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Allen & Heath QU-16
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Peavey FX2
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PreSonus StudioLive 32.4.2AI
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Soundcraft Si Expression
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Digico SD7
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Studer Vista 1
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Mackie 2404-VLZ3
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Midas Pro1
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Behringer X32
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Yamaha MGP24X & MGP32X
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Avid Venue SC-48
At the very center of your church's sound systems is a mixing console, designed to combine, direct, and beautify audio.The market for mixing consoles has never been more broad or deep than it is today. Many of the new products are stand-alone solutions—but at the same time, more manufacturers than ever before are integrating their consoles with mobile devices, apps, modules and touch screens that expand the capabilities and convenience of their hardware.
Here are snapshots of several remarkable consoles that can help the sound engineers in your church deliver remarkable experiences to the people you serve.
1 Allen & Heath Qu-16
At first glance, its distinctive design and chassis of cold-rolled steel set Allen & Heath’s Qu-16 apart, but the thoughtful DSP architecture is perhaps its most memorable feature. The Qu-16 employs various bit depths, with 48 bits on critical EQ functions and a 56-bit accumulator on the mix bus to capture every nuance of the audio in the final mix.
The Qu-16 is particularly useful for multi-track work: the integrated USB multi-track recorder gives the operator 18 channels of 48 kHz, 24-bit either to or from a USB hard drive.
2 Avid Venue SC-48
The Venue SC-48, from Avid, is a fully integrated live sound-mixing console that combines all I/O, digital signal processing, and tactile control into a single console. It can handle large monitor mixes, with 24 available busses and 40 plug-in slots.
The SC-48 plays well with Pro-Tools and is, in general, very easy to program, with what’s reported to be one of the most straightforward automation and snapshot interfaces of any mixing console. This allows for great flexibility; if Mr. Murphy rears his unpredictable head during a worship service, the program order can be changed with a simple click-and-drag.
3 Behringer X32
Winner of the 2013 MIPA Award for Best Mixing Desk (Live), the Behringer X32 digital mixer is a user favorite in terms of overall quality, design, and usability. The X32 is designed for the rigors of live performance and recording found in most house of worship applications. Each of the 32 XLR mic inputs is equipped with a Midas pre-amp, and the lower half of the console boasts 16 input channel faders, eight group faders, a main stereo output fader (all with 10 dB of gain above the unity mark) and a section with easily assignable encoders and buttons, as well as six mute-group buttons and scene recall capabilities.
The sleek design is complemented by a built-in cradle in the lower-right control surface for a smartphone, an iPod, or an SPL meter.
More manufacturers than ever before are integrating their consoles with mobile devices, apps, modules and touch screens that expand the capabilities and convenience of their hardware.
4 Digico SD7
The Digico SD7 is popular among houses of worship due to its stable dual engine, reliability, and capacity to process, mix, and route more than 200 input channels. Each session is completely configurable, providing programmed, broadcast-quality mixes and front-of-house sound. The SD7 also delivers three interactive high-resolution touch screens for user-ease.
5 Innovason Eclipse GT
Innovason’s latest addition to the Eclipse line, the Eclipse GT, keeps its predecessor’s price while expanding its feature set, including the Broadway function, which allows an operator to seamlessly change over from a live to a recorded soundtrack, virtual sound check, and an onboard multi-track recorder. Its completely integrated digital workflow allows for a signal chain that is interference-free and truly lossless when combined with the latest generation of digital microphones from Neumann/Sennheiser.
6 Mackie 2404-VLZ3
An analog mixer, the 24-channel Mackie 2404-VLZ3 combines low-noise, high-headroom technology with high channel count and superior processing that’s ideal for a house of worship environment. The input pre-amps, for which Mackie is famous, are linear and clean all the way up to a full gain.
The Mackie 2404-VLZ3 includes a mid-sweep feature in the EQ section, letting an operator adjust the mid frequency right where to it needs to be; for example, to remove a bit of extra sibilance from a pastor’s microphone or the errant resonance of drums.
7 Midas Pro1
The Midas Pro1 is a digital mixer with a smart, all-aluminum frame, and is the first Midas product to be a standalone unit. The Pro1 can provide up to 104 simultaneous input processing channels and up to 35 discrete mixes in monitor mode, all of which feature EQ and a choice of dynamics processing options. It boasts the same multiple compressor plug-ins that would normally be found in a larger, much more expensive model.
An often-unsung feature of a mixing console is the quality of its digital display screen. The screen on the Midas Pro1 is vivid and blazing—bright enough to use in direct sunlight.
8 Peavey FX2
The new Peavey FX2 Series mixers have twice the processing power of the original FX Series, and a redesigned switching power supply for greater efficiency and energy savings. The FX2 includes “Silencer” mic preamps, which are designed to allow very high gain with low noise and distortion. The four pre-fader auxes per channel provide four monitor mixes, while the two post-fader auxes can be used for adding effects (built-in or outboard).
One of the dual USB connectors on the FX2 allows streaming of digital audio directly to a computer or memory stick as a compressed .mp3 file. Liturgy services can be recorded directly onto USB storage, with no other hardware required.
9 Presonus StudioLive 32.4.2AI
The latest in the series of StudioLive digital mixers from Presonus, the StudioLive 32.4.2AI is a 32-channel mixer with 32 class-A XMAX mic preamps with individually switched phantom power, 32 line inputs, 14 aux mixes, and four subgroups with variable output delay.
Users of the StudioLive series comment favorably on Presonus’s advanced iPad app and “Fat Channel” dynamics—processing that provides the operator with routing, panning, a high-pass filter, and polarity reverse on every channel. The dynamic process also includes a full-feature gate, a full-featured compressor, limiter, and four-band fully parametric EQ on every channel, aux, subgroup, and effects bus. A new capability allows for the creation of six mute groups with all-on/all-off switches and six user-assignable “Quick Scene Recall” buttons that load specified, saved mixer scenes at the press of a button.
10 Soundcraft Si Expression
If a house of worship is transitioning from an analog console to a digital console, the 32-channel Soundcraft Si Expression is a solid choice. The Expression Si has an intuitive layout and is feature-rich (several FX engines, many EQs, and motorized faders) as well as feature-smart: holding down the SEL key on a specific channel brings up the name of that particular channel on the display screen. The Expression Si has four bands of EQ and two mid sweeps.
The Soundcraft Si Expression is in the same price range as the Behringer X32 and the Presonus StudioLive.
11 Studer Vista 1
The Vista 1 from Studer is a compact, all-in-one digital mixing console with illuminated, motorized faders and 96 DSP channels. A true plug-and-play, the Vista 1 contains all its I/O in a single box. Its user interface has no layers and integrates rotary knobs and buttons with a digital touchscreen display, so the control surface and the display area is combined in a single, simple-to-use space. Multiple Studer consoles and products can be linked together to allow audio input and output sharing across a wide network.
12 Yamaha MGP24X & MGP32X
MGP series consoles from Yamaha are set apart by their singular blend of analog and digital technologies. The latest additions to the series, the MGP24X and MGP32X, combine the warm, smooth tones of analog with outstanding digital capabilities: graphic EQ, recording and playback via a USB device, and a multi-band processor.
