Mixer Choice

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guitarfreak12

guitarfreak12

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I'm doing shopping for a church, and I told them that Yamamha would be good for a mixer, then I saw the ever popular church brand peavey with a new line of mixers. I've never liked their mixers but I still your input on which of these I should get
Yamaha MG16/4
Peavey PV14
 
What kind and range of services do you have? How many inputs sources today, and is that expected to change in the future?

Ed
 
To rewrite your signature line Guitarfreak, a true sound engineer does not judge by brand name alone, but rather on the quality of the sound that comes out.

Peavey mixers were bad when every human-priced mixer was bad. They've been turning out some good stuff lately and deserve an unbiased look.

If the church budget stretches to the Soundcraft M- series you might want to give those a serious look too...
 
I've seen a lot of Mackie VLZ's in church's. A 1604 VLZ PRO, or an Onyx 1620 or 1640 would be a viable selection. It does depend on how many inputs you need.

You can easily end up with a wired mic on the pulpit, a lavalier mic or two, a mic for a piano, a couple mics for the choir, and inputs for things like an electronic organ, tape machine, and maybe some other misc sources.

So you are pretty safe with a 16 input mixer, although if you think that is not enough then you might want to go with a 24 channel mixer. Mackie makes VLZ SR series mixers as well, and there are other offerings by companies like Soundcraft.

If you have a really good budget, the Midas Venice series is great. They come in 16, 24 and 32 channel frames.
 
Where some churches get into a problem is for different use modes. Consider the challenge for a two service church, where one is traditional and normal speakers and the other contemporary with a band and guitars.

The mixer settings for the two services are many times very different. If the services are close together, then making the changes between services is a difficult process.

What works then is a mixer that is digital based, where mixer settings can be stored and recalled. We use a Behringer DDX3216, and it makes all the difference in the world compared to the manual Mackie we had before.

Ed
 
Analog manual is fine, we are primitive baptist, whle we are progressive, we still only have the basic music in them. Piano, not too much else unless there is a special going on for christmas or easter, then we'd need the other channels.
 
Yeah, a digital board seems a pretty scary concept based on most church situations I've seen. Usually the sound board is run by a layman in the church, someone who is not a sound guy by profession or training. And usually the sound board is set up and rarely messed with. Keeping it as close as possible to "cable into channel 1, pull up fader on channel 1" is usually a really good idea.

Some ministries are huge and have extensive sound systems. I've seen the facilities at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, Ca, and it's pretty impressive. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get a look at what board they were using, but there are multiple speaker arrays around the cathedral, tons of mics, etc. Since they broadcast from there as well, I'm sure they use professionals to run the system. I could see a board with recall being essential for their operation.

But they are the exception. Usually it's a little mixer in a closet or off to the side that is generally set up once and then tinkered with occasionally.
 
We have a 32 channel digital mixer, 6 power amps, 6 sets of speakers, 46 inputs, and three services. The sound folks are lay volunteers who work with the digital board. Sound improved once the digital board replaced the manual Mackie board.

However for many, with a single service type, a simple analog mixer board is easier.

Ed
 
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