If you have a small stage, or high stage volumes, avoid using highly sensitive condenser vocal mics. Less sensitive, dynamic vocal microphones with tight pick up patterns may provide a cleaner sound for your live stream.
Almost all churches are now at least two years into live streaming their services. Regardless of worship style, everyone has had to figure out what it means to host church online. Most church techs were asked the question, “How can we do this while spending as little money possible, but with the best possible result?”
Now that we know church live streaming isn’t going away, many are being asked to make upgrades to enhance the experience further. Many churches spend a lot of money on cameras and lenses, but invest very little on audio. Now audio is becoming the primary aspect of live streaming that needs to be addressed to match video quality.
Mixing a live stream is different from mixing for a live environment. It needs to be done in a separate room with isolation from the sound coming directly from the stage and from the PA mix.
This article will give you a few ideas of how to make significant upgrades to your church’s live stream audio mix for under $1000. Any of these will significantly Improve the audio quality of the live stream, and a couple of them will help the live mix, as well.
Move to a Digital Audio Workstation Instead of Mixing on an Aux
One consistent debate about broadcast mixing centers on whether or not the church needs to invest in a separate audio mixer or keep mixing the weekend live stream on an alternative mix within the house console. While some gifted live sound engineers can do an incredible job with the live stream mix through the main house console, multi-tracking the service and allowing it to be mixed on a separate console or a digital audio workstation (DAW) can make a significant quality difference—and professional DAW software will likely cost less than a full featured mixing console.
Mixing a live stream is different from mixing for a live environment. It needs to be done in a separate room with isolation from the sound coming directly from the stage and from the PA mix. The greatest part about this is that if the church owns some type of digital console, almost all of them provide a way to multi-track into a digital audio workstation. So all the church could need to buy is DAW software like ProTools, Logic, or others, and a computer. For Apple users, the advancement of the M1 chip on the cheapest Mac Mini (starting at $699) works great for this application. This entry-level computer could easily run and process 32 channels and deliver it to your encoder.
Many churches face the reality of over spending on gear and under spending in training.
If the church has a computer laying around and they don’t need to buy a new one, they should look at companies like Worship Tech that provide templates for your DAW. This takes the guess work out for sound guys who have never learned to mix for broadcast.
Invest in Audio Education
Many churches face the reality of overspending on gear and underspending in training. If a church spends money to create an independent live streaming setup with its own console or DAW, high-end reference monitors and fancy plug-ins, but hasn’t intentionally trained its volunteers for broadcast mixing, they have missed the mark. Especially considering how different broadcast mixing is from live mixing. However, for an average of $100-$500 a course, any church can give their team valuable education in how to mix both for live and for online mixing. Worshipsoundguy.com and churchfront.com have several in-depth online courses that will dramatically help volunteers grow in their mixing abilities.
Purchase Vocal Microphones with Broadcasting in Mind
For years, church audio experts pushed for people to “upgrade” their vocal mics to condenser elements. I probably gave the same advice. If the engineer is only buying for a live sound situation, that may be fine. However, if your church is in a smaller sanctuary and the lead vocalists are relatively close to the loudspeakers or a drum kit, then condensers may make the broadcast mix sound muddy. Why? Condenser mics generally have higher sensitivity and can pick up a lot of other sounds besides the source they are intended to amplify, but this is relatively easy to fix.
Condenser mics generally have higher sensitivity and can pick up a lot of other sounds besides the source they are intended to amplify, but this is relatively easy to fix.
If you’re using wireless mics with condenser capsules that can be swapped out, try swapping to dynamic vocal microphones with tight pickup patterns. If the microphone capsules aren’t swappable, then you might need to spend more money to replace the entire wireless transmitter that has a different capsule attached.
If wired microphones are used, then replacing them is actually the cheapest way to upgrade. Some options are the Shure SM86, Beta 58, or the KSM8. For Sennheiser, the e 945 or e 935 are great choices. For AKG, the D7 is great, as well. One microphone that is new, but is incredible for the money is sE Electronics' V7 vocal microphone. Obviously, other microphone brands have affordable wired or wireless options that are both dynamic and have a tight pickup pattern. Making this shift will substantially change how clear the vocals sit in the mix.
One other tip that may help get something like this approved is to include a dynamic mic for the pastor’s preaching mic. If he sees it matters enough to swap out his mic, it might make the need seem more important for the rest of them, as well.
To be clear, this suggestion about moving to less sensitive vocal mics only applies in smaller rooms with pastors or vocalists who understand good mic technique, or in churches with exceptionally loud stage volumes.
Upgrade Room Mics
When listening to the broadcast mixes of other churches, many have found them lacking a “live” feel. They may sound sterile. The best way to improve this is to have quality room mics or ambient mics in the room. Often, an old Shure SM58 is used for the audience mic specifically during preaching because it’s handy and cheap. But that’s not what it’s designed for, and you’ll likely have trouble getting the result you want.
Audio-Technica makes the AT897 shotgun that works well. A pair of these cost around $500. Audio-Technica’s 4033’s also sound great for this application, and a pair of these will cost around $800. Sennheiser MK4’s would be a good choice and cost about $600 for a pair. And many also recommend the Shure SM81, which runs $700 for a pair.
Finally, one mic and brand less well known but worth looking at for this application would be the Deity S Mic 2. These are great audience mics. A pair typically costs $600. Any of the above mentioned mics, though, would be a significant upgrade.
Great audio is critical to a church’s online experience. How it sounds is as important, if not more so, as the visual presentation. When we take time to create great audio for online services we aren’t simply making excellent ministry, we are helping people better engage in worship with their church family, wherever they are.
