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Nelson Poole, Harvest Baptist's FOH Engineer
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Harvest Baptist Church in Burlington, North Carolina, hosts traditional and modern worship services, Christmas programs and other special events in its 500-seat sanctuary using a new audio system equipped with an Allen & Heath dLive S Class at FOH and ME-1 Personal Mixers on the stage.
The dLive S Class, which consists of an S5000 Surface with Dante card, a DM48 MixRack and DX32 Expander, replaces an older analog mixer.
“Our old system wasn't designed for contemporary worship,” says Nelson Poole, the church's FOH Engineer. “And we do everything from a 30 to 60-person choir with congregational singing to a full praise band worship service. We even do theatrical stuff with our vacation bible school youth. So, we were looking for a mixer to meet those demands and still be flexible enough for the wide gamut of things we do.”
Poole does a multi-track recording of the church's praise band at its rehearsal on Tuesdays and uses the dLive's virtual soundcheck to play back the tracks for the vocalists' rehearsal on Wednesday. Then, during the week, he sets up dLive scenes for the church's three Sunday services and its Sunday evening youth event. He also uses scenes to set up FX for selected songs but noted, “I don't do a lot of song-to-song scene changes, except for the time-based FX like reverb, because the board's easy enough to operate that you can move around manually on it, too.”
On a typical Sunday, Poole or one of the church's other FOH volunteers will manage 50 sources. Most microphones and instruments are connected to the DM48 MixRack behind the stage. Wireless microphone receivers and computer sources feed the DX32 Expander at FOH. Poole keeps frequently-used sources and DCA masters on the dLive's B layer allowing quick access to A layer sources when needed. He uses dLive reverbs on selected instruments and voices, the new Peak Compressor/Limiter 76 on vocals and multi-band compressors on his 12 mix outputs. He creates multi-track recordings of each service on a laptop equipped with Studio One software and streams each service to the internet from a dLive stereo aux mix.
Harvest Baptist's praise band and most of its vocalists are equipped with in-ear monitors fed from Allen & Heath ME-1 Personal Mixers. “I mix a few of the vocalists' in-ears, and a pair of wedges from FOH,” says Poole. “But the musicians love the ME-1s so I don't have to manage their mixes.” Some services and special events feature backing tracks and a click track which are managed by the church's worship leader from the stage and fed to the dLive via Dante.
Designed and installed by Boone Audio of Durham, North Carolina, Poole says Harvest Baptist's new system with the dLive S Class easily meets the church's needs for its traditional and modern worship styles and its special events. “With the dLive's ease of use in conjunction with the virtual soundcheck, we've been really pleased. I think we got the best possible console we could have!”
