Audio Consoles for Small- to Medium-Sized Churches

A few years back, when evaluating new consoles for your small- or mid-sized church, you had only one major fork in the road to negotiate: analog or digital.

Today, that same decision still applies, particularly for smaller churches on tight budgets. However, even if you immediately turn toward digital, you face another critical decision: user interface. Should you go with one of the trendy systems that rely completely on a third-party touchscreen for control? Or stick with a “traditional” hardware interface that offers a range of tactile controls? Granted, most (but not all) of the latter type let you add remote tablet control as an option, but this tactile/tablet combination will cost substantially more for equivalent channel counts.

That's your new double decision. If you make the right choice at both forks in the road, you'll be happy for a decade or more. If not … well, you don't want to go over that same road again in just a couple of years. So first we'll quickly review factors to consider in choosing your best path. Then we'll check out some of the newest offerings in each category.

STAY ANALOG?

For many smaller churches, analog still offers good value. The cost per channel remains significantly less, as low as $25 per mic input for decent quality.

Analog remains worthy of consideration if:

1 Cost is a primary factor and you also want tactile control.

2 You don’t need remote tablet mixing “out and about” via Wi-Fi.

3 You don’t need the configuration flexibility, preset recall, and expanded dynamics and effects facilities built into digital. (Really?)

4 You have enough room at FOH to accommodate a relatively larger console footprint.

5 If you answer yes, or mostly so, to the above, then analog may be your best choice. (But keep reading anyway.)

TOUCHSCREEN ONLY?

If you do want to go digital, using a third-party touchscreen exclusively may be the best route if all or most of these apply:

1. You want digital but budget is a major factor.

2. You already have one or more compatible touchscreen devices.

3. You can secure your primary control tablet, have a spare, or (preferably) both.

Whether you're considering analog or digital, there are models to check out in every category, so heed the seasoned advice of Smokey Robinson: "You better shop around…. "

Bruce Borgerson

4. You’re good about keeping things charged up and ready to go.

5. Your church has rock-solid Wi-Fi and is free from extreme interference.

6. Your worship services and special events do not demand frequent, on-the-fly changes when your eyes must stay on the action.

MAXIMIZE DIGITAL HARDWARE?

The decision factors here are pretty much the reverse of the above. If you like the comforting feel of faders in a mixing crunch, or if you’re nervous about your control surface disappearing under “light fingers” or lying inert with a dead battery, then you might want to chip in the extra money for the hardware control surface. Remember, in most cases a tablet remote option is available, and it’s usually free if you already have the compatible tablet and a Wi-Fi router.

Since we’re focusing on small- to mid-sized churches, we’ll assume a maximum console budget of about $7,000. On the other end, we won’t dip much below $500 since we’ll assume that even a small church will want at least a full dozen microphone input channels. Cost figures given are approximate MAP (minimum advertised price) or “street” prices. And since digital mixer using touchscreen tablet interfaces are the latest – craze? – we’ll start there.

A LOOK AT THE LATEST....

Mackie started the whole movement with its groundbreaking DL1608, and now they’ve now upped the ante with the rack-mount DL32R (MAP $1,999). Controlled exclusively by iOS devices (up to 10 simultaneously), it features 32 recallable Onyx preamps, 14 assignable XLR outputs plus TRS monitor outs, and AES digital out. The new Master Fader app has been upgraded to access new capabilities and effects, including system alignment delay on the outputs.

The new StudioLive RM32AI from PreSonus follows suit with nearly identical analog I/O facilities at the same $2,000 price point. It incorporates a 32x54 Firewire interface for recording, and everything is controlled by flexible UC Surface software available for Windows multi-touch, iPad and Mac. The latest v1.3 release of UC Surface integrates Rational Acoustics’ Smaart measurement software for system setup and timing of delay speakers. Small churches will be thrilled by two budget entries from Soundcraft and Behringer, respectively the UI16 and the XR 18 Air, both of which incorporate—hooray—their own dedicated Wi-Fi access points. The UI16 (about $550) has an even dozen mic/line inputs and the on-board DSP is loaded with proprietary effects and dynamics processing by Harman stablemates BSS, Digitech and Lexicon. The UI Series’ HTML5-based software allows browser-based control from essentially any mobile device. The Behringer unit (around $700) ups mic inputs to 16, incorporates an 18x18 USB interface plus an Ultranet port for Behringer’s Powerplay personal monitoring system. Control is via either iOS or Android devices.

HYBRIDS IN THE MIDDLE

The TouchMix Series from QSC facilitates mixing on a built-in touchscreen in conjunction with dedicated buttons and an encoder wheel for quick, tactile access of key parameters. The Wi-Fi adapter is external but included, and allows free-roaming remote control using iOS devices. The first major TouchMix software upgrade has just been released, and includes built-in info screens (six languages), support for MIDI/USB footswitches and ability to use aux mixes as subgroups. Street price for the 16 mic/line input version is $1,300.

