Allen & Heath SQ’s dashboard is centered around a high-res 7” capacitive touchscreen, framed by an array of high-grip, illuminating encoders to create an intuitive, integrated blend of clear visual feedback and immediate, hands-on control.
One of two kinds of churches looking for the best audio console options will need this information: church plants or restarts looking to upgrade from the analog or otherwise hand-me-down console they’ve been making work, and churches that have upgraded once already but have grown past that 800 or 900 mark and need an audio console that can handle the load of a larger team. There are great, affordable, and high-quality options for both, and we’re here to help clear out the clutter and confusion of the Google shopping search that is so often overwhelming and just not that helpful.
...churches that have upgraded once already but have grown past that 800 or 900 [attendance] mark...need an audio console that can handle the load of a larger team.
Allen & Heath SQ Series
Any audio engineer who’s been around for a while has probably mixed with an Allen & Heath audio console at some point, and Allen & Heath continues their industry-standard mixing legend with the SQ series.
The SQ series comes in a few different sizes—the SQ5, SQ6, and SQ7, each scaling up your desktop faders from 17 (16 + Main) on the SQ5 all the way up to 33 on the SQ7—but the capacity of each mixer is the same; you get 48 channels and 36 buses, 1:1 channel routing, and the beloved A&H sound with world-class effects to boot. If you already live in the A&H world, the SQ easily links with most of their stage boxes, and each SQ console features a slot for Dante, MADI, Waves, or an extra SLink connection. In short, it offers more output flexibility than Behringer or Midas with greater customization for channel routing.
The compact SQ5 rings in at $3,999, followed by the SQ6 and SQ7 at $5,199 and $6,599 respectively, bringing lots of flexibility for churches on varying budgets because you get the same processing power, channel I/O, busses, and effects no matter the size of the mixer.
Head here for a full rundown of the SQ Series.
The Behringer X32 Digital Mixer family is the result of the engineering, manufacturing and application expertise of British console manufacturer Midas, processing background from Klark Teknik and Behringer’s unique ability to deliver a unique value proposition.
Behringer & Midas
How do I say this? Um… Behringer and Midas consoles are absolutely everywhere, and for good reason. Behringer has blended cost-effective functionality with remarkable sound quality, making most of us an offer that we can’t refuse. Let’s break down some of their offerings.
The Behringer x32
Behringer shook up the game a decade ago with the advent of the x32, which brought tour pro features like powerful on-board audio processing, audio capture, and mechanized fader memory to budget-sensitive consumers. The x32 is still in production and offers almost unbeatable value because if you can’t spring for a new one (about $3,000), the market is flooded with used models that are going to work for another ten years. The caveat with the x32, especially the earlier builds, is the build quality itself, so you might have a fader or knob pop off here and there, but that stuff is easy to replace.
The Midas m32
Behringer didn’t think that was enough, though, and built the Midas m32, which is the beefy big brother of the x32. If you’re upgrading from an x32, you’ll feel immediately at home with the m32 because the console brain is almost identical, as is the console hardware layout, though the complete layout of the faders and knobs on the m32 is more roomy and just feels better. Most significantly, the m32 boasts Midas preamps, which outclass the Behringer preamps on the x32. The m32 comes in at $3,999, but you can also find many used for less.
The Behringer Wing
Behringer raised the bar yet again with Wing, a 48-channel / 24-fader / fully-touch screen mixing console. It has the same beloved Midas preamps, but more of them, highly customizable and easily editable channel routing, and effects that leave the m32 in the dust. Controlling the Wing after working with the m32 or x32 will take a little getting used to, but the layout of the touch screen is so intuitive that it doesn’t matter. Ringing in at $4,199, it’s a great option for any church upgrading from an old analog board or even from an older x32.
Here’s the links for rundowns of the x32, m32, and the Wing.
Digico S21’s work surface offers dual P-CAP multi-touch screens, 48 flexi-channels, the equivalent of 46 buses and benchmark 96kHz performance at an affordable price.
Digico S21
Digico is a tour-pro standard, and you get that tour-pro quality in the S21, a long-time staple for houses of worship making a jump from some of the smaller consoles listed here to something that can run a large room and a large team with maximum flexibility.
