What Is Needed
I’ve used personal mixers in three churches – large, medium and small – over the past five years and found the benefits always outweighed the challenges.
Most musicians take to them quickly and don’t ever want to give them up.
When dealing with personal mixers, it’s important to find out what the band needs in their ears before you get too far down the road with set up.
Often I’ve found myself stressing out about how I’m going to make it work, only to find out the band is fine with a lot less than I thought they would be.
Talk to the worship leader and find out what is actually needed, then figure out a way to accommodate as much as you possibly can.
With lower channel count systems, you may end up sub-mixing or grouping inputs to make it all fit. Open communication makes this process easier once everyone knows what the parameters are.
Words Of Caution
Gain structure is critical in a personal mixing system; you absolutely have to get it right. Almost every horror story I’ve come across with personal mixers involves bad gain structure.
So it may be obvious, but I think it’s worth stating anyway: When dealing with IEM, you have to be very vigilant when setting up gain and avoiding feedback. No one enjoys hearing a wedge feed back, and while it can be loud enough to cause hearing damage, wedges are far less dangerous than IEM.
Be especially careful with custom molded ear pieces, because they’re more sensitive than most universal fits. If you lose focus for a second (say, remove a pad from a mic on accident), the results can range from really ticked off musicians to actual hearing loss. Always be aware and exercise caution.
Also, don’t pick Sunday morning as your trial run for a new personal mix/IEM system. Find a time to work out the bugs in a less stressful environment. I actually prefer to set them up ahead of time for the first outing and do some basic level setting myself, starting really low and slowly working up, just so I know what to expect.
Making the change to IEM is not a trivial undertaking, but the results are most often well worth the effort.
When done right, the band and the congregation will appreciate your diligence.
Mike Sessler is the church sound editor for Live Sound International. He serves as technical director of Coast Hills Community Church in Aliso Viejo, CA, and in addition, he’s the author of the blog Church Tech Arts (www.churchtecharts.org) that is also featured on ProSoundWeb.