while a fully-featured digital console of the same channel capacity may only have a footprint of only two feet.
They’re expandable. In the analog world, if you need more channels, you’re forced to buy a bigger console. Need more digital channels? Just pop in an addition I/O (input/output) card to increase your channel capacity.
They offer more effects options. Multi-band parametric EQ with adjustable Q is virtually standard on most digital mixers. Dynamics effects such as compression/limiting, expansion/gate are also common. Some even have time-based effects, like reverb and delay. These features can eliminate the need for a rack full of outboard signal processing gear.
Mixes can be saved and recalled. This fact alone is an incredible aspect to a church setting. Because sound teams often rotate sound techs from week to week, traditional analog consoles lack the ability to keep a consistent mix week in and week out. The save and recall feature of digital consoles instantly alleviates this setback. Mixes, effects, and settings stay consistent on a weekly basis, and every service can have the same “starting point”. Mix recall is incredibly handy if, for instance, the youth band leads a service on Wednesdays, there’s a traditional service at 9:00 am on Sunday, followed by a contemporary service at 11:00am. Settings can be changed as quickly and as easily as you can press a button.

Check out this article from ProSound Web’s Church Sound blog, where they make a pull-no-punches comparison of analog and digital consoles.

Has your church made the switch to digital? Share your experience with us!

Share this post!