Don’t let a great camera shot talk you into making a bad mixing decision.
We’ve all been part of a group photo. When the picture gets posted, who do you look for first? Yourself. Musicians and singers do the same thing when they listen back to the church stream. I don’t think that’s narcissistic. It’s human nature.
That’s why when I’m mixing for broadcast, I’m never offended when someone approaches me and says, “I watched the stream Sunday, and I couldn’t really hear my part.” I’m glad they feel comfortable enough to ask. One of the best conversations I’ve had about this came from a young electric guitarist who graciously asked if there was anything he could change about his tone or parts to make a more useful contribution.
If the camera keeps showing something viewers can’t hear, somebody needs to ask why.
There are plenty of reasons someone may be difficult to hear in a broadcast mix. Sometimes it’s the musician, but usually there’s more going on. The arrangement, the church’s mix philosophy and the video presentation all play a part.
You don’t have to hear everything all the time.
Watch the multiview. Listen to the arrangement. Then decide what matters.
One of the most liberating things an audio engineer can learn, and something I often repeat, is that you don’t have to hear everything all the time. Even in a professional recording studio, every part that gets recorded doesn’t necessarily make it into the final mix.
The key phrase is everything all the time, not some things never.
When someone is standing on the platform with a microphone or instrument, I believe they should make a meaningful contribution. That doesn’t mean every singer and musician needs to be equally loud in every section of every song. It means we shouldn’t put people onstage as eye candy and leave them muted for the entire service. But that’s another article for another time.
The church where I’ve done a lot of broadcast mixing has a specific mix philosophy. Vocals, including the choir, are a priority because we want to encourage congregational participation. We also occasionally feature nonstandard instrumentation such as strings, horns or other soloists when they’re part of the service.
Your broadcast mix has to work on more than studio monitors—it has to survive phones, tablets, laptops and televisions.
Those decisions establish the hierarchy of the mix. Vocals and featured instruments get the focus they need. Everything else works around them. Sometimes there simply isn’t enough sonic space for every instrument to be clearly heard at the same time. And that is ok!
Follow the camera, within reason.
When I mix broadcast, I keep an eye on the multiview monitors so I can see what the video producer is doing and what shot is coming next. If the camera cuts to the acoustic guitar, I’ll often give it a subtle boost. If it lands on an instrumental solo or a singer leading a section, the change may be more obvious.
I want what the viewer hears to support what they see. When the camera is showing a guitarist playing an important part and the guitar is nowhere in the mix, something feels disconnected. Even more confusing is when the camera lingers on a female singer while the main vocal part is obviously being sung by a male.
The best broadcast mixes have priorities. Not every source can be the priority at the same time.
Following the video doesn’t mean chasing every camera cut with a fader. Sometimes a camera operator finds a nice shot of a musician who isn’t doing anything particularly useful at that moment. I’m not going to derail the mix simply because the person happens to be on screen.
This works best when you learn how your video producer calls the service. After working together for a while, you begin to anticipate where the cameras are going and which musical moments the director will feature. The audio and video start working together instead of reacting to each other.
The stereo image is not a map of the stage.
I’m a bit of a Hi-Fi enthusiast, and many people in the audiophile world believe the ultimate goal is recreating a live performance in their listening room. I once heard an audiophile say the system he was listening to was so good, he could hear the guitarist step forward to take his solo. Bro, that’s not how it works.
Most of what we hear as stereo imaging is artificially created by the producer or mix engineer. A grand piano recorded with two microphones over the harp may have the low notes spread to one side and the high notes to the other. That’s not what you hear when you stand beside an actual piano unless you stick your head under the lid with your nose over middle C.
The mix should serve the song, not simply document everyone standing onstage.
The same applies to drums. Nobody standing in front of a drum kit hears the hi-hat in one ear and the floor tom in the other. We pan them that way because it creates space and makes the kit more interesting, and because that technique, along with variations of it, has become standard in modern production. Again, there’s nothing wrong with that.
Stereo mixing has never been completely literal, and there’s no reason a church broadcast has to become a perfect audio diagram of the platform. I’ll honor the physical locations of musicians and singers when it helps the mix, but clarity takes priority.
