During this series, I’ve explained how to record a worship service from the mixer main outputs. It’s pretty simple: just use the appropriate cables and connectors to feed the mixer outputs to a recorder of your choice.
Let’s consider a more complex situation.
Suppose you want to record the congregation singing during the service. You don’t want to hear the congregation microphones through the house PA loudspeakers because those mics will feed back and could possibly cause muddy sound.
Fortunately, there is a way to include the congregation in the recording, but not include it in the PA mix. Just use a feature of your mixer called “groups” or “submixes.” I’ll explain this concept first, then we’ll talk about how to record the congregation.
A submix is one of several independent mixes available within a mixer, such as a recording mix or house PA mix. These two mixes can be different, even though both mixes are created in the same mixer.
A group output is a connector in a mixer that provides a submix.
For example, the Group 1 output might provide the PA submix, while the Group 2 output provides the recording submix. Group 3 could feed an assistive listening system, and so on. In the mixer you’re using, a group might be referred to as a submix, bus, or channel.
I’ll use the word “group” throughout the rest of this article, but you can substitute the term that’s found on your particular mixer.
Unless your mixer is the most basic unit, it will usually have two, four, or more group outputs. Each group can have a different set of input signals that feed it.
See Figure 1, which shows a typical input module in a mixer. Each input module has group assign buttons – a set of buttons marked Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, etc. The assign buttons send that input’s signal to the group(s) of your choice. A mixer with four groups or buses would have assign buttons labeled 1, 2, 3, 4.
Using groups, we can record the congregation without feeding the signal to the live PA in the auditorium. Here’s how.
Plug the mixer Group 1 output into the PA power amp input. Plug the Group 2 output into the recorder line input. Assign all the mics that are in use to Groups 1 and 2, but do not assign the congregation mic(s) to Group 1.
In other words, push in the Group 1 and Group 2 buttons for each input module, but don’t push in the Group 1 button for the congregation mic(s).
That way, all the mics will feed Group 2 (which goes to the recorder), and all the mics (except the congregation mics) will feed Group 1 (which goes to the PA). The result: the congregation will be heard in the recording, but not in the house PA loudspeakers.
