Photo courtesy of Isaac FIgueroa at Unsplash.com
A busy platform can quickly become a crowded mix if every source is fighting for attention.
Have you ever received a volume complaint, looked at your SPL meter, and thought, “We’re not even that loud”?
Every church should establish an acceptable SPL (Sound Pressure Level) range and use a reliable meter to monitor it. But your maximum SPL should be only one component, albeit a significant one, of your church’s overall mix philosophy.
The SPL meter tells you how loud it is. It doesn’t tell you whether it sounds good.
A mix philosophy is a clearly communicated standard for what a successful worship mix should sound like in your church. It should reflect your worship style, ministry goals, congregation, auditorium, and leadership’s expectations. It establishes priorities such as vocal clarity, congregational participation, tonal balance, low-end support, and how the mix should represent what is happening on the platform. The SPL limit gives your engineers a boundary. But it can’t define the entire mix.
Spinal Tap taught us that 11 is louder than 10. Your congregation may have a few additional thoughts on the subject.
What People Mean by “Too Loud”
When someone says the mix was too loud, they may be describing the actual volume. They may also be describing harsh midrange, excessive cymbal energy, painful sibilance, uncontrolled low end, or a generally unbalanced mix. Those problems often get lumped together under the same complaint.
Most members of your congregation aren’t going to approach the sound booth and say, “The electric guitar was pretty hot around 2.4 kHz.” They’re going to say it was too loud.
I’ve seen churches get caught in this cycle. Complaints come in, leadership lowers the maximum volume, and the engineers comply. More complaints come in, so the number gets lowered again. Eventually, the worship mix becomes anemic, lifeless, and incapable of supporting congregational singing. Meanwhile, the harsh guitar, cymbals, or vocals that started the complaints are still there.
The Usual Suspects
Electric guitars, dense synth patches that occupy a wide range of frequencies, cymbals, and open hi-hats can all build up in areas our ears find especially offensive. These sources require careful management within the full mix.
The person sitting in the congregation doesn’t need to know which frequencies are causing the problem. Finding those frequencies and dealing with them is our job.
Start at the source whenever possible. Work with the musicians on their tone. Pay attention to cymbals and how aggressively the drummer is playing. Make sure microphones are properly positioned and gain structure is correct on each input. A consistent source gives the engineer more flexibility once the signal reaches the console.
Clean It Up at the Channel
When a mix consistently feels harsh, it can be tempting to reach for the EQ on the main output bus and start carving away frequencies. Sometimes that is necessary, particularly when there is a legitimate issue with the overall system tuning. But I’m always cautious about treating the main EQ as a weekly mix tool.
If you remove a broad section of midrange from the entire PA, you’re removing it from everything. Soon, you may find yourself boosting those same frequencies on individual channels to replace what you cut.
An SPL meter can tell you how loud the room is. It can’t tell you whether harsh frequencies or a crowded mix are making that volume uncomfortable.
Dynamic EQ and/or multiband compression inserted into problem channels can be extremely useful. Used judiciously, either tool can control an irritating frequency range only when it becomes excessive. A guitar can keep the character of its tone while the harshest frequencies get pulled back during aggressive sections. A vocal can remain present and clear without the sibilance taking everyone’s head off.
You Don’t Have to Hear Everything All the Time
One of the most liberating concepts an audio engineer can learn is this: You don’t have to hear everything all the time.
I’ve watched young engineers tie themselves in knots trying to create a distinct place for every guitar, keyboard, track, percussion instrument, and background vocal in every section of every song. Eventually, the entire mix gets louder, denser, and more aggressive because the engineer is trying to prove that every instrument is represented.
More does not equal better. Adding more stuff doesn’t automatically improve anything. Usually, it just makes the mix louder.
A solid wall of sound leaves no contrast. Space allows the important elements to feel impactful. As I’ve quoted one of my favorite mix engineers many times, “If everything is big, nothing is big.”
Dynamics come from contrast. A chorus or bridge only feels big when something before it was smaller. Hello, drummers!
This principle is particularly important in modern worship, where musicians may be playing at the same time without necessarily playing together as a band. As I discussed in my previous article, “Are IEMs Killing the Band?”, soloing a musician’s in-ear mix often reveals plenty of that musician, along with click and guide, and very little of the other people on the platform. That isolation has musical consequences.
Two electric guitarists may be playing similar parts with similar tones in the same frequency range, completely oblivious to what the other one is doing. The keyboard part may occupy the same territory. Add prerecorded tracks containing another guitar or two, and something has to give.