Protect the center.
With few exceptions, the lead vocal belongs in the center of my broadcast mix. In church, that creates a little extra work because the person leading may change from song to song.
If I have seven singers onstage and the center vocalist leads the first song, I’ll keep that person panned in the center position and pan the other singers conservatively around them. If the singer on far stage left leads the next song, that person’s vocal gets panned to the center of the mix. The previous leader moves back toward their physical position.
Using the scene or snapshot feature on your digital console makes these changes much easier to manage. It allows me to adjust vocal panning and other song-specific settings without trying to rebuild everything during the transition.
I rarely spread background vocals wider than roughly the 10 and 2 positions. If everything is wide, then nothing is wide. Spreading every singer across the entire stereo field can weaken the blend and make the mix less useful for the majority of people listening on phones, tablets and laptops.
Panning should help create clarity, not simply reproduce where people are standing.
Everybody likes width in a stereo mix.
There are plenty of elements that can be panned liberally and provide width without pulling the vocal blend apart. Piano, drum overheads, stereo electric guitar effects, acoustic guitar, auxiliary percussion, strings, choir, vocal delays and room microphones can all help create a wide mix.
Check any sources that you’re panning hard left and right for phasing issues, particularly stereo effects coming from guitar pedalboards or duplicated signals using delay. Sometimes that fun ear-candy in headphones can become very unimpressive when the two channels are summed to mono. And once your mix leaves the building you’re at the mercy of whatever compression or mono summing the streaming platform applies. Always check your mix in mono to make sure nothing is inadvertently disappearing or changing when those channels are combined.
The arrangement still has to make sense.
Years ago, I worked with a church that occasionally brought in an excellent tenor sax player. The band prepared one song that featured him, and it was always tastefully done. Everyone loved it.
The problem came when the worship leader asked him to stay onstage and “just jam” through the rest of the set. After a few services, it became obvious that this was a bad idea. The engineer was left with a sax player everyone could see, playing parts that didn’t fit, while every fiber in my being was telling me to mute him.
That isn’t primarily a mixing problem. Worship leaders need to create arrangements that give every musician and singer something useful to contribute. If there are two electric guitarists, they need complementary parts. If there’s a featured solo instrument, decide what that person will do when they aren’t soloing. Tracks should support and complement the musicians onstage instead of competing with them.
The more intentional the arrangement is, the easier it becomes for the broadcast mix to support the video. The engineer isn’t forced to choose between a cluttered mix and removing unnecessary elements from the presentation.
And by the way, it’s not in my DNA to full-on mute a singer or musician. In extreme cases, however, I will put that person or instrument at what I call a “ceremonial level.” They aren’t muted, and the fader isn’t at the bottom, but no one is going to hear them.
Honor the people onstage.
I’ve worked with churches that honor their musicians and singers, and those are always the teams I enjoy working with most. People have prepared, rehearsed and shown up to worship with the church. Muting them or playing the “ceremonial” card without ever addressing the real problem is disrespectful.
That doesn’t mean every person receives equal billing in the mix. Developing singers may need to sit slightly below stronger vocalists while they continue growing. A musician with questionable tone may need less prominence until the problem can be addressed.
Those situations require communication with the worship leader. I’ve only completely removed an instrument when it was out of tune, and even then, I discussed it with leadership so someone could help the musician.
If the camera repeatedly shows someone who can’t be heard, the solution may involve the mix. It may also involve the arrangement, tone, technique or the video producer’s shot selection. Those conversations need to happen away from the service and with the right leaders involved.
Remember the cheap seats.
Most people aren’t listening to the broadcast through a beautiful pair of studio monitors or boutique headphones. They’re watching on a phone, tablet, laptop or television. The stereo image may be only a few inches wide, and sometimes the audio gets summed to mono somewhere along the way.
Watch the multiview. Follow the important musical moments. Protect the lead vocal, create width where it helps, and make sure there’s a realistic relationship between what people see and what they hear.
And as always, don’t forget to listen.
