Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash
Muting the acoustic guitar isn’t a solution—it’s a shortcut.
Every few months I see another video floating around social media where a church audio engineer reveals his “secret” for mixing acoustic guitar. Just mute it. Everyone laughs. Case closed.
I get the joke, and I’ll add my own recurring line to this scenario: “Nobody ever said I really could have gotten to the throne if that Martin D-28 was louder in the mix.” Fair enough. But when I see and hear these ongoing “trends,” I have to ask myself, how did this become a thing, and why?
A midrange-heavy mix often means something is missing up top
I have often said that one of the most liberating realizations for an audio engineer is that you don’t have to hear everything all the time. When I see the similar trend of throwing six or eight singers on stage and only putting two or three in the mix, I question the integrity, or even the practicality, of this kind of thinking. Remember, the key phrase in the above liberating statement is “everything all the time,” not “some things never.”
To be fair, I’ve worked with a handful of acoustic players, sometimes worship leaders, sometimes just musicians, who really aren’t doing themselves or the team any favors. Bad tone, poor technique, dead strings. So there may be some justification for taking drastic measures. I worked with a church for a season where I finally brought in a clip-on tuner for the acoustic player. It hurt my brain to think, “You can’t tell you’re out of tune?”
In extreme cases like that, there should be a conversation off-line with the worship director about who and what we’re allowing on the worship platform. There’s a big difference between working through issues and simply muting something onstage out of hand. Besides, most of the worship leaders and serious acoustic players I work with have great technique and excellent instruments. I don’t buy the idea that every acoustic guitar player has no skill and substandard equipment.
If it’s on stage, it should have a purpose in the mix.
So why has this become a widespread contagion?
At the risk of being the old guy on the porch yelling at the kids, I think some audio engineers have convinced themselves that acoustic guitars are no longer relevant in modern worship. The influence of their favorite FOH engineers on Instagram notwithstanding, maybe they’re right. Maybe the acoustic guitar is dead in modern worship.
Then let’s quit using it as a prop and get it off the stage.
We can all agree the pipe organ used to be a mainstay in worship, but in most modern churches it is no longer relevant, and there isn’t one on stage, muted or otherwise. Putting things on stage, whether it’s singers or instruments we don’t actually use, is performative. If you’re not going to use it in the mix, then at least be authentic enough to remove it from the platform.
It’s not on the original recording. So?
I would argue, as I’ve said many times, that as a worship team, audio engineer, or tech team, our job is not to recreate how the song was originally recorded, only louder. Our job is to create an environment that engages the congregation in worship. The PA system is not a giant CD player, and we are not live DJs.
Whatever the justifications for muting what was once a central part of modern worship, I’d like to make the case for churches that believe they don’t need the acoustic guitar to rethink that decision.
Sometimes what feels “clean” is actually incomplete
Thanks to current production styles, the way many producers and specifically, drummers approach modern worship has changed. Instead of playing eighth notes on a traditional ride cymbal or tightly closed hi-hat, most drummers spend large portions of a song aggressively riding the edge of a crash cymbal. The hi-hats are often wide open. I’ve worked with drummers who don’t even put their foot on the pedal while they’re beating the hats to death. Twenty-inch crash cymbals produce a lot of wash. Open hi-hats create more energy than precision. What used to be crisp rhythmic content from the ride or hi-hat is practically gone.
This style inherently produces more sound in the midrange frequencies while leaving very little rhythmic signal in the higher frequencies. When audio engineers talk about a dark mix, this is a contributing factor. That leaves a gap in the mix that doesn’t always translate to live worship.
Albums from some of the greatest drummers ever recorded featured plenty of tasteful ride-cymbal and hi-hat work living in the higher frequency range. Once you start listening for it, you hear it everywhere in more classic recordings than I can list here.
Today, when worship teams try to recreate the current production style live, there’s usually nothing in the top end to frame the song or lightly pull it along. This contributes to mixes that are midrange heavy and lacking dynamic contrast. I’m not mad about that, but I do think we’ve lost another stylistic tool that can open up the sonic landscape.
The acoustic guitar can fill that gap beautifully. In many cases it ends up doing the job the hi-hat used to do.
In my last article we discussed using tracks in worship. Adding in some light percussion tracks, shaker and tambourine, along with a little of your now unmuted acoustic guitar can immediately make a mix feel lighter, less midrange heavy, and more rhythmically appealing. I’ve watched it happen in real time in many worship environments.
I may be detecting a collective groan from some of my younger audio engineer friends when they read this. Yes, if those higher-frequency percussion tracks are available on certain songs, and your acoustic players are consistent, these two elements will lighten your mix and it will be more engaging to your congregation.
Stop obsessing over the electrics and give some love to the acoustic.
Again, referencing my last article on tracks, electric guitars and acoustic guitars represent very different tonal elements in a mix.
Electric guitars are powerful instruments. They take up a lot of valuable sonic space and can easily dominate a mix. But I still see engineers spend maybe too much time working on electric guitar tones while ignoring the acoustic. I’m sorry to say this to all my EG player friends, it is often one of the least engaging instruments on the worship platform.
Case in point: on the rare occasion when you get to feature an electric guitar lead line, the worship leader decides to prompt the congregation on the upcoming chorus and we turn you down to hear the prompt. Sorry, that’s just church world.
The acoustic guitar isn’t just a rhythmic tool.
If you’re willing to try adding the acoustic guitar back in for its rhythmic benefits, the temptation is often to strip away all the body of the instrument to keep it from fighting the rest of the band. You could high-pass it aggressively and carve out the mids until the guitar becomes papery and thin. Without a doubt, that can help frame the mix on the top end. But don’t neglect the warmth of the instrument, especially for softer or more open sections of the worship set.
In the right moments it can add depth and warmth that electric guitars and keyboards simply can’t provide.
OK. Unmuted, now what?
Finding the right combination of high-pass filter, equalization, compression, and maybe even dynamic EQ to bridge the compromise between dense, full sections and open, quieter moments takes time and effort. When you’re doing soundcheck on the acoustic, ask the player to give you the full range of their dynamics; full-on rhythmic strumming and lighter touches for softer sections. Like any other instrument, it’s always a compromise dialing in EQ and dynamics suitable for the loudest and quietest moments and all the variables between them.
Once you have a good starting point, if you really want to try to go to the next level, consider double-patching the acoustic into two adjacent channels, creating a pseudo stereo pair. Pan each channel hard left and right. Use the exact same EQ and dynamics on both channels. Then experiment with a few milliseconds of input delay (anywhere from 2.5 to 12 ms depending on your environment) on one of those inputs. This can create a wide full sound without simply turning it louder. Proceed with caution if you’re bussing your mains to mono anywhere in your system, as you might run into some phasing issues. These are a few tips, tricks, and enhancements that you obviously won’t hear from the “just mute it” crowd.
I’m not saying you need to go to this level. What I am saying is if you’re not featuring acoustic guitars simply because someone told you they aren’t needed, I’m giving you permission to try it for yourself and see how much the instrument can contribute to your worship environment. Let me know how it goes for you.
And as always, don’t forget to listen.