Ideally, those dynamics and arrangements would be curated by the musicians and musical director before the signal reaches the console. When that doesn’t happen, the audio engineer becomes the final curator and de facto music producer, making arrangement decisions in real time while also mixing FOH. This is a widespread problem in the modern worship community that I’ve written about extensively.
Good mixing (or curating) requires choices about what matters in each moment of the song. And sometimes the best mix decision is deciding what the congregation does not need to hear.
Vocals, Vocals, Vocals
In all my years of mixing, I don’t think I’ve ever been asked to turn down the vocals. You can get a lot of things wrong that go unnoticed, as long as you get the vocals right. When in doubt, remember these three words: Vocals, vocals, vocals.
I’ve seen engineers paint themselves into a corner by continually turning up whatever they want to hear. The guitar disappears, so they turn it up. Then the keys disappear, so they turn them up. The tracks feel small, so up they go. Before long, the entire mix is louder and the vocals are buried. At that point, we have officially become the Church of the Holy Cacophony.
Obviously, mixing requires turning things up and down. But when the mix begins getting away from you, make room for the main thing.
In most churches, the main thing is the vocal. The snare doesn’t lead the congregation. The tracks don’t lead the congregation. The electric guitars don’t lead the congregation. The vocals do.
Creating Space for the Vocals: Old School and New School techniques
For a more advanced approach, insert a dynamic EQ or multiband compressor on an electric guitar, guitar group, or even a larger group of instrumentation, then use the lead vocal or vocal group as the sidechain source. Set the plugin to reduce the frequencies competing with the vocals by a few dB, and only while the vocals are active. When the singing stops, those frequencies return naturally. Of course, you’ll have to experiment with threshold, ratio, and attack/release times in addition to the assigned frequency range.
The RTA shows how energy is distributed across the frequency spectrum. Your ears determine whether that energy belongs there.
Keep the reduction subtle. The guitar shouldn’t noticeably change tone every time someone sings. Listen for improved vocal clarity within the full mix rather than watching the gain-reduction meter and assuming the processing is helping.
The same concept works well on vocal reverb. Insert a simple compressor on the reverb return and use the dry vocal or vocal group as the sidechain source. While the singers are singing, the compressor reduces the reverb by a few dB. When the phrase ends, the compressor releases and allows the reverb trail to come through naturally.
Both of these techniques are fun tools available on most digital consoles. In the analog days, this kind of processing required more equipment, more patching, and considerably more effort. Why do I say this? Because in those days, most of these problems were solved with ten fingers and two ears, not a bunch of plugins. Just like back then, you can mix your way to clarity without resorting to the sidechain method.
Your congregation doesn’t know how hard or easy it was for you to create a clean, engaging mix. They don’t know whether the clarity came from sidechain processing, careful EQ, or an engineer making wise fader changes in real time.
Never underestimate the value of simply pushing faders
I’ve heard mixes improve within seconds by simply dropping some instrumentation by a few dB. No new plugins. No dramatic EQ changes. Just some simple fader moves that reduce the clutter.
Try this the next time you mix. Close your eyes so you can’t see the lyrics on the screens. Can you understand what the singers are singing without the visual aid?
Our brains can fool us into believing the vocals are clearer than they really are because we’re reading the words. Closing your eyes exposes the actual intelligibility of the vocal mix.
If you can’t understand the lyrics, something needs to change.
Use the Tools and Your Ears
An accurate SPL meter and a real-time analyzer, or RTA, are valuable tools at FOH. Every church should have a consistent way to monitor and document volume. This protects the congregation, the church, and the audio team from making decisions based entirely on memory or perception.
I don’t typically endorse specific products, but Rational Acoustics’ Smaart is a great tool to have at FOH. It provides reliable SPL monitoring, real-time frequency analysis, and several other useful measurement functions. The RTA can help identify frequency buildup that may be contributing to a harsh or uncomfortable mix.
The SPL meter tells you how loud the audio is at the measurement position, and the RTA shows how that energy is distributed across the frequency spectrum. Neither can tell you whether the vocals are clear, the cymbals are harsh, the low end is controlled, or the congregation can hear itself sing. That still requires listening.
Leadership should take volume complaints seriously, and the conversation needs to go beyond the number. Where was the person sitting? Was the entire service uncomfortable or only one song? Those questions turn a general complaint into useful data.
Lowering the SPL limit may be the correct response. Often, better frequency management can solve the discomfort without another blanket reduction in volume.
Before more complaints arrive or leadership mandates a lower limit, make a plan for Sunday. Manage harsh frequencies. Control the cymbals. Keep the vocals clear. Don’t be afraid to reduce or completely remove instruments that aren’t contributing in a meaningful way.
When someone says it’s too loud, don’t reflexively reach for the main fader. And as always, don’t forget to listen.