The new Qu-Pac from Allen&Heath (around $1,500) is a “standing up” variant of the strikingly styled Qu Series mixers. You can put it in a rack and control it exclusively via iOS device, or you can use the front panel interface with a five-inch touchscreen and array of dedicated buttons. It offers 12 on-board XLR mix outputs, and the system is expandable to 38 inputs using the dSnake stage box.

DIGITAL, FULL TACTILE CONTROL

Hardware is more expensive than software, so we take a bump up here on per-channel costs. Nevertheless, overall costs keep coming down, making full-featured “traditional” digital consoles amenable to most budgets. The sweet spot for entry-level mixers is the $2,500 to $3,000 range, and we have four strong contenders here, all more or less new.

Yamaha has made a strong re-entry into this market in 2015 with its TF Series, which is designed to seamlessly and intuitively integrate workflow using a small touchscreen together with dedicated per-channel faders, color-coded backlit buttons and illuminated “scribble strips.” Unique here is a range of input presets designed by microphone manufacturers for specific models and applications, as well as one-knob control to gradually implement complex EQ and dynamics changes. The USB 2.0 port accommodates 34 x 34 digital recording/playback. The TF1 (16 analog in) and TF3 (24 analog in) fall in this price category, with the TF5 (32 inputs) running a bit higher.

Also brand new is the SI Impact from Soundcraft, a 40-input board (32 microphone + eight line) featuring the company’s unique FaderGlow illumination to identify assigned function on each of the 26 motorized input faders. It also offers 32 x 32 USB recording and playback, expansion via Soundcraft StageBox, and support for the ViSi iOS app for remote control via Wi-Fi.

With Roland’s nifty M-200i, your iPad can roam freely or stay at home on the dedicated console-top shelf. Used on-board, the iPad supplements the M-200i’s built-in LCD screen and full array of tactile faders, dedicated switches and rotary encoder. You can use the built-in REAC network to connect personal monitor mixers, an external stage box for more inputs, or both. It comes standard with 24 x 12 analog I/O plus AES3 digital, and it fully supports DAW recording.

The compact, rack-mountable Midas M32R has only 16 mic preamps, but you can use the built-in AES50 network to add remote stage boxes and then mix in layers using 17 motorized faders. The Midas preamps feed 192 kHz A/D converters designed for pristine audio quality, while other offerings include eight stereo effects engines, a 32 x 32 USB recording interface, and a cabinet designed by Bentley.

Our last two British boards move into the $6,000 to $7,000 range, since here we border on “touring level” quality and features. Allen & Heath’s GLD-80 Chrome Edition features a reworked metallic color scheme along with a host of new software/firmware updates that include auto mic mixing, channel-based compressor emulations, and new Deep plug-in architecture that allows selection of multiple different processing units on every channel. The GLD-80 pairs with the GLDAR2412 stage unit via Cat-5 cable to give 28-input/12-output capabilities, with further expansion accommodated as needed.

Finally, we have the long anticipated “baby” Digico, the sleek S21, with a look and feel in line with the larger siblings seen on arena tours and many churches worldwide. The two large touchscreens dominate a work surface sporting 21 touch-sensitive moving faders, and the proprietary FPGA-based architecture is built to provide extraordinary flexibility in configuring mixing buses, matrix assignments and dynamics control, the latter including four assignable multi-band compressors. This is not a console for beginners, but for a mid-sized church dedicated to the highest audio production standards; this board is not likely to disappoint.

ANALOG ALIVE AND WELL

If a $7,000 price tag busts your console budget by a factor of 10, fear not. Good quality analog boards remain an option when programmability and remote mixing are not necessary. Nothing dramatically new in this department, but makers keep refreshing this mature technology, while cost per channel declines.

Mackie, for example, has updated its top-selling ProFX line, adding v2 to the moniker. The preamp circuit has been redesigned with a Class-A front end and new circuit tweaks to further lower the noise floor, while the new effects engine employs floating-point DSP. Two new models have been added, including a 30-input version with a street price in the $900 range.

Soundcraft also beefed up its analog offerings recently with the Signature Series. One model of interest to many smaller churches might be the four-bus Signature-22 (about $700) with 16 Ghost mic preamps, four-band EQ with swept mids, eight dbx input limiters, and dual engine Lexicon effects.

Other full-featured boards in the under $1,000 range worthy of smaller church consideration include the Zed Series from Allen & Heath, the FX-2 Series from Peavey, and the MGXU from Yamaha, the latter offering iOS control of digital features in the master output section. If you want to notch up quality and features, the Midas Venice Series remains in production, with a 24-channel board going for less than $1,500. But if you need a lot of inputs for as little cash as possible (but still with reasonable quality), look to Behringer’s Eurodesk and Samson’s L Series for about $25 per mic input in bulk.

LISTEN TO SMOKEY

Remember, the above is only a sampling, focused mainly on what’s new. There are more models to check out in every category, so heed the seasoned advice of Smokey Robinson: “You better shop around…. ”