The console itself is built rugged and clean with twenty-one motorized faders and two touch screens where all the routing and processing work is done, giving you lots of room as the screens come in at 10” each. Twenty-four mic/line inputs wait for you on the back, but the console can handle 48 channels total with a Digico stage box, all at 96 kHz sampling. The S21 gets along with Dante, MADI, Aviom, Waves, Klang, and a variety of other DMI interfaces, so no worries about long-term expansion and growth.
The S21 rings in at just over $11,000, which is remarkable considering the quality the S21 offers. If you’re moving into a new room to accommodate new growth, this board should be well within your budget and is an excellent upgrade for the long-haul.
Head here for a full run-down of the Digico S21.
PreSonus Studio Live, a 32-channel digital mixer packed inside a portable, rack-mountable frame, the StudioLive 32SC offers AVB networking and is easily expandabl with EarMix 16M personal monitor mixers.
PreSonus StudioLive
Presonus audio consoles offer two options for upgrading from the hand-me-down situation—the trusty 16.4.2 and 24.4.2 consoles that offer reliable digital quality with analog familiarity, or the current SC and SX offerings that give the user motorized faders, more flexibility, and a true digital experience of more expensive consoles. The 16.4.2 and 24.4.2 are no longer in production, so you’ll have to find them used, but you have to think about them the way you’d think about buying a used Toyota pick-up; they’ve got a lot of mileage left on them. This is an advantage to the church on a tight budget because the older PreSonuses are a dime a dozen (we have three spread among our campuses at LifeMission that we use for mobile rigs or just… whatever) and they just work.
PreSonus pre-amps sound pretty good, and the SC and SX models boast flexible in-out options and control features. You can get into all of that for under $3,000, which is remarkable.
Here’s info on the 24.4.2, as well as the SX and the SC
SonicView is Tascam’s new line of digital recording and mixing consoles that incorporate the latest technology and make it easy to see and control all of the parameters you want, when you want, with completely customizable touch screens and user-definable buttons, along with motorized faders and intuitive control software.
Tascam Sonicview
Tascam is known widely for high-quality recording equipment, but their newest digital audio mixing console, the Tascam SonicView, is, well… an absolute banger, and a real contender for a mid-size church looking for a quality long-term upgrade.
Now, on the surface, it only carries 24 mic/line inputs, but the SonicView is expandable with something like a Dante stage box, which can up the input count to 64 at 48 kHz (32 at 96 kHz). The Sonicview boasts similar I/O customization to the Allen & Heath SQ series mixers, but the truly intriguing offering of the SonicView is its effects processing, which allows you to apply effects per channel instead of having to route certain channels through an effects bus like on most other mixers, and the SonicView manages to do this without ever getting bogged down. Tascam built the SonicView this way with the intent of adding more effects in the long term to bring more value to users. It’s pretty remarkable.
The SonicView rings in at $6,999, which for only having 24 on-board inputs seems a bit pricey, but it’s expandability makes up for that. It’s another solid option for churches looking for a long term upgrade.
Head here for a full rundown of the Tascam Sonicview
With the TouchFlow (TF) Operation, Yamaha’s TF digital mixers interface are optimized for touch panel control designed experienced engineers as well as newcomers to the field.
Yamaha TF Series
Much like A&H, Yamaha’s TF series offers the same workflow, effects, I/O channels, and processing across three ascending mixer sizes. What differentiates the TF series, however, is the help they’ve built into the console for less experienced audio engineers, the sort of audio engineers you might find in a mid-size church. The TF series introduced Yamaha’s “One Touch Knob” setting, which is an EQ mode that allows audio engineers to simply use one knob for standard EQ settings across vocals and instruments instead of needing to feel out each instrument and vocalist for EQ’s, essentially giving inexperienced engineers a great starting spot. You can see a full explanation of some of the built-in help here.
TF consoles are paired with Yamaha’s Tio1608-D I/O Rack, and up to three racks can be linked at one time to fully utilize the TF’s 48 channel i/o capability.
The TF5, the largest of the three sizes, comes in at $3,299, and the stage racks are $1,249 each, which makes for an affordable install that can grow with your team and church.
